With fuel prices always rising and fluctuating, it can be difficult to get a handle on cutting down gas costs when you’re running a fleet. Even if you’re doing your best to keep your fleet organized and safe on the road, fleet fuel costs are going to end up creating a problem for you and your drivers unless you find ways to get creative. Whether you figure out how to start slowly investing in new green vehicles to replace old gas guzzlers or look into purchasing WatchCard fleet gas cards for your company, you’ll need to do whatever you can to make sure you’re not sinking money into fuel costs or overpaying on gas per car. Saving money on gas means having the funds to give to other fleet wide projects and initiatives that help your drivers stay safer and more efficient during each job. If you’re ready to stop overpaying on fuel costs, here are a few helpful ways to start cutting down.
1. Start Investing in Alternative-Fuel Vehicles
Part of your job as a fleet manager is looking to the future to find newer, better technologies that will help your fleet grow and expand. When it comes to cars, the future is clean energy. Even if it feels expensive to start swapping out lower-performing cars in your fleet for clean fueled alternatives, it’s going to make a huge difference in the long run. Not only will you be saving money by investing in green cars or clean diesel engines, you’ll be purchasing cars that will last longer and be able to outperform their gas-guzzling counterparts in a matter of years. If you haven’t already started figuring out how to reach green fleet status in a few years, start planning now. Switching as many of your old cars over to clean fuel alternatives will keep you saving money each quarter and help you stay in step with newer and better technologies for your fleet.
2. Use Technology to Your Advantage
Speaking of technology, you’ve probably already noticed how critical it is in your industry, helping drivers perform their best and helping busy managers like you keep on top of everything from compliance laws to maintenance checks. However, since there’s been a huge boom of fleet-related technology and apps in the past few years, your job is to cut down the fat and make sure you’re investing in the types of tools that will help your cars perform better, not just create more issues. Ever driver in your fleet should have installed a tracking app to help them find the cheapest gas in the area on any job, in addition to using GPS that works to cut down on mileage and send out idling alerts for cars that have been stationary for more than a few minutes. Using the best apps will help your drivers to better navigate traffic, avoid slow-downs, and avoid getting gouged on gas prices in unfamiliar territory. They’ll also be able to use driver assistance software and ELDs to help make safety and compliance a snap on the road.
3. Purchase Fuel Cards
If you haven’t invested in fuel cards for your fleet by now, you’re losing out on a lot of savings already. If you’re constantly sending drivers out on jobs in unfamiliar territory, you’re subject to wildly fluctuating gas prices. You’re also giving your drivers the freedom to purchase at will at a gas station or rest stop. Exercising more control over what your drivers purchase and how much they have to pay for gas will help you streamline your fleet and allow you to pay a flat rate per mile, no matter where your drivers end up. Even if you end up saving just 5 cents per gallon per car, your yearly savings could end up being in the thousands. For a fleet manager with an eye on the bottom line, that’s no small change. Before investing in a fleet fuel card, be sure you do your research and figure out which card offers the best benefits for your team.
4. Put a Stop to Unnecessary Idling
Did you know that idling can cost your company up to $100,000 in wasted gas costs? If you’re running a small fleet with only a handful of cars, that number might be lower, but it will still represent a huge expense to the company. When installing electronic driver logs or software, make sure you have settings included that will automatically set up driver and manager alerts after 15 minutes of idling to save each car up to 1 hour of unnecessary gas loss per day.