On average, fuel costs account for 25% of the total fleet cost SMEs encounter. Therefore, the felt need to reduce fuel consumption is a very real one. Fleet managers do and should consider the options into what reduces fuel consumption.
Luckily, fleet managers in small and medium-sized businesses can explore a multitude of ways for their fleets to reduce fuel consumption. There are a number of obvious methods and practices. This includes driving fewer hours, acquiring greener vehicles or reducing travel distance.
However, there are more subtle, indirect practices that reduce fuel consumption, saving you many fuel costs in the long run.
1. What Reduces Fuel Consumption? Driver Behaviour!
It may not seem obvious, but an accumulation of inefficient and occasionally dangerous driving behaviour is in fact a leading cause of high fuel costs. Although there are many driving behaviours to analyse, the following habits contribute the highest to unnecessary fuel costs:
- Harsh braking
- High revving and low gears
- Excessive acceleration
- Speeding
The more a driver brakes harshly, the more time they’ll spend getting the vehicles back up to speed and using more fuel – not to mention that harsh braking is a safety hazard. High revving in particular also means the engine has to work harder and less efficiently.
These are key factors fleet managers when looking into what reduces fuel consumption.
What Can You Do About It?
As a fleet manager, you have a say over what type of vehicle your drivers’ drive for work and where they should operate. However, monitoring how they operate your vehicles is seen to be more tricky.
To curb these habits and to encourage and maintain company-standard driving, there are specialised solutions available for SMEs. Good driving analysis solutions, such as Driving Style Analysis (DSA) allow you to identify individual driving analysis from each driver.
It works by sending vehicle data as stored in each vehicle’s onboard diagnostics (OBD) straight to your mobile, tablet or desktop/laptop.
This also includes fuel-relevant driving habits, such as real-time speed and speed history as well as revving and braking analysis. Your drivers will also be aware that their driving analysis is tracked by the fleet manager, contributing to a more transparent working environment.
As a result, inefficient driving habits are discouraged and happen less frequently. This means that the less your drivers engage in such habits, the more efficient their driving will stay – and the more you reduce fuel consumption.
Learn More: How You Can Keep Your Drivers Safe With DSA
2. Tyre Pressure!
Tyres lose air pressure naturally – usually at a monthly rate of 2 PSI. The tyre pressure of your vehicles may not seem like a necessity to reduce fuel consumption but statistics say otherwise.
If the air pressure in a tyre is even 0.2 BAR too low, fuel consumption increases by 10%. When you consider that each vehicle has at least four tyres, it really adds up over the total amount of vehicles within a fleet.
Moreover, tyres with too little pressure also present a safety risk. Tyres without sufficient air pressure to operate mean that the tyres tend to run on their sidewalls. This results in your steering becoming less effective.
What Reduces Fuel Consumption Regarding Tyre Pressure?
Essentially, checking tyre pressure regularly is a great way to ensure that tyre pressure is sufficient.
Importantly, you can also acquire efficient tyres that are designed to reduce fuel consumption. 20% of your vehicle’s overall fuel consumption is down to the type of tyre you use. You can reduce fuel consumption with optimised tyres, which can save you up to a quarter of a gallon of fuel per 62 miles.
Read More: A Guide To The Best Van Tyres For Fleet Managers
3. Be Aware Of The Effect Of Open Windows
As strange as it seems, open windows on vehicles can play either a positive or negative role when it comes to reducing fuel consumption. When driving below 60mph on a hot day, open vehicle windows in fact reduce fuel consumption.
This is because of air conditioning. Air conditioning consumes a lot of fuel – between 10 and 15 percent more. Therefore, opening your windows to let in a cool breeze is actually a great way to reduce fuel consumption.
When you drive over 60mph, however, open windows negatively impact your vehicle’s aerodynamics. Air has a tougher time passing over vehicles, and the vehicle becomes less sleek. As a result, more fuel is spent pushing air out of the way – costing you fuel, and therefore, money.
4. Take Traffic Times Into Account
On average, drivers in the UK spend 115 hours a year stuck in vehicle traffic. If you don’t have a fleet of vehicles that make use of innovative stop/start technology, more fuel is spent powering stationary vehicles.
Infamous rush hours in towns and cities are synonymous with irritating traffic. These not only wreak havoc on your delivery times, but also on your fuel consumption.
The simple answer is – avoid rush hours and prepare for heavy traffic congestion. There are intuitive solutions on the market, however, that are specifically designed to help you avoid traffic.
What Reduces Fuel Consumption Regarding Traffic?
This is where Fleet Geo’s dynamic route planning feature comes in to help SMEs. Compared to standard, consumer-based Map solutions, Vimcar’s Fleet Geo contains a route planning feature which is geared to fleets within businesses.
The dynamic route planning feature not only calculates your quickest possible route, but also identifies obstacles that make your journeys inefficient – notably rush hour times and traffic in real-time. By using Fleet Geo, you can make sure your journeys are shorter and more efficient – saving you unnecessary fuel costs that traffic consumes.
5. Be Aware Of Vehicle Maintenance Procedures
When fleet managers ask themselves, “what reduces fuel consumption”, it is vital that they take the quality and general maintenance of their vehicles into account. Fundamentally, the less looked after a vehicle is, the less efficient it becomes, and the less it functions properly.
This means that less efficient vehicles require more fuel to operate up to standard.
Read more: What is a GPS tracking system?
How Can You Prioritise These Maintenance Procedures?
Simply put, preventative maintenance checks are a necessity for keeping your vehicles in top condition. Vimcar’s Fleet Admin tool allows you to remind yourself of and record preventative maintenance checks.
Administrative tasks, including the various box-checking that needs to be done, can easily be overlooked within a business. Fleet Admin keeps all of your data in one place, which means that you no longer have to rely on post-it notes and sporadic excel sheets to record your vehicle checks.
This is important with regards to fuel consumption. Fleet Admin allows you to make sure your vehicles perform as efficiently as possible, saving you countless fuel costs in the long run.
Read More: Learn More About Preventative Maintenance Procedures
Summary: Become More Efficient And Reduce Fuel Consumption With Vimcar
Vimcar provides a range of solutions to allow your business to perform better. Whether you want to reduce fuel consumption, increase transparency in the workplace, monitor your vehicle locations or simply become more efficient – Vimcar helps you out.
