Benefits of fuel management and fuel consumption techniques for fleet businesses
Managing vehicle fuel consumption doesn’t need to be a time-consuming task. For reliable fuel tracking, use fleet management systems to their fullest potential through fuel management and see the difference.
One of the biggest responsibilities managers take on is finding ways to minimise the costs associated with running a fleet. Fuel management just makes this process a lot easier.
Here’s how fuel management can help you calculate the average fuel consumption rate in your fleet.
Fleet management and your business’s fuel economy
Fleet management fully monitors vehicles and gathers data on each vehicle as they run. With each trip taken, the system automatically tracks fuel consumption levels and notes the speed at which the fuel is burned.
With this information, telematics gathers all vehicle data and translates it into easy-to-understand information, and compiles it on the manager’s fleet platform.
The type of information gathered for prime fuel efficiency includes:
- Speed
- Full history of vehicle usage
- Vehicle routes
- Maintenance issues
- Idle time
- Driving behaviour
Now, managers will have full access to fleet diagnostics and valuable insights that will allow them to make informed decisions about how to improve their fleet for a greater, greener business.
How to boost vehicle performance
Managers are constantly looking for fresh and inventive ways to keep up with their fleet and get the most out of their work operations. With fuel being one of the most valuable resources in use, managers need to take the necessary steps to ensure it is not being wasted.
Fuel management is a subdivision of a fleet management system that uses fleet telematics to:
- Read fuel levels in real-time
- Keep track and improve fuel efficiency
- Reduce fuel consumption
- Instantly notify managers of fuel change
Fuel management systems can give you detailed information about your fleet’s fuel economy. You can determine whether your fuel usage has increased as a result of incorrect tyre pressure, misaligned tires, or vehicle weight.
All this ultimately helps managers better handle their fleets’ fuel consumption performance automatically, making fuel monitoring a crucial component of fleet management.
Fuel economy defined
Fuel economy is the distance vehicles travel with a given amount of fuel, meaning it’s a form of vehicle thermal management that measures how much a vehicle consumes energy in fuel and turns it into kinetic energy to travel.
Fuel economy technologies show that vehicles with reduced fuel consumption burn less fuel than other vehicles and produce lower levels of carbon emissions.
So, how does a fuel management system work to preserve energy?
With GPS technology, fuel management systems automatically create different graphs comparing fuel usage based on previous trips taken. These graphs give business owners operational insights that aid in identifying a variety of technical and usage-related problems.
Fuel consumption management is extremely beneficial to fleet managers for the simple reason of its ability to reduce operational costs. Fleet management also provides a complete overview of transportation to manage your fleet operations and business logistics in the current economy with ease.
A fuel management system provides you with accurate data on:
- Cost per mile
- Fuel theft
- Driver behaviour (risky driving, overspeeding, Idling)
How to reduce fuel consumption with fuel monitoring
Fuel expenses seem to grow with each passing year, so when it comes to planning, budgeting, and managing fuel costs, fleet managers use a few tips to give their tanks a break.
1. Driving Behaviour
They investigate how their team of drivers operate their vehicles and, through training, can change their driving behaviour for the better. Poorly driven vehicles use up more fuel than expected and contribute to maintenance issues in the future.
2. Vehicle inspections
Bad driving habits result in damaged vehicles, so frequent vehicle inspections for any maintenance issues that could contribute to excessive fuel usage and increased maintenance costs are recommended.
3. Route management
Finding the most fuel-efficient route avoids excessive fuel consumption and cuts down on overall delivery time.
The cost impact of fluctuating fuel prices
Among the ups and downs of fuel prices in the South African economy, motorists finally got some good news from the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) just in time for the new spring season.
Current fuel stats taking effect as of September 2022 are as follows.
Because of fluctuating fuel prices, fleet managers might find it difficult to plan out a fuel budget and manage costs, especially if they don’t have a strong tracking tool to help keep up with fuel price changes.
Benefits of fuel management
A great fleet manager can split their focus between all the factors that affect their fleet. If you manage a fleet efficiently, you’ll notice that fuel economy is just one of the many obstacles you have to tackle.
There’s also:
- Fuel consumption management
- Internal and external fuel fraud
- Unnoticed fuel leakages
- Complex and time-consuming fuel reporting
How do fuel management tools help tackle these issues?
- Improve accuracy – Get the data that is travelled by your fleet and calculate the amount of fuel consumed with fuel monitoring systems. You can also save the data for later analysis with the help of an automated fuel control system.
- Improve fuel efficiency – With this, you can track your vehicle maintenance and driver routes. Implementing efficient driving routes is necessary to make cost-effective decisions so that misuse of excessive fuel consumption can be eliminated.
- Reduce fuel theft – Fuel theft is considered a big issue in the fleet industry. Using a fuel monitoring system can reduce fuel theft attempts by recording fuel consumption, fuel-related expenses and identifying security issues within your fleet to implement solutions.
- Automated reports – Reports can be received on events in real-time, like fuel levels, unauthorised vehicle usage and frequent engine idling so that you are able to investigate what your mileage is, as well as any irregular fuel economy.
- Maintain compliance – Fuel consumption software will make sure that your fleet adheres to emission standards. There are many places where CO2 emissions are heavily regulated.
Managers can access information from their laptops or phones since the software allows for remote usage. With this and an internet connection, you don’t have to deal with outdated stocktaking or tank management from the office. You can do it all from virtually anywhere.
Reduce fleet costs with a trusted fleet management company
Cartrack’s smart dashboard provides swift fleet monitoring for your whole fleet and many more benefits for fellow managers.
Learn more about fuel consumption, and use Cartrack fleet management solutions to fix it.
Visit us today to start saving on fuel.
