Category: Blog

Managing a fleet is potentially hazardous. Safety legislation is getting tougher and tougher all the time, and as such, employers can face fines for serious health and safety offences, especially if they cannot demonstrate rigorous internal safety procedures if an accident occurs.

Using FleetCheck Driver walkaround check app can help improve your fleet’s safety procedures, by ensuring the vehicle is fit for the road, but you should check an employee’s driving licence at least once a year and we advise you to file a signed copy when an employee starts working for your organisation, then update this file every time you check their licence.

While we recommend you check licences once a year, it might be a good idea to check licences more regularly if drivers have accumulated points, or introduce certain thresholds – for example, some companies check drivers with a certain number of points on a more regular basis.

How can I check someone’s licence online?

You can check someone’s driving licence information via the government website.

You’ll need the last eight characters of their driving licence number and a check code from them. This is only suitable for one-off checks as you can’t use this method when keeping track of a large fleet.

How can I check a large number of driver’s licences?

The DVLA has a service called the Access to Driver Data (ADD) service. ADD enables employers and businesses to check driver records and obtain the information instantly. It’s an expensive service with approximate coss of £20,000 or more.

However, FleetCheck supply Driver Licence checking solutions that integrate with your FleetCheck account.

Does checking driving licences online breach data protection laws?

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has confirmed with the Association of Fleet Professionals, the body responsible for fleet decision-makers, that no offence under the Data Protection Act is committed when employers check employees’ driving licence records with the DVLA. You can either request to see an employee’s driving licence, give your employees a mandate to sign giving you permission to check their records, or lawfully do so without their knowledge.

How important is it to check your drivers’ licences?

Regular licence checks are crucial for organisations of all sizes to ensure ongoing compliance. You should have procedures in place and written down for employee reference. You can set flags with your fleet management software to remind you when to check an individual’s licence.

Why do employers check driving records?

The main reason is to ensure the member of staff is legally entitled to drive the type of vehicle allocated to them. It would be nice if we lived in a world where we could ask drivers or rely on them to inform us what vehicles they can drive when points are added to their licence or changes of address.

Unfortunately, it’s quite the opposite. In 2017, the RAC carried out an insurance survey and found that 25% of motorists with penalty points on their licence did not tell their employers when they received them. The motoring organisation also discovered that only 13% of those surveyed would voluntarily tell their employers when and if they incur any points.

What are the implications for not keeping up-to-date licence checks?

If a driver is involved in a serious road accident and it’s found that they were not lawfully entitled to be driving that vehicle, their employer can be held liable, at least in part. This can result in millions in fines, as well as other forms of civil court actions.

In plain terms, the Road Traffic Act 1988 clearly states that it’s an offence for a driver to drive without a valid licence. The Act also states it’s an offence for a person or organisation to permit a driver to drive without a valid licence. Having a robust system in place to check drivers’ licenses will help you catch someone without a valid licence. This will help prevent issues, which can ultimately save lives. As well as giving you a legal defence should the worst-case scenario happen.

 

The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) is a voluntary accreditation scheme designed to help fleet operators improve fleet standards within their organisation.

FORS offers a range of tools that help drivers, fleet managers, and organisations measure and improve performance across all aspects of their fleet operations, and demonstrate best practice.

FleetCheck is proud to be accredited by FORS. We have been working with FORS since 2018, providing its members with a dedicated fleet management software system FORS FMS.

What is FORS and how does it benefit fleet operators?

The key benefits FORS offers operators include:

• Improving road safety awareness
• Improving fuel efficiency and reducing fuel emissions
• Reducing the number of fines and other vehicle-related charges
• Better understanding and knowledge of the fleet industry

These are some notable advantages fleet companies can take advantage of from earning a FORS accreditation. Both for individuals, and company-wide.

Driver awareness and reducing the risk and number of incidents on the road will be important to any business. FORS provides workshops and educational materials to help organisations introduce more checks and streamline safety processes.

There is also the potential to make huge savings through better fuel economy and reducing fines and so on. When you start seeing an improvement to your bottom line while improving your driver’s safety, it makes sense to join FORS.

How Can You Achieve FORS Accreditation?

To achieve accreditation, you need to prove you employ good practice and comply with the requirements laid out by the FORS Standard.

