MARK McKenna from Bluedrop Services delves into techniques for improving your fuel efficiency and gaining more in-depth understanding of your fleet’s fuel costs.

Use of Telematics

Telematics equipment provides a valuable insight into your fleet, looking at driver behaviour, location, and scheduling. But in addition to this an overall added benefit is that by improving your fleet’s efficiency and sending the nearest vehicles to the next job, routing the shortest journey and taming driver behaviour, less fuel is ultimately used – which let’s face it, can be one of the largest costs associated with managing a fleet. Telematics can help businesses to make informed decisions and provide in-depth analysis which can ensure you are not paying more than you need to. The provision of up-to-date traffic information as well as encouraging two way communication from your drivers can help you to find the least congested route and provide improved customer service in addition to fuel efficiency.

Driver education and training

Continued communication, education and training can help to ensure that your fleet drivers adopt a culture of practicing efficient driving techniques, including avoiding harsh braking, adopting gradual acceleration, and overall simply stripping out erratic behaviour. There are numerous companies out there offering driver training courses which focus on improving driving style to ensure that you can employ safe and fully aware drivers who can plan and anticipate adjustments to their driving by observing the traffic ahead. Whilst the main objective of driver training is to ensure safety within your fleet, you can also be sure to benefit from the efficiencies of improved fuel management. Improved driver behaviour on the road can make a significant difference in the amount of fuel your fleet uses. Not only will your fleet drivers be much safer on the roads, but in turn you will be helping to reduce your risk and as a side benefit, reduce your fleet insurance premiums.