Fuel Prices – why they are rising, and what you can do to reduce your costs!
It’s a tumultuous period for anybody who operates a fleet of vehicles for their business. Fuel prices are currently rising at their fastest rate in almost two decades. If this isn’t alarming enough, the HMRC are also clamping down hard on companies who don’t accurately record their mileage expense with heavy fines and tolls for wrongdoers.
What’s the damage?
Since the oil price has surged in the last year and given the steady decrease in the strength of the pound, these two factors combined have meant the cost of petrol has dramatically increased. It was only May when the cost of petrol increased by 6p per litre in 1 month alone; pushing the average asking price around the UK to 129.41p per litre. The average price of diesel increased by even more with an average of 6.12p.
All of this means that companies who rely on expansive fleet operations, will suffer with increased fuel expense. But what can be done about it?
Experience the benefit of telematics
Telematics within the automotive industry is the field that uses technology to transmit data such as live location and speed, from your vehicles to you, the fleet manager, so that you can manage your operations more efficiently. Thousands of companies around the UK are turning to this technology as we enter deeper into a connected age where the demand for live, cloud based data becomes more of a necessity. With this technology readily available, the question is how does it benefit your company directly?
Proven savings in Telematics
Telematics gives you direct access to a wealth of in – depth information about your fleet. For example, it will indicate exactly how efficient your workforce is driving, including acceleration, braking, speeding and time spent idling with the engine on. This simple bit of information is key to help maintain an efficient fleet, whilst also giving you the power to make adjustments, save on fuel and create a safer driving environment.
In addition to driving behaviour, other factors can also influence the amount of fuel used per journey and save your company money in the long run. Telematics can ensure that your workforce is using the most efficient routes at all times. This is achieved through live links to GPS and traffic information, leading to a reduction in time spent getting to a destination address.
Finally, with recent developments in software integration, it is now possible to link your company fuel card directly to your telematics provider. This not only prevents fuel fraud amongst your fleet, but also means you avoid the task of having to manually record your mileage expense and refuelling activity. It also allows the system to accurately calculate the amount of CO2 emissions your fleet is producing, and how efficient each vehicle is being driven. Telematics creates a more enjoyable, automated working environment for both the fleet administrator and the driving workforce.
How can Fleetify help?
At Fleetify, our main goal is to make every vehicle a connected vehicle. By engineering the whole telematics process in-house (we create our own hardware and software!), we provide our clients with incredible insights into their own fleet; giving them the power to make changes that will not only save them money, but also time.
In our experience, the following features will assist any fleet operator in making savings:
- Accurate Driver Score (speeding, idle, acceleration, braking)
- Efficient routing with live traffic information
- Fuel Card integration
- Deep Dive Reporting
In addition, we can assist in analysing your company specific data, and help to make suggestions for improvements. With just a couple of small changes, savings of up to 20% can be attained across your whole fleet; with our clients on average seeing a fuel return of 12 – 15%.
With fuel prices on the rise, the time to act is now! Get in touch today to start your 30 day, no obligation free trial and find out exactly where that hole in your fuel tank is!
