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Read moreAs costs continue to rise and strain budgets, fleets have three options: cut costs, spend more or find ways to do more with existing assets.
Tight fleet budgets leave little room for the rising costs of new assets. Despite the need for more funding, fleet managers must often operate within existing constraints rather than expecting an increased budget.
That means finding ways to improve operational efficiency (i.e., doing more with the resources you currently have) becomes the reasonable option for small business, public sector and enterprise fleets alike. When fleets focus on operational efficiency, they can reduce fleet costs, improve customer service and increase productivity with fleet management technology solutions.
What is operational efficiency?
The goal of operational efficiency is to maximize output while minimizing input to boost profitability and competitiveness.
What does that look like for fleets?
Maximizing output means making sure drivers and vehicles perform at their best, while minimizing inputs like fuel costs, labor hours and maintenance costs.
What happens when fleets improve operational efficiency?
For fleets, focusing on improving operational efficiency leads to three primary outcomes:
- Cost Savings: Reducing fleet costs, including the big four: fuel consumption, insurance premiums, maintenance costs and labor hours.
- Increased Productivity: Increase asset utilization and reduce administrative hours with automation and mobile apps.
- Customer Satisfaction: Depending on how the business caters to the customer, enhancing customer satisfaction can look like providing accurate ETAs, faster response times and/or verifying service delivery and improving fleet availability.
How can technology help improve operational efficiency?
Technology can help fleets see major operational efficiency gains. Here are some examples by fleet type and size:
Small- and medium-sized businesses
Small- and medium-sized businesses can use fleet technology to reduce administrative hours, complete more jobs per week, provide better service to their customers and get a leg up on the competition. It can be the difference between a thriving business and one that struggles to make ends meet.
Apex Landscaping, for example. Before implementing Verizon Connect Reveal, the company kept paper records and didn’t have visibility into where their crews and assets were located.
"Our staff had to write down how much time they spent on each property, and it was frustrating for me because I would have to check my books as well and maintain those paper records," said production supervisor Vincente Peralta.
Once Apex adopted Verizon Connect Reveal GPS fleet tracking, they could see where employees and equipment were located and shifted from manual to digital record-keeping, reducing administrative time and freeing up time to complete more jobs in a day.
"With Verizon, I save a lot of time — what used to take about two hours I can now do in about five minutes," Peralta said. “Instead of hiring more people, more equipment, more laborers, we chose fleet management, because it just helped us be a step above everybody else."
According to the 2026 Fleet Technology Trends Survey, other small business fleets have seen similar results, with respondents indicating productivity was the top goal they achieved with GPS fleet tracking. On average, those same small business fleets saved 11% in labor costs, and nearly half saw an ROI on their GPS investment in less than a year.1
Learn more ways to improve operational efficiency in your business. Download the Operational Efficiency Guide for Small Business Fleets.
Public sector fleets
The Olmsted Falls Police Department (OFPD) also struggled with inefficient manual processes, like pulling video to verify location data and timestamps to review police pursuits, which took time away from protecting and serving the public.
"If they're spending half their time making sure who they're supervising is doing what they're supposed to do, they're not out patrolling," OFPD Police Chief Odis Rogers said of his sergeants.
Verizon Connect Reveal changed that process and delivered even more ways to improve operational efficiency and government service delivery. Now, sergeants review pursuits digitally, giving them more time to spend on proactive policing.
"This opens up time for supervisors and OICs [officers in charge]," Rogers said. "It's just less supervision. Verizon is doing the job for us."
The Department has also used Reveal reports to reduce idle time and lower fuel costs.
"There are unintended benefits that I wasn't really looking at, but I think are really, really helping the department. It is also, in a real sense, a force multiplier for us," Rogers said.
OFPD isn’t alone in using fleet technology to reduce idling and fuel costs. On average, public sector fleet survey respondents reduced fuel costs by 26% using fleet technology, and 21% said fleet technology is very or extremely beneficial for reducing idling — big wins for government fleet management.1
Beyond helping public servants focus on their core job duties, technology can also help government fleets be a good steward of taxpayer dollars and provide greater transparency and service delivery to the public.
Explore our government fleet management solutions to see more ways to boost operational efficiency.
Enterprise fleets
Enterprise fleets use fleet technology to mitigate risks, reduce massive litigation and accident costs. Likewise, Verizon Connect’s AI-driven Operational Insights tool to uncover hidden patterns across thousands of assets that human analysts might miss.
Redwey Transport is a prime example. When expensive at-fault claims were on the rise, Operations Manager Stout Van Wey knew the company needed to figure out what was going on if he wanted to keep employees safe, costs down and vehicles on the road.
The solution: Installing dual-facing artificial intelligence (AI) dashcams on company trucks. With cameras facing out to the road and in towards the cab, management could now see for themselves what was happening when their trucks were out on deliveries and they could coach drivers as needed.
Because Redwey used AI fleet management tools, getting safety insights didn’t require staff to spend hours combing through spreadsheets. Using the Verizon Connect Platform and Operational Insights feature made getting the pertinent information fast and easy.
"The Operational Insights feature is huge," Van Wey said. "It's like a newspaper. You get to see the highlights of the day or the lowlights of the day. You see where someone did an excellent job cutting down their idle time and reducing their speed," he added.
Van Wey learned that the rise in at-fault claims didn’t fall on the shoulders of Redwey drivers: Video telematics footage consistently exonerated them from being at fault.
Now, insurance costs have stabilized, significantly easing financial concerns. Safer driving also cut tire costs by thousands each year as drivers reduced harsh braking.
"Our goal is to be the most technologically advanced dump truck company as well as the safest dump truck company, and Verizon Connect is very much helping us be exactly that," Van Wey said.
Other enterprise fleets have used video telematics to improve safety and reduce insurance costs, too. The 2026 Fleet Technology Survey revealed that 92% of enterprise fleets said the technology helped them achieve their driver safety goals, and that 75% said they reduced insurance costs by using video telematics.1
Learn more about our enterprise fleet tracking solutions to discover additional strategies to improve operational efficiency.
Verizon Connect: Unlock your full potential
With Verizon Connect, fleets get more than a fleet safety and management service, they get a partner for the journey. By fusing the unparalleled reach of the Verizon network with advanced AI, Verizon Connect delivers the operational visibility and clarity needed to drive safety, productivity and profitability for fleets of all sizes and industries. Verizon’s people work with yours to ensure the company’s innovative solutions match your goals, today and tomorrow. Together, Verizon Connect delivers insights at the intersection of clarity and knowledge to meet tomorrow’s possibilities.
Let’s connect
Ready to see how much your fleet could save? Download our eBook 8 ways fleet management technology drives operational efficiency to unlock your full potential.
Prefer a personalized look? Request a free demo today to see how fleet technology can help improve operational efficiency.