How to reduce your fleet costs

With economic pressure pushing up fleet-related costs, it’s important to know how to minimise your spend without compromising your fleet operations. In this blog, we’ll share some starting points to help you save while boosting your fleet’s efficiency. So, if you’re ready to take control – lean on our expertise and let’s dive in.

 

Review your fleet size and composition

It’s easy to accept the status quo, however, your company’s mobility needs will naturally evolve over time, so you should regularly review how your requirements match your fleet makeup.

Size

When a fleet vehicle is sitting idle between uses you’re still paying for it (whether in terms of funding or interest payments, maintenance costs, depreciation, etc.), so maximising utilisation is a key lever of cost savings.

Where fleet vehicles are only used some of the time, it’s worth considering alternatives such as rental or vehicle share schemes. These allow you to minimise under-utilisation either by only paying for vehicles when they’re needed (rental) or by getting more use out of the vehicles you’re already paying for.

Composition

Although you’ll need to balance fleet priorities with business and driver preferences, it’s also worth reviewing the suitability of each vehicle to meet those needs. Vehicles which are larger than you need may mean more money is spent on fuel and maintenance, as well as usually on the vehicle funding itself. At renewal time it’s important to identify what the vehicle will be expected to carry and consider downsizing to smaller models to help you shed costs without impacting operations.

Similarly, with rising fuel costs and tax incentives for lower-emission vehicles, consider replacing older petrol or diesel vehicles with electric vehicles, which can reduce your fuel, maintenance and tax-related costs over the life of the vehicle.

Unlocking the value of owned vehicles

Finally, if you have company-owned vehicles in your fleet, you can release the cash value tied up in these while continuing to use them through a Sale and Leaseback solution.

Introduce proactive maintenance

As the saying goes, ‘time is money’. Proactive vehicle maintenance helps to minimise downtime by preventing costly and unexpected breakdowns and repairs. So, implement a routine maintenance schedule and make sure it’s followed to extend the lifespan of your fleet.

Regular inspections and servicing will help you to spot any issues early, so you can address them before they escalate – and become more costly further down the line.

Promote fuel-efficient habits

As your probably know, petrol and diesel rates can vary a lot from station to station. That’s why it’s a good idea to keep a close eye on fuel station prices near to your drivers’ core routes – then communicate this across the team. Over time, you should see significant savings.

Monitoring fuel consumption is also paramount. By keeping these details to hand, you’ll be able to compare which of your vehicles are less fuel efficient. So, you can replace them with alternative more efficient models. Better yet – consider switching to electric vehicles (EVs). The upfront cost can seem high, but long-term savings can be significant.   

Invest in driver training

Poor driving habits contribute more than you might think to total fleet costs. Aggressive acceleration and deceleration leads to increased fuel use and parts wear and tear, while speeding can lead to fines, vehicle damage, insurance cost increases and loss of reputation.

When you invest in driver training programmes, you’re not only helping your drivers to stay up to date on the latest safety regulations and practices, you’re also potentially reducing your running costs, lowering insurance premiums and avoiding fines.

Use telematics and fleet management solutions

Tools such as telematics systems and fleet management solutions let you to track vehicle performance, driver behaviour, fuel consumption and much more in real-time – without adding to your admin load. This technology is on the rise because it helps companies make better, data-driven decisions to optimise fleets.