Fuel Management Systems: How to Ignite a Competitive Advantage

If you would ask any fleet manager about their biggest and most unpredictable expanse, ‘fuel’ would be the most common answer.

Typically, no less than a quarter of an entire fleet maintenance budget is spent on fuel. However, the ever growing share of petrol costs is not a big problem by itself.

The real challenge is the lack of predictability as petrol price depends on hundreds of external economic and political factors that none of the fleet management companies can either control or predict.

The good news is that the right use of advanced technologies can help fleet managers to manage uncertainties and tackle the challenge of growing fuel costs.

Advanced commercial fleet fuel management solutions help to optimize fuel spending by enabling managers to control every transaction and track in real-time the amount of fuel available per vehicle.

By analyzing the data gained via telematics devices, managers can bring the petrol fair share policies to a new level. Let’s get down to the business to see how it works and which benefits can fleet fuel monitoring solutions bring to the businesses.

What is a fuel management system?

Telematics-based fuel control systems enable fleet managers to continuously monitor fuel usage patterns and implement targeted optimizations to improve fuel efficiency.

Control and monitoring of fuel consumption and expenses are the two major purposes of a fuel monitoring system. In the past, fuel control was largely a manual process maintained by the drivers who were supposed to check a fuel level and other parameters and report it to a manager.

Manual fuel control is not only time-consuming but also vulnerable to mistakes. In contrast, tech-powered commercial fleet fuel management solutions enable managers to get accurate, relevant, and timely data. In addition, such solutions also help to control the effectiveness of each vehicle in terms of converting fuel into energy.

Fuel economy is one of the pillars underlying sustainable fleet maintenance. In this regard, advanced fleet fuel monitoring systems are the most effective means of controlling and sustaining petrol consumption standards for both an entire fleet and each separate vehicle.

Respondent fuel costs per mile

Source: Trucking Research — An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2020 Update

Customizable fuel inventory solutions enable fleet managers also to set up and track diverse metrics based on data gathered via telematics and IoT electronic devices. Fuel monitoring systems can also send managers real-time notifications for unconventional vehicle behavior or other events determined in settings.

How telematics technology can help with fuel management

Telematics technologies are at the core of many advanced petrol management solutions. Fleet tracking telematics tools collect large volumes of data related to both a vehicle and a driver’s behavior. The data is collected and transmitted in real time via wireless or cellular networks.

The scope and specific parameters of the dataset processes with a telematics system could be adjusted to the specific needs of a business. The typical data collected with telematics include location, GPS, speed, accelerometer, etc.

In addition, the data from the engine control module (ECM) is processed to track and control fuel usage. Eventually, if a particular vehicle starts to use more petrol than it is supposed to, a manager gets a notification being able to react before the issue is not critical.

In contrast to the old-fashioned manual approach to fuel usage control, telematics-driven petrol management has nothing to deal with human mistakes or time-consuming calculations. As all the data is collected and stored in the cloud, the business gets an ultimate source of insights for better strategic making and long-term fleet and fuel maintenance.

Using the cloud-based data generated by telematics systems, managers can not only manage inefficient driver behavior patterns but also identify potential malfunctions or fleet maintenance issues and resolve them proactively.

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Fuel management system benefits or why do you need it

Ultimately, the purpose of a commercial fleet fuel management system is to provide companies with granular, real-time insights on fuel usage to contain and optimize asset operating costs. Implementing an advanced fuel management system is a win-win for both drivers and fleet managers. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages gained by two major groups of beneficiaries.

Benefits for fleet managers

• Monitor fuel inventory use. Managers can get live data on the fuel maintenance conditions and take measures before real troubles occur.
• Generate compliance reports. Data-driven analytics goes in hand with effective reporting and decision-making. Advanced fuel control systems are powered with enhanced business intelligence and reporting capabilities.
• Mitigate operational risks. Fuel monitoring systems not only contribute to strategic decision-making but also enable managers to take timely and effective decisions on an operational level.
• Optimize fuel allocation. Using aggregated data on petrol usage, managers can mitigate fuel shortages or overuse.
• Gain real-time petrol consumption data. The real-time statistics on fuel consumption empower managers to control the smooth and fair implementation of a company’s policies.
• Improve route planning and asset utilization. Optimizing route planning and asset utilization is traditionally one of the most effective means of fleet management cost saving.
• Develop better cars maintenance schedules. By getting data on cars technical conditions gathered via IoT and telematics tools, managers can keep their fuel maintenance schedules always relevant and up-to-date.
• Gain comprehensive insights on fuel economy. Fuel control systems can help stakeholders to identify potential money leakages and indicate growth areas in the corporate fuel economy policies.

