High fuel cost continue to eat away at profits and put many small business on the edge of financial ruin. But for many business they may never realize, what steps they should have taken to reduce costs and how easy it is.
Speeding, idling, and moonlighting with your truck all costs you money and fuel, how much? Sometimes 10 - 25% of your fuel costs, basically go out the window becuase the drivers are not concerned about saving fuel, they are concerned about convenience.
With skyrocketing fuel costs busting the budgets of service, sales and delivery companies nationwide. The Police, Fire, Parks and Public Works departments for the city of Houston, Texas exceeded their fuel budgets with six weeks left in the fiscal year in 2004. And in 2005, some cities and counties had to close schools after Hurricane Katrina, not because of damage to their community but based on high fuel costs!
In contrast to these high fuel casualties, a towing company in Orlando, Florida actually decreased its fuel costs by 15%, creating an annual savings of over $11,000! This company expected similar savings 2005 as they learned to control their fuel spending and eliminate bad driving habits.
How were the savings achieved?
The tow truck company used a GPS fleet tracking http://www.fleetboss.comsolution to track drivers.
Speeding drivers use more fuel and put your company at risk.
Idling - Few people realize how much gas you waste idling for 5, 10, or 20 minutes.
It can sometimes add up to an hours or more a day!
Moonlighting - Your trucks should be used only for your business
A Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) fleet management system uses signals and data from multiple satellites in space to determine a vehicle's location anywhere on Earth. GPS fleet management begins when a vehicle-mounted device receives satellite signals and calculates a vehicle's position on the ground. This device then relays the vehicle's position as latitude and longitude coordinates to a database computer at a business' home base. Software on this home base computer lets a fleet manager view valuable operational data on each of his vehicles.
Depending upon the GPS system used, a combination of wireless technology and the Internet allows a company to receive GPS information and store, collect and organize it according to categories.
By focusing on just a few things like speeding, idling, and checking to see if your vehicles are used after hours you can begin to identify where fuel and dollars are being wasted and then take action to reduce costs and increase profits.
The real issue is not if you use GPS to reduce costs, but when? If you do not find ways to lower your costs then your competitors will.
We like the product and services offered by FleetBoss GPS, they don't offer an out of the box solution, but help you develop the system that is right for you. I would consider looking into this today as gas prices don't appear to be coming down.
