The global supply chain has become increasingly complex over time. With the rise of Amazon, consumers expect packages to arrive the next day or even the same day, which requires extensive planning. The industry has also seen a growing number of regulations designed to accomplish everything from curbing emissions to ensuring food safety.

The ATA’s Technology and Maintenance Council (TMC) recently surveyed 12 of the top 15 trailer rental/lease companies in North America to learn about the technologies they use, their experiences and challenges with them, what their customers use/request, and their plans for the future. The group published these findings in an extensive research report and outlined them in a recent webinar.

Let’s look at these findings and where the smart trailer market is heading over the coming years.

A mobile resource management report by C.J. Driscoll and Associates, published in early 2019, suggested 23 percent of the six million trailers in operation had some sort of tracking electronics. Information regarding the future of trailer electronics was presented in 2019 at the Truckload Carriers Association 81st Annual Convention. At that event, panelists forecasted the industry would increase the use of mobile resource management (telematics/trailer tracking)
to 42 percent by next year, 2022.

Industry Challenges

The trucking industry has never been busier than it is today, but at the same time, it faces many challenges: There’s a driver shortage, fuel costs are on the rise, trailer leases booked for over a year, and the list goes on.

The TMC’s webinar focused on three significant challenges:

• Theft: Cargo theft is a $15 billion to $35 billion problem in the United States, according to the NICB. Depending on the cargo, thieves can steal thousands to millions of dollars worth of merchandise, such as electronics or pharmaceuticals.

• Safety: The Food Safety and Modernization Act introduced new rules for refrigerated transportation. At the same time, Wal-Mart and other retailers have requirements that go above and beyond government regulations to ensure food safety.

• Regulation: Environmental regulations have become increasingly strict for trucking companies. For example, a new trailer proposal in California would require newly manufactured reefers to use a refrigerant that doesn’t have a negative global warming impact.

In addition to these challenges, trailers are held for even longer periods of time. Trailer service life has often been quoted being 15-20 years. The study shared that some first-time buyers of a trailer may keep it for as little as 5-7 years based on the original equipment manufacturer
(OEM) warranty, while others may keep the trailer for 20-25 years. Final use of a trailer is often as storage at businesses and farms.

Many of these challenges are solvable with the help of technology. For example, Powerfleet’s reefer trailer tracking and monitoring solution, the LV-400, enables companies to provide retailers with documented temperature and humidity readings during transit rather than just at the point of loading and unloading the trailer. Similarly, liftgate monitoring and GPS tracking can help prevent theft and aid recovery.

Technology Push vs. Pull

Technology suppliers are always coming up with new ideas to solve these problems. Many of these technologies follow a similar growth curve, known as the Gartner Hype Cycle. The TMC’s report looks at new fleet technologies through the lens of the Gartner Hype Cycle to understand where fleets are in the adoption process.

Gartner Hype Cycle – Source: Wikipedia

According to TMC’s report, a number of examples in the trucking industry (e.g., ABS, automated mechanical transmissions, digital displays) have shown it takes 20-30 years for a new innovation to go from start to a high percentage of new production and may never reach 100 percent unless mandated by law.

The report hypothesized that rental and leasing fleets can be a way of testing new technology in a variety of applications while minimizing risk. The survey conducted asked about their interest and that of their customers in the following technology areas for trailers:

• Trailer global positioning system (GPS)
• 3G/4G/5G telecommunications
• Variable frequency tracking/location updates
• Geofencing
• Door open/closed
• Loaded/empty status
• Interior temperature/humidity
• Power source
• Reefer/heater monitoring
• Tire pressure management
• Liftgate monitoring
• Wheel end and brake monitoring
• Backup and/or proximity sensors/cameras
• Onboard trailer weigh scales
• Light and/or electrical gateway hubs

With a 2.5-to-1 trailer-to-tractor ratio, most innovation focuses on the four to six million trailers in North America alone. For example, real-time tracking and predictive analytics aim to optimize asset utilization, reduce maintenance costs, improve safety, and reduce liability. These technologies will help boost efficiency and generate a meaningful ROI.

The key is suppliers and fleets working together to develop and implement these solutions. To that end, the TMC’s eSMART program is looking to create standards that ensure interoperability between different technology platforms and ultimately transform trailers from “dumb throwaways” to smart assets that generate an ROI.

