Reduce fleet expenses by minimizing unexpected vehicle breakdowns, optimizing fuel consumption, automating tasks, and reducing administrative burden.
As a fleet manager, you’ll want to reduce expenses wherever possible.
Trucking companies have to keep data to stay in compliance with various regulations. Why not turn that to your advantage by using that same data to reduce fleet expenses? Here are seven ways to do just that.
Reduce fleet expenses with these 7 tips
1. Save on maintenance and repair costs
According to a recent study, the average cost per roadside repair event has increased from $311 in the fourth quarter of 2017 to $334 in the fourth quarter of 2018. This cost doesn’t include tire repairs, which would drive it up even higher. Moreover, repairing something on the side of the road may cost about four times higher than doing it in your own shop.
This data reveals how costly unexpected vehicle breakdowns can be. You can save on these costs by using vehicle diagnostic data to plan vehicle repairs. If you have a Motive ELD and are on the Plus plan, you can look at fault codes and make an informed decision on whether to have a vehicle repaired right away or plan future maintenance.
2. ELD violations
ELD violations now affect CSA scores. Drivers could also be placed out of service for at least 10 hours if they don’t have an ELD. Out-of-service truckers can cost trucking companies thousands of dollars, especially when you add up fines, penalties, towing charges, and any money that the drivers would have made if they’d been able to drive.
Save money by getting an FMCSA-registered ELD that helps you avoid these violations. If you’re in the market for a new ELD, make sure it doesn’t include any up-front hardware costs.
3. Automate IFTA reporting
Manually calculating IFTA reports takes time and effort, and can also lead to inconsistencies and errors.
The Motive ELD automatically keeps track of miles driven and fuel purchases by jurisdiction. By using that information, you can easily calculate IFTA reports. You can add fuel purchases individually or in bulk by uploading a CSV file from your fuel vendor. Drivers can also upload fuel purchases and receipts on-the-go from the Motive Electronic Logbook App.
By tracking the distance each vehicle travels in each jurisdiction, Motive successfully helps fleet managers with the most challenging part of the IFTA-calculation process.
4. Be more fuel efficient
Long-haul trucks typically idle for about 1,800 hours per year. It may cost a trucking company up to $5,000 per year. In addition to wasting fuel, one hour of idling per day for one year results in the equivalent of 64,000 miles in engine wear.
With Motive Plus, you can accurately track and pull idle-time reports. These idling reports include start time, duration, location, and total fuel consumed. By tracking excessive idling across your fleet and identifying drivers who idle for too long or too frequently, you can achieve substantial gains in fuel efficiency.
After identifying drivers who idle often, you can also initiate coaching programs to rectify the problem and optimize fuel consumption.
Fuel cards are another way to save money, as most fuel card providers offer discounts for using them. They can also make fuel purchase tracking easier.
5. Reduce insurance premiums
The smaller your fleet, the more you pay in insurance premiums. According to the American Transportation Research Institute, small carriers pay 59% higher premiums than big fleets.
The Motive App Marketplace is home to industry-leading integrations designed to save our customers time and money. Your safe driving could save you money. If you have Motive’s ELD and agree to share your driving data with Progressive through our integration, you can save an average of $1,384 on your insurance premium.
6. Get paid for detention time
The time drivers spend being detained at shipper or receiver facilities cuts revenues by as much as $1,500 annually, according to a report by the Department of Transportation (DOT). An extra 15 minutes spent beyond the standard two-hour window even causes crash risk to climb by 6.2 percent.
You can use data from your ELD to prove that detention time was caused by being held at a shipper facility. For example, Motive’s Location History screen allows you to view a driver’s location at any point in the past. With the help of relevant data, you can make shippers/receivers accountable, get paid, and minimize expenses.
Motive Plus has a new geofence feature that lets you create a geofence around frequent shipper/receiver locations to get automated detention time reports for any period of time.
7. Reduce your fleet’s liability
A road-facing dashcam shows what happens on the road. It may help exonerate drivers when a collision is caused by a passenger vehicle (as 80% of accidents are). Video from a dashcam can also help speed up insurance claims. Major insurers now offer commercial vehicle customer discounts for installing video cameras, which helps offset the cost of installing the dashcams.
For more information, check out the Motive Smart Dashcam.
Reduce fleet expenses with the right tools
Running a fleet can be expensive, and smart fleet managers are always looking for ways to reduce operating expenses and maximize profitability. Motive has the technology and tools to help you achieve that.
If you have any questions about the Motive fleet management solution, call 855-434-3465 or request a demo.
