A proven way to reduce costs throughout your fleet is with fuel management strategies. With the right set of policies, procedures, and practices in place, your business will enjoy lower fuel consumption across the board and the savings that go with it.
In this article, we discuss some of the best fuel management strategies to reduce expenses and keep your fleet running smoothly.
Fuel Management Strategies
1) Leverage Technology To Improve Fuel Efficiency
Fleet technology has changed dramatically in the decades since your fleet ran on hand-written addresses and paper maps.
Now, fleet managers and drivers have access to a wide variety of digital tools and solutions that can make their jobs much easier while also helping them improve fuel efficiency.
There are many tools your fleet can leverage to streamline operations, but the big three (a.k.a. the essential tech stack) are:
Fleet management software can help you collate and control the important data that drives your fleet (and fuel consumption), including such things as hours of service, routing, pre- and post-trip inspection checklists, and vehicle maintenance (just to name a few).
Telematics can give you a more detailed view of how your vehicles are running as well as their exact location. With this information, you can prevent breakdowns, dispatch vehicles more effectively, and take steps to make sure your fleet is as fuel-efficient as possible.
Smart fuel cards integrate with fleet management software and telematics to give you a much more accurate view of where your fuel dollars are going as well as the tools necessary to control fuel spending.
2) Reduce Total Vehicles
Reducing the total number of vehicles in your fleet is another great way to improve your fuel management overall.
In some cases, you may have multiple vehicles for a single territory when you really only need one. A branch office may keep an extra vehicle or two in use for various company errands.
Or you may have surplus vehicles — both in service and out of service — that you can sell to reduce total business costs.
Getting your fleet down to just the right size can help you save more than just fuel. It also saves on the costs associated with registration, insurance, maintenance, and repair. Those numbers can quickly add up and take a big bite out of your budget.
Take the time to analyze your fleet’s activities, and talk to field managers to ensure that the number of vehicles equals the number of drivers and that all vehicles are being used to their full capability.
3) Clean Vehicles Regularly
At first glance, cleaning your vehicles regularly may not seem like it belongs on a list of fuel management strategies — but it does.
A build-up of dirt, oil, grease, and grime adds weight and increases drag, thereby reducing the aerodynamics of the vehicle and causing fuel efficiency to drop. This is especially true if your fleet operates in areas where it snows.
Accumulated ice and snow on the top, sides, and undercarriage of a vehicle can add 100 pounds or more to the total weight of the vehicle. Hauling more than necessary like this can seriously impact both the performance and the miles per gallon of your fleet vehicles.
Encourage operators to remove as much snow and ice as possible before driving during the winter months. And make it a point to run your vehicles through the car wash once or twice a month to maintain aerodynamic and fuel efficiency.
4) Use A Smart Fuel Card For Fuel Management
We mentioned smart fuel cards earlier, but they’re worth a closer look. Fuel cards (a.k.a. fleet cards, gas cards, fuel cards, fleet fuel cards, or fleet gas cards) provide many benefits over the traditional reimbursement system.
With the right fleet card, your business will enjoy:
- Lower at-the-pump fuel costs
- Spending controls
- Driver satisfaction
- Reduced administrative paperwork
- Universal acceptability
- Safety and security
All of these benefits can help your fleet function smoothly, but the first two will directly impact your fuel management. Even a one- or two-cent discount at the pump can significantly reduce the total amount your business pays for fuel throughout the year.
And, with top-of-the-line fleet cards, you can set the spending rules for each vehicle to better accommodate drivers with different responsibilities and distances to travel.
For example, for cross-country trips, you can allow spending on fuel, maintenance, repairs, towing, and even perks such as food and lodging. On the other hand, for cross-town trips, you can restrict spending to fuel only.
5) Monitor Tire Inflation
Proper tire inflation is an essential component of getting the most out of the tire itself, maintaining the life and safety of the vehicle, and improving fuel management.
An under-inflated tire increases the rolling resistance of the vehicle and forces the engine to use more fuel to maintain forward movement. Under those conditions, miles per gallon can fall by as much as 3% (or, about $0.09 per gallon). For a 40-gallon tank, that’s an extra $3.60.
If a vehicle goes through a tank of gas every day, five days a week, for 42 weeks out of the year, you’ll pay $756 more than you would if you had maintained correct tire inflation. And that’s just for one vehicle.
Multiply that $756 by the number of vehicles in your fleet and you can see how much of an impact monitoring tire inflation can have on your bottom line.
One simple solution to this issue is to make sure that every vehicle comes with an air pressure gauge and that drivers check the tire inflation before starting out on a trip and every time they stop.
6) Adopt Preventative Maintenance
A regular preventative maintenance schedule can go a long way toward reducing the fuel management issues that each vehicle faces.
