Sustainable fleet management is a forefront industry item because many businesses around the world are going greener. In fact, recently in October 2018, a climate study group advocated that humans need to be greener.
The IPCC & the 1.5 Degree Target
Global warming is a controversial topic. Some people believe that natural cycles caused recent climate change. However, a lot of scientists tend to disagree.
One group of scientists, the IPCC, issued a stark warning about global warming at a UN conference. They explained that humans need to act quickly to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees in the next few decades.
Otherwise, if temperatures continue to climb over 1.5 degrees, scientists warn that there will be irreversible effects. For instance, rising water levels will leave some areas uninhabitable and deadly weather will become more common.
In particular, the IPCC noted that governments should aim to cut CO2 emission by 45%. Consequently, a 45% goal can significantly impact heavy fuel users- such as business fleets.
The Case for Sustainable Fleet Management
Nonetheless, many fleets are moving towards sustainable fleet management even without a carbon target. One explanation is taking environmental leadership. However, another reason is reducing business costs.
Multiple studies show that sustainable fleet management leads to business savings. For instance, fleets save directly on fuel costs and indirectly from tax credits.
How do you Implement Sustainable Fleet Management?
After deciding to go green, the next question is often, “How do you do it?”.
Fleets need to work on every area of their operation including purchasing assets, planning operations, and conserving fuel.
Asset Purchasing
The first area is purchasing equipment. Fleets are moving towards fuel efficient ideas such as electric vehicles and solar appliances.
Electric vehicles continue to be a fleet management trend in 2019. The technology is more feasible than ever, and as a result, a lot of fleets are testing the idea to cut fuel costs.
Another alternative is switching to solar appliances. For example, some fleets equip solar panels to power vehicle appliances. According to a study, solar power cuts 3% of fuel during drives and 16% of fuel during idling.
Route Planning
Yet another idea is route planning. Many fleets are combining internal functions into single routes rather than spreading out their trips.
To illustrate, consider the medical industry. Medical organizations might use vehicles to collect supplies and deliver medical test samples. Rather than sending out two vehicles, businesses are now combining tasks into a single route.
Fuel Conservation
Lastly, fleets are always looking for ways to reduce fuel usage. Some of the traditional ways of reducing fuel include implementing a no-idling policy and monitoring fuel mileage.
In 2018, however, fleets tried new ideas. For example, if you look at trucks on the road, you might notice that some trucks travel in a line. This is on purpose and is called “platooning”. Researchers found that platooned trucks can save up to 10% of fuel, which is a small step towards a 45% target.
Many fleets are adopting sustainable fleet management ideas. It’s a good move for moving green and for saving costs!
Firstly, fleet managers need to be familiar with Live Map. Every single fleet GPS solution will have a map portal. On Geotab’s portal, users can view a vehicle by hovering over their map and clicking vehicles. They can also search and select a vehicle from a list.Some useful applications of live maps include providing location updates, managing drivers, and dispatching the closest driver to a site.
Secondly, fleet managers should learn how to use the Trip History report. Again, every GPS software should allow managers to view a vehicle’s location history.Geotab users can look at a vehicle’s trip history by selecting a vehicle or driver. Then, the program replays trips with “destinations”, or events when drivers stop for a specified amount of time. In effect, managers can review or download all trips in the prior year with Geotab.
Finally, fleet managers need to know how to geofence. Geofences are custom map zones. Users can then set up rules and alerts with their created map zones.For example, consider the following applications. One company processed payroll by creating a geofence on a customer site and monitoring their employees’ hours. Another company set up a “Casino Rule” which alerted managers whenever their employees broke company rules by visiting casinos.
After creating rules, fleet managers need to learn how to use data. On Geotab, everything can be done through the Exceptions portal. Under Exceptions, managers can generate reports from time periods, vehicles, and rules.
Fill-up graphs are one of the most commonly used 
Idling reports also deserve their own category because monitoring idling reduces fuel expense. In fact, a majority of enterprise fleets have some sort of no-idling policy.Fleet managers can create an idling management report on Geotab by going under Exceptions and selecting Idling rules.
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