Intelligent Transportation Solutions

Making the Case for Fleet Management

Before deciding on a fleet management tool, focus on your company’s requirements, assess what you can afford, and calculate when you will realize the return on investment (ROI). Not all fleets are the same, so building out the right requirements keeps you fixed on the right key performance indicators (KPIs) for your fleet. Be cognizant not only of today but also your future requirements – building a platform that is future-proof will help to increase your ROI over the long haul.

The potential cost saving brought about by a fleet management solution is really not too difficult to spot. According to the EPA, aggressive driving behaviors can reduce fuel efficiency by 33% on the highway and 5% in cities. Aggressive driving behaviors include speeding, hard braking, and hard acceleration. In addition, a typical commercial truck can waste half a gallon of diesel per hour while idling. These are areas for substantial savings as all fleets have significant fuel costs.

Let’s put some numbers to paper and look at an example of increasing fuel efficiency by 2 miles per gallon. If a vehicle usually gets 20 miles per gallon, drives an average of 150 miles a day, and is active 20 days a month, the cost saving per month would be around $40 per vehicle. If you are looking at a fleet of 100 vehicles, that would equate to $48,000 in annual savings. That doesn’t even take into account savings brought about by reducing idle events. By being able to track your fleet and monitor your drivers’ behaviors, you can direct your training to areas to impact your fuel efficiency, which translates to large fleet savings.

That only covers saving money in one area. What about the other areas of your fleet? Route optimization, maximizing the benefits of preventive maintenance, adherence to policy, and safety are other areas that can pick up significant cost saving for your fleet.

The business case for fleet management technology is very clear – save time and money, improve customer relations, reduce downtime of vehicles and drivers due to accidents, and potentially save money on company insurance costs (depending on your provider).