If some part of a vehicle isn’t functioning properly, the engine has to work harder — and use more fuel — to keep things moving. Older vehicles are especially susceptible to this pitfall.
Regardless of the age of the vehicle or how long it’s been in service, create a regular maintenance schedule and stick to it.
Be sure to check and change:
- Oil levels
- Fluid levels
- Wheel alignment
- Tire inflation
- Air filters
- Fuel filters
Even ensuring that technicians use the right weight of motor oil, for example, can reduce the miles per gallon it takes to get a vehicle from point A to point B and back again.
7) Cut Weight
The more weight in a vehicle, the more fuel the vehicle is going to use. And it’s not just about the snow and ice we mentioned earlier. This principle also applies to the tools and supplies your drivers carry with them every day.
Just 100 pounds of extra weight can impact fuel efficiency for the worse. It doesn’t take long to accumulate that much weight when you’re talking about ladders, power tools, spools of wire, and other gear that may be necessary on the jobsite.
The best way to cut the weight your vehicles have to carry is to conduct an audit of everything in the vehicle while it’s on the road.
Is all of it absolutely necessary? Could the driver get by with two spools of wire instead of four? Could the driver use a single ladder instead of two?
Any excess weight you can remove from the vehicle can improve fuel efficiency and overall performance.
8) Incorporate Aerodynamic Controls
Depending on the type and size of vehicles in your fleet, incorporating aerodynamic controls can help improve fuel management and efficiency.
For example, adding a curved cap to the top of a box truck helps the vehicle cut through the air more efficiently, reduces drag, and results in improved fuel economy overall.
New vehicles, to some extent, are already aerodynamically efficient. But older vehicles and trailers can usually benefit from some relatively inexpensive aerodynamic upgrades that result in a significant rise in miles per gallon.
9) Build Security At The Pump
Unauthorized purchases are extremely common throughout fleets of all sizes and can seriously undermine your efforts to reduce costs and control spending. Smart fuel cards are the solution to this problem.
Choose a card that makes it easy to:
- Lock cards with a single click
- Protect against unauthorized purchases
- Enable fuel-only purchases
- Assign cards to drivers, vehicles, or both
- Create custom policies and rules for different employees
- Limit purchases by time of day and day of the week
- Easily switch cards between drivers and vehicles
- Authorize one-off purchases
It’s also essential for your smart fuel card to provide security at the point of sale. This typically involves two features for reducing theft: EMV chips and pre-use card activation.
EMV Chips
An EMV (or Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) chip is a tiny microchip embedded in the plastic of the smart fuel card that generates a unique code every time your driver swipes to pay for fuel.
These codes are only valid once and cannot be used for any future transaction. That means if someone records your transaction and attempts to use the information to buy something else, the system will deny payment for that purchase.
Pre-Use Card Activation
With this system in place, drivers must first activate the smart fuel card by sending a text from a specific linked cell phone number (i.e., their business or personal number).
If everything is correct, the system turns the card on and, when the driver swipes it to pay for fuel, authorizes the transaction.
On the other hand, if something is incorrect, the card stays inactive and, when the driver (or someone else) swipes it to pay for fuel, the system refuses the transaction.
This unique feature makes it nearly impossible for an unauthorized individual to make a purchase if the card is lost or stolen. How? Because that individual likely won’t have the linked cell phone number and, therefore, won’t be able to activate the card.
10) Integrate Your Technology
At the beginning of this list, we talked about the importance of technology and how it can help you streamline operations and fuel management strategies throughout your fleet.
But, while having that technology in your workflow is good, integrating the three components — that is, getting them to work together — is even better.
Why? Because, when integrated correctly, the components combine to give you a robust, 360-degree view of your fleet that provides insights into all aspects of your fleet operation and your fleet fuel efficiency.
This may not seem like much at first, but such cooperation and data acquisition can allow you to make more informed, better, and quicker decisions for your business.
For example, integrating your telematics system and your smart fuel card software can allow you to block suspicious purchases based on GPS data. It can also give you the ability to collect odometer readings automatically without the driver having to input them at the pump.
All of this together can help you reduce the risk of errors, prevent fuel theft, and improve fuel management and efficiency for every vehicle in your fleet.
11) Control Gallons Purchased
There are many ways for an individual to “steal” fuel, including accidental overfilling and spillage, as well as intentional siphoning and using a single transaction to fill up both a company vehicle and a personal vehicle.
Monitoring and controlling the number of gallons purchased for each vehicle prevents both accidental and intentional fuel theft.
To do this, you’ll need to identify the total number of gallons that each vehicle can carry and then cross-check receipts and reports to make sure that no fill-ups exceed those numbers.
Doing this manually can be tedious and time-consuming, but some advanced smart fuel cards (like Coast) allow you to automatically flag and identify transactions that exceed a vehicle’s tank capacity so that it doesn’t happen again.
