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“With great power comes great responsibilities,” says Spiderman. This famous line can be applied not only to Spiderman’s superpowers but also in your business. As your business grows, there are greater responsibilities that come with it – from hiring more employees to transporting your products to customers. With the ever-changing prices on gas and other vehicle expenses, the products and services that your business offer might get affected as well. And if your business involves a fleet of vehicles as part of your everyday transactions to deliver your products, you have to keep an eye on the expenses, especially on the fuel costs.
Here are some tips on how to reduce fuel cost in business:
1. Implement a preventive maintenance checklist
One thing’s for sure: prevention is better than cure. Always plan to have fleet preventive maintenance to ensure the safety of the vehicle and your drivers. Checking up on the basics like oil changes, the tyres, filters, and seatbelts, should be implemented every now and then to avoid unnecessary auto repair and other possible major auto problems.
2. Maintain proper tyre pressure
This is also a part of the preventive maintenance category. You should check your tyre pressure often, especially when the weather changes as temperature affects tyre pressure. Maintaining proper tyre pressure not only improves the handling of your products but also boosts fuel economy.
3. Find the best fuel card
One of the most effective ways to reduce fuel costs is to change the way you pay for fuel. In fact, many businesses in the UK are now choosing to purchase fuel cards as they find many cost-saving benefits such as:
- Saving money on fuel
- Avoiding unnecessary fuel expenses
- Accurate tracking of the vehicle’s fuel consumption
Choosing fuel cards for business will provide you with accurate tracking on the vehicle’s consumption and lets you monitor where and when you spent your money on fuel. This will prevent any of your staff to fill their own cars at your expense.
How to find the best fuel card?
Compare each brand according to your preference and specific business needs. Check out for the rebates and savings, as well as the number of stations the card is being accepted. It is also best to choose a fuel card with detailed reporting tools to lessen administrative tasks on your end. If you’re not sure how to compare the suitable fuel card for your business needs, there are fuel card comparison sites such as iCompario that can help you with this. Providing you with a set of dedicated industry experts that works hard in finding the right product for your business is the reason why iCompario stands out among other fuel card comparison companies. They are also partnered with other reputable and established fuel card companies to understand your business lifecycle and growth needs whether you own a small or medium-sized type.
4. Observe driver behaviour
Always check on your driver’s behaviour. Improper speed acceleration and aggressive driving can increase your fuel consumption more than you know. When accidents happen due to their reckless driving, the handling of your products and the expected time of delivery will also be affected. Make sure to hire only the careful drivers and if possible, give them proper training on safe driving.
5. Avoid rush hour traffic if possible
Heavy traffic jams can greatly affect the efficiency of your business. And if your fleet of vehicles includes large trucks, it is advisable to schedule a time for operations when it is less traffic. Congested roads often leave drivers to stop and start the engines which increase the amount of fuel consumption.
6. Check and monitor the route
Having years of experience on the road not only gives confidence to the driver’s expertise in driving but also makes them smarter on choosing routes when going to different places they have already been. Checking and choosing the best routes saves time and fuel. If you are unfamiliar in some places, there’s nothing to worry, there’s a lot of free route optimization software that you could utilize to help you choose the most efficient routes that could help you cut back unnecessary miles.
In business, finding ways of saving fuel costs is one of the least prioritized. Oftentimes, companies only focus on getting discounts from suppliers and creating a budget on marketing. However, with dozens of cost-efficient ways on fuel spend, we’ll realize how simple reduction on fuel costs will eventually bring an impact on the overall effectiveness and profit of a business.
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