For trucking companies, there are two primary factors giving them anxiety: Fuel and maintenance. More specifically, the two things keeping them up at night are expensive costs related to vehicle downtime and the truckloads of dollars vanishing down their fleet’s fuel pipes.
Fleet managers find it daunting to tackle maintenance alone, let alone maintenance and fuel costs. There are a lot of reasons why these things happen, from overuse of idling to excessive speeding. Any fleet manager will tell you; truck driver behavior is the biggest cause of fuel consumption. But it is not necessarily their fault either. It is the responsibility of the trucking company to provide solutions to address these problems.
Look at the data on fuel consumption alone. According to research put out by the Department of Energy, an average Class 8 tractor-trailer uses 12,889 gallons of gasoline per year, while a light duty commercial motor vehicle uses 524 gallons of gasoline per year. Now, multiply that number by your fleet size. If you operate a mid-size trucking company with around 50 Class 8 rigs, you can expect to spend well over half-a-million dollars per year on fuel. That is no small number.
Obviously, you want to get the most out of your equipment and get the best performance from your truck drivers. Sure, there are a dozen different strategies you can attempt to lower fuel consumption, but that does not mean one or all of them are best for your trucking company. Still, there are customizable solutions.
GPS/Telematics technology have significantly made a big difference in how fleet managers get the job done. How can you use it to reduce costs and improve vehicle and truck driver performance? Well, it is quite simple, really.
Using Integrated Systems
We have talked about data before. And we do because it is an important topic. You can use real time data when you install devices in your vehicles that can report it back to you. You no longer must call your truck drivers to get a status update on a job, or where they are in their route. Truck drivers appreciate integrated solutions that make communication between them and the home office much easier.
There is also a safety consideration. States all over the country are passing laws and statutes to address distracted driving. Trucking companies need to be at the leading edge of these new regulations to keep their reputations intact. They should be comfortable using data-centric systems that allow their truck drivers to focus on the road and not have to pick up the phone because dispatch is calling.
A wise fleet invests in a solution that allows them to log into a portal and query a map of all your vehicles and their locations. Because you know where your fleet is in real time, you can schedule pick-ups and drop-offs more efficiently and, more importantly, safely. If you need to find the closest truck driver around for a last-minute job, you can. This helps you cut down on fuel costs while ensuring you keep your clients happy.
Consider setting up real-time alerts of an event. Why? Because this will help you increase your fleet’s overall level of safety. You can use integrated systems to receive notifications of when a rig is speeding, the length of the speeding event, where the speeding occurred, and the top speed reached. Location data also gives you a window into what led up to a speeding event. Not only does this help you increase safety and prevent ticket costs, but collaboration between fleet managers and truck drivers always yields desirable results.
When you can track where your truck drivers are and you can see how much they have been idling in real time, you can prevent it in real time. Idling a big rig takes about a gallon of fuel per hour. The amount of idle time your trucking company experiences varies depending on the type of runs you make. It is not hard to do the math on that. You need to find holistic ways to generate fuel savings.
On average, idling costs tens of thousands of dollars in fuel each year. That is a huge cost for any company. Fuel costs can make or break a trucking company. Over-idling not only increases fuel costs, but it can be harmful to the engine and other parts of the vehicle as well. As a result, you will have to take it in for unscheduled maintenance more often than you would have to otherwise. Increased fuel costs directly correspond with higher maintenance costs.
Addressing Back Office Systems
The best way to implement these changes is to take what you have now and make it faster and more efficient. When you make efforts to increase operational capacity through greater efficiency, the entire business benefits. What you need to do is integrate with your current systems to simplify processes and reduce the amount of billing cycles. This way you will bring revenue in faster to your business.
By streamlining your businesses electronically and reducing the need for paper processes, you can see more accurate billing. Inaccuracies in billing can cripple an organization. It is not about leaving stray dollars and cents around. Billing issues can be incredibly problematic from an operational perspective.
Electronic ticketing allows you to create custom workflows for your drivers and operators, so you can receive the most accurate data possible. Instead of having the driver fill out a regular form and hope for accuracy, you can program steps which they will need to follow so that nothing is missed. Being able to custom program these actions allows you to make custom scenarios depending on the driver.
Using the information provided in integrated systems, fleet managers can determine the exact time a truck driver has spent waiting for a job to load and unload. This allows them to receive more precise billing and provide better service to their customers. There are plenty of systems that have a feature that will show how long your driver has been at the job, and lets you bill the customer for actual time. This takes guessing out of the equation.
Trucking companies also can scan and attach receipts or other necessary paperwork for billing purposes. Normally, a fleet manager would have to wait for the truck driver to return and hand in pieces of paper with the required information on it. But we have seen the signs in things like the ELD mandate: The days of paper are long gone. It is time for trucking companies to adapt to the new reality.
Finally, your accounting office can integrate into these new systems and be expanded to include truck driver pay. This allows you to reduce the amount accounting time spent on truck driver payroll. What do you wind up with? Happier truck drivers because you are ensuring they get their money in a faster turnaround time.
Tracking Your Equipment
It is important for you to be able to track your assets and monitor your equipment’s health. After all, your trucks and your trailers are the backbone of your operation. But consider that you can use an integrated solution to do much more than simply “keep track” of your equipment. You can also use it to decrease fuel costs.
Cut down on your fuel costs through asset or trailer tracking. Asset tracking solutions are generally easy-to-install and cost effective. Not only that, they are a great way to make sure all your important and expensive assets in the field are safe. You spend a lot of time and money on amassing your fleet. The last thing anyone needs is to lose track of what is going on with the rigs on the road.
The value with asset/trailer tracking is that you know where all your assets are located. This way you can ensure you eliminate unnecessary fuel costs by trying to raise around to track down your equipment. You can also use these systems to put time and attention into those assets that need attention versus going out into the field to visually inspect all the equipment.
The fact is if you run a fleet of any more than one, you should be investing in solutions that help you better keep track of your equipment, cut down on unnecessary fuel costs, and decrease your maintenance needs. Doing anything less would be doing a disservice to your fleet!