4 Important Takeaways

The TMC webinar looked at four of the 12 essential technologies that fall along the Gartner Hype Cycle. The researchers look at the current state of adoption, what’s holding back fleets, issues and concerns, and potential benefits. This data could help both fleets and suppliers ensure that they’re keeping up with the latest trends.

The four critical areas include:

• Solar Power: The researchers found a high rate of solar adoption because battery power is often insufficient to meet trailer needs when disconnected from the tractor. Solar is a way to extend battery life and simplify recharging, especially in older trailers ill-equipped for smart products.

• Standardization: The researchers found that the lack of industry standards is a significant impediment to technology adoption. Many rental/lease fleets have one or two preferred telematics providers but want to ensure that technologies from different providers work together, particularly when it comes to data generation. Since these fleets deal with tens and hundreds of different carriers, they are interested in standardization to make installation and maintenance easier and less prone to failures.

• Customers: The researchers point out that customers are the most significant driver of technological change. While GPS is a ubiquitous requirement, many customers aren’t asking for telematics yet. Instead, rental/lease fleets are exploring telematics on their own as a way to differentiate their trailers from the competition.

• Field Upgrades: Over-the-air updates are inherently harder for trailers than tractors since there’s not always a power source of cellular connection. Hardware upgrades can be even more time-consuming than software updates. In addition to picking the right technology, fleets must ensure they can keep them updated. For example, the 3G sunset is underway and fleets are needing to address their existing technologies before they become obsolete.

Powerfleet provides a range of solutions designed to address these needs and requirements. For example, our award-winning trailer tracking LV-500 provides solar-powered super-capacitors and long-lasting batteries, enabling optimal visibility of assets and cargo, along with over-the-air updates and a powerful AI to translate data into actionable insights.

The Bottom Line

Smart trailers are still early in the Gartner Hype Cycle, but some technologies offer a considerable benefit already. Rental/Lease Fleets are increasingly getting requests for additional features for more intelligence on trailers. Over the coming years, fleets can look for many of these technologies to standardize and evolve to become more reliable. Meanwhile, early adopters can benefit from the valuable experience and early ROI.

The TMC’s full report looks at everything from electronic device failovers to 4G vs. 5G to GPS issues. To learn more about Powerfleet’s smart trailer solutions and more such as trailer tracking, freight cameras, dash cams, ELDs, visit our Logistics solutions page or contact us to speak to a telematics expert.

From plumbers to maintenance/warranty service professionals, many organizations have one foot in the transportation business with their field service fleets. Managing these private fleets can be a headache for companies that are already busy with their core business. Fortunately, new technologies have made it much easier to manage commercial vehicle fleets while opening the door to new opportunities.

Let’s look at four ways to leverage technology to automate mission-critical tasks and open the door to new capabilities.

#1. Track Assets with GPS

Most drivers already use GPS navigation to find their way to client sites, but relatively few businesses use the same technology to track company vehicles. Rather than calling drivers to get a status update or checking lots for a vehicle, GPS technologies make it easy to see real-time locations on a web or mobile dashboard without any effort.

There are several other benefits to tracking vehicles:

• Dispatchers have greater visibility into vehicle locations when talking with customers or assigning jobs.
• Customers can track the real-time location of delivery vehicles or accurately estimate the arrival times of technicians.
• Business owners can see where vehicles are located across different areas and maximize fleet utilization.

The same technology can also help reduce risk:

• Many insurance companies offer discounts to GPS-enabled fleets since the technology reduces the likelihood of theft or loss.
• Business owners can prevent inappropriate vehicle use by employees, such as running personal errands.

#2. Improve Safety with Telematics

Driver safety is always a top priority. In addition to the human costs of an accident, companies could be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars—or even millions—in damages along with permanently higher insurance premiums. Driver training and ride-alongs can help improve safety, but it’s a tedious and costly process that ties up employees.

Telematics solutions provide real-time insights into driver behavior that you can use to automate driver assessments, build incentive programs for good driving, and retrain poor drivers to reduce the risk of accidents. For example, you can measure speeding, harsh braking, sudden acceleration, and cornering and tie those behaviors to specific drivers.

Powerfleet’s Vista makes it easy to manage your fleet – Source: Powerfleet

In addition to driver telematics, integrated cargo-hold sensors can monitor temperature and humidity, as well as provide alerts when there’s a sudden shock that might cause movement. These technologies can help eliminate the need for drivers to monitor cargo-hold conditions and help businesses defend against unwarranted damage claims.

