How Businesses Minimize Fuel and Vehicle Expenses
When the home delivery sector blossomed during the COVID pandemic, consumers have gotten used to expecting fast, efficient deliveries for virtually every category of goods. And, now that wholesale shipping is back to pre-pandemic levels, there’s never been a time when companies have had to pay more attention to fuel costs and other vehicle-related expenses. Human creativity being what it is, several clever new techniques have popped up for keeping costs as low as possible.
The need is particularly urgent now that the price of gasoline is as high as it’s been in two decades. How are today’s delivery-based merchants and trucking companies dealing with the high price of fuel, repairs, maintenance, and vehicle purchases? The following strategies are already helping owners spend less on gasoline and keep deliveries on time.
Routing Apps
One of the simplest apps of all saves business owners significant amounts of money day in and day-out. Apps that use basic delivery, stop, and location data to create efficient routes are in use in thousands of delivery services nationwide. Routing was a chore that drivers and managers did with pen and paper once upon a time. Today’s route-making apps can crank out the most logical, fuel-saving path between as few or as many stops as necessary. They’re one of the most common, and least costly, technological tools on the market. This data analysis can also help businesses avoid problems and scale.
Smart Fleet Management
Trucking companies use fleet management solutions, from simple apps to wide-ranging computer programs, to make sure not a drop of fuel is wasted, every driver is safe, and all loads arrive on time. Along with familiar components like GPS, dash cams, and ELD (electronic logging devices), better systems employ telematics programs. The technology automatically pulls engine data to keep a close eye on real-time metrics like fuel consumption, needed repairs, fluid levels, and dozens of other key operating parameters. To learn more about what telematics is and how vital it is to fleet management, review a helpful online guide that contains all the facts about this essential system.
Driver Education
Teaching drivers how to operate fleet vehicles safely and efficiently is a larger part of the cost-saving effort than many people suspect. Little habits can make a big difference in fuel expenditure, like jackrabbit starts, sensible use of air conditioners, smart routing, and more.
Vehicle Selection
There are numerous techniques related to vehicle purchasing that go a long way toward keeping energy use as low as possible. For instance, experienced transport pros try to acquire the smallest possible vehicle that can get the job done. Going big just for the sake of extra space is a money-wasting move. Additionally, most business owners look for vehicles that deliver higher-than-average MPG, buy used models when possible, and tend to select hybrids if the sticker prices aren’t too high. There’s a lot that goes into the decision, and multiple factors come into play, but in general, hybrid cars and trucks that offer reliably high MPG at a fair purchase price make efficient fleet vehicles for companies that don’t use large trucks or vans.
