Costs • Fuel
How to cut fuel costs in your transport company
Fuel is the biggest variable cost of a transport company. The biggest savings don't come from a lower price at the pump, but from fewer empty kilometres, better routes and a controlled driving style. Below you'll see how to cut fuel costs in your transport company, step by step.
The steps (short answer)
- Measure real consumption per vehicle and per trip, so you know your baseline.
- Eliminate empty kilometres: systematically look for return loads and backhaul freight.
- Optimise routes: order the stops and avoid slow roads and congestion.
- Control idling and harsh braking through GPS telemetry and discuss them with the drivers.
- Track cost per trip and per vehicle in reports, to see the effect of each measure.
Where fuel is lost
- Empty kilometres on the way back: an empty truck consumes almost as much as a loaded one.
- Excessive idling: a running engine during long stops burns fuel without moving.
- Aggressive driving: harsh acceleration and braking that raise consumption.
- Poorly planned routes, with avoidable backtracking and detours.
Table: measure and fuel saving
Measures to reduce fuel cost
| Measure | Effect on consumption |
|---|---|
| Loaded return trips | Directly reduce fuel per tonne carried |
| Route optimisation | Fewer total kilometres per round |
| Reducing idling | Less fuel burned while parked |
| Corrected driving style | Lower consumption over the same distance |
Common mistakes
- Focusing only on the pump price and ignoring empty kilometres.
- Not measuring consumption per vehicle, so you can't see which truck or driver uses more.
- Optimising once and not tracking the effect in reports.
How 4transports helps
- 4transports has no GPS telemetry, route optimisation or refuelling records: you measure consumption from the fuel card.
- The distance in km of each trip, which you enter, gives you the basis for the consumption calculation.
- Maintenance jobs and their costs sit in each vehicle's history.