Dashcams can augment these telematics to provide another layer of security. Cameras give the drivers 360-degree situational awareness and businesses video evidence to support insurance claims when incidents occur. Integration with telematics solutions also ensures meaningful driver scores and captures footage of dangerous events.

#3. Plan Better with Analytics

The best way to make any decision is with the right data. With vehicle locations, driver behaviors, and other data points, fleet management software can automatically optimize routes to reduce time and maximize fuel efficiency. You can also gain insights into the average deliveries a driver makes or the average time a technician spends at a job site.

In addition to improving the customer experience and reducing stress for employees with optimal routes, the same data points can help optimize asset utilization. For example, you can analyze vehicle usage patterns to right-size your fleet and reduce costs. Or, you can confidently time vehicle purchases for when you know there’s ample utilization potential.

More data is also helpful when building budgets. With granular data covering fuel consumption, vehicle maintenance, and other costs, managers can create more accurate forecasts to help businesses better manage their cash flow. Applying artificial intelligence can further improve these forecasts by searching for deeper patterns in the data.

#4. Preventative Maintenance

Vehicle breakdowns are frustrating for everyone, but they can be exceptionally costly for businesses. When a company vehicle breaks down, businesses lose out on potential revenue while still paying employees. You may even have to pay for towing and emergency rates to ensure that the vehicle is quickly repaired and back on the road.

Telematics goes beyond looking at the odometer for maintenance. Instead, you can gain access to over-the-air diagnostics and implement preventative maintenance that’s determined by wear-and-tear, not miles driven. The result is fewer breakdowns, lower maintenance costs, and improved fleet utilization and profitability over time.

Predictive maintenance technologies can also help determine when it’s time to replace fleet assets. With proper planning, you can typically negotiate better deals than a last-minute vehicle replacement and group purchases to obtain volume discounts. You can even use usage data to determine the optimal vehicle make and model for the job.

Powerfleet’s Platform

Powerfleet’s Field Service Management Platform is an integrated solution specifically engineered to solve the complex challenges of next-gen fleet operators, regardless of size.

The platform makes it easy to:

• Establish data-driven and goal-oriented safety and productivity measures across your fleet to improve constantly.
• Track real-time locations for fleet assets and create customizable geofences to simplify management.
• Plan optimized routes for enhanced ETAs, less stressful driving experiences, and a better customer experience.
• Measure everything from fuel usage to the temperature and humidity of the cargo hold in real-time.
• Protect assets with real-time monitoring of locations and dashcams to provide unparalleled visibility.

Powerfleet provides simple ordering, training, and onboarding to minimize downtime and realize an immediate return on investment. If any issues arise, we provide 24/7 customer support to help keep your fleet running smoothly.

Contact us today to learn more!

The Bottom Line

Managing a fleet is no small task, but technology simplifies the job. With Powerfleet’s Field Service Management solutions, you can access unparalleled visibility and streamline your workflows. In addition, the relatively low cost and widespread benefits of these solutions can help create a rapid payback period and attractive long-term ROI.

Contact us today to schedule a free consultation!

Cellular network providers have started to phase out their 2G and 3G networks to make room for newer spectrum like 5G, which means that older technologies using these networks will soon be offline.

If you haven’t upgraded to 4G LTE-enabled devices, your fleet could be at risk for near-term network latency and connectivity issues—essentially losing visibility of your fleet assets. In addition, if you don’t have a plan to upgrade, you could find your entire fleet offline over the coming year as carriers begin to deactivate 2G and 3G networks entirely. Putting together a migration plan now is critical to avoid these problems and unlock benefits.

In our recent webinar, “What the 3G Sunset Means for My Fleet and How to Prepare”, we hosted a panel of experts from Kore Wireless, Milestone, our Chief Product Officer, and Vice President of Account Management to discuss what the 3G Sunset is about, the urgency behind why fleets should upgrade now, key considerations, and real-world experiences and best practices from our customers. Read on for an overview of the webinar and key take-aways

Why You Should Act Now

Global mobile network operators must cater to consumer demand for streaming, gaming, and data consumption. As cellular devices and data-hungry applications proliferate, network capabilities must increase to meet those demands. With a finite spectrum, network operators must decide between investing in new spectrum or repurposing their existing spectrum.

