New Fuel Tracking Technology Saves Fleet Managers Billions

Commercial fleet operators collectively can save $2.2 billion annually in fuel costs by using telematics on their vehicles to provide greater optimization, according to FleetBeat, a new periodic report from Fleetmatics.

The company recently published its first edition of FleetBeat, which provides analysis based on tens of billions of data points extracted from thousands of commercial fleets over a five-year period, according to Fleetmatics, a global software-as-as-service provider of mobile workforce solutions for small and midsize businesses.

FleetBeat represents the first time that this level of detail and real-world analysis has explored the broad economic and environmental impact of telematics adoption by commercial fleets, according to Peter Mitchell, Fleetmatics chief technology officer. “With the fleet management market expected to grow from $10.91 billion in 2013 to $30.45 billion by 2018, we hope the report will serve as a resource to show business owners the immense impact this technology can have on their bottom line,” he said in the report announcement.

According to the inaugural FleetBeat report, 12.6% of all commercial vehicles in the U.S. and Canada have telematics units on board. Fleet telematics systems allow data to exchange between commercial vehicle fleets and the dispatching office. The systems track such information as fuel consumption, engine data and vehicle weight.

The total estimated economic impact of commercial fleet telematics, which Fleetmatics calculated based on everyone using the type of technology that produced the same results as its optimized customers, fuel consumption decreased by 573 million gallons per year, resulting in $2.2 billion in savings. Moreover, carbine dioxide emission dropped by 5 million tons annually, and payroll hours dropped by 1.3 billion, resulting in a total savings of $34.9 billion in payroll savings.

In separate research analysis, FleetBeat examined data on service call and delivery performance, and reporting on service-radius benchmarks for 12 fleet-driven vertical industries, such as electrical, landscaping and plumbing.

Regarding service calls per day across industries studied, the research found that that Fleetmatics customers experienced more than a 13% increase in stops after implementing the fleet-management solution. The report also showed that fleet utilization increased by 15%, when comparing the count of active unique vehicles in users’ fleets.

“This number shows that fleets optimized by fleet-management software are able to increase the number of service vehicles that service the business’ customers,” Fleetmatics said in the FleetBeat report.

Taking a deep-dive examination of savings derived from having an optimized fleet, the report showed the standard workday for optimized fleets decreases 20% on average, from 10.6 hours to 8.5 hours, across verticals studies. Moreover, the FleetBeat study concluded, when engine-idle and engine-driving savings are combined, the estimated average savings is $45 per vehicle per month, which equates to a total estimated cost savings of $540 per vehicle per year.

“The savings almost double amongst fleets that have focused idling-elimination programs in place,” Fleetmatics said. “Fuel savings represent one of many avenues by which significant savings can be achieved with the use of commercial telematics. When you add this to the savings derived from reduced payroll hours, increased fleet productivity and utilization, and minimized harsh driving and idling, for example, the monetary savings can far exceed $45 per vehicle.”