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9 Secrets to Reducing your Fleet Expenses
As a fleet owner, your day-to-day costs can quickly add up. What you don’t know is there are further hidden, expensive...
Read moreGPS tracking technology has been commonplace among fleet-reliant businesses for many years now. Almost three-quarters of those in the UK have a solution in place, with and 55% also implementing in-cab video and asset tracking, respectively.
The majority of these business report many benefits. Over two-thirds say their fleet management technology solution is either very or extremely beneficial, 56% have used it to lower fuel costs and 44% report improved customer service as a result.
As well as helping to deliver better service, operate more efficiently and put smiles on customers’ faces, these advantages can also help to drive ROI. Of the 73% of UK fleets with a GPS solution, 5% saw a positive return within three months, 38% between four and six months and 33% between seven and 12 months. That means 76% realised a positive ROI on their fleet technology investment within a year.
Below are just a few of the various cost savings and efficiencies that can help bring about such impressive returns.
4 easy ways to drive ROI with GPS fleet technology
Reduce idling times
Idling may seem inconsequential to individual drivers, but it can quickly impact your bottom line, not to mention adding unnecessary wear and tear on your vehicles. Just a minute or so of idling at each stop adds up considerably across your fleet, leading to increased fuel consumption and needless waste.
With a GPS fleet tracking solution in place, you can easily monitor instances of idling to take action against repeat offenders and reduce inefficiency across your fleet – negating its impact on your fuel spend in the process.
Master fleet maintenance
Poorly maintained vehicles are often not the most efficient. Even minor issues such as low tyre pressure, clogged filters and faulty sensors can lead to increased fuel consumption and other unnecessary costs. With a fleet management solution, you can receive alerts based on time, engine hours or mileage to remind you to carry out routine servicing.
Data gathered by your solution can also be used to develop and implement a driver safety programme, including requirements to routinely check tyres, hoses and anything else that could unnecessarily increase fuel consumption. As well as helping to lower fuel spend, this proactive approach to maintenance can also help to reduce repair and servicing costs.
Improve driver behaviour
Idling is just one of many driver behaviours that can inadvertently increase your fleet costs. Others, like late braking, sharp acceleration and harsh cornering, can also impact MPG and damage your vital assets. By monitoring these behaviours with a GPS fleet management solution, you can coach drivers into safe and more fuel-friendly driving styles.
Reducing speed across your fleet is also one of the most direct ways to lower fuel consumption. With fleet tracking technology, you can monitor speed in near real-time, review average speeds over set periods or receive alerts as soon as a pre-defined speed has been reached.
Make every mile count
The most expensive mile is always the one you don’t need to travel. And with intelligent algorithms plotting your daily jobs, you can be confident that your drivers are making every one count. By automatically scheduling each day’s route efficiently, you can reduce time spent on the road and lower fuel consumption as a result.
As route optimisation can help to reduce the time between stops, you may also be able to add more jobs into the working day to increase the profitability of your routes, too. Finally, with access to live location and status data, you can reroute vehicles to avoid congestion, take on new jobs or return to sites as efficiently as possible.
Simple steps to sustainable ROI
Any step that helps to save money is another one closer to realising ROI on your fleet technology investment. Thanks to the advantages above and many more, fleets around the world are reducing costs, increasing efficiency and seeing positive returns – sometimes within as little as three months.
In the UK alone, 56% of GPS tracking users decreased fuel consumption, 39% saw a reduction in accidents and 35% recorded a decrease in overall labour costs.
To see how Verizon Connect’s suite of fleet management applications could help you achieve results like these, book a free demo and see our solution in action.
