Types of Costs in Fleet Fuel Management?
Commercial fleet managers constantly struggle to balance expenses from many sources to maintain a profitable business. An optimised business with streamlined costs will have a more significant advantage within this competitive field, so fleet managers must identify unnecessary costs and work to eliminate them from their company. Finding them can be a challenge; read on to discover expenses that, if eliminated, will significantly reduce your costs.
Reducing Fuel Costs
Fuel is an essential resource for any commercial fleet that initially seems impossible to improve, but there are many ways to optimise your fuel use, reduce costs and get the most out of your fuel purchases.
Some fleet managers rely on their drivers using public petrol stations for their fuel. This initially seems like the only way to get your required fuel, but it does make your team and expenses beholden to the fluctuating public fuel prices. Using public forecourts is one of the highest unnecessary costs that can be easily fixed with wholesale fuel purchases.
Like any wholesale purchase, purchasing fuel at reduced prices significantly reduces costs and gives managers more control of their valuable fuel. This is especially effective when you consider that public fuel prices constantly fluctuate daily, whilst wholesalers can maintain steady prices and even lower them. Investing in wholesale fuel dispensing equipment such as storage tanks and pumps is required to embrace this cheaper fuel source and enjoy the high ROI (return on investment) for years. Additionally, consistent pricing and bulk buying can also help with financial forecasting, allowing them to plan in advance, becoming more efficient.
Some companies use fuel cards to achieve the same solution, but this is only a half measure that won’t provide the same beneficial returns as investing in wholesale fuel purchases. In addition, fuel cards still require your drivers to use public stations with these pre-bought cards, disrupting the planned work.
Depreciation Costs
Depreciation costs are a broader area of unnecessary costs within a commercial fleet related to declining results from your equipment or fuel. The main area that will suffer from depreciation is the condition of your vehicle fleet; this relates to the maintenance costs of the asset itself and the amount of fuel it uses related to its current state.
The most considerable expense will be letting vehicles depreciate until they can no longer operate. In addition, unexpected breakdowns will harm your business as you have more severe emergency maintenance repairs to conduct. Unmaintained vehicles will also consume more fuel, requiring fleet managers to purchase more fuel each time.
Vehicles operating at less than optimal conditions will consume more fuel than perfectly operational machines. For example, with excessive use, tire pressure will decrease and increase the rolling resistance of your vehicles. This increases the amount of fuel your driver needs to travel safely. In addition, air filters and fuel injectors that are dirty or clogged will restrict airflow into the engine and reduce its efficiency. Dirty or low engine oil levels will also make the engine work harder and consume more fuel.
Regular vehicle maintenance increases your vehicle efficiency by addressing these seemingly minor issues and preventing them from increasing your driver’s fuel consumption.
Commercial Driver Costs
How your drivers use the fuel you give them will change the amount you need for daily operations. Of course, each journey will need a specific amount of fuel, but every fulfilment operation can reduce the amount of fuel with eco-driving.
Eco-driving is a driving style that aims to reduce carbon emissions, accident rates, and fuel consumption, making it an effective tool for fleet optimisation to save fuel. Sadly, addressing just one issue rarely results in savings on fuel costs. By enhancing a large number of minor components and allowing their gains to accumulate into more significant gains, the most efficient strategy for reducing these expenses is to do so. Eco-driving is a collection of methods that, taken as a whole, may not appear to have a significant impact but, when implemented together, will ensure that your fuel is utilised more effectively.
By training your drivers to use eco-driving techniques, fleet managers see a noticeable decrease in fuel use, reducing the size of their fuel expenses long-term.
Wireless Fuel Monitoring
These previous issues and solutions have something in common, closer fuel monitoring. Monitoring fuel consumption closely reveals these problems quickly and makes them easier to track over the year. Fuel monitoring is a challenging task that will be easily solved with a wireless fuel monitoring system that enables fleet managers to track this valuable resource and discover areas that need to be optimised further, such as the ones described above.
At Fueltek, we have a range of practical solutions designed to assist UK commercial fleets in optimising their expenses and reducing their fuel costs long-term. We offer installation for a complete fuel management package that includes everything you need to own your fuel station dedicated to just your commercial fleet operations. Browse our complete selection of fuel storage solutions or contact us, and we’ll help you identify the best setup for your company.
