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Fleet Tracking And Fuel Efficiency

The lack of fuel efficiency in a fleet is a common complaint that most managers have. There are ways that fuel efficiency can be increased, but this requires a team effort, especially when on the road. Let’s look at the different ways that fuel efficiency can be facilitated within your fleet and also look at what fleet tracking is, why you need it, and the benefits before taking a deeper dive on driver accountability and how fleet tracking can improve your fuel efficiency.

What is Fleet Tracking?

Fleet tracking with a management system often uses a global positioning system or GPS to track and monitor the activity of a fleet, the vehicles, the assets, and offers the information in real-time situations. GPS fleet tracking uses telematics technology as a means of collecting data from the vehicles and assets by using the GPS the data can be transmitted back to the manager to their mobile app or desktop computer.

Most hardware used in a fleet tracking system is plugged into the OBD-II port. From here, business owners can gather the data they need to make maintenance decisions, increase their fuel economy, and ensure that drivers are making exceptional choices while on the road.

What is GPS?

GPS, also called the Global Positioning System, was created in the late 1970s. The system is a series of satellites that communicate with receivers on the ground. When communicating with these receivers, accurate locations and history can be discerned.

GPS makes using fleet tracking software easier because it allows for managers to see in real-time where the fleet vehicle is. They can also see where the vehicle is heading or if it is even on task.

The Benefits of Fleet Tracking

There are several benefits to using a fleet tracking system. The more effective the fleet tracking solution, the more efficient your fleet will be. Some of the most obvious ways are to look at driving habits by reducing engine idling, fuel consumption, and different means of optimizing routes. You can find a plethora of benefits that make it easy for a small business fleet owner to make the changes necessary like the following:

Operating Expenses

You might be surprised to find out that when you incorporate a fleet tracking system into your business, you’ll find a reduction in operating expenses. These operating expenses can range anywhere from the price you spend to fuel your vehicles to the amount of overtime paid out to employees. Having a fleet tracking system reduces the operating expenses by helping to eliminate the actions that are not conducive to the entire fleets operation.

Insurance Discounts

It’s possible to get insurance discounts depending on the insurance agency you go through. The way that insurance premiums are calculated is through algorithmic equations that assess the risk of your business. And the fleet. Well, not all insurance companies will offer a discount. It is possible that your fleet tracking software can be seen as an asset and a reduction of risk on your behalf. For example, there’s a lot of car theft that occurs with fleet vehicles. If you have a fleet tracking system, the rate of recovery is a lot higher than if you did not have it.

Happy Customers

Customers who receive products and services on time from your fleet are heavier than those who are consistently getting delayed orders. Happy customers are often loyal and will continue to shop or get the services you provide. They’re also more likely to spread and sing your praises to their friends, increasing your client base.

Locate Assets

Most tracking software users want a real-time setup. The reason is that you can see where your assets are, how fast they’re going, how far they are from the next destination, etc. Using this software, you can ensure that all of your fleet is where it needs to be without actually sitting in the passenger seat of each vehicle.

Reduce Paperwork

If you’re a manager, you know the amount of paperwork it takes to take care of your fleet, their invoices, their driving schedules, there are completed jobs that all have to be filed. And numbers that have to be input into the computer. When you use the fleet tracking software, you no longer have to worry about the paperwork. The process can be automated so that when the hardware gathers the information, it is then input into the cloud into your personal information. You won’t have to manually track the mileage of each vehicle ever again. You can schedule your oil changes based on the interval associated with each vehicle.

Preventative Maintenance

Preventative maintenance is a very important part of maintaining a fleet. Vehicles require checkups just like a human being goes to the doctor for a physical. If your vehicle needs a tune-up, it is going to consume more gas than one that has already been to the shop. Preventive maintenance includes oil changes, air filter changes, tire rotations, tune-ups, and more. Each one of these is essential to the survival rate of your vehicle as well as the longevity, even though fleet vehicles often have to be replaced more frequently than a personal vehicle. There is very little wiggle room in the budget. If your vehicle breaks down and is not repairable. You’re looking at over $20,000 to get a new fleet vehicle. Who has that kind of money just laying down when you’re a small business?

Increasing Driver Accountability

Another function of using fleet tracking software is managing driver accountability. Managing driver accountability means that your drivers are doing exactly what they are and in a way that reflects positivity. If drivers are not doing that, then they are creating problems for your business.

How Fleet Tracking Improves Driver Energy and Performance

Here are some ways fleet tracking helps with driver accountability. Track speed and other unsafe driving habits. Fleet tracking software allows you to monitor all aspects of your fleet, including the speed, the rate of acceleration, and hard braking incidents that may not only cause danger, wear and tear on the vehicle but also consumes more gasoline by monitoring and reducing these. You can ensure that fewer accidents happen and more fuel economy keeps up with maintenance using fleet tracking. You can have your drivers on top of preventative maintenance employments. They can track their own oil changes all from the app by ensuring that the preventative maintenance is completed, the vehicle should run better, which will also increase fuel efficiency.

