Government fuel excise reductions + fuel efficiency tips = Savings

The halving of the fuel excise in the federal budget announced will help you save money at the bowser for the next 6 months, but we’ve got some other helpful tips to save you even more money, now and in the long term...

With fuel prices hitting record highs it’s only natural to be a little concerned about how it might impact your business.

Long periods of high petrol prices can be especially damaging as they raise the everyday cost of running a business. After all, more money spent on fuel may mean less money is available to be spent in other areas of your business.  

So, what can you do to navigate these rising prices and minimise the effect it has on your business? For many fleets, fuel is one of the largest spending categories, which is why it’s crucial to make sure you’re being as efficient as you can be with your fuel consumption. So, we’ve put together some top tips to help you optimise your fuel efficiency.

1. Reduce Idling

Idling can be a source of unnecessary fuel use and cost.

Reducing idling times can lower your fuel costs by up to 10%. You can use the 10-second rule as a simple rule of thumb. If you’re idle for more than 10 seconds, which most people do, turning off your engine and turning it back on doesn’t burn more fuel than idling. So, if you’re idling for more than 10 seconds, turn off your engine.

Implementing vehicle GPS tracking can help reduce idling by 20%. It allows you to identify which drivers have the highest idling times and set goals to lessen the amount. You can set a threshold for the time allowed for idling and alert drivers when the threshold is exceeded.

Many newer vehicles have start-stop engine systems called “i-stop” that switch off engines when the vehicle is stopped. If your vehicle has “i-stop”, utilise it. Idling stop systems save fuel by automatically shutting down the engine when the vehicle is static and restarting it when the vehicle returns to motion. This system is more common in newer vehicles so if you don’t have it, you might also want to consider upgrading.

2. Use Cruise Control

If your vehicles are travelling longer distances encourage your drivers to use cruise control when appropriate. A Natural Resources Canada Study found that setting the cruise control at 80 kph compared to cycling from 75 to 85 kph every 18 seconds consumes a whopping 20% less fuel.

3. Utilise Fuel Cards

One of the easiest ways to cut down on fuel costs is to use fuel cards. Fuel cards make managing your business fuel simple and efficient.

They enable you to track, categorise and optimise your fuel spending, eliminating the burden of processing and tallying up individual fuel receipts as all your fuel costs are consolidated in one simple monthly invoice. When you have a vehicle lease with FleetPartners, you’ll be able to make the most of our fuel cards.

Fuel cards also help FleetPartners keep up to date with your odometer reading. You enter your odometer reading at the time of purchase, and if your Account Manager can see you are over or under your contracted kilometres, you can get help to modify your lease that may offer you further savings.

FleetPartner’s fuel cards are accepted at more than 7,000 service stations nationwide so you can keep your fleet fuelled and save your business money.

4. Map Efficient Routes

While sometimes you might like to take the scenic route, it’s not very fuel-efficient. Routes that go out of their way to reach their destination can be particularly damaging to your fuel efficiency. Simply getting drivers to map out the shortest, most efficient routes can significantly minimise fuel use when conducting their work.

With a GPS tracking system, you can easily plot the quickest routes to your destination so your drivers can get where they need to be faster and with using less fuel. It’s important to make sure that your driving is also focusing on mapping routes that require the least amount of idle time.

If your vehicle has a Satellite Navigation system – set the route on “Shortest” or “Economical” mode to save fuel. If the system also provides traffic alerts, enable this to assist you with avoiding congested areas or a traffic incident.

5. Check Your Tyres

Under-inflated tyres can cause fuel consumption to increase by as much as 6%. It’s important to check your tyre pressure at least once a month when the tyres are ‘cold’. This simply means waiting at least three hours after a vehicle has been driven for more than 2km. Correct tyre pressures are also critical to vehicle safety.

6. Tighten Up Your Driving Habits

How you drive can have a more significant impact on your fuel consumption than you think, so try to be more conscious of your driving. Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) can lower your fuel mileage by roughly 15% to 30% at highway speeds and 10% to 40% in stop-and-go traffic. So, cut down on speeding.

That doesn’t mean you should be driving too slow either. Despite what you might think, slow driving doesn’t mean less fuel consumption. Most cars, vans, utes and SUVs are most fuel-efficient when they're travelling between 50 and 80 km per hour. Above this speed, vehicles use increasingly more fuel the faster they go.

7. Cut Down on the Junk in your Trunk

Do not carry unnecessary cargo. We all have certain items that seem to live permanently in the boots of our vehicles such as spare equipment or old gym gear. A good example is if you played golf on the weekend, remove the golf equipment after playing until they are next required as opposed to carrying them in the boot everyday – the average golf bag, clubs, shoes & trundler would weigh 20kgs.

Looking to save on your vehicle running costs?  Contact us today to save on your fuel spend.

FleetPartners is a leading vehicle leasing and fleet management provider, with decades of experience managing more than 93,000 vehicles across Australia and New Zealand.