Operating a large number of vehicles will incur costs to any business. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Managing a fleet also represents an opportunity to save huge amounts of cash – if you know the tricks of the trade. Below, you’ll find four of the best cost-saving tricks that your fleet should be leveraging in 2020.
1. Review Mileage
What do all American fleets have in common? They clock miles! Therefore, the first place you should look when trying to save money is your overall mileage.
When reviewing your mileage, you should examine which employees are clocking the greatest number of miles in order to understand who needs – or, more importantly, who doesn’t need – to keep using a vehicle. Think of it just like any other audit within your business.
The drivers with the most miles to their name clearly need to keep driving their vehicle. But in order for your business to save money, your low-mileage drivers could start sharing vehicles, using the train, or walking to job sites. It’s simple really: the fewer miles your fleet is clocking, the less money you’ll spend on fuel and other road-related costs.
2. Supercharge Your Safety
If one of your drivers is involved in a crash, the primary concern is clearly the wellbeing of your employee. However, there are actually many other collision-related costs that you should be wary of. Each year, motor vehicle incidents cost businesses around $60 billion in medical costs, legal claims, vehicle repair, and lost productivity.
You can help stem the flow of these costs by implementing a comprehensive safety programme for your drivers. An effective fleet safety programme should allow your business to screen and select drivers, introduce safe driving classes, and carry out regular vehicle inspections and maintenance.
If you’re particularly concerned about the safety of your drivers, then you should think about installing a fleet management system which can deliver reports on driver behaviour. You can use these systems to coach your staff into safer driving practices.
Fleet management systems also come with vehicle maintenance scheduling to make your life easier, and some systems will even pull fault codes directly from the vehicle engine and alert you if something goes wrong. Scroll down for more information on fleet management systems.
Implementing a comprehensive safety programme could also help you save on your vehicle insurance, meaning you can save lives and money – the perfect combination for any successful fleet! The overall message here is that you can save heaps of cash by efficiently preparing your drivers for life on the road.
3. Fleet Management Software
One of the easiest and most effective ways to cut fleet costs is by using a fleet management system, which can help your business to save money across multiple areas.
First and foremost, fleet management software allows you to gather important data on your fleet, helping you to identify areas across your business where you can save some cents. So, how does it all work?
A key feature of all fleet management systems, GPS vehicle tracking provides real-time location data directly to the fleet manager. With this, you can see the exact routes each driver is taking, the number of stops they’re making, and the average speed they’re clocking, making it much easier to spot your inefficient areas. For example, you’ll be able to identify which drivers are spending too long idling, and therefore wasting business resources.
Many fleet management systems also come with fuel monitoring features, which enable you to easily monitor your fleet’s fuel consumption. With these features, you can see which drivers are using the most gas and how many times they’re filling up the tank.
You can also plan more fuel-efficient journeys for your drivers. With gas prices ever-growing in the US, it’s more important than ever to gauge your guzzling.
4. Leverage Fuel Hedging
Leading on from the topic of volatile gas prices in the USA, another cost-cutting initiative to consider is known as fuel hedging. Best suited to larger fleets with bigger budgets, fuel hedging involves locking in fuel prices at lower levels in order to guarantee the same price over an extended period of time.
Fuel hedging could be seen as high risk, given that you never know how fuel prices will change in the future – but it can also be an effective way of adding stability to your fuel consumption costs.
If you’re particularly concerned about overspending on fuel, you could hire an oil risk manager to steady the ship. Again, this would only be a necessary measure for huge fleets clocking thousands of miles – if this is the case, an oil risk manager could help you manage your fuel risks more efficiently, helping to identify when and where you should be locking down fuel prices. Ultimately, minimizing your fuel risk should maximise your profits.
Summary
Unsurprisingly, the majority of cost-saving initiatives for fleets revolve around fuel consumption. After all, gas is what keeps your fleet ticking along. However, you also need to think about the money you’re losing after each motor vehicle crash in medical fees and legal costs, if your drivers aren’t properly safety-trained. The moral of this article is: look after your staff and your fuel, and your fleet costs should look after themselves.
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