FORS splits its framework into three different tiers; Bronze, Siler, and Gold. To obtain accreditation at each level, a brief summary of the standard you’ll need to meet are as follows:

Bronze Accreditation

To achieve Bronze accreditation, you need to sign up and register your company via its website. Then you can download and read the FORS Standard documents. This details what to expect when it audits your business, which has to happen within 90 days of your registration. FORS then provides toolkits and other resources online if you need any help. When you pass the audit, you will be awarded your Bronze accreditation.

Silver Accreditation

Silver accreditation includes making sure your fleet is also compliant with the CLOCS Standard for Construction Logistics and with TfL’s WRRR (Work Related Road Risk). The audit is more detailed and covers a wider range of areas. The format is the same, you can download the Standard documents to ensure you’re well prepared for the audit.

Gold Accreditation

Gold accreditation is the highest standard of compliance you can demonstrate in accordance with their criteria. It includes ensuring your company is promoting the FORS Standard through your supply chain and demonstrating meaningful improvements against the baseline data gathered during Silver accreditation.

How do drivers benefit from FORS?

FORS offers a range of classroom-based and e-learning courses and training materials to help drivers improve and maintain high driving standards. Its driver training materials includes:

• Beyond Compulsory Basic Training – for delivery drivers in urban environments.
• Safe Urban Driving – for commercial HGV operators.
• TruckSmart – for commercial HGV drivers.
• VanSmart – for commercial van drivers.
• Locity Driving – for commercial HGV and van drivers.

There are benefits for the individual drivers taking the courses, their managers, and the company as a whole.

A safer, better informed and educated driver is more mindful about costs and how their driving impacts the environment and other road users.

How do fleet managers benefit from FORS?

FORS also provides separate training courses and materials for fleet managers to help them perform their role better.

Some FORS’ courses include:

• HGV/PCV Fleet Management Essentials – for supervisory staff working to achieve O Licence.
• Car/Van Fleet Management Essentials – for supervisory staff operating car and van fleets.
• Toolbox Talks – to help operators communicate with their staff.
• Collision Management – road Risk Champion and Collision Investigator.
• FORS Practitioner – series of workshops designed for transport managers.

What is a FORS Champion and should you be one?

FORS runs a Champion scheme. In this scheme, it invites fleet managers and organisations to apply to become a Champion. As a Champion, you will actively promote FORS and help to improve their overall levels of safety. It’s a way to make a real difference within your own organisation and other organisations, too.

The additional benefits and perks include:

• Using the FORS Supplier and Supporter logo
• Access to eNews
• Discounts on selected FORS events and workshops
• Having your company profile displayed on The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme’s champion page listing

Will FORS accreditation save your company money?

Yes, there are a number of ways you can save money by working to the Standards set by FORS.

It provides a number of case studies on their site detailing how they have helped countless companies reduce their fuel spend. This is achieved by improving the miles per gallon you’re getting across your fleet. With fleets of hundreds or even thousands of vehicles, the potential savings by reducing fuel consumption by a few percentage points can run into the thousands.

This is done by learning how to measure the fuel your drivers are using. How much idle time they’re experiencing, the speed and the way they’re driving. Another area where FORS is helping companies make meaningful savings is by reducing the number of incidents on the road. By educating drivers and fleet managers on better fleet practices, companies following the FORS Standards typically see a reduction in incidents.

 

If you have a fleet of vehicles within your organisation you should be using some form of fleet management software. Managing a fleet of vehicles is challenging, no matter how many vehicles you are responsible for. If you’re trying to do it without robust software, you’re leaving yourself open to legal penalties, and are certainly incurring additional time and financial costs.

Key benefits of fleet management software

Vehicle management

Vehicle management is the backbone of fleet management software. It allows the fleet manager to have all the relevant information about their fleet of vehicles at a click of a button. The software will take all those time-consuming daily tasks that can be automated off your hands. Drilling into the data allows you to save costs in a number of areas, as will be explained in more detail in this article.

Most importantly, fleet software scales with the size of your fleet. It allows you to manage your fleet as it grows without costing you more in administration costs.

Monitoring costs

Without a robust system to track all fleet-related costs, it’s easy to lose track and overspend. All good fleet management systems will have financial controls. We understand the importance of being able to monitor and make savings, and have taken this a step further with our FleetCheck software. Our unique dashboard makes it easy to set and track financial KPIs. We have hundreds of pre-set reporting options and give you the power to drill deeper and run any custom reports of your choosing.

