If you want to know which are the most important metrics for a corporate fleet, you shouldask yourself what your priorities are. For most reducing costs takes the top position.
Cost reduction for vehicles is achieved through an increase in efficiency. How? Mostly through optimisation of driving in order to reduce the fuel consumption per mile. This then leads to a reduction in maintenance and insurance costs due to increased safety.
We’ve listed here the 5 metrics, the measurement and optimisation of which will help you make general organisational changes and achieve optimal return on investemnt through fleet management.
- Cost per mile
The expenses of a vehicle can be separated in several positions: fuel, wear, interest, insurance, maintenance, repairs and taxes.
Fuel accounts for between 24% and 28% of the total costs of a vehicle. It’s imperative that you keep track of a vehicle’s cost per mile.
This has led to the development and adoption of Corporate Telematics Systems. They provide users with detailed objective information about the speed of vehicles, the amount of time they stay in park, the driving style of the driver and many other important metrics with a direct influence on fuel consumption.
2.Скорост, в частност превишаване на скоростта
A truck moving at 120 km/h has 27% more fuel expenditure than one moving at 100 km/h. Setting a speed limit at 100 km/h guarantees a reduction in the amoutn of fuel used in the fleet. How do you, however, keep track of vehicle velocity.
Use GPS tracking devices to get notified in real time when driving over the speed limit occurs. Use the reports for speed produced by the GPS system to identify problem drivers, who regularly drive too fast and take steps to change their behaviour. Reward good drivers and punish regular speeders.
- Driving Style
Aggressive driving can increase fuel consumption by up to 30% outside cities and up to 5% in urban areas.
A change in driving practices i.e. achieving a smoother driving pattern can lead to fuel cost reductions. You can use modern GPS tracking devices and safe driving assistants Mobil Eye in your vehicles in order to measure the sudden stops and turns in order to profile the driver. Provide your drivers with courses for improving their driving skills and their driving style, respectively reducing the fleet costs.
- Sitting in one place with a running engine.
An engine running while the car sits idel can consumre between one and two litres of fuel per hour, depending on the engine volume and the use of air conditioning. Starting the engine only takes a second and can save you a lot, especially if you get your drivers to avoid the practice of leaving their vehicle idle with a running engine.
How do you achieve this? Identify the situations where car engines are running, but vehicles are not moving and which drivers are responsible for this. After this you can identify when this happens. Whether the reason is a traffic jam, or waiting in place with a running engine. GPS systems detect objectively the idle work of an engine together an map it on a visualisation on a geographical map, allowing you to easily ifentify the source.
- Route Efficiency
The traffic information in real time and the flexibility in route selection based on traffic information can reduce travel time by around 15%.
The solution is obvious. Use naviagation software with traffic information in your vehicles, for example Waze, in order for your drivers to be able to select quicker routes in real time. Use GPS tracking software to analyse the journey time during the different day periods and weeks in order to identify the optimal routes and travel times.
There aren’t specific rules to using a Corporate Telematics system, which will guarantee you a reduction in fleet costs. There are, however, practices and metrics such as the ones listed above which you can apply to make sure you’re utilising their potential to the maximum.