When it comes to saving your fleet money, fleet managers should analyse exactly what their largest outgoings are. After overall vehicle depreciation, fuel costs make up the second-largest total fleet expenditure. According to studies, fuel costs make up to 60% of a fleet’s operating budget.
It is crucial to look to save fuel costs to save money.
Consider the journeys that one vehicle within your fleet takes in a day. Even at one vehicle, there are a lot of logistics that a fleet manager should take into account to create the most efficient possible journeys. This issue becomes a lot more stark when multiplied over your total fleet size. It is, therefore, no wonder that fuel costs add up that high.
This is where a driver route planner comes into effect.
A driver route planner is the absolute go-to for your fleet to view your accurate driver analysis, and ultimately, save and prevent your fuel costs from spiralling. Here are 5 ways in which a driver route planner will keep your costs down.
1. View GPS Vehicle Location Data in Real-Time
You can never be sure what will happen out on the road. Sudden road closures and accidents are never planned in advance. Moreover, clients may require emergency callouts or need spontaneous deliveries.
A driver route planner displays your fleet’s location in real-time using GPS technology. This means that you have a real-time operational overview via tablet, desktop or smartphone, and you can benefit from the following:
- Send your closest driver to the client
- Coordinate trips with other drivers
- Plan detours for road closures
A real-time operational overview means that you no longer have to manually and speculatively plan your trips like in the past. A real-time overview allows you to make accurate operational decisions at the touch of a button on your device. Ultimately, however, these factors optimise your routes, which reduce your overall fleet mileage. As a result, you save fuel costs.
Read More: 5 Ways Car Monitoring Puts You In Control Of Your Operations
2. Monitor Drivers and Reduce Vehicle Misuse with a Driver Route Planner
Vehicle misuse isn’t only an operational issue. It also costs your fleet a considerable amount of fuel costs. The more your drivers get into the habit of using your fleet vehicles for personal errands and convenience, the more your business will have to spend on fuel.
A driver route planner as part of vehicle or truck tracking systems, such as Vimcar’s Fleet Geo, allow you to put an end to this entirely. The driver analysis included displays various statistics, such as vehicle route history, driver identification and vehicle speed information.
This means that, again, an operational overview into your fleet information saves you money. Your fleet drivers are far less likely to engage in vehicle misuse practices, and therefore less likely to run into speeding fines as well as increased mileage outside of working hours.
3. Use Specially Designed Vimcar Features To Stay In Contro
You can use Fleet Geo’s features to further assert your control, such a geofencing. This means that you can manually set designated driving zones for your fleet. Should a vehicle breach outside of this zone, you will be alerted via notification to your device.
Moreover, you can also use Timefencing to manually create time fences for how long your vehicles should be out on the road. The same principle with geofencing applies here. If a vehicle spends too long outside of your designated time fence, you will also receive a notification to your device.
These features allow you as a fleet manager to stay in control of your fleet, make informed decisions and save money.
4. Effectively Optimise Routes
Many fuel expenses are spent on inefficient routes to and from the client. In the past, the driver route planner was manual, and relied on knowledge of the local area to reach the destination as fast as possible.
Instead, Vimcar’s Fleet Geo driver route planner provides an instantaneous and most efficient possible route. Not only does this factor in a single journey, but also multiple stops within a journey. Fleet Geo also utilises “Multidrop route planner technology” to calculate your most efficient route that requires multiple pick ups/drop-offs. These routes are in turn the most fuel-efficient for your fleet, and the effect is more evident when multiplied by several vehicles.
Read More: What Is a Multi Drop Route Planner? & Why Does It Matter To Monitor Your Drivers?
5. Track Your Fuel Consumption
Accurate driver analysis also factors in the amount of fuel your vehicles hold and use to travel. Moreover, fleet tracking systems also take your vehicle mileage into account.
The biggest advantage here of being able to accurately track your mileage and fuel consumption is that you can make more informed and accurate decisions. You can make decisions about maintenance schedules and spot unnecessarily long vehicle journeys thanks to a driver route planner.
All of these factors add up.
Fleet managers who acquire driver analysis software, such as Vimcar’s Fleet Geo, on average saw their fuel costs reduce by 10%.
Conclusion: Stay Smart And Use Vimcar’s Driver Route Planner
The benefits of using driver analysis tools to save money come in many forms and functions. Vimcar’s Fleet Geo is an industry-leading fleet management software that is specially designed to tend to the needs of SMEs.