Compliance and safety

Daily driver safety checks are a legal requirement, and it is vital that daily checks are carried out thoroughly. Speeding up the administration part is a huge plus and a benefit of using fleet management software as you’re also able to keep up-to-date with changes in legislation through your dashboard as global notifications are sent out. You can take a closer look at FleetCheck Driver here – our handy daily driver check app.

Fuel management

Fuel is one of the variable costs of running a fleet where you can make huge savings by implementing a few subtle changes. Our reporting software shows you exactly how much fuel your fleet is using, and highlights areas where you can make those savings.

You can integrate your fuel card data into your FleetCheck account, which enables you to receive MPG analysis, spot maintenance issues causing excessive fuel consumption, identify possible fuel theft, and more. You can find out more about how FleetCheck can help you save on fuel costs here.

Driver management

Fleet management software doesn’t just stop with your vehicles. There are also a number of important driver management features to ensure your drivers are legally eligible to drive and you can also schedule medical checks for your drivers, set up reminders for upcoming training, and flag drivers “high risk” drivers.

Why should you use fleet management software?

Using fleet management software enables companies to save hundreds, even thousands of employee hours. It’s a faster and more robust way to store information and provides a dynamic way to analyse and drill down on information. Whether you have one or 10,000 vehicles, the cost of running management software is the same. Recording all your driver and vehicle information electronically makes it available at the touch of a button. Greatly minimising the chance of error. The software’s capability to send you alerts, make you aware of safety risks, and highlight areas where you can save money can’t be matched with manpower and a physical fleet management system.

 

These five simple steps can help minimise your fleet fuel costs, as reducing your fleet’s spend on fuel will always improve your bottom line.

Since fuel and labour are the top two operating expenses for businesses in today’s challenging economy, efficient fuel utilisation is essential. Fuel prices are uncontrollable and, as these costs rise, profits diminish.

In order to offset rising fuel costs, businesses normally find that they need to make efficiencies in other areas of the organisation that can affect growth. Finding ways to reduce fuel costs, without cutting staff or vehicle numbers, is paramount to maintaining a successful business.

Fleet managers need to embrace best practices in fleet management, including new technology, in order to reduce fuel consumption and better prepare their organisation for the future.

Use the right vehicle for the job

Vehicle specification is an important factor in achieving savings. This is not simply due to the depreciation, there are also some hidden areas that you should consider.

An example of this may be choosing the correct vehicle for the job. This is often overlooked when purchasing a vehicle; the correct weight, engine specifications, engine torque and power for the required use is critical. If you select an engine with either too much or too little power this can lead to inefficiencies in fuel economy. Choosing a smaller engine with less power may also result in lower fuel economy if the vehicle is straining to carry the cargo weight.

Change driver behaviour

Driver training – even a few simple changes in driving techniques can produce sizable fuel savings. Excessive speeding is dangerous and burns extra fuel, adding risk and expense to overall fleet operations. The Freight Transport Association claims that a 5% reduction in fuel consumption can be achieved simply by reducing your speed from 56 to 50 mph.

Idling can also be an issue as running at idle speed dramatically reduces engine life and directly impacts fuel economy. One extra hour a day of idling is equivalent to 58,000 miles of engine wear over the life of the vehicle, which prematurely ages the vehicle which also impacts fuel economy and efficiency. According to a Driving for Better Business report, an engine idling for two minutes uses the same amount of fuel as that required to drive one mile.

Training drivers about the importance of reducing cargo weight will impact the fuel economy of a fleet vehicle. How many drivers carry tools or equipment that is used once a year?

Deploy better maintenance planning

Proactive vehicle maintenance means that a properly maintained engine will operate more efficiently than a neglected one, saving money and fuel expense. Proactive maintenance can also make other savings, for example, unplanned maintenance work that puts a vehicle off the road can cost a business between £1500 – £3000 per day.

Studies have proven that proper tyre pressure not only enhances fuel economy but also improves the useful life of the tyre itself. Carrying out regular walk around checks ensures that tyres are properly looked after. You may be surprised to know that under-inflated tyres diminish vehicle mileage by increasing the tyre rolling resistance, making it more difficult for the engine to move the vehicle along the road. Something as simple as under-inflated tyres could be adding an additional 1-2% in fuel usage to your fleet.

Utilise vehicle tracking

Route planning and use of ‘live’ satnav can help drivers shorten driving times and avoid traffic jams.