The idea of repurposing spectrum began in 2016 when AT&T eliminated its 2G network, impacting an estimated 10 million active 2G connections. Many other major network operators have followed suit by sunsetting their 2G and even 3G networks—it’s a logical and natural progression as consumers embrace newer 5G technologies with higher speeds.

Some of the current sunset dates include:

• T-Mobile in October 2021
• AT&T in February 2022
• Sprint in December 2022
• Verizon at the end of 2022

The immediate impact on IoT solutions that have been relying on 2G and 3G technology is forced obsolescence of these existing connections. What must be realized is that migration is a when, not if, scenario. Companies need a good future-proof migration strategy that will not put their business at risk. In addition to vague and moving timelines, the actual sunset process is likely already occurring as network operators start repurposing spectrum in some geographic markets, slowing down these networks and impacting connectivity.

What actually happens when sunset occurs? It’s not like switching off a light. It will be progressive and it will begin with a gradual repurposing of the 3G bands. Think of a seven-lane freeway with each lane representing a network operator’s band or frequency. As they re-farm those frequencies over to newer technologies, existing lanes get fewer. Thus the same amount of traffic needs to route over fewer lanes which could cause traffic congestion. It could even affect connectivity. This refarming may start before the actual sunset date as network operators identify geographic areas where little or no 3G network resource is being utilized. The takeaway here is that you don’t have the time you think you have whether you’re a small fleet or large.

How to Choose Upgrades

In a poll conducted, we found that many companies haven’t upgraded from 3G yet because they’re still evaluating technology providers, while others have budget limitations or think the sunset date will get pushed out. While addressing the need to migrate to 4G LTE networks, trucking companies should also take the opportunity to evaluate and select the optimal solutions and partner/provider to get the latest technology and minimize cost/risk.

There are many different factors to keep in mind when upgrading to new telematics solutions. For example, two-way communication, over-the-air firmware upgrades, frequency of reporting, battery life, where you need coverage or if you need roaming capability, communication or environmental certifications, and device accessibility for servicing should be taken into account. Budget constraints, timeframes, and compatibility with existing technologies across your fleet are other challenges to be considered.

There are a few steps to choosing the right device upgrades:

• Identify essential requirements, such as battery life, environment, throughput, security, voice support, and module cost. Different devices have different capabilities for particular use cases, such as simple sensors versus telematic hub devices.
• Assess how upgrades will impact other technologies in place—such as fleet management solutions—and people—including dispatchers, customer support, and other personnel, and plan for those impacts.
• Evaluate new advances now available, such as Bluetooth technology, longer battery life/power management, and video solutions.

In addition to the technical merits, trucking companies should work with companies that can help them with migration and ongoing support. The best telematics companies have a strong reputation within the industry, as well as dedicated support teams to assist with installation and maintenance over time to minimize any disruptions.

Developing a Migration Plan and Deployment Considerations

Don’t let the degradation of 3G networks affect your fleet. Planning is essential to the success of any migration from 3G to 4G LTE or other solutions. While choosing the right technologies is half the battle, successful implementation requires coordination between many different teams, technologies, and resources, which can be daunting to even small fleets with relatively few drivers and vehicles.

The best plans address several concerns:

• Schedules: Customers should know when assets are out of commission for upgrades; maintenance teams need to be at the right place at the right time; dispatchers must understand how to use new technologies; and vendors provide delivery estimates.
• Resources: Upgrades aren’t a one-person project. You have to think about all critical internal and external team members, ranging from vendors to customers. That said, these teams should have a point person responsible for keeping everything on track.
• Equipment: Document all of your equipment and locations. What kind of change outs are needed? Do you need to upgrade gateways or sensors? Match equipment with resources to ensure that someone is responsible for each item.
• Inventory Management: Order devices in a way that ensures inventory is in the right place at the right time. When trucks come in for maintenance, instrumentation should be ready for installation to avoid unnecessary delays and costly downtime.
• Portal Integrations: Many of these devices seed portals that dispatchers, maintenance, and customers use. Ensure that device changeouts don’t affect these integrations in any way. Data should be consistent with minimal downtime.
• Customer Support: Customer-facing teams should be trained and knowledgeable on new technologies. Customers should understand that you plan to address the 3G sunset with minimal disruption.

