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2023 is fully underway, and fleet managers across the globe are looking for ways to reduce costs and improve fleet safety and performance. Regardless of the size of your fleet or the industry that you operate in, better benchmarking can help you in the months to come.
Benchmarking can help you identify areas where your fleet is underperforming and set goals for improvement. It can also help you track your progress over time, uncover trends, and address issues that you otherwise might have otherwise overlooked.
If you're not already using telematics to benchmark your fleet, now is the time to start. Here are five benchmarks that every fleet manager can utilize in 2023.
Fuel Consumption
You didn’t seriously think that we would start with anything other than fuel costs, did you? While fuel costs may have plateaued compared to 6 months ago, there is no doubt that every fleet manager has fuel costs at the top of their list this year.
In a typical year, fuel costs comprise around 33% of a fleet's budget, and you can bet those numbers were higher in 2022. Whether it is through route optimization, reduced idle time, better maintenance processes, or improving asset utilization, there is no shortage of fuel-saving data being generated by your fleet every day.
One of the first places we suggest looking is idle time versus drive time. Sometimes idling cannot be avoided, but there are often plenty of opportunities to improve in this area. Not only does it increase fuel consumption, but it can also shorten the lifespan of your vehicle, increasing the total cost of ownership.
Vehicle Health
More and more, fleet managers are moving away from preventative maintenance to a predictive model, thanks to platforms like PitStop. There are several reasons for this shift.
First, predictive maintenance can be performed quickly and without disrupting normal operations. Second, it is often more accurate than preventative maintenance, meaning that potential problems can be fixed before they cause expensive damage. Third, predictive maintenance can be customized to the specific needs of a particular fleet, making it more effective overall.
Fleet managers who have made the switch to predictive maintenance report significant cost savings and increased efficiency. In the long run, predictive maintenance is likely to become the norm for fleet management, as its advantages become more widely recognized.
Native tools like vehicle inspection reports offer a wealth of information to fleet managers, as concerns can be planned for, reducing vehicle downtime and the potential for costly repairs.
Driving Behavior
Of those on this list, driving behavior is the one least utilized by fleet managers, despite the impact that it can have on fleet safety and performance. Driver scorecards are a great way to gain insight into common violations and concerns, giving fleet managers the opportunity to work with drivers and provide coaching.
When we asked our team, these were the top 5 driving behaviors they recommended monitoring:
Speeding
Harsh braking
Excessive acceleration
Seatbelt violations
Through telematics data, real-time behavioral issues can be identified and addressed. Whether through daily reporting or in-app alerts, the opportunity to improve is virtually endless. The result is a safer overall fleet, few accidents, and the potential to reduce insurance costs.
Benchmarking with Geotab
There are billions of data points and only so much time in a fleet manager’s day. Make no mistake, data is a fleet management game-changer, but only if you have a system that can help you easily manage it and draw actionable insights from the information. Instead of data for the purpose of data, our partners utilize Geotab to simplify the process so that they can make better decisions that have an immediate impact.
Let our team show you how you can build a fleet management system specifically designed to help you improve operations and reduce operating costs. Schedule a demo today and see why so many fleets are moving to Geotab.
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