Cut Fuel Consumption without Cutting Service

Fuel costs have been putting companies all over the United Kingdom under pressure during this recession, which has been leading companies to think seriously about reducing their fuel consumption. Cutting the mileage that each company driver does is the first route many companies take when trying to cut costs. However, there are benefits to meeting your clients and customers face to face, as it is much easier to build relationships when people can ‘put a face to a name’. The relationships that your mobile workforce builds during their time out of the office can often result in significant amounts of sales, so for many businesses it is important that face to face meetings are preserved. It is also difficult to cut the journeys travelled in the haulage, logistics and delivery industry, as it would effectively mean that these companies would be also cutting their ability to generate and accommodate business.

Overall though, research by the Fleet News poll in 2009 found that it is worthwhile for many businesses to cut the number of miles travelled, with over two thirds of companies doing this because of the pressure that the recession has put upon their finances. TMC, who are specialists in fuel cost and mileage capture, found that reducing the amount of miles covered is much more effective than, for example, choosing more fuel efficient cars. They suggest that by saving as little as fifteen miles per week for each of your drivers, the planned increase in fuel duty could be absorbed.

There is an alternative to cutting the number of business journeys travelled, without affecting your company’s ability to function effectively; GPS vehicle tracking. Vehicle tracking can help your business reduce its fleet’s mileage costs in a number of ways. Firstly by providing business with an accurate means of authenticating employee’s mileage expense claims so that false claims are not paid against, and if there are any instances of employees taking longer routes in order to benefit from a larger expenses claim, these can be easily identified. Mileage can be tracked 24/7 and any mileage that is being claimed for by employees can be checked against the historical data kept by the tracking software. This way, if employees are claiming for personal journeys or adding non-genuine business mileage to their routes then companies are able refuse to pay, and have the factual data at their fingertips to support their decisions. This was notoriously difficult to do before vehicle tracking solutions became widely available.

The second way vehicle tracking can help is through monitoring employee’s journeys. When customer service operatives are processing customer orders they can refer to the tracking system to quickly identify which of their vehicles are closest to the required destination. The best placed drivers can then be sent to fulfil a customer’s needs, rather than customer services spending a lot of time calling drivers to ascertain their current location. This saves miles but it also improves a company’s efficiency, as they often find that they are meeting their customer time targets quicker than before, which in turn improves a company’s reputation.

If there are instances where employees feel that they are taking the quickest route to their destination but are frequently being held up in prolonged traffic, this can be identified, and new routes organised. In traffic jams the engine can be left ‘running’ continuously whilst a vehicle remains stationary, and this wastes fuel. Taking a route which is slightly longer but avoids a lot of engine idling may turn out to be more fuel and time efficient.

Poor driver performance including speeding and engine idling, are another key factor in fuel consumption. An effective way of tackling this particular issue with your employees is to educate them as to how their driving behaviour can affect the business, not just in terms of fuel. A vehicle tracking system provides businesses with improved insight and allows employers to monitor fuel wasting driving behaviours including speeding, aggressive acceleration and braking as well as engine idling. For many fleets inefficient driving behaviours can be the highest cause of fuel wastage leading to more costly fuel bills.

Clearly if it is feasible to reduce the number of journeys that your employees travel then by all means this is an effective way of reducing expenditure, and your company’s carbon footprint. However, many companies are discovering that by installing a vehicle tracking system they are able to cut their fuel consumption without negatively impacting productivity or the service provided to customers.