In addition to these concerns, trucking companies must contend with near-term supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19 and chipmaker issues. Modems, cables, chipsets, and even resins are in short supply. Talk with device providers to understand their lead time and ensure no unexpected delays can throw off even the most well-laid plans.

Partnering with an Expert

The easiest way to ensure a smooth migration from 2G or 3G solutions to the right 4G LTE solutions is to work with an expert partner. Rather than simply selling a device or network access, these partners can help at a deeper level to determine the optimal solutions for your fleet and ensure that those solutions are properly installed and maintained over time.

Powerfleet provides a broad range of 4G LTE-compatible solutions across all asset types, from intermodal equipment to in-cab solutions to trailer and reefer to cargo visibility—a true bumper-to-bumper solution. These solutions are purpose-built from the devices and sensors to software solutions to make sense of the location and conditions of assets. You can easily access asset locations, key performance indicators, and other essential data.

Powerfleet works with some of the most recognizable brands in the world, from Walmart to Knight Transportation. Unlike many competitors, we have an extensive track record of experience, a deep understanding of customer requirements, and we can help you scale from a few assets to large fleets while adhering to best practices. Milestone Equipment has been using Powerfleet solutions for asset visibility and to track utilization. During our 3G sunset webinar, our customer at Milestone shared what his experience has been like working with Powerfleet to upgrade his fleet of chassis.

The Bottom Line

Visibility is obviously critical for all assets. Some assets have more sensitive information needs such as reefers with FSMA requirements and ELDs with hours of service requirements. The risk of waiting to upgrade from 3G may not just jeopardize fleet visibility and operational execution but also regulatory requirements.

The 3G sunset is quickly approaching, and trucking companies should begin the migration process as soon as possible. By selecting the right technologies and developing a migration plan, you can ensure that upgrades are within budget and minimize the risk of disruptions. Powerfleet can be your trusted partner throughout this process to ensure its success.

Contact us today to schedule a free consultation to start your migration! Also, check out the recording of our webinar to listen to the Q&A at the end for additional insights.

Auto vehicle theft is a common problem in the United States. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, auto theft rose 9.2% to 873,080 thefts in 2020, making it the largest theft year in the past decade by a significant margin. These thefts range from stealing an entire vehicle to a simple smash-and-grab of valuables in plain sight. Summers prove to be the worst season for vehicle theft, which is why the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has declared July as National Vehicle Theft Prevention Month. 

Commercial fleets are no exception to the rule. Smash-and-grab thieves often target fleet vehicles when drivers make deliveries, pick up cargo, or make service or sales calls to a business. Drivers are often preoccupied by the task at hand and do not fully appreciate the value of the items in the vehicle since they don’t own them.

Let’s look at a few strategies that you can use to secure your fleet against theft and associated threats.

Every 43.8 seconds a vehicle is stolen in the US.

Basic Security Principles

There are several essential security precautions that fleet owners should take to minimize the risk of vehicle theft.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau recommends four layers of protection against vehicle theft:

1. Common Sense: Don’t leave keys in the vehicle, lock doors and windows, and park in well-lit areas.
2. Warning Devices: Install column collars, steering wheel locks, brake locks, and aftermarket alarms.
3. Immobilizing Devices: Use intelligent keys, fuse cut-offs, kill switches, disablers, and wireless ignition.
4. Tracking Devices: Install tracking devices to help authorities recover stolen vehicles and catch those responsible.

The NICB also recommends a few ways to prevent smash-and-grabs and other crimes of opportunity:

1. Visibility: Install the darkest legal limit of a tint of vehicle windows and remove or hide any valuables.
2. Protection: Install metal mesh, build secure compartments to hold valuable tools, and reinforce door locks.
3. Identifiers: Mark all tools and equipment with permanent identifiers and catalog them to increase recovery chances.
4. Deterrents: Add stickers that indicate the vehicle has additional security measures or consider security lights.

Implementing these basic security principles requires a combination of technology and behavioral changes.

Improving Security with Technology

Telematics and video solutions such as dash-cameras are essential to implementing many basic security principles across a fleet.

