Best Ways To Optimize Your Fleet Fuel Management
Vehicle Fleets are the lifeline of every business. Be it a production line or a service provider, fleets connect resources to the capital on one end, and the end-products to the customers on the other. For the production lines, they carry the various raw materials to the industries and also carry out the finished products to the points from where they are sent for further processing or are delivered as end products to the customers.
In case of service providers, it is through the fleet that the workers are able to cater to their services to the clients in due time. Apart from these, fleets are involved in picking up and dropping employees, receiving and delivering clients and number of other related activities.
Maximum number of commercial vehicles that ply on the roads today belong to one fleet or the other. Even car owners maintain their fleet these days. They run these fleets under those companies that outsource their fleets. The reason for the popularity of fleets amongst companies and car owners is that while they increase assets, they generate a large amount of profit and promote efficiency in work
Problems Of fleet
While fleets may be capable of generating a lot of income, they can also be difficult to manage. Fleets consist a large number of vehicles and unlike private cars there are a number of problems that are associated in maintaining them and keeping them in running conditions.
The foremost problem is that of maintenance. Since these vehicles are involved in heavy duty works and are running on the road for most of the time they are prone to frequent wear and tear. However, not all cars wear down at the same rate. It depends largely on what kind of work they are involved in, what kind of terrain they are being used in. Thus each car has its unique needs of maintenance and taking care of the individual needs of each car can become a difficult task in matters of fleet where such large numbers of vehicles are involved.
Without proper maintenance of even one or two vehicles, there is a reduction in the efficiency of the total fleet. It also reduces the dependability of the fleet as there remains no guarantee as to which car may break down and at what time. Further such sudden break down can turn out to be very costly and drain the resources kept aside to maintain the entire fleet.
An alarm for safety also arises when there is lack of maintenance. If there is negligence in matters of maintenance the vehicle may even be risky to be taken out on roads and may also become prone to accidents. At times such accidents can also turn out to be fatal. This means you will lose both your asset and your company may even be pressed with litigation for negligence. You will not just have to pay heavy fines as compensation, but it also has it’s reflection upon the reputation of the company.
It is also seen in many cases that some companies in place of earning heavy profits through their fleet are actually incurring losses. This too happens because of absence of management skills. It may happen that vehicles are not being used to their optimum level or not enough men are being hired to keep all the vehicles in running condition.
Another leading cause behind the costs shooting up is inefficiency in fuel management. It may be that due to lack of maintenance some of the vehicles are consuming too much fuel or that a leakage has developed in the fuel tank that is being ignored. This silently shoots up cost to such an extent that companies incur heavy financial losses due to it.
Fleet Management
Much of these problems can be prevented if only there is proper fleet management. Fleet management refers to the entire systems and technologies that are put into place to ensure that a fleet has maximum efficiency. It involves periodic check-up of the vehicles to ensure that no problem has come up, timely maintenance and regular repair of any wear-and-tear that may have come up in the vehicle.
An essential component under fleet management is that of Fleet Preventive Maintenance Measures that has under it preventive measures of maintenance that are carried out time to time so as to ensure that there are no sudden break down of the vehicles. Fuel management system also comes under it.
Need for a separate Fuel management system
Fuel is one of the expensive resources that is employed by the company in order to keep its fleet in running condition. Almost every day there is a further hike in the prices of the fuel which makes it all the more essential for companies to ensure that each drop of fuel is being used defective and there is no wastage so as to make sure that the company does not incur any kind of losses. All this can be achieved only when there is a proper fuel management system like a system provided by Chevin Fleet Solutions.
Fuel management system
A number of technological innovations such as fleet management softwares have been introduced in the market only to ensure that there is proper fleet management and a justified use of fuels by the vehicles. Fuel Optimization can be achieved in the following ways
- The driver behaviour and driving practices largely effect the fuel consumption of any vehicle. While bad driving skills takes up fuel costs, good behaviour reduces the fuel consumption and optimises the resource use.
- You may educate your drivers regarding the matter. This will help them to improve their driving skills and save resources.
- With the help of software you may study the behaviour of the driver and take action if you feel that they are involved in bad driving practices more than often
- Maintaining the cars regularly can help a great deal in reducing the fuel consumption as a well-maintained vehicle consumes much less fuel than the one that is in poor working condition.
- Using GPS to optimise route is also a very good option.
Explore these options for a smooth fuel management system and take up your profits several folds!