Whether your fleet is made up of cars, vans, or agricultural vehicles, you want to make sure it's running as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Though fuel cards can help you reduce your business fuel costs, there are other ways you can try to keep your petrol and diesel spending down. This article will give you some advice on how to proactively reduce your fleet fuel costs.
What can cause high fleet fuel costs?
- One of fuel cards’ main benefits is the ability to closely monitor your fleet’s petrol and diesel purchases, find any inefficiencies and fix them to reduce your overall costs. However, there are some factors which affect fuel costs which you might feel are out of your control.
- Increasing fuel prices: greater demand, reductions in supply and shifts in the world oil price can all cause the petrol and diesel price tag to rise.
- Inefficient use of fuel: speeding, engine idling or aggressive driving can all lead to more fuel being used than is necessary for the distance travelled.
- Badly maintained vehicles: if your vehicles aren’t serviced regularly, they could have problems that impact their fuel efficiency. Tyre pressure, low oil levels or full engine filters are all basic checks that can be run regularly to ensure their fuel use is optimised.
- Unoptimised routes: hills, road surfaces and traffic diversions can all cause vehicles to use more fuel than you’d expect.
- Losing track of fuel purchases: if your drivers aren’t keeping track of their mileage, submitting receipts on time or are using several fuel purchasing methods, your business can quickly lose control over how much petrol and diesel has been brought.
No business will be able to keep on top of all these challenges all the time. However, you can take some steps to reduce the impact of these factors on your overall fuel budget.
Seek out the best prices
Even when overall fuel prices are high, some petrol stations will have lower costs per litre than others. Certain apps will allow your drivers to find nearby stations with the lowest price to buy from. Plus, many fuel card providers work hard with their network of petrol stations to give their members the best rates on their petrol and diesel, so you can save as many pennies as possible.
Train or monitor drivers
They might have been working on the roads for years, but some drivers will have inevitably picked up habits or behaviours that mean they’re not using their fuel as efficiently as possible. Reviewing telematic data regularly and giving drivers training on how to drive better won’t just mean they have to top up less often, saving you money, but will improve your fleet’s carbon efficiency and safety too.
Plan in preventative maintenance
If you run a large fleet, you probably run regular vehicle checks already. However, making sure tyre pressure, oil and servicing is carried out on your cars or vans regularly is key to saving money in any sized fleet. Indeed, putting preventative maintenance schedules in place will ensure your vehicles are running fuel-efficiently and avoid greater problems or breakdowns later down the line.
Use route planning tools
Accidents or traffic jams can’t always be predicted, but making sure your drivers have the tools and information they need to avoid these as much as possible will ensure they always take the best route, increasing their fuel efficiency and getting them to their destination on time. Route planning apps or details from your telematics or vehicle monitoring systems about the best roads to take will help your fleet speed up and make the most of their fuel, particularly on their regular journeys.
Consider using fleet fuel cards
To monitor and control your diesel and petrol costs more easily, investing in a fuel card membership is recommended. fuelGenie offers fuel cards for large and small businesses that bring a range of benefits to their fleets. From saving up to 3p per litre from supermarket petrol stations in our network, keeping track of each employee or vehicle’s fuel spend through a simple dashboard to setting credit limits and monitoring invoices easily. Plus, fuelGenie has no hidden fees, offers unlimited fuel cards and makes buying fuel straightforward for drivers, so you can reduce your fuel costs without sacrificing any convenience.
