How fuel analysts can drive down your costs

Attendees agreed that supermarkets were generally cheaper – provided drivers didn’t travel miles out of their way to fill up.

Kerry Hannelly, operations support co-ordinator at Carlisle Support Services which has 250 vehicles, said: “We have fuel cards for all our drivers but if they don’t use the cheapest fuel three times in a row then we take away their fuel card and they have to go on reimbursement.”

According to Chris Pascall, head of transport at UK Power Networks, a lot of fleets are now issuing two cards and advising drivers to use whichever is nearest to them.

“The problem is the admin involved and trying to manage the mpg is a nightmare because you have two lots of data from two sources,” he said. “There’s no simple answer.”

The “big thing” for UK Power Networks, according to Pascall, is having a league table comparing fuel usage for different areas of the business. Managers of the worst areas have to do a presentation explaining why they are bottom of the league table.

John Heussi, head of fleet services at Cheshire Constabulary, is using the same approach.

He said: “We split the drivers up into different areas and rate their performance on fuel usage against mileage. The senior leaders of those areas have to face the music and explain why their costs are higher. They want to win and be among the best.”

Raymond agreed that getting managers involved is essential. “Unless they are engaged in it you’re always going to be limited,” he said.

Pascall pointed out that putting the data into a simple format for managers is important. “Managers haven’t got the time to analyse the data,” he said. “You can’t send them the mpg data because the worst mpg will always be the trucks and they won’t have the time to break out the data to find the vans. You’ve got to give it them in a simple format, showing who is the worst.”

Boulds said that he breaks the data into “bite-size chunks” by sending a pie chart showing percentage of fill-ups at supermarkets and percentage of motorway fill-ups.

Tony Brady, fleet and travel manager at Steria suggested that another engagement strategy could be making sure employees know what the company spends on fuel.

Eco-friendly or smarter driver training is another approach being adopted. Morrison Plant Services has just bought 100 sessions of the Energy Saving Trust’s smarter driving course and will be rolling it out to the business while Daniel Contractors has already put its drivers through the course.

Boulds said that the drivers’ attitude changed from being opposed to the idea of training because “they already knew how to drive” to friendly banter over mpg figures.

One driver achieved a 33% improvement in mpg during the course while some achieved a modest 4%, 5% or 6%. The average improvement was 15%.

Boulds upped his mpg by 11% on the course. He estimates this would save him nearly £400 a year.

“I’m now getting 50mpg in my Mondeo whereas before the training I was struggling for just over 40mpg,” he said.

However, Pascall pointed out that on his fleet the driver with the best mpg isn’t necessarily the best driver.

He said: “We’ve got people who live outside London who travel into London and then take the van home. They will probably get the best mpg because they are coming in early and going down the motorway. The person who lives in London doesn’t get the chance to do the miles and their mpg will never be any good. Yet they are using less fuel than the other guys.”
Heussi added: “Driver training says that a driver can do this. It doesn’t necessarily mean they will do this.

“You’ve got to make sure that people know what’s expected of them in terms of fuel usage and driver behaviour. The most difficult thing we all have to manage is people.”
Private use of vans was also a hot topic and Raymond said that the HMRC is taking an interest in this area.

Paul Jackson, managing director of TMC, said that a company recently received a letter from the HMRC asking for a list of people who were able to use the van at weekends. The company didn’t allow private use of the vans and unfortunately the HMRC had photographs showing a liveried van at Center Parcs with bike racks on the back.

Attendees also discussed methods of fuel reimbursement. Kim Durling, sustainability director at Europa, is planning to switch from drivers reimbursing the company for their private mileage at Advisory Fuel Rates (AFRs) to reimbursement at actual pence per mile.

“The incentive for the driver is to improve their mpg because it will be cheaper for them,” he said.
He anticipates that this will cost the company less than paying AFRs.

Durling is looking to reduce the company’s carbon footprint and is encouraging car sharing as well as tele and video conferencing. Europa’s Glasgow and Manchester offices both have video conferencing facilities.

“If we’re able to reduce the amount of travel it’s another way of keeping cost down,” Durling said.

However, attendees acknowledged that the ability to share vehicles depends on the nature of the business.

At Morrison Plant Services a lot of drivers travel straight from their home address to a job which can make vehicle sharing impractical.

Pascall said that the only time his company had seen the benefit of car sharing was when there was limited parking at an office and if employees wanted a parking space they needed to share.