On the surface, a sustainable fleet strategy may not seem cost-effective. However, it turns out, greening your fleet not only reduces your fleet’s carbon footprint and helps you meet emissions targets – it can also result in meaningful cost savings.
We certainly don’t want to overwhelm you. Here are four major areas of focus when it comes to greening your fleet, regardless of fleet size.
1. Fuel efficiency
While the importance of fuel efficiency is well known, it can be difficult to identify what steps need to be taken in order to improve it. To start, you must have a clear understanding of how much fuel you’re using and why – after all, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Telematics can help you better understand not only how much your fleet is consuming fuel, but also why. With that information in hand, fleet operators can implement effective measures to help improve fuel efficiency, like monitoring tire inflation and providing real-time driver feedback to curb unwanted behaviors that contribute to inefficiency (and dangerous conditions.)
2. Vehicle utilization
While it may be tempting to keep underutilized vehicles in your fleet, ensuring you’re operating a right-sized fleet can provide cost savings, which in turn can be reinvested in the procurement of better-suited vehicles – including EVs.
On the other hand, it’s also important to ensure the vehicles you do have are being used to their full potential. Proper fleet asset utilization can help you identify vehicles that could be repurposed, rotate vehicles to manage downtime and see how conditions impact trips to inform how shifts could be adjusted.
3. Route planning
Better route planning plays a major role when it comes to ensuring fleet efficiency. With efficient route planning, fleets can benefit from a decrease in fuel consumption, and reduced stress for drivers resulting in safer driving practices. The reduced mileage that comes with efficient route planning can also save labor costs associated with dead time between deliveries.
Also, make sure heavily used vehicles are the most efficient available. As different makes, models, and sizes of EVs become increasingly available, fleet operators have more options at their disposal to ensure they choose the best vehicle for the job.
4. Driver behavior
Improving driving practices contributes greatly to the efficiency of your fleet. Monitoring common issues like harsh braking and cornering, as well as acceleration and speeding can help fleet operators understand the areas to focus on for improvement. Supporting a more environmentally friendly driving style not only helps fleets become greener, it also boosts efficiency resulting in cost savings.
Paired with the capabilities of the Green Fleet Dashboard, these four key factors can help fleet operators take the first steps toward greening their fleets. Contact our team to learn more about sustainability solutions from Geotab at Info@advtracking.net
