Reduce Fuel Costs with Vehicle Tracking: Save Up to 25%

Fuel is One of the Largest Controllable Fleet Costs – and Tracking Puts You in Charge

High fuel costs may be a common gripe among fleet managers in the UK, but the good news is they’re one of the largest controllable expenses, especially with the right tools. 76% of fleet managers say rising costs are their businesses’ biggest challenge, although you can reduce fuel costs with vehicle tracking solutions from Crystal Ball. These systems help reduce fuel consumption in fleets by:

• Reducing the amount of idling 
• Enabling you to optimise routes for greater fuel efficiency
• Monitoring driver behaviour so you can hold drivers accountable

Fleet fuel cost reductions of between 10 and 25% are in easy reach with our vehicle tracking systems. In this article, we’ll explore how much your business could save.

Why Fuel Costs Increase in Fleets

It’s no stretch of the imagination to suggest that, in most fleets in the UK, fuel costs are higher than they need to be. The root causes of this include:

• Excessive Engine Idling: Leaving a vehicle to idle is one of the biggest fuel wasters. An hour of idling can waste at least 2.3 litres of fuel, and idling is responsible for between 5 and 8% of fuel use.
• Inefficient Routing: Not specifying routes for drivers may cause them to take the “scenic route,” get stuck in slow-moving traffic, or incorporate personal errands into their journeys. All this wastes fuel.
• Aggressive Driving Behaviour: A study published in the Energies journal found that aggressive driving of conventional and hybrid-drive vehicles in urban conditions resulted in 30% more fuel consumption compared to calm driving, which led to a noticeable reduction in fuel consumption. 
• Unauthorised Vehicle Use: The unauthorised use of vehicles consumes fuel without contributing to generating profits for businesses.
• Lack of Visibility in Usage Patterns: If you have no visibility into vehicle usage patterns, you can’t make informed decisions aimed at reducing fuel costs effectively, nor can you hold drivers accountable for aggressive driving, idling, and other inefficient habits, or vehicle misuse.

With the above in mind, it’s clear that fuel waste comes down to visibility and accountability – or a lack thereof. 

If you’re serious about fleet fuel cost reduction, you need a level of visibility that lets you know where and how your vehicles are being used, and this is only possible with reliable vehicle tracking and fleet fuel management solutions like Crystal Ball’s FleetTracker.

Five Ways Vehicle Tracking Reduces Fuel Costs

Fleet tracking systems do not have the functionality to reduce fuel costs directly. Instead, they provide features and data you can use to implement strategies to lower these costs. 

Five effective ways to reduce fuel costs with vehicle tracking include: 

1. Idling Reduction

FleetTracker offers a few features to help you address idling in your fleet. These include:

• Live Engine Status Monitoring: By monitoring engine status in real time, you can see which engines are running while vehicles are stationary.
• Idle Time Reporting: Comprehensive reports provide accurate, accessible data on the amount of time vehicles spent idling in a given period, whether it’s a day, a week, a month, or a year, enabling you to see repeat offenders or increases or decreases in idling time at a glance.
• Behaviour Alerts: FleetTracker monitors driver behaviour and alerts you to incidents such as idling.

The data provided by these features allows you to address the issue of idling, either with all your drivers or only with the worst offenders. You can also create and implement a company idling policy that specifies when and for how long idling is permitted. Most companies that reduce their fleets’ idling time see savings of between 5 and 10%.

2. Route Optimisation

Optimising the routes your drivers take also leads to GPS tracking fuel savings. FleetTracker makes it easier to do this by offering or enabling:

• Live Tracking Visibility: With our fleet tracking software, you know the exact location of your vehicles at any given time, so you can see if vehicles are moving or stationary while their engines are running, and you can see if drivers are sticking to authorised routes.
• Journey Playback Analysis: The Journey Playback feature allows you to replay specific vehicle journeys, which are displayed as ‘snail trails’ featuring start and finish times, recorded waypoints, and colour-coded icons indicating speeding and idle events. This provides a more nuanced understanding of driver behaviour and specific routes.
• Identifying Recurring Inefficiencies: Use GPS tracking, engine status monitoring, alarms, alerts, geofencing, journey playback, and detailed reports to identify recurring inefficiencies. When you know where there’s room for improvement, you can create or revise policies, create optimised routes, schedule driver coaching, and implement other interventions.

