One of the biggest (if not the biggest) expense for fleet based companies is fuel. And with fuel being necessary to running your business you may often think there is nothing you can do about high fuel costs. However, properly maintaining vehicles and educating your drivers are two of the best ways to maximize fuel efficiency and reduce high fuel expenses.
Check out these 5 easy fuel saving tips to start reducing fuel expenses today:
Change Your Air FilterUp to 10% of your engine’s efficiency can be compromised and internal engine parts can be damaged from a clogged air filter. A clean air filter can improve a vehicle’s gas mileage by up to 10%, according to the federal government. If you change your air filter every 12,000 miles you will protect the engine as well as improve fuel economy.
Check Your Tire PressureThe U.S. Department of Energy states drivers could increase their fuel efficiency by 3% by simply keeping their tires inflated. Your fuel costs increase per mile even if your tires are just 1 psi under inflated. It’s important to ensure your fleet’s tires are all inflated to the manufacturer’s recommended pressure to not only improve fuel efficiency but provide a safer ride as well.
Slow DownAnd Relax! If your drivers are stressed, they are much more likely to accelerate quickly and brake hard, reducing fuel efficiency. These poor driving habits can decrease fuel efficiency by up to 5% according to the EPA.
Reduce Vehicle Weight100 pounds of extra weight in your vehicle can reduce fuel efficiency by 2%. This is especially prominent in smaller vehicles. Have your fleet drivers empty out anything that is not essential from their vehicles and ensure in the winter they are cleaning snow and ice off thoroughly.
Plan RoutesSave on vehicle wear and tear and reduce miles driven by effectively planning your drivers routes. Also, try to keep track of where your drivers are throughout the day. This way if there is an emergency you can send the closest driver to the location. It’ll keep your customers happy by reaching them sooner and cut down on miles driven.
These are small changes that can result in big savings. Educate your drivers on how their driving habits effect fuel efficiency and start working towards fuel savings today!
Many drivers idle without even thinking about it. For example, an employee waits for their coworker in the car outside a local coffee shop while the engine is humming in the background. Unfortunately, fleet idling can end up being quite costly to business operations, in terms of wasted fuel, the possibility of fines or infractions, accumulation of vehicle maintenance costs, and the environmental impact of excessive emissions.
Increased awareness of idling behavior, through the Geotab solution, can help reduce overall fleet costs. Read this article to learn how to identify and manage idling in MyGeotab.
True Idling Versus Operational Idling
A common trucking myth is that diesel engines need a warmup time of five minutes before driving. Nowadays, no more than three minutes of warmup is recommended by most diesel engine manufacturers; longer than that may actually cause engine damage. It’s important fleet managers make sure they understand the difference between true idling and operational idling.
By comining our high-resolution data logging points of the GO device and the IOX-AUX Add-On, fleet managers can easily see whether assets are wasting time or being used for stand-still job applications right within MyGeotab.
True Idling or Non-Operational Idling — In MyGeotab, a vehicle will be in true idling when the vehicle ignition is on and there is no power take-off (PTO) usage identified either through engine status data or through IOX-AUX based input. IOX-AUX is an Add-On for the Geotab GO7 device which measures external vehicle inputs.
Operational Idling — If a vehicle is idling but the fleet manager can see PTO usage through engine status data or through IOX-AUX, then this is classified as operational idling. PTO is a mechanism which drives the engine power from the engine to another external application, high-powered vacuum or a lift on the back of a trailer. Most often, PTO will be used when the engine is running and the vehicle is standing still. Three to minutes of vehicle warm up time can also be considered operational idling as well.
Software-based rules can be set to identify drivers who are idling for any non-business purpose, i.e. detect true idling for longer than five minutes. Fleet managers can then be notified of any exceptions generated from these rules via text message or email.
PTO comes through as engine status data. Depending on the OEM and make and model of the vehicle, the engine data is variable. PTO activity can be sporadic and there isn’t a solid pattern to track. Therefore, a more reliable indicator of true idling is PTO state. Looking for that flip of the switch (i.e. 0 or 1 value) can show whether the PTO was actually activated.
