Businesses and fleet managers today face a business environment with high fuel costs, and that challenge will continue for years to come.
Going green or utilizing electric vehicles (EVs) is no longer just a fad – it is a viable business strategy for lowering costs and improving efficiencies within an organization.
However, it is important to understand that creating sustainable fleet strategies is an involved and complex process that requires planning to ensure success. In this blog post, I wanted to share some thoughts on the best way to create a business case for adopting EV and sustainable fleet strategies.
Geotab and authorized resellers like GPS to GO are committed to helping our customers reduce their carbon footprint by enabling them to adopt sustainable fleet strategies.
The first step for successfully implementing these strategies is to create a business case that lays out the costs and benefits associated with becoming more sustainable, as well as the specific tactics you will use to meet your carbon reduction goals.
Before you can create a business case, you need to define what sustainable fleet strategies are and their desired outcome. In general, they can be broken down into two main objectives: reducing carbon emissions and improving operational efficiency.
Here are 4 sustainable fleet strategies you can incorporate within your organization easily with Geotab devices:
Idle reduction
Unnecessary idling is something every fleet should try to address. It wastes fuel, leading to overall lower fuel economy, and is an additional source of CO2 emissions. To reduce idling you need to monitor it and train your drivers to avoid it when possible. To address this you need to understand how long your vehicles idle, the amount of fuel that is used when idling, and its applicable financial cost.
Route Optimization
You can reduce the amount of fuel you use, along with the emissions they generate, by always taking the most efficient route. By reviewing and creating your route plans you can ensure your drivers complete their tasks in the most effective way.
Rightsizing Your Fleet
Rightsizing helps organizations optimize the use of their assets. It ensures that the fleet consists of the fewest and most efficient vehicles necessary to complete its daily tasks. By placing more efficient vehicles in high-use roles, and by limiting the use of less-efficient vehicles, the fleet will operate with lower total emissions.
Fleet Electrification
Electric vehicles will be a game changer for fleets. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) produce zero tailpipe emissions and typically have a lower TCO. This means that a fleet can improve its bottom line while becoming more sustainable. Fleet electrification is a gradual process and requires some advanced planning to be successful. However, you can also double down on your sustainability efforts by applying some of the previously mentioned strategies to your new EVs, like route optimization.
These strategies should be included with any business case or plan for switching to or utilizing EVs for sustainable fleet practices. If you would like to learn how GPS to GO can help you save money on fuel costs OR optimize your fleet with GPS tracking devices, sign up to get a free quote by clicking this link.