Effective decisions rely on accurate data, and you won’t have access to this if you rely on outdated fleet tracking methods. Use FleetTracker to gather the data you need to create fuel-efficient routes for your fleet.

3. Driver Behaviour Monitoring

Aggressive driving increases fuel consumption. While this may have gone undetected in the past, FleetTracker’s driver behaviour monitoring feature changes this, helping to reduce fuel costs with vehicle tracking. A few of this feature’s functionalities include:

• Harsh Acceleration Detection: Receive real-time alerts whenever drivers accelerate harshly.
• Speeding Alerts: Find out whenever drivers speed in company vehicles.
• Eco Driving Reporting: Use automated reports to gain a deeper understanding of whether your drivers drive economically and in environmentally friendly ways.

FleetTracker’s driver behaviour monitoring feature is your best friend when it comes to visibility of drivers and the data you need to hold them accountable for uneconomical and dangerous driving habits.

4. Eliminating Unauthorised Usage

Your organisation could be losing hundreds of pounds’ worth of fuel to unauthorised vehicle usage every month. FleetTracker offers the visibility you need to combat this. 

A couple of the features that can help you do this include:

• Geofencing Alerts: Use the vehicle tracking system to create geofence boundaries along certain routes and around specific areas, such as your business premises or vehicle depot, and receive alerts whenever vehicles cross those boundaries.
• Out of Hours Movement Monitoring: Receive alerts whenever vehicles are moved out of business hours. Ensure you comply with UK data protection laws by informing your drivers that vehicle movements out of hours will be tracked.

Depending on the extent to which vehicles are used without authorisation, eliminating unauthorised usage could result in some of your biggest cost savings.

5. Reporting and Accountability

FleetTracker makes reporting easy and supports accountability, which goes a long way when you want to reduce fuel costs with vehicle tracking. In addition to the features mentioned above, the tracking system offers:

• Fuel Trend Analysis: Although the system doesn’t measure fuel consumption directly, it tracks vehicle mileage and journey data, giving you a clear view of how much distance your fleet covers over any period. By analysing mileage alongside driver behaviour, speeding, and geofencing alerts, you gain actionable insights to optimise routes, improve efficiency, and inform fleet policies and strategies.
• Driver Scorecards: Find out who among your drivers drives defensively, economically, and in environmentally friendly ways, and who among them drives aggressively and uneconomically.
• Manager Dashboards: Configure your manager dashboard to display your preferred real-time data analysis, enabling you to get the data you need quickly and easily. Some display options include real-time locations, historical journeys, and driver behaviour.

Accountability is a vital aspect of fleet fuel cost reduction. Holding drivers accountable lets them know they can’t get away with doing things their own way or with misusing company vehicles. It also allows them to see how they can contribute to the company achieving key results – and when the company thrives, they thrive.

Example Fuel Savings Calculation

Fleet size: 40 vehicles

Average monthly fuel spend per vehicle: £1,100

Estimated fuel reduction: 15%

Current Fuel Costs
Monthly fuel cost for 40 vehicles:
40 × £1,100 = £44,000 per month

Annual Fuel Cost:
£44,000 × 12 = £528,000 per year

Estimated Fuel Savings (15%)
£44,000 × 15% = £6,600 per month

Annual savings: £528,000 × 15% = £79,200 per year

Estimated Vehicle Tracking Costs

Assume a mid-range subscription cost of £15 per vehicle per month:
Monthly subscription: 40 × £15 = £600 per month