To develop a rule to capture this information, we need to consider both conditions, which are engine status data and info from the IOX-AUX.
The rule can be defined as:
Speed < 3mph and Status Data Diagnostic “PTO Status (0=Disengaged/1=Engaged)” > 0 or Aux1 is true and Ignition is true
Driver Coaching Tools for Idling
Driver feedback helps reduce idling occurrence rates within a fleet by notifying drivers when idling occurs, so they can immediately adjust their behavior. The Geotab GO device can be configured to produce in-cab audible beeping through the device’s built-in buzzer or deliver a spoken text-to-speech message using the GO TALK Live In-Vehicle Verbal Feedback Add-On.
Track Trends with Custom Reports
The standard Exception Details report, included by default within each MyGeotab database, shows when, where and for how long true idling or wasted time events occurred. By using rules that differentiate between operational and non-operational idling, it becomes possible to calculate a breakdown of time spent within each category. From there, some report customization can provide a scoring element that ranks vehicles and drivers on their performance.
As you can imagine, there are limitless possibilities when it comes to visualizing this data. Thankfully, for those of us who are not Microsoft Excel experts, we provide useful Custom Report templates which can help add firepower to the fight against true idle time reduction. Here are some examples:
Weekly Idle Cost – Daily Trend Report: Shows the overall cost of idling for the fleet. Intended to be run for a week’s duration, broken down daily for trending analysis.
Last 3 Months Idling Trend: Displays the total idling time for the entire fleet over the last three months.
Trended Exception Report: Showcase how your drivers are doing compared to each other on a trend. Designed to be reporting for a monthly or weekly data set, showing daily or weekly trends.
Driver Awareness and Training are Key
The driver is the one who chooses to let the vehicle idle, making driver training and awareness key. Telematics data collection, driver coaching, and reporting can all assist fleet managers to create more efficient and sustainable fleet. Perhaps, in the future, driverless and electric vehicles will become a solution to this problem.
Source:
How to Detect and Stop True Fleet Idling
By: Jason Widla, Solutions Engineer Specilaist at Geotab
How does GoFleet and Geotab help with IFTA management? Read this Quick Guide to learn how to set up an IFTA Report in MyGeotab.
What is IFTA?
The International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) is an agreement between 10 Canadian provinces and 48 American states concerning the taxing and reporting of motor fuels used by interjurisdictional carriers operating heavy commercial vehicles.
Under the IFTA, interjurisdictional carriers must report the distance travelled in each jurisdiction and the amount of motor fuel consumed. The carrier reports and pays motor fuel taxes to a single jurisdiction and then the member jurisdictions (states and provinces) handle the sharing of tax revenues.
Using paper records for IFTA opens the door to potential issues such as missing paperwork, late filings, error due to manual entry, overpayments, or audits.
GPS Tracking for IFTA Management
Although designed to be a simpler system, IFTA reporting can be a labor-intensive and time-consuming process for fleet owners and managers – especially those working with large fleets.
IFTA management is made easier for fleets with GPS vehicle tracking, by reporting the GPS location and time in each location for fleet vehicles. Our software saves IFTA management time by removing the manual process of tracking miles by province/state and improving accuracy.
Benefits of IFTA Management with GoFleet and Geotab:
Minimizes risk of violations
Helps cut down on paperwork
Reduces administration costs
Improves driver efficiency
Geotab IFTA Report for Location Tracking
The Geotab IFTA report uses the odometer value to determine how far fleet vehicles have driven within the individual taxable provinces or states.
Three Simple Steps to Creating a Geotab IFTA Report:
Log in to MyGeotab.
On the left-hand menu, click Activity, then click IFTA Report.
Click on the Options button to define the date period and then choose your vehicles.
MyGeotab IFTA Report Screen
The Fuel Tax report also allows you to filter the mileage into IFTA and non-IFTA provinces/states (Yukon Territory, Northwest Territory, Nunavut, Hawaii, Alaska, District of Columbia, and Mexico). Look at the Advanced Fuel Tax Report’s “Summary” or “Report” sheets for the “Is IFTA Province/State?” field.