Installing vehicle tracking also encourages drivers to be more accountable and to have safer driving habits. Once employees know you are monitoring their driving style, they tend to take greater care in how they are using company vehicles.  This improved behaviour will save fuel, reduce unsafe driving and enhance your businesses reputation with the public.

The most expensive mile you’ll ever drive is the one you didn’t need to. According to the Road Haulage Association’s Goods Vehicle Operation Costs Report 2018, the average operating cost is £0.63 per mile. If the average number of miles driven each year is 100,000 per vehicle and 10% of that is out of route miles (OOR miles), companies could save £6,300 per vehicle, per year just by effectively and efficiently cutting OOR miles.

Manage and monitor your fleet data

Is your business at risk of fuel theft that you might be unaware of? Fuel theft and unauthorised fuel purchases could be costing your business more than you realise.

With accurate reporting, you can monitor each vehicle’s fuel usage, economy and mileage. This can help detect any abnormalities when compared with vehicle averages. While traditional fleet management practices such as whiteboards or spreadsheets may remain effective in certain circumstances, other options are available which may provide you with better control on costs as well as compliance. Dedicated fleet management technology, such as FleetCheck, will join up all the information you need by leveraging data such as fuel consumption, fuel efficiency, driver training and maintenance schedules. This can help your business save thousands of pounds a year in lost profits.

FleetCheck integrates with multiple providers, such as telematics and fuel card companies giving robust reporting including fuel exception reports. This means you will be able to highlight improper fuel purchases such as multiple fill-ups in a day, instances where more fuel has been purchased than a vehicle can hold, and anomalies such as petrol purchases for a diesel vehicle.

Live alerts and notifications for scheduled maintenance based on variables such as miles driven, time duration or date plus vehicle summary reports will also ensure each vehicle in the fleet is operating as efficiently as possible.

With a quarter of all traffic accidents across the UK involving someone who is driving for work, it is key to identify at-risk drivers.

Part of the role of a fleet manager and something a good fleet management system will be able to do, is to identify at-risk drivers or high-risk drivers.

According to the Health and Safety Executive, more than a quarter of all road traffic accidents across the UK involves someone who is driving for work.

There are some rigorous health and safety laws to help companies identify and manage drivers most at risk of being involved in an accident. However, it’s often down to the fleet manager to identify these drivers and do something about it.

What is an at-risk driver?

The term “at-risk” can mean different things specifically when talking about a driver. Generally speaking, however, it refers to a driver most likely to be involved in a road accident or with a track record of picking up driving violations.

It isn’t as simple as just accepting they might cause an accident. It’s the duty of a fleet manager to identify at-risk drivers, and do something to mitigate the risk they present.

This can range from providing advanced road safety training, to limiting how much they’re driving, or even removing them from the road. It’s up to the manager to evaluate the risk and take the necessary action.

Why is it important to identify at-risk drivers?

The obvious answer is that that risky driving causes road accidents, so there’s a serious safety issue to the driver and other road users. There are also various knock-on effects of road accidents that can cause some serious long-term effects on a business, too.

There is the potential for costs to mount up. From repair and employee costs due to damage and injuries to increased fleet insurance premiums. Your company’s reputation may also be damaged. Especially if accidents keep happening or your drivers are known for driving recklessly. There’s a real cost associated with that. Then there’s the chance that either of these things can also have an effect on morale within your organisation.

What are the signs that a driver is at-risk?

There are two parts to identifying at-risk drivers. There are some factors that may or may not be in their control, then there are some red flags directly related to how they’re driving:

Age – either young and inexperienced or elderly.

Convictions – the more driving convictions a driver has, the more likely to re-offend.

Complaints – if you’re receiving complaints from other road users, that driver is acting irresponsibly on the road.

Here are some driving habits to look out for – all of which are identifiable with fleet management software:

Speeding – anyone breaking the speeding limit on a regular basis is putting themselves and other drivers at risk.

Hard breaking – again, driving on breaks is a hazard to other road users and bad driving practice.

Long hours – fatigue was the cause of more than 1,500 road accidents in 2018.

Fuel consumption – Excessive fuel consumption is an indication that a driver is driving erratically.

It’s your responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work Act

Not only should you want to minimise the risk of accidents within your fleet, but you also have a responsibility to do so as directed by The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations act 1993.

As a fleet manager or the person responsible for the actions of your drivers, you are required to carry out regular assessments to assess risks to the health and safety of your employees. This also means ensuring that others are not put at risk due to the actions of your employees.

