As costs rise, it’s more necessary than ever to unearth savings on one of your fleet’s largest operational expenses: fuel. Reducing your construction fleet management fuel costs is possible with the help of Motive’s Integrated Operations Platform. Surveyed customers report saving 20% annually on fuel expenses through the Motive platform. In this article, you’ll discover strategies you can adopt to reduce fuel costs and improve fleet efficiency.
Know the facts: How much are construction fleet fuel costs, really?
Research shows that diesel fuel costs constitute more than 35% of diesel-powered construction equipment’s operational costs. Any fluctuations in prices and consumption can significantly impact your construction fleet’s profitability.
Looking beyond construction equipment, the American Transportation Research Institute reports that the average marginal fuel cost per mile for commercial fleets was 48.1¢ in 2024, or $19.32 an hour.
It’s not just the cost of diesel. Fraud also drives up costs. Construction leaders estimate that up to 22% of their fleet payments are lost to fraud or theft.
5 ways to lower construction fleet fuel costs
What can construction fleet managers do to save on fuel and increase profitability? The five strategies below have helped asphalt paving contractor Hardy & Harper reduce fuel spend by 24%.
1. Use fleet cards for discounts and to reduce fraud
Fleet cards provide obvious fuel savings for construction fleet managers, with cashback, discounts, and rebates. But there are other ways to save time and money with fleet cards, including fraud-reducing features, customizable spend controls, and alerts about missed savings. Look for a fleet card like the Motive Card that:
- Offers a broad network for fuel rebates, including savings on bulk fuel purchases. Many fleet fuel card programs offer per-gallon discounts or rebates. Motive offers fuel rebates at 35,000+ locations, and can easily become a bulk fuel partner for your construction fleet.
- Covers other fleet expenses, not just fuel. To extend your savings beyond fuel, the Motive Card lets you pay for fuel, maintenance, and other expenses.
- Can give you cashback on all spend. Motive’s Cashback Bundle enables qualifying customers to maximize savings with up to 2.5% cashback in the first year.
- Categorizes taxable vs. non-taxable fuel spend. See which fuel was used by on-the-road vehicles versus fuel used by your construction equipment.
- Identifies missed savings. With the Motive Card, you can see exactly where your fleet crew has missed out on savings, making it easy to identify coaching opportunities.
- Has AI-powered fraud detection. AI-powered fraud alerts automatically identify and auto-decline suspicious transactions, so you can reduce fuel fraud costs in real time.
- Helps prevent unauthorized spending. Motive lets you customize spend controls and set daily or per-purchase limits.
- Integrates into your operations. The Motive Card is part of a natively integrated platform combining fleet management and spend management. This unified system provides a more complete picture to help you analyze your construction fleet’s spending, including fuel.
Using the Motive Card, we can track where and when our drivers stop for fuel and their actual mileage between fill-ups. Fuel is one of our most significant expenses, but we had to guesstimate these figures, missing critical data points in the past…. Instead of simply monitoring our fuel spend, we can implement active measures to control it.
Businesses using the Motive Card can see returns like these:
- Up to 2.5% from cashback and rebates.
- Up to 5% back when using Motive’s fraud reduction features.
- 5% back when capturing Missed Savings.
- Up to 7% in productivity gains when using automated reporting and integrations that reduce manual errors.
2. Track fuel consumption and idling
Telematics data is another useful tool to help you understand and reduce construction fleet fuel costs. Telematics devices, such as the Motive Vehicle Gateway and Asset Gateway, connect to the vehicle or asset’s onboard systems, collect data, and transmit it to a fleet management dashboard. You can then identify driving behaviors that increase fuel consumption.
Motive, for example, can track fleet idling, distinguishing between wasteful idling (such as warming up a vehicle for an extended time) and productive idling (such as when a cement mixer needs to be in motion even while stopped).
Pro tip: When you combine fleet telematics with the Motive Card, you gain visibility into every fuel transaction, along with fleet consumption patterns, giving you a comprehensive picture of fuel usage.
3. Train drivers on fuel-efficient driving behaviors
Using telematics data, you can coach your team to become more aware of fuel-wasting habits. You can even use this data to create an incentive program to reward drivers who reduce idle time.
When behaviors like idling, harsh acceleration, and speeding occur, you can also send automated coaching tips to drivers directly through the Motive Driver App. Drivers can then see what happened and get timely guidance on how to improve their fuel economy.
4. Practice proactive maintenance
Regular fleet maintenance is an effective way to reduce fuel waste. When engines are running smoothly and tires are properly inflated, your vehicles and equipment will operate more efficiently. Staying on top of scheduled tune-ups, filter replacements, and regular inspections can prevent minor issues from turning into big problems.
Motive streamlines fleet maintenance by making it easy to create detailed inspection records, automate diagnostic and maintenance checks, and monitor issues in real time. For example, on the construction fleet management side, you can set up alerts to receive fault code notifications in real time. Then you can use this data to decide whether a vehicle can safely stay on the road or if it should be repaired immediately.
5. Plan optimized routes
The shortest path on a map isn’t always the most efficient. Heavy traffic, weather, and unauthorized stops can increase fuel use. By leveraging GPS tracking and fleet management software, you can optimize routes and avoid fuel-wasting inefficiencies.
Motive provides real-time visibility into vehicle location and traffic patterns. Dispatchers can use this insight to adjust routes and guide drivers away from delays, allowing your construction fleet vehicles to take the most fuel-efficient path.
Save on fuel costs with an integrated platform for construction fleet management
A fleet card is the most apparent way to save on construction fleet management fuel costs, but savvy fleets know they can save more by managing their construction fleet and spend management in a single platform. Motive is the only platform that unifies fleet and spend data, giving Motive customers 360-degree visibility and complete control over fleet spend.