Ensuring IFTA Report Accuracy: How to Correctly Transfer a GO Device Between Vehicles
Incorrectly transferring a telematics device from one vehicle to another can affect the accuracy of the data stored in MyGeotab related to International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) or Fuel Usage reporting.
Given the plug and play design of the GO7, it may be tempting to simply unplug it from the current vehicle and plug it into the new vehicle, but this is not recommended. If you run a report which uses odometer values, like the Fuel Tax report, plugging and unplugging will generate incorrect or negative values for the dates around when the device was moved. This cannot be corrected and it will invalidate the entire report.
For example, the graph below shows what would happen to the odometer value if a device was incorrectly moved from a vehicle with a high odometer value to a vehicle with a lower odometer value.
Odometer discrepancy due to incorrect GO device transfer.
How can you ensure reports remain accurate when you need to move a device into a new vehicle? Simple! Follow the procedure below.
The Correct Way to Transfer a GO Device Between Vehicles
First, unplug the GO device from the old vehicle. Then, in your MyGeotab database, go to the Vehicles section and select the old vehicle from which you just unplugged the GO device; you’ll see the Vehicle Edit page. Click the More details button.
Copy the GO device serial number to your clipboard. This will save time when creating the new vehicle.
Choose Unplug Device. This will also make the vehicle historical. All the data and location history for historical vehicles remains available for viewing and reports.
Return to the Vehicles section and click Add, then Add vehicle.
Paste the serial number from your clipboard into the Serial number field and give the new vehicle a description. Click OK to continue.
Configure Driver Feedback for the new vehicle or add any custom parameters required. Once finished, click Save. The GO device is now ready to be installed in the new vehicle.
If you need to move the GO device back to the old vehicle, first follow the steps above to make the current vehicle historical. Next, navigate to the Vehicles section and click Show historical. Find the old vehicle name in the list, and click on it to open the Vehicle Edit page. Click More Details to reveal additional options. Select Replace with new device. Enter a GO device serial number and click OK to re-activate the historical device.
It’s crucial you follow the steps listed above when moving a GO device between different vehicles. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this process, please contact us for more information.
Watch the MyGeotab Default Reports video to learn more about reporting in MyGeotab, including details on the IFTA Report.
References:
Original Blog From Geotab, By Ethan Weir, Technical Services Engineer https://www.geotab.com/blog/mygeotab-ifta-report/
Fuel BI is an integration from our partner Fleet Hoster that uses the information Geotab GPS devices pull from the vehicle to cross reference with information collected from a Fuel Card.
When you’re operating a fleet, fuel cards and GPS devices can empower you to take control of your fleet fuel expenditures. With the Fuel BI integration, we will automatically capture your fleet card transactions, geocode them, process them against GPS data, and provide you the results in order to better analyze your fleet fuel expenditures. Fuel card integration will help you gain valuable insights with the following tools:
Built in Geotab security settings so your managers or users can only view the data they’re permitted to
Fuel expenditure charts and metrics over user selected periods of time
Location analysis with mapping of transaction and vehicle location at the time of purchase
Gain insight with transaction mapping on where your drivers are filling up
Capture gallons purchased vs gallons actually used with fuel consumption tracking
Customized user dashboard, alerts, and charts
Works with all 4 major fuel card providers
In order to provide our customers with the best information possible we pull data from both the fuel transaction and the vehicle’s GPS data. From each fuel transaction we can determine the transaction time, merchant location, product information, and driver identification. From the vehicle’s GPS data we can determine the log time, vehicle location, and vehicle status data.
*The most important piece is the link between the fuel card provider and Geotab to identify a vehicle. A good match means that a link is successful.
*We look for vehicle logs around the time of the transaction to get GPS data.
We look for an overall increasing fuel level trend around the time of the fuel transaction.
