How To Reduce Your Fleet Fuel Expenses

As you know, every mile your trucks drive between jobs costs you money. But do you actually know how much it’s costing you? Most don’t.

You might be efficient once you’re on a property. Crews in. Crews out. Job done. But what happens in-between jobs, the vehicle idling, speeding, and inefficient routes, can eat through your margins – FAST.

Obviously, you can’t stop driving, but you can (and should) have visibility into the thigs that are dragging down your profitability.

Let’s talk fuel costs.

Fuel Prices Spike in Spring & Summer. Are You Ready?

Retail gas prices go up every year between March and September. In some places—California, Hawaii, Oregon—it’s even worse.

If you’ve got 10 trucks out every day, even a 10% increase in fuel costs can hit hard. If you’re not keeping an eye on idling and driving habits, those losses add up.

Idling: The Silent Profit Killer

A single light-duty truck idling for just one hour a day can burn through a half gallon (or more) of fuel. Over 260 workdays, that’s more than $1,000 a year—per truck. Multiply that by your fleet and think what you could be doing with that money.

Businesses Don’t Know if  Idling is a Problem.

That’s why Momentum created idling alerts. Because when you get a heads-up when your truck’s are wasting gas, you can do something about it.

Excessive Idling is one of the most popular Momentum monitors. It allows you to track idling trends and receive real-time alerts when your vehicles are idling for too long. Use this guide to set-up your Excessive Idling monitor, or view below.

That’s it! Setting up an idling monitor is easy – it’ll only takes a minute!

Momentum will ping you on email or by text when vehicles idle too long. You’ll also have reports that show trends over time.

• See which drivers idle the most

• Spot seasonal spikes (cold mornings, hot afternoons)

• Compare month-over-month to track progress

• Cut your cost-per-mile down to size

All that data helps you make better decisions.

Speeding is a major safety issue for any field service business. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, 308,013 people were injured as a result of speeding in 2020 (the last year the NHSTA has provided data).

Speeding isn’t just unsafe—it’s a fuel burner

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, every 5 mph you drive over 50 mph drops fuel efficiency by 6.84%.

Now Apply That to $3.16 per Gallon:

Let’s calculate what a 6.84% increase looks like at $3.16/gal:

$3.16 × 6.84% = $0.2162 → Rounded: ~$0.22 per gallon

So every 5 miles over 50 mph translated into paying an extra $0.22 per gallon. So if your guys are flying at 75 mph, you are paying an extra $1.10 per gallon. They’re not just risking a ticket—they’re draining your fuel budget.

If you’re driving a distance of 60 miles at 70 mph, you’ll arrive at your destination in 51.4 minutes; at 80 mph it’ll take 45 minutes; and at 90 mph, it’ll take 40 minutes. The risk/reward of speeding vs time-saved is minimal. And for shorter distances, the time saved is even less! Here’s a cool breakdown of speeding vs time saved.

Ensuring that your drivers are practicing good driving habits and traveling at appropriate speeds is good for safety AND your bottom line.

When a vehicle is moving, you can use the map in the Momentum app to see it’s travel speed in real-time. All routes and trips are color-coded based on the speed of the traveling vehicle. It’s really easy to see how fast your vehicles are traveling, and also, where unsafe behavior (like speeding) occurs. For example, are your fleet vehicles traveling too fast on the highways? You’ll be able to see at a glance.

If you’re not glued to the Momentum app, and checking  fleet activity in real-time, you can create Speeding monitors and alerts. You’ll get alerted by email, text or an in-app notification any time a vehicle exceeds a pre-set speed. To create Speeding alerts, follow the same process as detailed above or for additional direction, view our helpful guides here.

To see which drivers are consistently speeding, look at their Driver Scorecard.

If you are already a customers, login to your Momentum account to create monitors and alerts for excessive idling and speeding. Or, Sign Up for Momentum today.

Questions about Monitors, Alerts, Reports – or anything else related to Momentum? Text or call 323-831-3475.