Benefits for drivers

• Just-in-time fuel dispensing. Perfect pump timing is not only cost-effective for business but also saves a bunch of time for a driver.
• Streamlined receipt and expense management. Fuel management systems empower drivers to control their expenses and mitigate the risks of going out of budget.
• Route optimization for a better driver experience. Suggesting routes with less intense traffic, fleet managers not only optimize fuel usage but also make the drives more comfortable and convenient for the drivers.

How commercial fleet fuel management systems contribute to sustainability and savings

Off-the-shelf commercial fleet fuel management systems come in different configurations and have varying sets of native features. Some are plug-and-play SaaS solutions, requiring little configuration yet offering little to no extensibility.

Some are compatible only with certain hardware manufacturers. Others can be operated as a headless solution for any type of hardware and additionally integrated with other business systems at your disposal (e.g. a truck tracking system).

Custom cloud-based solutions developed by a technology partner, in turn, can be individualized to your type of operations, hardware, and analytics needs.

What remains constant in either case is the ultimate contribution that a fuel monitoring system makes to fuel efficiency and business sustainability.

Improved driver behavior

Driver behavior directly affects petrol costs. But to what extent?

A recent study of a sample of drivers found that aggressive driving increased fuel costs by up to 30%. Furthermore, regardless of the road grade, unsafe driving behaviors in urban areas drove air pollutant emissions up by 40% compared to calm driving.

Consumers, legislators, and business investors alike have a non-negotiable stance on improving sustainability in logistics and supply chains. Gaining more insights into drivers’ behaviors is another important step in that direction.

The best part? Electronic fuel control systems paired with driver behavior monitoring solutions can help you not just proactively identify problematic behavior but prevent it from happening in the first place, making roads safer and the environment greener.

Apart from monitoring driver behavior and issuing alerts, some fleet managers are considering complementary hardware solutions. Speed limiters also play a role in improving fuel economy and road safety, as another report has concluded.

Driving speed significantly contributes to the miles per gallon (MPG) metric. Speed limiters force drivers to operate trucks at a measured pace and avoid rapid acceleration, speeding, and hard braking. Minimizing these behaviors can lead to fuel savings of up to 33% for highway driving and up to 5% in urban driving.

Changing driver behavior can lower fuel costs. But even marginal improvements in fuel economy can result in substantial savings when projected across the entire fleet.

Vehicles maintenance

Timely fuel maintenance also reduces petrol bills. Individually, minor vehicle issues can appear negligible. But when multiplied across all assets, they can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to your operational bills.

Fuel costs are affected by the following vehicle issues:

• Flat or under-inflated tires reduce mileage by up to 3%
• Minor engine issues reduce mileage by 4% on average
• Faulty oxygen sensors cut up to 40% off your mileage
• Leaking or dirty engine oil can lead to more serious issues
• Brake drag affects both driver safety and petrol consumption

A simple fuel tracking system can notify you about anomalies in fuel consumption that are indicative of potential maintenance issues. More comprehensive fuel tracking software, especially when paired with vehicle sensing technology, can communicate harder-to-spot manifestations of asset deterioration in a timely manner.

When you fuse fuel usage data with other insights on asset use and add an analytics layer on top, you can detect potential issues early and provide just-in-time maintenance.

Additionally, custom fuel monitoring systems can be enhanced with a predictive analytics component that can not only forecast fuel costs but indicate when certain assets need maintenance.

For example, cloud-based predictive fleet maintenance solutions let you identify the best sequence for scheduling vehicle repair or pump to maximize on-site engineers’ time. Or they can identify assets that can benefit from preventive maintenance today to avoid breakdowns during periods of heavy exploitation.

Fuel cost monitoring

You can’t optimize fuel consumption across the board when you don’t know precise MPG numbers for individual trucks and/or drivers. Basic fuel control systems can supply these. But they rarely allow you to discover the why behind usage patterns.

That’s why it makes sense to expand the range of data sources you’re collecting and analyzing. Especially if you’re also looking to purchase connected trucks — cars already equipped with in-vehicle sensors, data loggers, and telematics modules that can collect and transfer real-time data.