Our fuel card integration software helps you to gain an excellent overview of fuel expenditures and provide you with the tools necessary to pinpoint any suspected vehicles or transactions to prevent fuel theft.
With an easy setup process and easy to read key performance indicators you can start tracking your fuel purchases, referencing them with Geotab data, and saving money in no time.
Tips on How to Reduce Your Fleet’s Fuel Consumption
Companies with fleet operations would love to reduce fuel costs; however, many do not know where they should start. Check out these tips you can do to reduce your fuel consumption:
Tires
Use a tire monitoring system. Fleets using automatic tire monitoring systems reduce fuel consumption by approximately 1.4%.
Make sure your wheels and tires are balanced. When wheels and tires are not properly balanced, it causes vibrations and irregular wear. This wastes energy and increases fuel usage. If you make sure your wheels and tires are balanced, you increase fuel efficiency.
Fuel Purchasing And Usage
Consider a fuel card program. You should use a fuel card program is your drivers are responsible for fueling up when they are on the road. These programs not only help you control and track fuel purchases, they also offer additional discounts on fuel.
Make sure you review your fuel invoices. Reviewing fuel invoices is a great way to catch billing errors and identify any unusual purchases. Make sure your employees are held accountable for the fuel they purchase (This can be done easily through a fuel card program as mentioned above).
Implement a GPS fleet management solution
GPS fleet management solutions gather various information about your fleet, driver behaviors, fuel consumption and diagnostics to help you make the best possible decisions about your fleet’s fuel consumption. This information can also be used to reduce fuel consumption by identifying and correcting inefficient activities that increase fuel usage.
Keep track of fuel data. Make sure you keep track of important fuel data including miles per gallon, fuel consumption, idle times, road speed, and hard breaking. All of which can be monitored easily all in one place using a GPS fleet management solution.
Optimized routing. When your routes are optimized and efficient, you will use less fuel.
Monitoring idling times. If you use a GPS fleet management system, you can monitor your drivers idling times. Excessive idling wastes fuel, costing your company money. Alerts can be set up to notify you if a driver is idling for an extended period of time.
Businesses with fleet operations have been feeling the strain of high fuel costs for the past few years. At first, these business owners assumed they just had to get past a tough couple of years and then the fuel costs would stabilize. It is now clear that high fuel costs are here to stay. The only way to lower your fuel costs is to implement fuel saving tips and use less fuel.
Decrease Idle Times
Each hour your vehicle is in idle equals approximately 25 driving miles in fuel. Unfortunately, many drivers are in the habit of sitting in their vehicle while it is idling as a form of climate control. This directly translates into costing your business more money. A quality GPS fleet management system can send notifications to you when your drivers are idling for excessive periods of time giving you the opportunity to have their behavior corrected immediately.
Reduce Driving Speeds
The United States Environmental Protections Agency states that every 5 miles driven above the speed limit costs your business approximately 20 cents more per gallon of fuel. If you have several drivers speeding regularly, the costs can add up quickly. A GPS fleet management system can provide reports on driving speeds and notifications when a driver exceeds the speed threshold you have set. This can help you manage your driver’s behavior better. Ensuring your drivers drive at fuel-efficient speeds will not only reduce fuel costs, it will improve safety.
Efficient Routing
Intelligently planning the routes your drivers take can save you money on fuel. A high quality GPS fleet management system can plan efficient routes for you automatically. These solutions can shave fuel costs by planning routes with the fewest miles and stops. Inefficient routing wastes both valuable time and fuel. With GPS fleet management software, your dispatchers are also able to send the closest driver to a job location.
Implement these fuel saving tips and start saving your money.
Are you struggling with fuel costs? Contact one of our Fleet Consultants to find out how GoFleet can help.
Increase Fuel Efficiency With Fleet Management GPS Technology
The cost of operating and owning a vehicle in the U.S. has increased by approximately 2% in the past year, according to “Your Driving Costs” study by AAA. In addition, the cost of fuel has also increased by almost 2% a year since 2013, on top of the 15% increase in 2012. For businesses with fleet operations, these increased costs can significantly affect the company’s financial outlook. Eliminating excessive fuel costs by reducing fuel usage can considerably impact a business’ bottom line. Fleet management GPS technology can help business owners run their business more efficiently and reduce unnecessary fuel usage.
