Fleet managers are working with one goal in mind: To operate their fleet as profitable as possible. Therefore, saving fuel costs is one of their top priorities, which is difficult regarding today’s rising and fluctuating fuel prices. There are two solutions to the problem, which are: Reducing the fuel consumption and buying petrol at a reasonable price.

Therefore, areas where fuel can be saved, such as wrong driving behaviour, need identifying and fuel prices comparing. Here, fleet managers may profit from some further tips.

1. Keeping the truck in exceptional working order (oil changes, tire pressure, hydraulic fluid levels etc.), and freeing them up from ballast, are first steps towards more fuel efficiency.
2. Educate your drivers about a fuel efficient driving style by arranging a seminar or workshops.
3. Encourage your drivers to share their fuel saving ideas and reward them for any implemented idea which led to substantial fuel cost savings.
4. Either implement a fuel purchasing policy, or equip drivers with fuel cards (e.g. EDC Diesel Card Solutions) to decrease fuel costs. For instance, the edc diesel fuel card promises competitive diesel fuel prices, discounts and bonuses at thousands of petrol stations across Europe.
5. Fuel cards make it easy to track fuel purchases, and to in turn detect discrepancies between fuel consumed and distances driven. In that way, fuel theft or technical problems with a vehicle are easily detectable.
6. Experts advise to replace paper logs by electronic driver logs (EOBRs) which come in a fuel management software package. Having such systems installed, fuel wasting and dangerous driving behaviour can be tracked, and actions taken against it. In addition, EOBR’s route tracking function, allows identifying problem loaded roads in regards to delays, which supports an efficient route planning.
7. It is being discussed to which extend company speed limits, may help saving costs. According to the ATA, even every 1-mph reduction in truck speed yields a 0.1-mpg increase in fuel efficiency. Next to this, reducing the speed also saves money on insurance, engine wear, maintenance that in total would makes up the distance driven less per day. However, composing too strict speed limits put the drivers at a risk, as the remaining road users will zip around them.
8. As fleet cards offer an online fleet management system and invoicing, they also reduce administrative efforts that are needed to process fuel refunds and creating overviews on fuel expenses. For example, owners of European fuel cards can access ‘Velocity’ the market leading online fuel card management platform for an efficient cost management and fleet administration.