Driver behavior has a lot to do with the fuel economy and the safety of your fleet. When you look at the gathered data, you can see historical driving patterns. Not all of your vehicle drivers are going to be great drivers. But if there are instances where poor or risky behavior shines through, you can use this information to create a training program that will help increase the skills of these drivers reward good driver behavior.

On the flip side, you can use the reporting to reward good driving behavior for those employees who not only shine and exceed your expectations but also follow the rules and procedures, helping to increase your bottom line. Incentivizing your fleet drivers not only helps with morale but also helps with employee retention rates.

Fleet Tracking and Improved Fuel Efficiency

It’s likely that fuel efficiency is not a primary focus for your day-to-day operations as a fleet manager, but having a fuel cost reduction can significantly impact your profit and revenue. When you use a fleet tracking solution, you can get real-time intelligent telematics solutions that provide you insight on things like idling, driver behavior, route optimization, and others that might help provide cost savings if they’re rectified. Not only do fuel savings turn into more profits, but they also allow for price flexibility on the customer level, which makes customers happy, and they’ll keep coming back.

Factors that Influence Fuel Efficiency

Fuel efficiency, or fuel economy as most of us call it, is the amount of energy that a vehicle takes from the fuel. To put it simply, when you fill your gas tank up, that gas then translates into energy for your vehicle. If your vehicle requires a lot of energy, it is going to require a lot of gas. That is why depending on how often the car is driven, how old it is, and how it is maintained, It may be possible to reduce the amount of fuel you need, thus reducing the fuel and thus increasing fuel efficiency.

There are some factors that will play into your vehicle’s fuel efficiency. Besides the distance that you travel and the model and the year, you’ll find that other areas can be addressed to increase fuel efficiency.

  • Route – The route is one of the most efficient ways to minimize your fuel costs is to optimize your driver’s routes when you optimize the drivers around. It leads to better fuel efficiency because you’re able to bypass traffic, fake construction, and even accidents. Sometimes you have to battle with personal preference with the driver, but they are on your time, so they should be taking the route in which you specify.
  • Unhealthy driving behaviors –  the way that your fleet is driven plays a significant role is the fuel economy. Hard braking, quick acceleration, idling, and any other aggressive behavior can create a large fuel consumption. However, it is possible to create more efficient driving behavior through feedback, coaching, and training. Your fleet tracking app should provide you insight into each driver, letting you know what can be done and the steps to increase their fuel efficiency and drivers behavior.
  • Maintenance – whether your tires are not aired properly, there’s old oil, or you haven’t had a tune-up in years. Having a good preventative maintenance schedule and addressing small maintenance issues before they become larger problems can increase your fuel economy. Using fleet tracking software, you can make sure that these are done timely based on the correct mileage intervals.
  • Heavy loads –  if your fleet is required to move or transport excessive load sizes, they may fall victim to excessive fuel consumption. Back at the beginning of this section, we discussed how the vehicle pulls energy from the fuel. The more energy that’s needed, the more fuel will be consumed. In the instance of excessive loads, you can expect that your vehicle will have less fuel economy than a vehicle that does not have to haul anything.

Drivers Can Improve Fuel Efficiency When They Drive

Your drivers can help with decreasing the amount of fuel being used and increasing the efficiency of the fleet. They can do this by decreasing idling when a driver idles they’re wasting fuel, and it is one of the leading causes of poor Fleet fuel economy. Idling isn’t always intentional, but it is a behavior that can be corrected through coaching and training. When drivers are able to identify that they’re idling, they can then make the necessary changes to reduce the time that they idle and the amount of money wasted on fuel.

Drivers can use the cruise control to help maintain a constant speed while driving. Cruise control doesn’t always work, especially if the driver is going uphill or is in heavy traffic. At this point, cruise control would not be conducive to increasing fuel economy. However, if you’re on a straight highway, you can use the cruise control to maintain a constant speed, which will decrease the amount of fuel being consumed.

Drivers lose a lot of forward momentum each time that they use their brakes. When they are trying to stop the vehicle, to be proactive, they can anticipate on the upcoming traffic especially if it’s noon during lunch. They can anticipate pedestrians and crosswalks. They can also anticipate traffic slip traffic lights changing in advance. When drivers anticipate all the above, they can begin to slow down ahead of time, which allows them to coast more than their braking. Coasting before braking reduces the friction on the engine and saves on gas as well as saves on repairs over the lifespan of the vehicle.

Quite a bit of fuel is consumed when a vehicle’s speed changes from increasing to decreasing or from decreasing to increasing depending on the rate of acceleration depending on the fuel efficiency of the vehicle, the optimal speed that most vehicles have for maintaining speed and increasing fuel economy is between 35 and 50 miles per hour.