When a business implements fleet management GPS technology, they are able to eliminate excessive fuel usage using the fleet management software. When the vehicles are driven off-route, they are wasting fuel. With a fleet management solution, fleet managers and business owners will be able to make sure their drivers are where they are supposed to be and that they are driving the most efficient routes. Drivers will no longer be able to drive miles out of the way just to get a cappuccino from their favorite coffee shop. Drivers making a few off route personal stops can add up to hundreds of miles over a year.
Fleet management GPS technology also can be used to eliminate drivers’ bad habits including excessively idling for climate control. This will reduce fuel costs as well as reduce wear and tear on the vehicles. As a matter of fact, when a vehicle idles excessively, for 5 minutes or more, fuel consumption can increase by approximately 5%. This results in reduced profits and has the potential of damaging the vehicles’ engines.
Another factor in fuel wastage is driver speeding. When drivers are speeding, business owners and fleet managers can be alerted in real-time via SMS text message or email message. In addition to reducing fuel usage, managing drivers’ poor driving habits increases the safety of a business’ drivers and the safety of other drivers on the road.
Fleet Fuel Management Systems Allow Business To Make Smart Fuel Choices
Fleet fuel management systems with fuel cards are available as an add-on with a GoFleet real-time GPS tracking system. Fuel card integration will help you understand your fleet expenditures. Using fuel cards allows you to not only track fuel purchases; it also gives you the tools to make smarter fuel choices.
GoFleet GPS tracking systems allows you to manage vehicle routing, maintenance, idle times, safety violations and driver habits. With fleet fuel management systems, you will also be able to track your drivers’ fuel card purchases each day. Combining your GoFleet technology with fuel cards will increase the return on investment even faster.
Fleet fuel management systems allow fleet managers to view and confirm all fuel card expenses every day. Having this ability will allow you to completely eliminate fuel theft. When drivers steal fuel, they are taking money directly from your bottom line.
Fleet managers can use the fleet fuel management systems software to fully customize their dashboard. They can set what alerts they receive with regards to fuel purchases. For example, you can set notifications when a driver purchases more fuel than the amount authorized. The alerts can be configured to be sent by email or displayed on your computer screen. In addition, the alerts can be set to be sent out daily, weekly or monthly. Specific fuel metrics can also be set that are the most useful to your business.
Fleet fuel management systems will show you the exact time and location that your drivers are purchasing fuel. You can view the merchant and vehicle’s location on a map. This will ensure your drivers are fueling up where they are supposed to be.
The amount of data you will have access to using fleet fuel management systems will let you manage your fleet better. You will know the true gallons per mile and true cost per gallon. You will also have access to the true cost of idling.
Companies with fleets feel the effect of high fuel costs more than other businesses. They not only have many vehicles relying on fuel to provide a service for their customers, they have to ensure their drivers are making the most effective use of their vehicles. Without proper supervision and a sophisticated monitoring system to control these factors, the company runs the risk of losing a large amount of their hard-earned profits because the fuel costs are not being managed.
4 Ways GPS Tracking Helps Reduce Fuel Costs
GPS tracking is a sophisticated monitoring system that helps you increase your fuel efficiency. GPS tracking can help reduce high fuel costs with:
Decreased Idle Times
Improved Dispatching And Routing
Speed Monitoring
Proactive Maintenance
Decreased Idle Times
Every hour a vehicle is idling is equal to approximately 25 miles of driving. The EPA states, contrary to popular belief, restarting a vehicle’s engine only uses 30 seconds of idling time and does not have a harmful impact on the vehicle’s components. It costs the business a lot of money when drivers use their vehicles to control the climate. GPS tracking systems help reduce high fuel costs by notifying you when a vehicle is idling for an excessive period of time, wasting fuel and decreasing driver productivity.
