It is very common for fleets to use fuel cards. They help to lower the amount of paperwork and this in turn will lower costs. If you have a discounted fuel card or fixed weekly rate fuel card you can often buy your fuel cheaper than the pump price. This is especially true if you fill up a lot on the motorways where it is more expensive.

Although you need to watch out when using fuel cards, if you are not careful they can make your fuel purchases more expensive. Make sure you keep an eye on the fixed price each week. The fuel card companies will often push up the price you pay gradually over a period of weeks. If the price starts to go up, get a quote for another card or the same card, but from a different broker. You can often find a better deal and then you can either sign up to the new card or use this as collateral to negotiate a better deal on your current provider.

Also it can be wise to get a second fuel card. This can enable you to swap between cards depending on prices. Also a fuel genie fuel card can be used at Morrisons and Tescos, so it might be a good idea to make that one of your cards.

Other ways to save money on your fleet costs include shopping around for the best deal when you lease or buy vehicles. Always haggle when you buy or lease a vehicle. Never go for the first price they offer you. Be prepared to walk away from the deal if you do not get the price you want. Often if you walk away from the table they will call you back. Remember they want your business.

When getting new vehicles look at the fuel consumption of those vehicles, the road tax that is charged for that vehicle and how much the insurance will be. Go for vehicles that get you cheap road tax, cheap insurance and are economical on fuel.

The fact is though vehicle tracking is not the only way you can save money on fuel. There are other ways to bring down your fuel consumption. Here are a few tips.

1) More often than not supermarkets are the cheapest place to buy your fuel from and the cheapest supermarket to get your fuel from is Asda. They charge the same price nationwide, unlike many of the other supermarket chains and they are usually the cheapest.

2) If you travel reasonable distances rather than driving within the same area all the time, this second tip can also help to save you a fare few bob. If you have towns or areas you visit frequently, work out which area has the cheapest petrol station. Then simply make sure you fill up when you visit that area. Also work out which is the most expensive area to fill up in and avoid filling up in that area. Sounds simple, but you would be surprised how many people over look this simple tip and it can save you a lot of money.

3) Use petrolprices.com to find cheapest petrol station in your area or indeed any area that you visit frequently.

4) Turn off your air conditioning as this makes your car run less economically.

5) Close your windows where you can as this also means your car is less aerodynamic and will burn more fuel.

6) Service your car more frequently and keep tyres pumped up fully to ensure your car is running as economically as possible.

7) Don’t carry around pointless stuff in your back seat or boot as this will add weight to the car and will cause your car to work harder and burn more fuel.

8 ) Lastly fast acceleration and harsh breaking is an uneconomical way of driving and will burn more fuel.

Fixed weekly rate fuel cards can often get you fuel at a cheaper price than you would otherwise be able to buy it. But often it can be more expensive. The problem is with these type of cards is that they do not often beat the price of your local petrol stations, but they often beat the price of motorway petrol stations where the prices are much higher. For this reason they may suit people who fill up on the motorway but not if you fill up locally.

For this reason you may well be better off using a fuel card with an at the pump discount. With a fuel card that gives you an at the pump discount you will always get a percentage off the at the pump price so you know you are getting a discount wherever you fill up including your local petrol station.

Fleetsmart are the first to enable their customers to use the advanced features via a mobile phone. This gives Fleetsmart a competitive edge of their competitors. At the moment releasing features that are of genuine value to the customer appears to be the way to get ahead in the vehicle tracking industry. Many of the big players race to develop and release new features all the time. This is in a bid to stay one step ahead of the game.

With duty of care now being a big issue in the world of fleet management, many businesses are getting vehicle tracking systems which can not only monitor the location of their vehicles, but also the speed and way they are driven.

The thing is this is not the only factor of road safety. Another big factor is the safety of the vehicles themselves. In surveys done many fleet managers do not even consider the Ncap rating of a vehicle before they purchase it. In fact only 28% of fleet managers take into account the Ncap rating of the vehicles they buy and lease. Yet 42% of all these managers do take into account duty of care.

Another technology which not all fleet managers seem to be aware of is ESC (Electronic stability control). This technology detects skids and minimises them by applying the brakes to a one or several of the wheels as it is needed. It can make the vehicle a hell of a lot safer and should be on all work vehicles.

To cut a long story short fleet managers need to factor in the safety ratings and features when looking at investing in new vehicles for their fleet.

This can be a big knock to profits and investment in training has been proven to help increase driving standards and safety.

The problem with training is that it needs to be repeated from time to time. Over a period of time drivers can fall back into bad habits and driver training should therefore be repeated every so often.

Driver training should also be targeted. If you use vehicle tracking you will know not only the drivers who tend to have more aggressive driving styles but also the drivers who do the most motorway driving or town driving. This means you can tailor the training your drivers receive.

You need to also communicate with your staff about how they feel about their safety on the roads. Are their roads and situations they come into contact with on a frequent basis which are unsafe? Do you feel extra training may help you to deal with these situations better?

Often staff can resent or think training is pointless and for this reason you need to get them involved and talk with them about training. This way they will feel more enthusiastic about training and also can contribute to the choices made regarding the training they receive.

One of the big ways to cut down on costs is fuel. Obviously vehicle tracking systems can help you to do this, but another great way to cut fuel costs are fuel cards. Fuel cards are a great tool for businesses to utilise as they do two things. Firstly they save on paperwork.

If you have ever run a fleet of vehicles where the drivers hand in receipts for each individual fuel transaction made, you will know what a pain in the neck it is. Not only this, they come from multiple petrol stations and the petrol prices vary. With fuel cards you can cut down on paperwork dramatically.

Also fuel cards can give you a lower rate on your fuel than if you were to just put it on your credit card. Therefore you can get a lower rate than the price advertised on the forecourt.

Unlike a credit card your staff cannot use it to pay for other items. They can only buy fuel with it.

Hey vehicle tracking systems are great but don’t overlook other money saving methods. Fuel cards are a great place to start, but make sure you get the best one for your business needs. Not all fuel cards are equal. Some are better suited to companies running fleets of HGVs others are better for small fleets of vehicles. There are plenty of comparison sites online that can give you a good overview of the fuel card market.