Embracing tech can help service-based businesses overcome fuel challenges

Any manager of a successful business will tell you that cutting unnecessary costs is a key pillar of good practice. This is especially true for businesses whose costs fluctuate with prices at the pump. And as we have seen this year, fuel prices are reliably unreliable.

For serviced-based businesses with a fleet, controlling fuel usage not only reduces costs in the immediate term but also limits the longer-term risk of budget uncertainty resulting from spiralling fuel prices.

This is where fleet management services such as those provided by Fleetmatics can help. Fleet management technology provides data that allows businesses to monitor their mobile workforce and implement cost-cutting changes. In particular, the data can tell business managers exactly where they are currently being wasteful with fuel and equip them with the information they need to put in place more efficient and productive practices.

Fuel costs can also grow when drivers are not taking the quickest possible journey to a worksite. Fleet management services offer a remedy to this: they give a fleet manager a clear picture of the daily routes that drivers are taking. Inefficient routes can be easily identified and eliminated, and drivers can be guided to use a new, faster route. Fuel costs are then minimised when vehicles go from point A to point B as efficiently as possible.

This benefit is even greater in emergency situations. With fleet monitoring technology, it is incredibly easy to see who the closest technician is to an accident or breakdown. Deploying the technician closest to the situation reduces fuel costs. In addition, rapid responses from emergency teams help people get back on the road faster - a core tenet of customer satisfaction for many businesses.

Good fleet management services can even prevent some emergency situations from arising in the first place. Breakdowns not only contribute to fuel waste, but they frustrate driver and client alike. Many fleet breakdowns can be prevented by paying closer attention to potential risks. Information about oil and tyre maintenance and regular vehicle safety checks are important.

The blame for inflated fuel costs cannot, however, just be attributed to inefficient routes and breakdown situations. Idling trucks often fly under the radar for fleet managers, and excessive idling doesn’t just add up in wasted minutes, but also wasted fuel. A fleet management service offers what is essentially a digital radar that empowers managers to track and reduce idling.

Reducing fuel wastage is not just about cost-cutting. Fuel-efficient driving is also safe driving. Fuel efficiency drops when drivers go at speeds of over 80 km/h. And speeding is not the only dangerous driving practice that wastes fuel: jackrabbit starts, sudden braking and harsh driving all contribute to unnecessary fuel use. Managers who utilise fleet management technology can identify these aggressive drivers, and thus can cut back on accidents in their fleet, as well as fuel costs and high insurance premiums.

Given the current uncertainty around future fuel costs, it is the responsibility of fleet managers to better monitor and reduce their company’s current fuel usage. Data and insights about a company’s current fuel use, collected by fleet management solutions, are an integral part of this process.

When a company chooses to use the data that helps reduce fuel usage, it doesn’t just help the managers of the company. It helps employees too. Reduced fuel costs can free up revenue to raise salaries, or add additional staff. Drivers can address false complaints made by customers quicker and easier with GPS information, which gives them added security in the case of disputes about overcharges. And, because of the preventive maintenance technology that fleet management services offer, companies with fleet management technology can help drivers be physically safer as well.

Fleet management technology provides information that helps companies reduce fuel wastage. Cutting fuel usage helps the bottom line, road safety and the wellbeing of employees. It’s therefore quite clear why this technology is becoming an industry standard.