The wording in the act states, “So far as reasonably practicable”, because we all know accidents are going to happen. It’s being able to prove you did everything you could to identify and minimise risky drivers. If you’re communicating with your employees, and where applicable taking action on health and safety issues, you will be acting lawfully.

 

Looking after fleets can be mystifying. FleetCheck aims to demystify fleet management.

Keeping a fleet of vehicles on the road takes an awful lot of organisation.  Once upon a time, fleet management was largely about handling practical tasks as they arose in order to keep vehicles legal and drivers productive.  Data was minimal; technology basic.

Modern fleet management is a very different story – every day your business is bombarded with information from all directions – information about where the vehicles are, how much they’re costing, how they’re being driven, the contracts they’re on, the fuel they’re using, the upcoming to-do list.

This information is gold dust for fleet managers – it tells you all you need to know about fleet performance, efficiency and economy – but the sheer quantity of data and delivery formats can create confusion for even the most switched-on of fleet managers.

Do you have it covered?

Another consequence of an increasingly complex fleet management culture is emerging; one that is perhaps even more concerning.  With a growing number of parties and suppliers having input into the fleet, roles are becoming blurred, creating uncertainty of who is ultimately responsible.  We frequently hear the following statements during conversations with companies running fleets:

“My vehicles are leased, so it’s not a problem – the leasing company manages my fleet for me.”

Many businesses choose to lease their cars and vans with an inclusive maintenance package. It’s a good idea, helping to spread the cost of maintenance and removing managerial issues of having to look for suppliers.  However, just because you have chosen ‘with maintenance’, you should not assume that your vehicles are actually being maintained.

In smaller businesses especially, there is often a circle of assumptions – employers assume that the driver and leasing company are carrying out maintenance; drivers, that it is the responsibility of their employers and the leasing company and the leasing company, that the issue is being tracked by employers and drivers.  (Leasing companies know that the legal responsibility for ensuring that the vehicle is maintained lies with the employer and so their systems are often set up to be reactive rather than proactive).  It’s an issue of confused responsibility, and a potentially dangerous mistake to make.

“Vehicle tracking is fleet management, isn’t it?”

Another example of commonly misguided responsibility is telematics.  The sheer level of data delivered by today’s highly intelligent systems has eclipsed fleet operators’ initial expectations of what telematics could do for them. No longer is it simply about knowing where your vehicles are, and how fast they’re travelling.  The data is extraordinarily valuable, but it’s important to remember that telematics alone cannot be mistaken for fleet management – it has to be supported by a robust system that uses the data captured by telematics to underpin key tasks and routines.

Robust systems are crucial

Clearly all of these problems are further compounded if companies entrust their management to inadequate systems such as spreadsheets or manual diary systems.  These methods simply aren’t designed to manage something as complex and high-risk as the fleet, and companies who insist on sticking with manual systems are extremely exposed, both legally and from a cost point of view.

Happily, smart data can make it easy to achieve all of these responsibilities.  Smart data means having access to information about every part of the fleet operation, plus the means to (a) collate the information easily, (b) view the information in a way that’s appropriate for your business and your role, and (c) to act upon findings.

It’s not just about data accessibility. How you use that data that is just as important

Today’s business leaders know only too well that a completely robust, efficient fleet operation is reliant on two key factors: smart data and ownership of responsibility.  You may be lucky enough to have a network of the most trusted, proactive suppliers, but the responsibility of fleet management lies ultimately with you, the company.

Making the jump to fleet management software will address the issues and give you peace of mind that your fleet is safe, legal, cost-effective and that your policies are robust…if used properly.  And that’s the critical ‘if’.  Using fleet software will give you the capability to run your fleet in a way that you never even imagined, resulting in cost savings, total administration efficiency and complete confidence in your legal compliance.  But achieving all of these things means embracing the change and taking advantage of the data and functionality at your disposal.

Learn to use your data and reap the rewards

In today’s technology-driven industry, data has never been more accessible.  Collating and viewing that data is, however, more challenging, and many businesses fail completely when it comes to acting in response to the findings.

However, in failing to use data effectively, businesses are missing a trick.  Actually, a multitude of tricks. First, your business may be missing out on valuable opportunities to save money.  There’s data out there that will instantly highlight high cost vehicles, excessive fuel consumption, lease contract penalties, fuel theft, unauthorised vehicle use and a range of other avoidable costs.

