Get to know your fuel saving champs!

If you know the amount of fuel saved by your fuel saving champs, you will get a basic idea of the potential of reducing fuel consumption for the entire fleet. So, this may serve as a benchmark for future planning. Comparing fuel consumption of individual drivers is as simple as setting up an interface to feed external refuelling data into your system or requires on board data acquisition. Some vehicles already have the possibility to export data to an USB-storage device. The data acquisition combined in an on board unit supporting accounting or invoicing may save investment costs.
So, monitoring will not only provide you with the figures you need to know for saving fuel, but also helps to boost your efficiency by improving logistics and - you never know - preventing theft or fraud.

How to?

Fuel monitoring technology is the counterpart to monitoring the driving style. If differences in load and road conditions vary a lot, you might opt for monitoring the driving behaviour (RPM excursions, throttle status, engine braking time, idling time...). In general, though, it is sufficient to monitor fuel consumption. If you have one driver per vehicle or if you are rewarding teams of drivers, it will be sufficient to request the mileage and the amount of fuel used. If you think this lean solution will not do and generally consider an on board unit in support of accounting, you can go for a more sophisticated solution. Those systems are offered on the market, the standardisation of the vehicle CAN-bus has brought the break through. Even for passenger cars build in solutions exist, relying solely on an USB stick for data transfer.