Fleetr Makes Increasing Fuel Efficiency Easy

Fleetr is an easy and affordable fleet tracking option that is custom-tailored to small businesses. You can track your vehicles and drivers in real-time. Get alerts for unsafe driving, few safety scores, set geofencing parameters, view trip histories, and more. Each of these options is available when you sign up for fleeter.

Fleetr Fuel Efficiency Reports

Fleetr uses reporting as a means to help you conserve your fleet’s fuel consumption. Our reports provide you with insight on what changes can be made to increase your fuel efficiency. What if we told you that you could save up to $200 per vehicle per month on fuel alone? Not only are you able to save this using Fleetr, but it pays for itself!

Track Vehicles And Drivers In Real-Time

Fleetr makes locating your vehicle on a live map easy. See who’s driving, who has stopped, what vehicles are idling, or which ones are off-network while using the Fleetr app.

You can also set up after-hours alerts for your smartphone or desktop device.

Driving alerts

Fleet managers can receive alerts for the following:

  • unsafe driving
  • idling
  • after hour usage
  • geofencing parameter breaches
  • aggressive driving behavior
  • and more

These come in the form of a push notification or SMS. These updates let you know what your fleet drivers are engaging in activities that they should not be.

Geofencing Parameters

You do not want your fleet of vehicles to go to some areas. In order to keep them from entering these areas without your permission, you can set up geofencing parameters. You will be alerted when your driver enters or exits a specific location as specified by your parameters. You can use the push notifications to know when to reach out to the driver and bring them back to the area where they’re supposed to be.

Trip History

Fleetr makes it possible to see the historical data of your fleet (once you have implemented the software and hardware into your fleet). You will be able to view the past trips, speeding, idling, and harsh braking events that occur and see if there is a pattern to any of these. You can also use this data to redetermine the routes you have planned out for your drivers.

Driver Safety

Fleetr allows you to view the safety scores of each of your drivers look at the metrics and see which drivers are driving safely and which ones need a little more work. You can compare each driver’s driving habits using the information to set up a reward system or use it for training purposes.

Purchasing Fleetr

Buying and installing Fleetr takes less than five minutes, and it only takes three steps. Once you go online and designate how many devices you will need (anywhere between one and 100), you will be prompted to pay the first month’s payment at $9.99 per vehicle per month. This amount is a straightforward price. That’s it, and there are no contracts or activation fees when you sign up.

Fleetr offers services with no contracts that you can cancel at any time; if you are dissatisfied with the service in any way, we even send you a return label for your devices!

Free Devices

The device price is included in your monthly fee of $9.99. There is zero activation or initiation fee, and we even ship you the hardware for free. While you wait for your hardware in the mail, which takes three to five days, you can set up your Fleetr app once the payment has been verified.

The app allows you to enter all of your driver information for each vehicle, and once the hardware has been implemented, it will get the data from your vehicles, such as the mileage.

Right now, Fleetr is offering a multi-vehicle discount. When you subscribe with 10 to 19 vehicles, you can get 10% off your subscription price – 20 or more vehicles received 20% off of your subscription.

Easy Installation

Once you get your devices, plug them into the OBD-II port of the vehicle, which is often located below the steering wheel. Allow it to sync to the app so that there is a clean exchange of information. If you run into any complications, Fleetr customer service representatives are available to help.

The Fleetr app is compatible with all smartphones and desktop operating systems. The mobile aspect of the app makes it easier for you to be untethered from your desk. Fleetr uses data plans which are paid for by the company to access coverage across the United States so that you can continually track your fleet using GPS and other methods.

Additional Products Available From Fleetr

Fleetr has teamed up with Trak4 to help track your assets and other equipment. Using Fleetr’s state-of-the-art technology, you will always know where your assets are. The devices are small with an internal battery that provides anywhere from three to six months of battery life for hourly updates, or you can also use the 12-volt wiring harness to gain the exact locations of your assets.

Features of the collaboration

These devices are simple to use, and you can start tracking in minutes. You can mount it on your vehicle trailer, equipment, or just place it inside of a compartment. Devices are weatherproof and made for both indoor and outdoor use. You can view the battery life and the last ping through your Fleetr app.

In addition to your tracking monthly subscription, the device fee is $50 upfront for these tracking devices. For the asset tracking, one-minute updates cost an additional $12.99 per month or hourly updates for an additional $9.99 per month.

You can only purchase these by contacting the sales team directly at 415-651-7575.

Insurance By Fleetr

California in Florida residents now has the opportunity to apply for insurance or Fleetr. Fleetr offers affordable rates and a fast quoting process with a dedicated insurance team that provides friendly reliable support, just like you already get with the Fleetr tracking product and app.

To learn more about the insurance opportunities available for Florida and California residents, call 650-422-3894 or send an email to insurance@fleetr.com.

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