Power to cut transport costs is in small firms’ hands

A mix of in-cab technology, together with driver training, and companies downsizing to more appropriate types of vehicles for their needs is likely to bring about greater savings on fuel and CO2 emissions than any number of technological advances in the vehicles themselves.

That’s the firm view of many old hands in the vehicle leasing sector, who also say that this drive will be helped in a small but significant way by advances in the ingredients of fuels themselves.

Some of the biggest savings are being seen among fleets which are incorporating the latest telematics systems into their vehicles.

Rather than seeing such systems as unwanted ‘spies in the cab’, many drivers themselves are welcoming the arrival of the ability to monitor driving behaviour, as well as road conditions, and provide real-time information useful for the maintenance of fleet vehicles, as resulting savings can even be passed on to them in part through performance bonuses.

This means that attitudes towards telematics systems have shifted, from being considered a desirable addition, to an essential investment.

One senior manager at a UK leasing company in charge of its commercial vehicles operation says that telematics systems have made it easier to instil more responsible

driving habits into commercial drivers as, once a driver sees both the financial and environmental cost of their undesirable driving habits, they are more receptive to learning how to eliminate them.

And offering a gentle reminder about their behaviour, along with some simple but low-key extra training, can work wonders in reminding drivers how and why it is in their own interest to drive steadily and responsibly at all times.

Of course, there’s a natural desire when anyone gets behind the wheel of a vehicle and has a certain number of ‘drops’ to make in a day, to rush around and try to get these done in the shortest possible time.

But everyone is familiar with the saying ‘More haste, less speed’, and we can all probably cite instances where this has been proved true.

The chances are that such efforts have come back to haunt many managers, as drivers, forced to rush around more, have inflicted even greater wear and tear on their vehicles, which has probably eaten up any extra revenue earned from accepting those extra drops.

After the cost of employing a driver, and financing the vehicle(s) themselves, the next biggest overhead faced by the smallest and the largest businesses alike will be fuel.

Recent headlines may have suggested that the price of diesel looks set to fall to around – or even possibly below - £1 a litre before the end of this year. But that’s no reason for anyone who manages a fleet of vehicles, of whatever size, to become complacent.

Indeed, the prospect of making these savings should encourage fleet operators to look at how they can further reduce their overheads, as the falling cost of fuel means the competitive environment for small and medium-sized haulage operators will become even more cut-throat.

One important factor in judging the efficiency of any goods-carrying vehicle is how much of its load space is actually filled on any given journey. So if a van is spending large parts of its operational time running around, say, a quarter full, then that vehicle is probably bigger than is really needed to do the job.

And if you’re serving customers whose premises are mainly in small villages or historic town and city centres, and your vehicles are regularly coming off worse when encountering modern traffic management measures – i.e. bollards – then you should definitely be reviewing the make-up of your fleet.

So before looking in-depth at state-of-the- art telematics, and even driver training, as a small business operator, your first priority should be to ask yourself “is my fleet actually making it more difficult, and more expensive, to do the jobs I need to get done than necessary?”

Only once you have squeezed out waste caused by such ‘over-

provision’ can you really start to

make meaningful savings which will help your business’s bottom line.