How to Trim Fuel Costs for Your Business Fleet

One of the biggest cost considerations for any business fleet is centered on the fuel purchased and burned in the operation of your vehicles.

But you don’t need to be spending significant amounts of money to run your business fleet, there are some effective ways to reduce fuel costs and keep more cash in your coffers. Here are some helpful hints for reducing those necessary expenditures:

Fuel Cards

When your drivers are in charge of filling up and driving your fleet, mistakes can be made. But issuing each of your employees a fuel card can be a good way to reduce overspending.

How, you might ask? It’s simple, fuel cards can work much like standard gift cards in that you control how much money is pre-loaded on to them. That limits how much can be spent on the card and you can also take steps to restrict the items that are valid for purchase with your fuel cards.

If you prefer, you can set up each card to be applicable solely to the necessities such as gasoline, motor oil, and other items that are essential for the operation of a motor vehicle.

You can put restrictions on the card being used for anything else beyond those things. No buying coffee, snacks, or other superfluous impulse buys with a fuel card.

Another great benefit to fuel cards with a provider such as Quarles Fleet Fueling is that you can offer discounts and bonus rewards to your drivers, motivating them to be more frugal and careful with your company’s financial resources.

Planning the Best Routes

Any fleet manager knows that you plan your routes for the maximum benefit of time and profit. Failing to do so will tie your vehicles up far longer than need be, on routes that are costing you money more than making it.

That includes your fuel costs. Any vehicle driven longer and further is going to expend a more substantial amount of fuel, so it better be worth your while to have that vehicle on the road over all that time and distance.

So make a conscious effort to identify your routes carefully and take the fleet itself into consideration as well. A vehicle too large or small to accomplish the tasks you need handled can also have an impact on your fuel expenses and overall efficiency.

Smart Fleet Management

Sometimes a business can have too many vehicles in their fleet and that can result in reduced cost efficiency in all aspects, including fuel. But this doesn’t need to be a problem. It might make sense to issue vehicles to employees as company cars instead of having them use their own cars or trucks.

This can reduce the amount of money you’re spending in fuel reimbursements when an employee uses his or her own personal mode of transportation in service of the company. Issue them a vehicle and a fuel card and you’ll likely see a marked change in how much you’re spending before too long.