4 habits of highly fuel efficient fleets

8/3/2019 4 Habits of Highly Fuel Efficient Fleets

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The 4 Habits o HighlyFuel Eicient Fleets



SageQuest The 4 Habits o Highly Fuel Ecient Fleets

31500 Bainbridge Rd, Suite 1 | Solon, Ohio 44139 | Phone: (888) 837-7243 | www.sage-quest.comCopyright ©2011 SageQuest. All rights reserved.

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Fleet managers ace consistently rising uel costs, with a gallon o gas expectedto reach over $4 in 2011. In act, uel is the second largest expense or a eet

today, preceded only by payroll. One o the leading impacts on vehicle uel

consumption is driver conduct. According to an EPA study, up to 30% o a

vehicle’s uel eciency is impacted by driver behavior. Improve the driver’s

habits and better uel eciency will ollow.

But how can eet managers positively impact and motivate their drivers to change, with so little visibility

into their actions once they are in the eld?

The rst step to improving driver habits is to know what your drivers do, and measure what matters so you

can make changes.

By ollowing the 4 habits o highly uel ecient eets, companies across the US are dramatically reducing uel costs.

1. Proactively monitor driver speed, reward positive behavior

Simply by observing the speed limit, drivers can improve MPG

by 7 - 23%. The challenge though is how do you know when

your drivers are speeding?

A GPS tracking system is one o the most eective

options or managing speeding today.

■ Set speeding thresholds

■ Receive alerts in real-time when a driver exceeds the limit

■ Send alerts directly to the drivers when they’re over speed limit

■ Track and manage the miles-per-gallon data

Introduction

Accordng to an EPA study,up to 30% o a vehce’s

ue ecency s mpacted

by drver behavor.

Accordng to the US Department o Energy, each 5 mph drven over

60 mph s ke payng an addtona $.30 per gaon at the gas pump.





2. Shine the light on wasted uel due to long idle times

In a study conducted by Ford Motor Company, one hour o idling time increases uel costs as much as driving an

extra 25 miles. However, there isn’t any way to tell when drivers are idling or how long without a tool like GPS.

When you add up the common practice o 10-20 minutes o idle time at each stop to ll out paperwork, listen to

the game, or wait or a customer, it adds up to several hours per day, per driver.

Some drivers alsely believe they are saving uel by letting the vehicle run when it’s not moving instead o turning

of the engine and restarting. In reality, today’s vehicles only use a ew seconds worth o uel or restarting.

A profcient GPS vehicle tracking system provides

the on-demand inormation you need to translate

reduced idle times into decreased cost.

■ Set idle limits in the system

■ Receive alerts when a vehicle has surpassed the limit

■ Identiy who is idling, or how long

■ Record impact on overall costs

3. Choose the closest driver to the job, decrease rustration

Poorly planned routes cost time, miles, uel, angry drivers, and angrier customers. Extra miles add up when routes

are unclear or let to the driver to nd on their own. Backtracking and cross over with other drivers happens

requently when dispatchers don’t have the inormation they need to route the eet more eciently.

A personal GPS navigation tool can be an improvement,

but won’t x the whole problem. They might stop getting

lost, but there is no way to evaluate their eciency. And

your dispatch team certainly has no visibility into who

is where, when.

In a perect world, your dispatch should be able to:

■ Instantly identiy the closest available driver

■ Choose the most ecient route

■ Communicate that route to the driver

■ Measure reduction in mileage

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“One hour o dng tme ncreases ue costs

as much as drvng an extra 25 mes.”

- Ford Motor Company 25 MilES

One pest contro rm n Coorado enjoyed

an 18% reducton n ue costs wthn 30 days

o mpementaton – and the ong ta benets

have been huge. Now that they can ecenty

re-route drvers n the ed, respond to

emergency customer cas, and optmzeroutes, ther 47 vehce feet has measuraby

mproved ecency and decreased costs.





4. Gut-check your uel card usage – get the real truth, know your true costs

I you’re using uel cards to centralize and manage uel transactions, you’re a step ahead o the game. But without

connecting uel card programs to mobile workorce management and GPS tools and depending on manual human

input, you only have the driver’s version o the truth.

To make sure you have the ull picture,

best practices include:

■ Validate odometer readings by matchingdriver input to true mileage

■ Validate ll-up locations to ensure uel isonly used or corporate purposes

■ Measure decrease in costs

■ Report savings

Consider how quickly your costs would decrease

i your drivers knew there is instant, real-time visibility

into where they buy gas, their true odometer reading,

and whether or not a company vehicle is getting the rell.

Conclusion

When you understand the ‘why?’ and the ‘how?’ o a driver’s behavior, you have real wisdomto make confdent decisions, and truly change behavior that drives up uel costs.

You can’t manage what you can’t measure – but with GPS eet tracking, eets across North America are making

smarter decisions – and reducing uel costs.

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When fnding the right GPS vehicle tracking system, consider the ollowing:

Real-time Mapping

Can you nd your drivers on the map at any given time? Is the location inormation accurate and

up-to-the minute? Can you view the location at street level i you need to understand actual

surroundings and environmental actors that may afect uel consumption? Knowing where your

eet is relative to each other and to work orders takes out the guesswork, and makes dispatching

drivers much more efective.

Alerts

Can you set benchmarks or key indicators and receive automatic alerts when those thresholds havebeen passed? A good GPS vehicle tracking system will let you set up alerts that automatically send

an email or text or immediate action. Be sure to conrm the system will notiy you anytime a driver

is speeding, idling, entering or leaving a designated location, or when a vehicle is scheduled or

preventative maintenance.

Route Replay

Knowing where your driver went today means more proactive planning and less uel waste due

to inecient routes.

Reports

Which vehicles are consistently idling too long? Who was speeding today? A quality GPS vehicle

tracking system produces reports that clearly present details behind behaviors that let you take

action to reduce uel costs.

Integration

Knowing what each driver spent on uel is critical. Knowing what impacted the cost o that gallon

o gas is knowledge that turns an ecient eet into a protable eet. Look or a GPS vehicle tracking

system that integrates with your uel card. You should be able to isolate any o the uel wasting

behaviors: speeding, idling, miles driven, or poor maintenance.

What to Look For In A GPS Vehicle Tracking System





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About SageQuest

SageQuest, a FleetMatics company, is the premier provider o GPS eet tracking and management solutions that

improve the overall eciency o any mobile workorce. The company serves mid- to large-sized organizations

ofering real-time insight into vehicle activity and its impact on business. Known or its easy-to-use interace,

intuitive reports, and industry-leading customer service, SageQuest is used by thousands o customers in the HVAC,

telecom, cable, construction, plumbing, security industries that have thousands o vehicles on the road. Mobile

Control is a sotware-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that integrates with existing workorce management systems to

help improve their productivity. For more inormation about SageQuest, visit www.sage-quest.com

or call (888) 837-7243.

4 habits of highly fuel efficient fleets

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