Improved Dispatching And Routing
GPS tracking lets you know the exact location of your vehicles and allows dispatchers to manage dispatching and routing more effectively. Dispatchers can make sure the vehicles take direct routes to each job. They can see which vehicles are closest to a job site to ensure each job is efficiently assigned. Fleet managers can also see if drivers take unauthorized journeys or extended routes.
When vehicles are managed and effectively dispatched using GPS tracking, the vehicles will not spend as much time on the road between jobs. Shorter travelling distances equal reduced fuel costs.
Speed Monitoring
Excessive speeding burns extra fuel and is a safety risk. In addition to having a greater chance of getting into an accident, drivers can get a ticket when they are speeding. GPS tracking alerts managers and drivers when the speed exceeds the set limit. Fuel economy can be decreased up to 20% when vehicles are speeding. A 20% decrease in fuel costs can have a huge positive impact on businesses. A GPS tracking system can help managers monitor the drivers’ driving behaviors, encourage drivers to practice safer driving habits and reduces high fuel costs.
Proactive Maintenance
A high quality GPS tracking system will ensure your fleet vehicles receive proper maintenance. Maintenance alerts can be set based on engine, on time, mileage or calendar time depending on the service type. Check out our new Maintenance Assistant add-on to get an in-depth look at all the features available. Vehicles that are properly maintained not only save you money on repairs, they have better fuel efficiency and will last longer.
GPS tracking has changed the way many business owners look at fuel consumption. The challenge they face is to consume fuel in the most effective way possible. With fuel cost constantly rising, owners are seeking cost-effective ways to manage this expense. GPS tracking is one of the most cost-effective ways to manage these unavoidable fuel costs.
Want to learn more about GPS fleet tracking and how it can help you battle high fuel costs? Contact one of our highly knowledgeable fleet consultants today!
Keeping track of your fuel usage of a fleet of vehicles, no matter if it is a fleet of 2 or 2000 can be quite difficult. Fuel management software can help you keep track of fuel usage, where fuel is being wasted, and most importantly save you money.
GoFleet’s GPS fleet tracking system comes equipped with fuel management software. Fuel is clearly one of the biggest operating costs for many organizations so having a solution to provide advanced fuel management tools is very important. Not only will you receive the benefits of our fuel management software but you will also benefit from the many other elements our system has to offer.
Our GPS tracking devices are plug and play. There is no messy wiring, no install costs and best of all you can do it yourself in a couple of minutes.
GoFleet also provides all our valued customers with training on how to get the most out of our system.
Some of our Fuel Management Software features include:
Idling Time Reports
Driver Scorecard Reports
Audio In-Car Driver Coaching
Route Optimization
Fuel Usage Report
Idling Time & Cost Reports Reduce the time your drivers spend idling to save you money on fuel. Idling time is normally the biggest fuel waster we commonly see with our clients. Our advanced idling report can show you just how much time your drivers are spending idling AND how much it is costing your company.
Driver Scorecard Reports Our driver scorecard report shows all the “bad habits” of your drivers. These habits also are contributing to your wasted fuel. The habits include: speeding, harsh braking, hard acceleration and harsh cornering. The scorecard allows you to compare your drivers and see which ones may need some of your time to sit down with them and discuss their driving habits. These bad driving habits are a huge contributor to wasted fuel.
Audio In-Car Driver Coaching Our driver coaching audio alerts (beeping function inside the car) helps drivers to correct fuel expending faults such as idling and speeding on their own. It is a reminder to them when they have had the car idling for too long, or go too high over the speed limit you set, to correct the behavior right away.
Route Optimization Our advanced Route Optimization software allows you to optimize your route based on shorter distance and travelling time to further reduce your fuel consumption.
Fuel Usage Report Fuel Usage Report is exactly what it sounds like, a report on the entire organization split up by drivers determining the fuel usage and costs for a specific period of time.
We want to work with you to save you money. Contact one of our fleet consultants today to learn more.
