Engine idling costs businesses £3.3 billion in wasted fuel per year

Reducing idling time on the 4.5 million commercial vehicles in the UK and Ireland could save businesses as much as £3.3 billion per year in fuel, according to research from Fleetmatics Group.

Data from its 331,000 subscriber vehicles reveals that vehicles operating without a fleet management solution will idle for 96 minutes per day, on average.

By implementing a GPS fleet tracking solution, SME fleet owners can reduce vehicle idle time by 25% on average, or 24 minutes daily.

In 2011 it was estimated that 860,000 or 24.9% of all commercial vehicles operating in the UK and Ireland had implemented a fleet management solution.

Based on a penetration rate of 24.9% of the 4.5 million commercial vehicles on the road today, the UK and Ireland should already be realising a saving of 1.7 million litres of fuel per day or nearly £2.3 million daily.

But, if all commercial vehicles operating in the UK and Ireland were to implement this technology, businesses could save a further five million litres of fuel or almost £7million. This  equates to daily savings of 6.7 million litres of fuel or £9.2 million.

When translated annually these numbers could make an impact on the UK and Ireland’s fuel dependency:

• Reduction in annual fuel consumption by 2,434,681,400 litres

• Saving more than £3.3 billion per year in fuel costs

Richard Brooks, marketing director for Europe at Fleetmatics, said: “While some idling of commercial vehicles is unavoidable, I think the research does highlight a massive problem for businesses in the UK and Ireland.

"Our customers are all SMEs and even small percentage points of profit on the bottom line matter.

"Business owners and operators I am sure will be horrified at the news that their money is being poured down the drain or more accurately is going up in smoke.”