By applying fleet fuel management principles to your motor pool, you can see significant improvements regardless of the size of your fleet, whether you’re located in a small-radius urban setting or your vehicles travel long distances. You can increase efficiency no matter how many motor pool locations you operate or how diverse the makeup of your fleet, from a variety of passenger vehicles to heavy equipment and trucks.
Municipalities, universities and even large private enterprises have been able to dramatically reduce fleet size and make far more efficient use of remaining vehicles through enhanced motor pool management. Those efficiencies translate into tremendous fuel savings.
Here are some of the ways implementing automated fleet fuel management can help your motor pool realize those efficiencies:
Improved record keeping.
An automated system enables you to gather more varied and more detailed data about each fleet vehicle, in real time. You can monitor fuel consumption and also track vehicle performance information – everything from mileage or chronometer readings to reminders about regularly scheduled service and alerts to error codes. That gives you greater control. Properly maintained vehicles use the least amount of fuel, and they last longer.
You can also track driver behaviors to detect patterns of over-idling, harsh acceleration or braking. That allows you to develop awareness campaigns or even training sessions designed to promote conservative, fuel-efficient driving that also helps avoid accidents or fines.
Improved convenience.
Enhanced motor pool management can reduce unnecessary miles driven by eliminating the need for drivers to travel from their office to the pool pick-up facility, then backtrack to their real destination. Instead, they can simply start and end their work day from the motor pool location, saving time and fuel.
Motor pool operations software that supports online reservations and 24/7 access to vehicles also improves efficiency and reduces fuel consumption, because it eliminates the need to check out a vehicle the day before and drive it home overnight before using it for the intended purpose the following day.
Improved insight.
Because automated fleet fuel management generates much more useful information and puts it at your fingertips, fleet managers can more effectively plot that data and analyze it to make daily decisions and forecast long-term needs.
A motor pool management system with route tracking capability enables you to increase efficiency and reduce fuel consumption by helping drivers plan the shortest route for each trip. You can track vehicles by type or other factors, so over time you can gain a better understanding of usage patterns and performance characteristics. And you can track vehicles by usage hours rather than reservation hours, which is also more useful. Just because a vehicle has been reserved doesn’t mean it’s on the road.
The ultimate savings: decreased fleet size.
Nothing uses less fuel like fewer vehicles. Automated fleet fuel management gives you increased flexibility without purchasing and maintaining more vehicles than you really need. And it enables you to maximize each vehicle’s usage, to eliminate unnecessary miles driven. You’re not only operating more efficiently day to day, you can significantly reduced future capital expenditures, thanks to longer vehicle life and a trimmer fleet size.
Reduced fuel consumption is just the beginning.
Fleet fuel management technology can actually help you save throughout your motor pool operations, by:
- Reducing maintenance expenses, both direct and for labor associated with service and repairs.
- Reducing administrative time and costs, including eliminating the blizzard of paper associated with manual operations and even the storage space needed to maintain those supplies. Your central database and real-time information capture keep things humming smoothly with minimal human intervention compared to time-consuming, mistake-prone manual processes.
- Increasing the accuracy of record-keeping and invoicing, if your motor pool bills individuals or departments for vehicle usage
Motor pool management best practices continue to evolve. But there’s no question fleet fuel management will always be fundamentally important to keep your operation running efficiently and cost-effectively. If you enjoyed this article then check out the 5 Lessons we can learn form fleet fuel management.