Green up Your Business Fleet: Efficient 5-Step Approach to Reduce Environmental Impact

Eco-consciousness and the raised environmental awareness brought forth the need to start looking for solutions that will allow us to reduce our carbon footprints. This is particularly true for various businesses and especially for those putting a lot of vehicles on the road. Carbon emissions, as well as the price of gas and oil, are just some of the things such businesses need to pay close attention to. 

It’s also worth mentioning, green businesses seem to be gaining in popularity quite fast. Since we’re all equally concerned about the state of our planet, people feel more inclined to do business with companies that are on the same page. That’s why any business owner should look for ways to make their business fleet as efficient and eco-friendly as possible. With that in mind, check out some of the ways you can do so.

1. Educate your team

The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure everyone in your company is on the same page. Talk to your drivers and explain to them what you’re trying to achieve. Also, explain to them the importance of efficiency when it comes to their business. Since driver behavior can greatly affect fuel consumption – reportedly up to 30% – you need to ensure that your drivers are familiar with all the ways they can be more efficient in their job. So, sit down with your team and go together through some key points, such as braking and accelerating behavior, proper speed maintenance and route planning. 

2. Optimize routes

Furthermore, you need to ensure you optimize the routes well, to avoid having your vehicles on the road for longer than they need to be. This will greatly affect your fuel consumption and, in turn, it can seriously lower your expenses. Also, avoid having your drivers go back and forth more often than they need to. Use modern-day solutions, such as GPS mapping software to pre-map the routes.

For instance, if your business is dealing with deliveries, see how you can create a route for every driver that will allow them to deliver goods to your clients while circling back to your business headquarters. This will save you and your team both time and money in the long run, as it will seriously lower downtime.

3. Go for used vehicles

Additionally, business owners will also need to decide on the type of vehicle they want to go with. Usually, owners make the mistake and presume that purchasing new vehicles is the best way to go. However, this has proven not to be the best choice. As much as a quarter of the CO2 a vehicle emits during its life-cycle occurs during the manufacturing process and initial shipment! What you should do instead, is look into used trucks for sale. Another reason to go this way is pre-used vehicles offer lower fees and insurance costs. The purchase prices are significantly lower when it comes to used vehicles, as well as any potential repairs. So, keep this in mind when browsing for the best solutions for your business fleet.

4. Motivate your drivers

You can choose to motivate your drivers to up their efficiency game, as well. Of course, we all want to make sure we do our best to protect our environment, but that can sometimes slip off our minds easily. What you can do to ensure all your drivers stay motivated to perform their best is offer some sort of incentives to the most efficient ones. Employee recognition can play a huge part in business success. 

At the end of each month, calculate fuel consumption among drivers and see who has managed to be the most efficient. You can then offer some cash bonuses, gift cards or paid days off to those drivers to reward them for their efforts. Of course, make sure you play it fair when doing this, and add into account all the factors contributing to their overall performance.

5. Do regular maintenance

Finally, you will need to ensure you conduct regular preventive maintenance to ensure all of your vehicles are in mint condition. This will allow you to notice any potential problem upfront and remedy it before it grows into something more serious. Preventive maintenance will always cost less than having to repair or even replace a piece of your equipment that got damaged due to the lack of upkeep. 

So, talk to your drivers and ask them to try and pay attention to the performance of their vehicles. Encourage them to report anything that might feel a bit off. In the end, make sure every driver has their own designated vehicle so they can monitor it closely and notice as soon as something stops working the way it used to.

While it may sound too easy that these 5 ways can make your business fleet more efficient, the fact is, your business will benefit greatly from implementing them. These steps will not only allow you to reduce your overhead and save some money you can later find a better use for, but they will also make your business practice appear more environmentally aware.