Annual subscription: £600 × 12 = £7,200 per year

Payback Timeframe

Monthly savings: £6,600
Monthly system cost: £600

Payback period: £600 ÷ £6,600 ≈ 0.09 months (about 3 days)

Net Annual Benefit

Annual fuel savings: £79,200
Minus subscription cost: £7,200
Net benefit: £72,000 per year

Secondary Savings Beyond Fuel

GPS tracking fuel savings aren’t the only savings offered by vehicle tracking. Your organisation can also benefit from secondary savings such as:

• Reduced Vehicle Wear: Driver behaviour monitoring and proactive maintenance alerts help reduce wear and tear on vehicles and keep them running in good condition for longer.
• Lower Accident Frequency: Fewer accidents as a result of better driving habits and well-maintained vehicles translates to less downtime, lower maintenance and repair costs, better insurance costs, and safeguarded brand reputation.
• Insurance Exposure Reduction Through SmartCam: Footage from Crystal Ball’s SmartCam 4G dash cam can protect your business and your drivers from dishonest insurance claims and scams.
• Improved Compliance and Oversight: By enabling oversight over fleet operations, vehicle tracking helps protect your organisation from fines and other penalties associated with non-compliance with the Highway Code, the UK’s laws governing commercial drivers, and industry standards.
• Reduced Theft-Related Fuel Misuse: Crystal Ball’s Thatcham S5 and Thatcham S7 trackers help reduce fuel misuse associated with theft and help police recover vehicles quickly in the event of theft.
• Accurate Time Tracking: Digital driver timesheets provide a reliable record of hours worked, helping to prevent false or inflated reporting while reducing the administrative workload and improving overall labour efficiency.

Real Fleet Example

I2O Ltd, a utilities and engineering company operating a mobile workforce across the UK, implemented Crystal Ball’s FleetTracker solution to improve driver safety, reduce operational costs, and gain greater visibility over vehicle activity. Prior to installation, the business had limited oversight of driver behaviour and journey efficiency, making it difficult to manage costs and ensure safe driving practices.

As a result, I2O achieved a 20% reduction in speeding, which contributed to improved fuel consumption and reduced vehicle wear and tear. Improved driver behaviour also helped lower the risk of penalties and supported safer driving standards across the workforce.

In addition to cost savings, FleetTracker increased productivity by enabling more efficient route planning and reducing time spent on unnecessary journeys. Drivers were able to reach jobs more quickly, while office teams could provide accurate ETAs and location updates to customers, enhancing service delivery.

Save On Fuel with Crystal Ball

You can’t control the price of fuel, but you can do something about your fleet’s fuel consumption. Reduce fuel costs with vehicle tracking solutions from Crystal Ball.

Calculate Your Fleet Fuel Savings

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FAQs

How much fuel can vehicle tracking save?

The amount of fuel that vehicle tracking can save depends on how you use your tracking system and the data it provides. Most businesses reduce fuel costs with vehicle tracking by 10 and 25%.

Does GPS tracking reduce fuel consumption?

GPS tracking does not reduce fuel consumption directly. However, it provides visibility and valuable data, and it supports accountability, enabling you to implement fuel-saving strategies.

What causes high fuel costs in fleets?

Several factors cause high fuel costs in fleets. These include excessive engine idling, inefficient routing, aggressive driving behaviour, unauthorised vehicle use, and lack of visibility into vehicle usage patterns.

How quickly can fuel savings be achieved?

The speed at which fuel savings can be achieved depends on how you use your vehicle tracking system. If you immediately start clamping down on excessive idling, you can achieve savings within hours of implementing the system across your fleet.

Is vehicle tracking worth it for fuel savings alone?

Yes, vehicle tracking is worth it for fuel savings alone. For example, a 40-vehicle fleet spending £1,100 per vehicle per month on fuel could save £6,600 per month with a 15% reduction. With an estimated tracking cost of £600 per month, the system could pay for itself in just a few days, while continuing to deliver significant ongoing savings.