Rising fuel costs are the most significant pressure coming to bear on businesses this year, which means that service companies now need to reduce the miles that their engineers cover on the roads.
Tracking vehicle activity enables businesses to see where every part of the fleet is being used inefficiently – for example, lengthy vehicle idling periods, speeding, excessive private use or ineffective engineer allocation to jobs. Businesses can use precise reports to implement best practices and meaningful business change that can generate immediate and significant cost savings.
Adding to the day-to-day and week-to-week analysis, companies can identify long-term trends that will help generate additional cost savings and operational improvements. In addition, integration with other business systems, such as routeing and scheduling and service management applications, can help to reduce the burden on engineers and subsequently cut the number and length of journeys that they need to do.
The balancing act for businesses today is taking as many miles off their vehicles and as many vehicles off the road as they can – while still maintaining the same levels of service.
Every mile that an engineer covers on the road costs a business a total of around £1.30. When extrapolated across a whole fleet, it becomes easy to see how businesses can immediately cut operational cost. If businesses can cut the distance that their engineers travel by just two miles each day, every single vehicle will reduce its fuel costs by £13 per week or £676 per year.
Telematics solutions that deliver real-time visibility of the entire fleet enable businesses to effectively deploy and re-deploy vehicles throughout the day. They can also help to educate drivers on best practices when out on the road. This approach to fleet management enhances the efficiency of every vehicle.
John Wisdom, sales and marketing director, Cybit.
