Fleet efficiency: The best-kept secret of high-performing businesses

When every mile, minute and dollar counts, finding greater fleet efficiency becomes a necessity. 

What is fleet efficiency? It refers to how effectively a fleet uses time, fuel and financial resources to maximize productivity and profitability. It includes aspects like optimizing routes, maintenance, driver behavior and technology to reduce waste and boost performance. 

GPS-enabled fleet management software can help fleet-based businesses make better decisions that can save money, time and frustration. In fact, more than half of fleets in our Fleet Technology Trends Report consider fleet efficiency one of the top benefits of fleet management.¹ 

To boost operational fleet efficiency, fleets can use technology to address three main areas that impact fleets most: cost, driver safety and asset utilization. This approach shows how to improve efficiency in a larger fleet management system and support efficient fleet management overall.

1. How to improve fleet efficiency by automating cost-reduction tasks

Cost efficiency focuses on reducing the financial resources consumed by the fleet. This includes improving fleet fuel efficiency (fuel is often one of the largest operating expenses), practicing regular, proactive maintenance to prevent costly breakdowns and managing other key expenses such as insurance, labor and total cost of ownership. 

Managing these areas is tough though, because costs are always growing — and it’s a persistent issue for nearly every fleet. Most fleets say that costs are their biggest challenge, our report revealed.¹  

That’s where fleet management software comes in, helping to lower costs and improve fleet efficiency. Across all industries, fleets using telematics report reductions in fuel costs, accident costs, labor costs, maintenance and insurance premiums.¹ Because labor is often the largest expense next to fuel, controlling it is vital. Fleet management software helps managers proactively monitor for potential overtime and streamline payroll workflows, ensuring every dollar spent on personnel is backed by accurate data.

Here are a few ways that fleet management can help automate a wide range of tasks to lower costs:  

• Capture true working hours, eliminate manual timesheets and reduce inaccuracies
• Identify unauthorized vehicle usage, which can increase fuel and maintenance costs 
• Increase chances of recovering stolen vehicles
• Track fuel usage and behaviors such as unnecessary idling and speeding
• Integrate fuel cards that show total fuel spend per vehicle and location of each fill up — a practical example of how fleet cards improve operational efficiency in transportation
• Stay up to date on the fleet maintenance schedule and service requirements, which helps increase uptime and avoid breakdowns and more costly repairs
• Find routes that require less fuel and identify unexpected traffic, weather and construction that can impact route efficiency and delivery windows
• Use mobile tools like the Verizon Connect Spotlight app to help teams stay informed on the go, reduce communication delays and help drivers, managers and back-office staff stay aligned from virtually everywhere

See how hundreds of fleets are navigating rising costs in the annua Fleet Technology Trends Report. Download it now to benchmark your performance and uncover new operational efficiencies.

2. Prioritize safety to increase fleet efficiency and reduce risk

Safety and compliance play a major role in fleet efficiency. Monitoring and coaching driver behavior can improve fleet fuel efficiency and reduce accidents, while tracking fleet safety and compliance metrics helps fleets stay aligned with regulations such as hours of service and delivery deadlines. These practices support safer operations and reduce costly incidents — a critical advantage when traffic crashes cost employers more than $26,000 per crash and can lead to injuries, downtime and expenses ranging from medical care and wage replacement to property damage and liability.²

Prioritizing safety can enhance operational fleet efficiency, especially when you know the details behind your fleet's safety incidents. Safety data and video documentation can help companies coach drivers on repeated, high-risk driving behaviors, defend against false claims and lower insurance premiums, boosting overall business efficiency through stronger fleet efficiency. Fleet management solutions can support safety in several ways:

• Intelligent AI dashcam: A smart dashcam gives businesses a window into driving behavior. These cameras, when backed with AI, can capture footage of unsafe driving events in near real-time and send alerts with video clips. They also enable video replays, downloads and displays alongside fleet information. AI helps classify events, track driver performance over time and reduce the need for manually reviewing hours of video. It can also identify when drivers aren’t wearing seatbelts, doze off or get distracted and trigger an audible in-cab alert to get them back on track.
• GPS fleet tracking: This core feature of fleet management software gives fleet managers the visibility they need to know what’s happening with their vehicles. They can identify location and respond to emergencies quickly, receive alerts for maintenance issues that could pose a safety threat and help drivers identify safer routes. Fleet management can also track when drivers are speeding, slamming the brakes, or accelerating too quickly, which can be risky behaviors for themselves and other vehicles on the road. This also demonstrates how fleet tracking improves fleet efficiency by reducing unnecessary wear and wasted fuel.
• Daily vehicle inspections also play a key role in safety and cost control. Native, customizable DVIR forms integrated with fleet management systems make inspections faster and easier for drivers by allowing them to capture photos, automate tasks and tailor forms by vehicle type. This helps ensure inspections are completed consistently, reduces the risk of fines and fees and gives fleets an opportunity to catch issues early — before they become costly repairs that compromise fleet efficiency.

Companies in industries like mining or oil and gas can understand if their drivers enter a no-go zone or have been in a hazardous area for too long. For law enforcement and other public safety fleets, knowing the vehicle location can mean the difference between life and death.

Want more ways technology supports fleet efficiency? Here’s 8 ways fleet management saves time while boosting productivity.

3. Enhance operational efficiency through asset utilization

Vehicles that spend too much time sitting in the lot, idling on job sites or driving off route can drain your overall fleet efficiency. 

Operational efficiency relies on strong day-to-day planning. Route planning helps save time and fuel by accounting for traffic and road conditions. Reducing downtime keeps vehicles productive and on the road instead of in the shop. Maximizing asset utilization ensures every vehicle is used effectively, with high utilization rates indicating strong operational performance and offering another way to increase fleet efficiency and support overall efficient fleet management.

Leveraging telematics, fleet managers can gain access to data that can help them understand utilization at an individual vehicle level and broadly across the entire fleet. Automatically analyzing this data gives businesses greater visibility into their assets from virtually anywhere, at any time. They can also identify underused assets that can be sold or repurposed and make other informed decisions. Important utilization data points include the following: 

• Vehicle tracking helps fleet managers view location and the last time a vehicle moved, among other utilization data points. They can determine miles traveled or hours of use per year for each vehicle to see which cars and trucks are used too often and which may not be used enough. By identifying underutilized assets, businesses can better balance wear and tear across the fleet—reducing unnecessary vehicle depreciation and protecting the total cost of ownership. 
• Job history data shows where vehicles have been, when they arrived and how long they stayed. This transparency allows managers to compare site-time against productivity goals, ensuring that time-at-location aligns with customer expectations to improve billing accuracy and resolve disputes quickly.
• Geofencing is an additional feature that works with fleet management software to set virtual boundaries that limit the operational area of every vehicle. It then tracks the amount of time each vehicle spends in the designated area for more information about usage patterns. 
• Roadside assistance can also support fleet efficiency by using GPS location data to quickly pinpoint stranded vehicles. This helps get drivers off the roadside faster, reduces safety risks and speeds up repair and recovery times. Fleet-integrated roadside assistance can be quicker and more precise than traditional services, helping fleets minimize downtime and keep vehicles moving.

Beyond daily tracking, the real power of telematics lies in long-term data analysis. By identifying trends over months rather than days, businesses can benchmark their performance against industry standards. This high-level view allows managers to set realistic KPIs for fuel economy and uptime, ensuring the fleet remains competitive and productive.

Managing costs and automating expense-related tasks, along with safety and asset utilization data analytics and monitoring, are key to a high-performing, efficient fleet. GPS fleet management systems can help, putting organizations on the path to a workplace culture of fleet efficiency and clearly demonstrating how fleet management solutions improve operational efficiency.

Discover how improving fleet efficiency with smarter fleet management can pay off. Calculate your ROI right here.

Sources

¹OSHA Motor Vehicle Safety page 

²Fleet Technology Trends