2011 did not bode well for gasoline prices, this trend has continued and industry experts do not forecast a better outcome in 2012.

Fleet operation managers have a right to be concerned; fuel is the second largest expense to the company’s operations, the first being staff payroll. Fuel volatility makes private and government fleet operations financial planning unpredictable, without a crystal ball the fleet operators cannot possibly accurately forecast their operational spend on fleet fuel.

Managers of fleets realize the only way to control the financial outcome of the fuel expense is to monitor & control the vehicle usage. Driver behaviour such as speeding, idling, route optimization can significantly impact the efficiencies of the fleet and reduce the overall usage of fuel.  Here are 5 ways you can reduce fuel costs for your business in 2012:

1. Stay within the speed limit

Experts report that driving just 10 kilometers faster than the speed limit increases fuel consumption by 20%. Increase speed to 20 kilometers faster than necessary and the extra gas wastage climbs to 25%.

Every vehicle reaches optimal fuel economy at a different speed, however economical fuel usage begins to decline rapidly at speeds greater than 50 kilometers per hour.

2. Eliminate vehicle idling

Did you know the average Driver will idle a company vehicle 10 – 50 minutes a day? Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel than it takes to restart your vehicle. Unnecessary idling for just 10 minutes a day uses about 5 percent more fuel over the year for a private or government fleet of vehicles this has a huge impact on the cost of fuel.

Many believe that turning off the vehicle to avoid idling results in higher maintenance costs and extra wear and tear for the starter and battery. In fact, the break-even point to offset any incremental maintenance costs is under 60 seconds. The fleet operational fuel savings will more than offset any potential increase in maintenance cost.

With the demand of crude oil increasing year over year, the resulting oil prices will only continue to rise. Gasoline is costly, its use has significant environmental impacts, and there's not an endless supply – good reasons not to waste fuel through unnecessary vehicle idling.

3. Anticipate the road conditions to avoid harsh breaking

"Jack-rabbit" starts and harsh braking can increase fuel consumption by as much as 40%. Any braking wastes momentum, anticipating the next stop light or traffic holdup and reducing power early so you don't have to brake as hard means you've used less fuel to get there.

Many drivers don't realize that heavy braking uses more fuel and has nothing to do with the brakes. Instead the driver was burning more fuel then necessary bydriving too fast, resulting in harsh breaking.  Acceleration then hard braking uses a lot more fuel than anticipating the traffic and lifting off the throttle early. Hard braking increases the energy of the vehicle resulting in increased fuel to regain momentum. Simply put, harsh breaking is the result of driver behaviour and can be controlled with better handling of the vehicle speeds.

4. Perform regular vehicle maintenance

Regular vehicle maintenance certifies that fleet vehicles are more fuel-efficient.  Performing regular power-train maintenance including changing the air filter, changing lubricants with the recommended grade of oil, and keeping tires properly inflated can improve fuel efficiency by as much as 19%.

A recent Tire Smart program headed by the Government of Canada concluded that more than two thirds of vehicles in Canada have at least one tire that is either under- or over-inflated, and one third of those vehicles had three or even all four tires improperly inflated. This represents a safety risk to Canadian motorists as well as needless fuel consumption and tire-replacement expenses. This resulting increase in fuel consumption also means that more greenhouse gas emissions are being released into the environment.

Fleet operators should monitor a fleet’s fuel economy by vehicle and class to determine when a vehicle is not running properly.

5. Add GPS Fleet Tracking Technology to your operations

Utilizing Fleet Tracking Technologies to monitor, track and control driver behaviour for companies managing large fleets provide  true visibility required to react to fleet exceptions.  Utilizing key Fleet Tracking features such as reporting, alerts, and maintenance tracking, Fleet Managers will be able to begin to control this otherwise unavoidable expense.

In our next post, I’ll highlight how to go about choosing the right GPS Fleet Tracking Solution for your business.

Jennifer Young is the Director of Marketing at Complete Innovations.

Imagine this scenario: 400 employees in 200 constantly moving locations, who need to be connected together and continually tracked. If it sounds like a challenge, it is, but it’s one that my company has recently overcome. Here’s how.

Gaudreau is a Quebec-based company that specializes in residual material management. In other words, we do everything from garbage collection and landfill site management to the operation of a sorting centre, plastics and recycling plant and composting platforms. Every single day, 400 employees use our 200 fleet vehicles to collect septic waste and other compostable or recyclable materials from commercial, industrial and residential locations across Quebec.

The challenge came in making sure that our customer service was fast, reliable and cost-effective—no small feat as our trucks are quite literally all over the map at any given time. And when customers contacted us for confirmation about material pick-ups or specific timing, we needed to be able to respond quickly. Our solution was GPS technology.

We knew this was the right option for us, but we weren’t sure how to implement it or make it work efficiently. We found a company called Complete Innovations, a provider of mission critical operational solutions, and they helped us deploy a GPS platform based on the Telus Fleet Tracker solution.

Working with Complete Innovations, we gradually outfitted all of our vehicles with the hardware modem on each dashboard over a 4-month period. Now, using the Fleet Tracker software, our staff members are able to use mobile devices, like Blackberries or Windows Mobile phones, to access vehicle speed and location in real time. We can determine vehicle location in three-minute intervals, which not only improves dispatch’s ability to track, monitor and communicate with drivers, but can now plan routes more efficiently as well.

When customers call and require an immediate pick up, we can track the closest truck and reassign a driver for the ad hoc collection. This saves our dispatchers from calling each driver individually, as they’ve now got access to detailed trip history information and can automatically identify where vehicles are located.

Our drivers are happy with the new system, too. They feel more connected to our dispatch centre, and find that their jobs run smoother because problems are quickly identified and addressed.

I can say that the solution really gives us a handle on what’s happening on the road, and has actually allowed us to save 10% on fuel costs. On top of that, we’ve boosted our customer service and improved our driver productivity by 15%.

Marc Fournier is the operations manager for Gaudreau, a Quebec-based firm that specializes in residual material management. For more information, visit www.groupegaudreau.com.