10 ways to reduce your motoring fuel costs

Whether you operate an entire fleet of vehicles or just a couple of company cars, you’d probably jump at the chance to cut fuel costs. As you’ve no say in the prices at the pumps, it’s a case of finding creative and effective ways to reduce fuel bills by other means.

The good news being that contrary to popular belief, there’s actually a lot you can do to immediately and permanently reduce how much you spend on fuel.  Simple yet effective, each of the following is guaranteed to help you bring your motoring fuel costs under control:

1. Keep an Eye on Tyre Pressures

Believe it or not, ensuring your vehicles’ tyres are correctly inflated at all times can reduce overall fuel consumption by as much as 3%. The more vehicles you have and the longer the distances covered, the bigger the savings.

2. Discourage Aggressive Acceleration

You can’t keep a close eye on your drivers at all times, but you can at least discourage aggressive acceleration to improve fuel economy. Gentle, gradual acceleration burning significantly less fuel than hitting the gas to 3.

3. Compare Fuel Cards

You could also gain access to significant discounts by using an independent comparison site such as icompario.com to compare the best fuel card deals available for your business.

4. Keep your Vehicles Well Serviced

Don’t make the mistake of delaying or skipping routine maintenance and repairs, as to do so is to run the risk of your vehicles becoming increasingly less fuel efficient.

5. Choose Smooth Roads Wherever Possible

You’d be surprised just how much fuel economy can be increased by choosing routes comprised primarily of smooth roads that are easy to drive on. Rough and challenging roads, by contrast, take tons more fuel to traverse.

6. Set and Enforce Speed Restrictions

All vehicles have an optimum speed at which their fuel economy is maximised. If your drivers exceed this speed limit, you’re technically throwing money down the drain. Hence, an investment in basic telematics technology really can make a big difference.

7. Allow More Time to Each Destination

Drivers in a hurry are instinctively more likely to drive aggressively and dangerously than those who have plenty of time to spare. If you can allow at least a little more time to each destination, everyone benefits.

8. Reduce Weight Where Possible

This isn’t always an option, but if there is a possibility of reducing the weight of any of your vehicles (or their contents), you are guaranteed to save money on fuel with every journey.

9. Avoid Peak Travel Times

Nothing burns through fuel excessively and unnecessarily more than getting stuck in rush hour traffic. Unless there is no alternative, do your best to avoid peak travel times and you’ll soon be counting the savings.

10. Consider Alternative Vehicles

Last but not least, an investment in a newer and more fuel efficient vehicle could save your business significant sums of money long-term. If electric vehicles and hybrids are too expensive to purchase outright, you could always consider leasing or hire-purchase contracts to help spread the costs.