When a fleet owner asks the question — “how well are we doing?” — a fleet’s fuel efficiency metrics can provide a clear response to this crucial concern. As fleets strive to reach maximum fuel efficiency, looking to your drivers’ and trucks’ fuel data helps you understand where and how your drivers can improve and do their best work, as well as how you can keep them engaged and happy. When it comes to steering your fleet toward maximum fuel efficiency, real-time driver coaching combined with fair and precise fuel metrics are the way to get there.
Real-Time Driver Coaching
Real-time, in-cab driver coaching not only helps to eliminate fuel costs, but it shows drivers how appreciated their work and their well-being is. Any professional values the opportunity to improve, and real-time coaching gives drivers knowledge and incentive to make these changes in the moment. From speeding to shifting to idling, drivers can focus on improving some of the most common fuel wasting behaviors and save the fleet money in so many ways.
True Fuel®’s in-cab coaching gives fleet managers unparalleled visibility and control over one of your largest operational costs. The first step is to find a metric to measure fuel use that makes sense. As fleet managers know well, MPG doesn’t get the job done since it can’t account for and normalize all the things that drivers can’t control like truck, load, route, and weather. That’s why True Fuel® analyzes engine data and determines the Potential MPG (or maximum achievable fuel economy) under the vehicle’s current load and operating conditions, creating a situation where all the focus can be on improving the driver’s performance in real time.
Normalization of MPG is the most effective way to not only demonstrate to your drivers that you are gauging them fairly on the things that can actively control, but also to genuinely provide them with a clear roadmap of what to do to improve those key skills. This can help fleets in an another incredibly valuable way: facilitating an environment where every driver is engaged, happy, and less likely to leave the fleet. As retention continues to plague many fleets, working with True Fuel® as a partner will not only improve fuel economy, but also keep your drivers committed and engaged.
Fair, Precise Metrics
Fleet owners know that drivers, trucks, loads, and routes vary. Because of this, metrics must be fair and precise in order to give fleet owners the most useful information to improve a fleet’s fuel economy. Therefore, real-time monitoring that tracks each particular vehicle’s actual fuel usage under its current load and operating conditions gives fleet owners the best insight into how to optimize specific aspects of their drivers’ performance.
At the end of the drive, drivers receive a fair and normalized score of their performance. This lets drivers assess their own work in a holistic and fair way, empowering them to strive for improvement, with no excuses.
When drivers know that their fleet owners aren’t discriminating or biased but care enough to help each individual improve on specific skills, they’ll be much more likely to really invest themselves in that effort to improve. True Fuel®’s real-time coaching not only aligns fleet owners and drivers on the right track to optimizing operational efficiency, but creates a culture of integrity, fairness, and shared values within the entire fleet.
When it comes to fuel efficiency, fleets must always be looking ahead to their next steps. This is why fleet owners need a trusted tool to help them get their drivers on the right path. Doing so means targeting specific driving behaviors, and helping drivers improve upon them both in the moment and over time with valuable insights. A tool like True Fuel® has it all — it helps fleet owners measure important behaviors, it gives drivers the chance to see how they’ve been doing in a fair and accurate way, and encourages them to do better for themselves and for the sake of their fleet. In this case, everyone wins.