What is sustainable fleet management?
A sustainable fleet management strategy aims to lower environmental impacts through various best practices, such as:
- Fleet right-sizing. Defining the proper fleet size entails considering your fleet’s operations, needs, and mobility with your operational goals. To scale your fleet, identify and eliminate inefficient vehicles first. Then replace them, if necessary, with those that are more productive and consume less fuel. By right-sizing your fleet, you can identify opportunities to save on your vehicles’ maintenance and travel throughout their life cycle. You can also minimize vehicle purchases and optimize fuel usage and other operating expenses.
- Lower road traffic generated. Reducing the number of miles traveled enables your vehicles to avoid unnecessary trips and to contribute to carbon emissions. This prevents excessive fuel usage and vehicle wear and tear. To lower travel mileage, assess the need for the trip, consolidate routes, and optimize the delivery time and distances with fleet management software.
Increasing your fleet’s fuel efficiency also makes for green fleets. Do that by:
- Procuring low-consumption vehicles, such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs); run suitability assessments to see whether electric fleet management is feasible for your business
- Equipping your drivers with fuel efficiency training strategies
- Executing a functional fleet maintenance program and paying attention to your vehicles’ pneumatic pressures to keep them in optimal conditions
- Avoiding vehicle idling
- Using alternative fuels, such as biodiesel, renewable diesel blends, and electricity — as in HEVs