Data from these sources can be plugged into your fleet management system development for subsequent multi-vector analysis and detailed petrol cost reports for:

• • Specific routes
  • Vehicle models
  • Truck loads
  • Driver performance

Also, you can achieve an even more comprehensive view of cost-driving factors by augmenting your system with data from fuel tracking software, vehicle scheduling applications, or even external location-based services.

After all, long-haul trucks often stay idle for six to eight hours a day. By having full visibility into asset use, locations, and route conditions, you can develop a better dispatch schedule without ballooning fuel costs.

Detecting petrol theft

Unfortunately, fuel theft remains an issue. A survey from 2015 found that 54% of fleet managers felt “somewhat” or “very concerned” about fuel theft. What’s more, unidentified or unreported cases of petrol theft lead to suboptimal fuel cost projections for the next year.

When left unresolved, such issues can lead to continuous overbudgeting, making your operations less profitable.

We can assume that the volume of petrol theft has been reduced as many managers have improved their data collection on fuel usage patterns and introduced fuel cards for drivers to minimize the temptation of tampering with refueling and expense reporting.

Petrol cards, in fact, are another great asset and data point worth integrating with fleet fuel control systems.

First of all, cards serve as another data point you can use to estimate, attribute, and analyze fuel costs across the board. By integrating fuel cards with telematics, you’ll receive accurate fuel reports for each vehicle. This, in turn, lets you map any inefficiencies to specific assets and uncover problematic driver behavior.

Moreover, fuel cards directly contribute to a reduction in fuel theft. For example, fuel cards can help prevent petrol skimming, when a malicious party replaces card readers at gas stations with skimmers that collect cardholder data and reroute funds to a third-party account instead of paying for fuel. On the surface, charges made by card skimmers will appear as regular transactions in your financial records, making detection of this type of fuel fraud complex.

On a more positive note, petrol cards also contribute to a more pleasant driver experience. By paying with a connected card, truck drivers:

• • • Gain a better sense of security as they don’t need to carry cash
    • Don’t need to bother with expense management
    • Receive real-time information on the nearest gas station
    • Can benefit from perks offered by the card provider

Given that fuel cards offer savings for fleet managers and convenience for drivers, it makes perfect sense why the demand for petrol cards is booming. By 2027, the global fuel card retail market is projected to reach $1.21 billion, growing at a CAGR of 13.9%.

Reduce fleet carbon footprint

Sustainability and environmental protection have become indispensable parts of the strategic growth and development plans for most of the fleet management market-leading companies. If you want your business not to lag behind the industry trendsetters, you have to find ways for effective fleet carbon footprint reduction. And that’s where fuel management systems can come in handy.

Using fuel control systems, fleet managers can optimize route planning, i.e. find routes and change them in real-time so that fuel usage will be minimized. Minimized fuel usage also means a reduced carbon footprint. Managers can also build custom reports on fleet carbon footprint and track progress on a company’s emission goals.

How to build a smart fuel monitoring system

Typically, an automated petrol management system consists of two modules: onboard hardware and electronic fuel tracking software (web-based, desktop, and mobile).

Most often, essential hardware components include:

• • • A vehicle telematics unit
    • Data loggers
    • Extra sensors (IoT electronic devices)
    • In-cabin and external cameras

Fleet fuel monitoring software itself may also include one or a few additional modules, like:

• • • A web-based, mobile, and/or desktop analytics dashboard
    • A complementary mobile app for drivers
    • Open APIs for extra integrations

The hardware component facilitates the collection of vehicle data, which is then transmitted to the core analytics engine for deep analysis. You can also choose to integrate big data from external sources such as traffic management systems or weather applications to get a better sense of the driving conditions across various routes and vehicle types.

To design an effective fuel management system, you must first align on the goals and results that your company would like to receive by implementing a system. Once the vision is finalized, a fuel tracking software development company can offer a precise feature and module setup to cover your needs most effectively.

Conclusion

Fuel management is a tedious and intricate process. Especially when you can’t access crucial bits of data, explain usage patterns, and pinpoint the main cost drivers.

A fuel monitoring system serves as a data aggregator, offering secure data collection, storage, and analysis. What you receive in return is a comprehensive view of your historical, current, and projected petrol costs as well as granular reporting functionality and integration with other fuel control systems.

Contact Intellias specialists to learn about standalone fuel management software development and find ways to extend your current fleet management system.