It has never been more expensive to fill up your tank in New Zealand. Many service stations around the country are now charging more than $1.95 per litre of diesel, adding pressure on Kiwi businesses already facing rising costs elsewhere.
The Financial Times reported last month that crude oil prices had climbed more than 16 per cent in a six-week period, largely attributed to the global economic rebound, driven by a return to work for many citizens around the world.
Put simply, now is the time for fleet managers to look at ways of reducing fuel costs. But many don’t realise they already have the technology to help them do so: telematics.
Teletrac Navman’s 2019 Benchmark Report found that while over 90 per cent of transport companies have telematics, they mostly use it simply to track vehicles and monitor speed. On average companies are using only a quarter of the functionality that telematics can provide. Which means they’re missing out on a whole lot of potential value. Just 20 per cent of respondents monitored fuel usage, despite telematics being a tried-and-true way to do so.
For example, measuring and monitoring engine management and vehicle performance offers a gold mine of information on fuel consumption, distance, speed and brake usage. Every minute spent idling at a job or for long periods at traffic disruptions counts towards a headache-inducing fuel bill. By keeping track of the amount of fuel a vehicle uses on a day-to-day basis through the engine management system, fleet managers can monitor and predict fuel expenses for their entire fleet and find ways to reduce it. In the Benchmarking Report half of the companies using telematics reduced their fuel consumption by an average of 13 per cent.
But a vehicle is only as fuel efficient as the person who drives it, which is where gamification and driver scorecard come in to play. Driver scorecard uses in-vehicle telematics to gather a range of data to produce individualised dashboards on each driver’s performance. They are ranked according to a variety of metrics, including revving, idling, speed, and braking. Both drivers and managers can see their score on the dashboard and compare it with the scores of fellow drivers.
For your business, this does two things. Firstly, it motivates your drivers to increase their rankings by driving in a fuel-efficient way. It creates an environment for healthy competition between drivers, while the back-office can motivate them to excel, gain a sense of personal achievement, and highlight areas of unnecessary fuel usage. Secondly, with access to the driver’s behavioural insights, fleet managers can provide training and safety reminders for any lead-footed drivers in the team. Together this helps drive down your fuel bill.
You could cross your fingers and hold your breath for a reduction in the price of diesel. Or you could take advantage of telematics to help your drivers take up fuel efficient driving habits ensuring your business remains competitive, reduces costs, and improves ROI. If you can reduce your fuel bills through technologies available to you now, why wait?
*Megan Duncan is Australasia director of marketing at Teletrac Navman.