Secondly, failing to have an effective overview of vehicle and driver activity could leave your company vulnerable to prosecution, should an incident occur that resulted in an investigation by the authorities.  And finally, a lack of effective processes in place to handle data efficiently will almost certainly mean unnecessary resource and costs are being spent to processing the information manually.

 

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Many employers choose to lease their cars and vans with an inclusive maintenance package. It’s a good idea, helping to spread the cost of maintenance and removing managerial issues of having to look for suppliers.

However, just because you have chosen “with maintenance”, you should not assume that your vehicles are actually being maintained.

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Fleet maintenance is a term used to describe the process involved in keeping all vehicles within your organisation well maintained and in good operational order.

Having effective fleet maintenance processes ensures the vehicles in your fleet are safe, ready to use, keeps operating costs down, and provides some other benefits.

It’s been proven to be more beneficial both from a cost and a safety perspective to invest time and money into maintaining a fleet as opposed to dealing with issues when they arise.

Here are some of the key reasons why you should implement strategic fleet maintenance processes within your business:

You’ll Improve the Safety of Your Drivers and Other Road Users

Safety comes first. Maintaining a fleet of vehicles to a high standard improves the road safety of a fleet, and that can’t be ignored. 

You’ll be aware of why drivers carry out daily walkaround checks on their vehicles.

It’s an essential part of a driver’s role and helps to identify potentially dangerous issues or defects before using their vehicle.

There’s only so much a driver can spot with a daily check, however. Plus, a lot of the common defects that drivers spot, such as worn tyres, warning lights, fluid leaks, etc can be avoided with maintenance.

In a nutshell; a well-maintained vehicle is less likely to break down, faults will be spotted sooner, and the risk of a fault-related accident is reduced.

You’ll Reduce Your Fleet Repair Costs

Vehicles and most of the parts on them last longer when they’re well maintained. If you work in the fleet industry you’ll be very familiar with how expensive even the most routine part replacements can be.

So, while it might be more expensive in the short-term to invest more into maintaining your vehicles, it will almost certainly save you money in the long-term.

Combined with the fact that you’ll spot potential issues sooner as discussed above, that’s less time in the workshop and more time on the road too.

For some businesses, a vehicle being off the road can cost hundreds a day is lost hours or the need to hire a replacement. Being proactive with maintenance is more cost-effective than being reactive.

You’ll Reduce Your Operational Costs

It’s not just on the obvious vehicle parts that need replacing where you’ll save money. Depending on your business, there are a number of areas where you might see operational cost savings.

Some of the possible savings include; improved fuel economy due to vehicles running optimally, and less time with vehicles off the road due to breakdowns.

Just think of routine parts that are changed during vehicle servicing. Oil filters, oil, air filters, etc. All of these can increase fuel consumption when they’re not clean or running optimally. The same applies to tyres that are worn or not running with the correct pressure.

All you have to do is start to multiply these factors across a large fleet of hundreds, even thousands of vehicles and you’ll start to get a picture of how much it could be costing you.

How Does Fleet Management Software Help With Fleet Maintenance?

There are a number of features built into our Fleetcheck fleet management software that will help you better maintain your fleet.

Most importantly, you can set any number of reminders or flags against vehicles for when they need to be checked or serviced so you never miss an appointment.

It already has a proactive defect and tyre management and servicing and vehicle advisory repair alerts built-in among other features.

We also have a smartphone app for driver walkaround checks, which integrates with our software in real-time so you can catch defects early and get them resolved.

As a fleet grows in numbers, it becomes almost impossible, or at least not economically viable to maintain everything on paper records or spreadsheets.

Fleet software enables you to grow your fleet at scale, without adding any more man hours into the maintenance. Plus, you’ll never miss a service, MOT, or any other vehicle maintenance appointment.

Raising awareness around fuel usage within your organisation is one of the “easy wins” to make a positive impact on your bottom line and save money.

If that isn’t motivation enough, saving fuel also has a positive impact on the environment, reduces oil dependence costs, and increases energy sustainability.

We’ve covered some ways you can make substantial fuel savings across your fleet of vehicles before.

However, there are also a number of things individual drivers can do to reduce fuel consumption. Here are some of the more impactful driving techniques and behaviors that can save a noticeable amount of fuel:

Be Light-Footed on the Accelerator

I hate to say it, but company vehicle drivers are the most guilty when it comes to putting their foot to the floor.

