How Trucking Companies Save on Fuel & Maintenance Cost
For decades freighting and trucking companies have been a part of the Caribbean transportation landscape. From small vehicles servicing distribution companies, to larger trucking companies moving containers and large scale equipment. Fuel costs and maintenance are one of the sector’s highest expenses.
This sector is critical to moving goods around within our countries and the region at large. So, if you’re a fleet manager of this type of company; understanding how your vehicles are performing so you have maximum uptime is critical for maintaining clients, improving efficiencies and ultimately saving operational costs. This is the case of how employing comprehensive fleet management versus just GPS tracking, can save you more, when you spend more.
High Fuel Prices
We’re no stranger to high fuel prices in Barbados. In the last year we’ve been in the top 15 highest gas prices globally with gas prices now at BDD $4.00/lt. Fuel, for many companies in this sector contributes significantly to overall operational costs. Internationally, it can be between 10% to 25% of total operating expenses annually.
Trucking Company ‘X’
Company ‘X’ has been a leader in the trucking and transportation sector in Barbados for decades. Fuel usage was one of their highest monthly costs. Spending approximately $5000 per month. Ordinarily, they monitored their monthly usage by vehicle, but with no Fleet management solution onboard, they were unable to effectively track, monitor and hence manage these costs in real-time. Trucking Company ‘X’ decided in 2018 to employ a Fleet Management service on a trial basis. For the next three months, they monitored their vehicles, driver behaviour, fuel usage, vehicle idling and of course vehicle location. Throughout the following weeks, with the help of insightful reporting from the EasyTrak platform, they were now able to observe trends, and highlight any potential challenges.
Savings and More Savings
By the end of the three month trial, their reporting showed a number of areas they could save money, idling, fuel inefficiency from vehicles and other discrepancies. Just having this information isn’t enough. However, having the data means you can now act on the results of these observations.
Trucking Company ‘X’ implemented new vehicle management and driver policies, like limiting idling times at pick up and drop off locations. Highlighting vehicles for maintenance and scheduling routine maintenance to maximise up time and limit breakdowns, even the ability to identify potential fuel theft instances contributing to high monthly costs. This comprehensive level of fleet management, enhanced internal operations significantly. Would finance have picked up some of these challenges in their reporting, eventually maybe; however the correlations identified in fleet management reporting, were identified within the short three month trial period.
Show Me The Money
Company ‘X’ spent an average of $5,000 per month; post implementation of the fleet management system and recommendations based on reporting; their monthly fuel expenses dropped to $2600 per month. With a monthly saving of $2400, 48% on total fuel cost; Company ‘X’ cut their fuel cost almost in half. Over the life of their contract they’ve now dropped fuel costs by a further $900.
How much is their monthly fleet management cost? Their fleet management package is $1000 for a fleet of several trucks and other vehicles. With an annual fleet management cost of $12,000, they are still saving more than $16,000 annually. These are just the fuel cost savings, consider maintenance and vehicle longevity, with maintenance alerts and scheduled check ups. As well as increased dispatch efficiencies through GPS monitoring.
How Can You Save Too?
Company ‘X’ is just one of many companies that’s unlocked the power of data through fleet management insights and analytics. Even if you don’t have a big budget, you can still get insights which meet your company’s needs today and grow along with you. Savings may vary, but you never know until you start. You have to measure it to ultimately manage it and we’re here to help.
If you have a small or large business, we have a suite of packages designed for your company’s needs. We’ll be sharing more case studies and customer testimonials here on Overdrive!
