Petrol and diesel prices remain high in 2023 despite optimism for lower fuel prices in January. Fleet managers, logistics operators, and transporters will still have to fork more money from their pockets to cope with the high cost of fuel.
For fleet operators, the cost of fuel remains the highest cost in running their business operations. With fuel accounting for up to 60% of the total operating budget of your fleet business.
The price fluctuations in fuel and global oil prices make it difficult to anticipate what the exact cost of fuel will be. This makes it harder to set a budget and settle on the actual amount of money to be used.
The good news is that by using technology, you can know how much fuel each vehicle in your fleet uses and plan accordingly. To save money and cut spending on fuel, you need to adopt tools and strategies that can reduce fuel consumption by more than 25%.
Fuel management systems help you to track and monitor fuel consumption and costs across your entire fleet.
Fuel management & monitoring
These systems use GPS, RFID, fuel sensors, and fuel probes to automatically generate reports on fuel consumption and distance traveled.
Apart from changes in the price of fuel, your vehicle fuel consumption may be inconsistent due to some of these other factors:
- –Poor driving habits
- –Fuel theft
- –Inefficient route
- –Fuel drain
- –Poor vehicle maintenance
- –Road work or traffic
- –Drivers inflating the fuel cost
Using fuel management systems and monitoring tools, you can eliminate all loopholes that lead to higher fuel consumption. For instance, you can identify when the vehicles are idling or behind driven inappropriately.
Fuel monitoring gives you an in-depth insight into the amount of fuel used every day, the cost, and also who was responsible, that is the driver or manager.
Having an accurate fuel monitoring system such as a Tracking Hub fuel monitoring solution will enable you to not only cut operating costs but also increase efficiency.
How will you reduce costs and save money?
- 1.GPS tracking enables you to know when the car is idling
Idling is when a vehicle’s engine is left running and it is not moving. With GPS trackers installed, you will be getting live updates on the real-time location of your vehicle.
Leaving a vehicle idle does more damage to the engine while also consuming more fuel. The amount of fuel consumed while idling depends on the type of fuel used and the size of the engine.
For example;
A sedan uses about 0.7 liters of fuel per hour when idling
Heavy trucks use about 3.02 liters of fuel when left idling for an hour.
Imagine a scenario where your driver takes a two-hour break and leaves the vehicle running. You will lose 6 liters of fuel. If this happens daily at the end of the month you will have lost 240 liters.
Using a monitoring solution, fleet managers can significantly reduce idling because drivers know they are being tracked, therefore, it is less likely that they will leave the engine running while on breaks.
- 2. Monitor driving habits
One way fleet managers can reduce costs is by monitoring driving behavior. This is because habits such as overspeeding lead to wasted fuel. Aggressive driving such as rapid acceleration and harsh braking reduces your gas mileage.
This means you use more fuel per kilometer for any additional acceleration over the speed limit.
Overloading or excess weight can also lead to higher fuel consumption. Some unscrupulous drivers might decide to carry unauthorized goods for some extra cash and this leads to higher costs to the business.
With a monitoring system and GPS in place, you can get vehicle-specific data on issues such as overspeeding and unscheduled stops. This will deter drivers from engaging in poor driving habits saving you money on fuel.
- 3. Comprehensive reports to identify irregular consumption
Reducing the amount of fuel used by your vehicles will help you save more money. By using fuel management and monitoring solutions, you will get detailed reports on many factors such as fuel used from point A to point B, location, and driving habits.
Here is an example of a fuel report graph
- 1 fuel consumption
- 2 fuel level when idling
- 3 fuel drain/theft
- 4 refueling
Using these reports fleet managers can identify vehicles that consume more fuel and drivers with bad driving habits. You can then take action such as vehicle maintenance to improve consumption or coach drivers about acceptable driving habits.
- 4.Improve fuel efficiency through regular maintenance
Regular maintenance ensures that your vehicle is running at optimum capacity and this saves you money and time in the long run.
Management systems such as Tracking Hub fleet management systems can help you keep accurate maintenance reports and schedules to avoid any unscheduled downtimes that will cost you money due to delayed deliveries.
Other vehicle issues such as tire pressure, oil change, and engine problems affect the amount of fuel used. For example, a decrease in tire pressure lowers fuel economy by 0.2% while using the recommended motor oil will improve mileage by 1% to 2%.
Engine tune-ups can increase the fuel economy of a vehicle by up to 4%. When the engine is running smoothly, there will be fewer downtimes, saving the company time.
- 5. Route planning and optimization
Research shows that route planning and optimization can improve fuel efficiency and reduce costs by up to 20%. To plan routes effectively you need to take into account various factors such as the number of stops, traffic, driver availability, and the type of vehicle.
Route optimization helps you decide on the best and most cost-effective route to use. Finding the ideal route is a lengthy and complicated project to be done manually, but with technology, you can analyze all factors such as traffic, and come up with the most feasible route.
Tracking and monitoring solutions help you:
- Plan effectively by giving you access to maps and real-time location of delivery vehicles
- Access driver and vehicle information on your devices in real-time in case of stops
- A complete view of the topography including high-traffic clusters
- 6. Stop fuel theft
If not managed, fuel theft can amount to up to 40% of total fuel costs. That can mean that for every 100 liters you buy, 40 liters get stolen. Fuel theft occurs through siphoning or drivers inflating the amount of fuel refilled and consumed.
Drivers can be in cahoot with fuel station attendants and overstate the amount of fuel filled at the station. This tricks the company to be billed more while the attendant and the driver split the extra cash.
What Benefits Can Tracking Hub Ltd. offer in Fuel monitoring to save costs?
- a. Great returns on investment
Using Tracking Hub fuel management and monitoring systems, our clients can significantly reduce instances of theft, poor driving behavior, and idling to help you cut on fuel consumption.
- b. Customized solutions to meet your fleet needs
Finding exact solutions that meet your immediate need is never easy. At Tracking Hub limited we offer tailor-made solutions to suit your needs, which is why we offer a free demo to give us a chance to work with you and find gaps in your fleet.
- c. 24/7 customer service and support
Fleet management is a lot of requirements, this is because the fleet and logistics industry never rests. You are always on the move and Tracking Hub ensures you keep operating at optimum capacity with our 24/7 customer support.
- d. Quality
Our fuel monitoring systems are easy to install and can be used in all types of fleet vehicles. The fuel sensors keep you updated on fuel refills, drains, and real-time consumption.
The fuel management and monitoring systems are secure and can be easily integrated into existing systems.
Conclusion
Keep money in your pocket through these customizable solutions
- Live GPS tracking of every vehicle
- Keep a record of the fuel profile for every asset.
- Get notified of suspected fuel theft/siphoning
- Reduce engine idling time
- Monitor driver behavior
- Real-time data visualization on phone and desktop.
- Eliminate fraud by getting complete control over fuel purchases.
With Tracking Hub limited we help fleet operators to cut down fuel costs, improve performance and get reports on your entire operation. Choosing the right technology ensures your business spends less on fuel while streamlining your entire operation.
We offer both tailor-made and off-the-shelf fuel management and monitoring solutions to keep businesses operational and more profitable.
Are you looking to save on fuel costs and improve performance? Get in touch with us today for a free demo of our monitoring solutions.
Book now – https://trackinghub.co.ke/demo/