12) Encourage Safe And Fuel-Efficient Driving Techniques
Employers across the U.S. incur costs of more than $60 billion each year due to vehicle accidents.
Add to that the fact that fleet vehicles waste 1,800 hours and 800 million gallons of diesel every year through non-essential idling, and you can see how fleet costs can quickly spiral out of control.
To prevent these expenses from affecting your bottom line for the worse, encourage safe and fuel-efficient driving techniques.
Consider implementing a driver coaching program that trains drivers to:
- Obey the speed limit
- Use the cruise control when possible
- Accelerate and brake smoothly
- Avoid distracted driving
- Wear their seat belt when the vehicle is in motion
- Prevent unnecessary idling
Then monitor driver behavior with your tech stack (fleet management software, telematics, smart fuel-card software) and observe the results.
For more tips on fielding a safe and fuel-efficient fleet, check out these articles from the Coast blog:
- Fleet Safety Program: Policies For A Safe Work Environment
- Driver Coaching: A Complete Guide For Fleet Managers
13) Investigate Alternative Fuels
According to Consumer Reports, in 2023, hybrid SUVs got more than 35 mpg and most hybrid sedans got more than 45 mpg (on average, about a 40% improvement over non-hybrids). Electric vehicles take that savings even further and nearly eliminate the need for fuel.
What’s more, hybrid and all-electric work truck and work van technology is improving every day and may be exactly what your business needs to control and reduce fuel costs throughout the fleet.
Consider starting with one alternative-fuel vehicle to see how it compares to the traditional gas and diesel vehicles that you still run.
If you see a benefit (and your bottom line allows for it), add more alternative-fuel vehicles to your lineup by replacing one or two aging vehicles with more modern fuel-efficient varieties.
Eventually, you may find that you can replace your entire fleet with hybrid or electric vehicles without sacrificing service, efficiency, or effectiveness.
14) Consider On-Site Fueling
Fuel prices have gone up dramatically since the turn of the century and they don’t look to be going down any time soon. But you can hedge your bets against the ups and downs of the fuel market by buying in bulk and installing your own storage and pumping equipment.
On-site fueling can reduce total fuel expenditures across the board by giving you more control over how much you pay to keep your vehicles running.
For example, you might be able to negotiate a deal to purchase 10,000 gallons delivered to your site for $30,000. That comes out to $3.00 per gallon.
If fuel prices in your area go up to $3.50 per gallon or more (and don’t fall underneath it before you use all of your 10,000 gallons), you’ve saved yourself $5000.
There will be considerable expense upfront to install the necessary storage, pumping, and security equipment, but the savings can be worth it in the long haul if you can negotiate lower-than-market bulk fuel buys.
When investigating this fuel management strategy, keep in mind that it may not completely eliminate the need for your vehicles to stop on the road — especially those that travel long distances.
But for vehicles that can get to the job site and back to home base on one tank, on-site fueling can be a very effective way to control fuel costs.
15) Select The Right Vehicle Size For Your Business
Another thing to check when you’re considering ways to improve your fuel management is whether or not it’s feasible for your drivers to use smaller vehicles. Dropping a size in this way can significantly reduce fuel consumption over the life of your fleet.
When investigating a change in vehicle size, start by moving one class down — e.g., from a one-ton pickup truck to a three-quarter-ton pickup truck — so you don’t lose the functionality and performance that your drivers need.
Try renting a smaller vehicle for a few weeks or a month, and have a driver put it through its paces to see if it works for the common jobs in your business.
Keep in mind that downsizing vehicles will depend on several factors, including usage patterns, operating costs, and business needs.
If you do choose to experiment with downsizing your fleet vehicles, be sure to monitor maintenance costs and the operational efficiency of the vehicle(s) in question so you have an accurate picture for your fuel management strategies.
16) Prioritize Finding Low-Cost Fuel
The price of fuel from one station to the next will often vary by anywhere from $0.10 per gallon all the way up to $0.50 per gallon (or more). Even a $0.05 difference can add up over time.
That’s why it’s vital for your drivers to look for the lowest-priced fuel at all times.
To make that easier, equip them with a smart fuel card that’s widely accepted (like Coast) so they have the freedom to fuel up at stations where the prices are lowest (not just the stations where the card is accepted).
With the right smart fuel card, you can even block the most expensive stations in order to prevent employees from filling up there in the first place.
Fuel Management For The 21st Century
Whatever strategies you choose to improve your business’s fuel management, the Coast fleet and fuel card can help.
With Coast’s online platform, you can see the details of every purchase right down to the line item so you can maintain profits for your business in real time. And, you’ll be able to close your books quickly and easily thanks to integrations with QuickBooks accounting software.
To learn more about how Coast can streamline your fuel management and improve your fleet activities as a whole, visit CoastPay.com today.