Excessive accelerating and overall speeding are the largest contributing factors to excessive fuel usage.

The most effective way to increase mpg usage is to use the highest possible gear and to accelerate slowly. This might not go down well when you tell your drivers running a tight schedule, but there’s a definite trade-off that can work as a win-win.

Use Momentum to Your Advantage

This is highly dependent on the traffic conditions, but being able to flow with momentum means you’re using the accelerator pedal less.

Such as cruising on a decline, allowing the vehicle to slow for a slip road, and so on.

It’s important to remain in gear when doing this, don’t be tempted to coast in neutral. Not only is this more dangerous as you don’t have as much control over breaking, but modern vehicles have a fuel cut-off switch when in gear anyway.

Go Easy on the Air Conditioning

I’m not suggesting you make the inside of your vehicle anything less than comfortable, but switching off the AC when it’s really not needed will also save fuel.

Depending on the vehicle, how far you have your AC turned up, and some other factors, it’s estimated that using air-con can add up to 10% to fuel consumption.

Don’t Leave Your Vehicle Idling When Not Necessary

If you’re doing the kind of work that means you’re idling a lot, whether this is in traffic or when you’re exiting the vehicle, you should probably be switching the engine off.

It’s estimated that just two minutes of idling is equivalent to driving one mile in fuel usage. Not only does the fuel usage add up, but the additional wear and tear on the engine will also lead to increased usage and other maintenance costs over the life of the vehicle.

Use Cruise Control Where Possible

Cruise control will save fuel when driving long distances on a flat surface without the need to change gears, speed up, or slow down. So, motorway driving, in particular.

It’s estimated that just 34% of people use cruise control where possible. It’s one of the most underutilised forms of fleet technology we have available.

Fleet Management Software Holds the Answers

If you’re serious about saving money and having a positive impact on the environment by reducing fuel consumption within your organisation, fleet management software holds all the answers.

With accurate reporting, you can monitor fuel usage for each individual vehicle as well as across your fleet as a whole.

This gives you the ability to identify where you can make fuel savings, as well as tracking the results with real measurable data.

We’ve built in a number of tools and reporting options within our FleetCheck software that hundreds of fleet managers have used to make fuel savings.

You can schedule a demo or a call with one of our team here if you want to discuss how FleetCheck fleet management software can help you save fuel amongst the various other benefits a robust software offers fleet managers.

Backloading is a term used to describe utilising spare space on a vehicle and planning a journey for multiple stops to reduce the distance travelled and increasing productivity.

Effectively, it’s an exercise in logistics. By planning for roundtrip hauls you can better utilise space a vehicle has available to increase productivity, reduce mileage, and as a result save time and money. It’s not a process available to every business. But for those that can take advantage of backloading, there are some considerable savings to be made.

What are the benefits of backloading?

Cost savings – Always near the top of any list of benefits is the potential to save money. If you have space on a truck that could be used to transport some goods, it’s costing you money not using it. You’ll have to spend money on fuel when those goods are transported, and possibly man-hours if a separate journey is made to transport those goods.

Improved productivity – Improving productivity is always an ongoing goal for any business. By being able to move more goods within fewer journeys, there’s a clear productivity gain. A lot of businesses that implemented backloading are also able to pass on reduced delivery times to customers and improve the total number of deliveries they’re making.

How can backloading help fleet operations?

When breaking down the benefits a level further, there are a number of ways backloading improves fleet operations:

Reducing lead times – Being able to cut lead times on deliveries has a huge positive impact on a business and its customers. It might be the difference that gives you a competitive edge over your competitors. When integrated with real-time GPS tracking software, it can lead to more business for shipping companies too.

More flexibility – Being able to identify space that can be used on trucks to and from their destinations opens up more possibilities for adding goods on either side of the journey. Backloading has become essential to logistics companies, as has using GPS tracking software. Being able to locate a driver and how much space they have available at any given time, opens up the possibility to take on extra jobs across the country.

Can backloading reduce costs?

It’s a process used in several industries, one of which provides a perfect example is ‘the moving industry’.

Moving companies are able to split the costs for multiple companies if they’re able to plan their route and transport furniture or whatever they’re carrying for more than one customer at a time.

Also, being able to pick up another load near to or on the way to their destination saves sending out an additional truck. If you operate storage trucks or carry goods long distances as part of your fleet operations, backloading is something you should look into in more detail.