Some technology to consider:

• Dash-cams: Dash-cams provide video evidence from a driver and road perspective. Powerfleet Vista goes a step further by leveraging 360-degree cameras and artificial intelligence to analyze and proactively manage risky driving and security incidents rather than just using video as evidence after the fact.
• Geofencing: Geofencing involves setting work area boundaries on a map. If a vehicle leaves the perimeter, fleet owners can receive an alert and proactively follow up. Powerfleet Vista makes it easy to set up and update a geofence from a web-based dashboard and receive alerts when vehicles deviate from their course.
• Sensors: Tamper sensors help identify attempted theft as it’s occurring by sending alerts. Powerfleet Vista’s Parking Mode automatically triggers an alert and starts recording a video if there is a sudden jolt when the vehicle is off.
• Access Control: Access controls can help fleet owners control who is driving a vehicle, limit drive times, and easily determine which driver was in a vehicle when an incident occurred.
• Panic Buttons: Most vehicle thefts occur when nobody is in the vehicle, but there’s a risk of armed robbery in many high-value industries. In these cases, panic buttons can alert owners and authorities when a theft occurs without a phone.

Powerfleet Vista’s powerful user interface. Source: Powerfleet

Many different companies provide telematics solutions, but few have Powerfleet’s technology and experience. With a wide range of solutions designed for fleets of any size, we can help build a fully integrated solution that’s easy to manage with a web-based dashboard or add-on to existing fleet management solutions.

Building a Security-Focused Culture

The best technology in the world is useless if managers and employees don’t use it, which makes employee training essential.

There are a few key steps to take:

• Background Checks: Conduct employee background checks before hiring them. Employee-involved crime occurs in virtually every industry, and employers should know as much as possible about prospective employees before hiring them.
• Driver Training: Driving isn’t an employee’s primary responsibility, so it’s easy for training to fall through the cracks. In addition to covering the basics, driver training should cover security policies, such as locking doors and activating alarms.
• Manager Training: Owners and managers should also have the proper training to ensure they can use security tools from a fleet management perspective. For example, they should know how to create and update geofences and receive alerts.

It might make sense to appoint a fleet security officer with law enforcement or legal background to protect fleet assets in larger fleets. These officers would be responsible for everything from developing the proper training and operational policies to overseeing the data generated from the telematics and dash-cams across the fleet.

Benefits Beyond Security

Many of these technologies may seem like overkill for security, but fortunately, they provide a wide range of other benefits that can help improve your business’s bottom line.

Some key non-security benefits to keep in mind:

• Driver Safety: Telematics solutions can detect unsafe driving behavior. Using these data points, managers can reward safe driving or retrain employees with a negative pattern of driving habits.
• Fuel Efficiency: Telematics solutions can help improve fuel efficiency by encouraging better driving habits, maintaining parts, and monitoring fuel efficiency levels.
• Better Maintenance: Telematics solutions go beyond simple miles driven to get an accurate idea of when maintenance is required. That way, you can prevent breakdowns and minimize costs.
• Legal Defense: Telematics and dash-cam footage can help defend and exonerate drivers. In addition, the presence of these technologies may help lower insurance costs.

These benefits play a vital role in the payback period and return on investment of telematics solutions.

The Bottom Line

Vehicle theft is on the rise, and commercial vehicles are no exception. Fortunately, there are many ways to protect your fleet with a combination of best practices, technology, and employee education.

Powerfleet provides a wide range of telematics and dash-cam solutions for your fleet. In addition to improving security, these solutions can help you increase fuel economy, reduce maintenance costs, and promote better safety, providing a near-term payback period and high return on investment.

Our solutions are easy to install and operate, and they can run as a stand-alone platform or as an integral component of other fleet management systems. Wireless connectivity supports 4G LTE for telematics components, while built-in Wi-Fi supports auxiliary cameras for a 360-degree view at all times.

Schedule a demo today!

Fuel costs represent about 60% of a fleet’s total operating budget, according to Automotive Fleet, making it a top management priority. While fuel prices have been relatively stable over the past few years, that doesn’t mean that they will remain that way forever. Fuel cost management will continue to be essential until electrification becomes commonplace.

Let’s take a look at five ways to improve your service fleet’s fuel efficiency using telematics and other technologies.

#1. Improve Driving Behavior

Obeying the speed limit and gently accelerating and braking can improve fuel economy by 15% to 30% at highway speeds and 10% to 40% in stop-and-go traffic, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, which can have a significant impact on fuel costs. While driver training is a good first step, in-vehicle feedback has been shown to improve fuel efficiency by 6.6%.

In addition to hurting fuel economy, poor driving behaviors can increase wear and tear on vehicles. Sudden braking wears out braking pads and rotors, abruptly shifting from reverse to drive strains the drivetrain and driving on an empty tank causes excessive heat on the fuel pump—all of which can lead to worse fuel economy over time.

Telematics solutions make it easy for businesses to track excess idling, speed and aggressive driving behaviors rather than relying on derivative measures like miles per gallon (mpg). You can retrain employees that speed or engage in aggressive driving tactics while rewarding good driving behavior to incentivize better fuel economy across the fleet.

#2. Monitor & Maintain Vehicles

You cannot improve what you don’t measure. That’s why every company with a vehicle fleet should—at a minimum—track miles per gallon (mpg). While mpg readings are available in each vehicle, telematics solutions can make it much easier to remotely gather the information across an entire fleet. You can also generate useful comparisons to identify abnormalities in specific vehicles.

Driving behavior may influence mpg to a large extent, but maintenance issues can lead to a sudden and insidious drop in fuel economy. For instance, dirty fuel injectors, misaligned tires, or bad spark plugs can lead to a drop in fuel economy without necessarily triggering any conventional in-vehicle maintenance alerts, silently hurting your fuel economy.

Preventative maintenance is the best way to avoid these issues. With telematics, you can schedule maintenance based on more than just raw mileage, incorporating drive time, driver behavior and the vehicle’s past issues. These efforts can help lower costs by scheduling repairs in advance, keeping fuel economy optimal and avoiding on-the-road emergencies.

#3. Consider Fleet Upgrades

A vehicle’s miles per gallon (mpg) is a significant factor when building a fleet. As new models come out with higher mpg ratings, companies can reduce their fuel costs by simply cycling out older model years and replacing them with newer model years. Businesses should take advantage of opportunities to upgrade when the right incentives are in place.

The rise of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles has had an especially significant impact on mpg. For example, plug-in hybrid vans can provide 30 to 40 miles of zero-emission driving range and more than 300 miles of total range. Newer fully electric vans are expected to hit the market in 2022 with more than 125 miles of range (average commercial vans go 74 miles daily).

Of course, fleet or operations managers are often under a lot of pressure to keep aging vehichles on the road and new purchases are often deferred as long as possible. Vehicle conversions, retrofits and repowers can be used to modify existing vehicles to use alternative fuels and other advanced technologies, which may be a lower-cost way to improve fuel economy in some cases.

#4. Plan Better Routes

Another logical way to reduce fuel costs is to simply drive less, and you can do that by planning more efficient routes. For example, if you have a combination of scheduled and ad-hoc assignments, job site visits or deliveries, you can improve efficiency by incorporating the ad-hoc assignments into the normal schedule rather than at the end of a route.

Telematics solutions can help improve dynamic routing with real-life insights. If routing software relies on posted speed limits, telematics can improve estimates by taking into account rush hour traffic, a driver’s average speed and other factors. Avoiding heavy traffic can help alleviate excess idling. These efforts can both minimize the number of miles driven and ensure that schedules are realistic.

In addition to optimizing routes, telematics solutions can also identify when individual vehicles deviate from a planned route and where they spend their time. You can identify employees that are taking excessive breaks, running personal errands or making other unauthorized vehicle use or unplanned stops, which can both eat into fuel efficiency and cost the business money in other ways.

#5. Control Fuel Spending

Fuel cards are an easy way for businesses to manage fuel and maintenance expenses. They make it easy to control employee spending, identify fraud or misuse, track purchases online and provide discounts at the pump. Many fuel cards even enable businesses to access detailed reports on fuel costs and spending to identify ways to save.

In addition to saving at the pump, businesses may want to consider optimizing routes around low-cost fueling stations. There are many different resources to help identify the lowest cost gas stations in a given area. Planning routes and topping off fuel at these locations can help significantly lower costs over time and optimize station-specific rewards.

The Bottom Line

Fuel costs represent more than half of a fleet’s overall budget. Fortunately, there are many ways to reduce these costs, ranging from improving driver behavior to planning better routes. Telematics solutions are at the core of these capabilities, enabling businesses to track everything from miles per gallon to unsafe driver behaviors.

Powerfleet provides a wide range of telematics solutions designed to help you measure and reduce fuel costs. The technology can be added to any vehicle to add detailed telematics, enabling granular analysis of fuel trends and helping you identify ways to save—including using many of the tips that we’ve mentioned above.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you!