Reduce Your Transportation Fuel Usage To Save Money

Sometimes forgotten in an entity’s energy footprint is fuel usage for transportation needs, fleet cars, trucks, etc. Fuel is procured and stored, then quickly dispensed and used. But cars and trucks are not to be kept parked, but used on the road. While at this writing gasoline/diesel prices have been recently dropped, they have over the last five years kept steady at or near $4.00/gallon, so we have gotten used to this. In addition, with competitive growth in other countries and oil being a finite resource, prices will have to increase in the long term. Since many companies rely on fleets of cars or trucks to move employees, resources, and goods, transportation represents a significant percentage of many company’s energy usage and cost and greenhouse gas emissions.

Therefore, it is worth your while to study ways to reduce your transportation needs. You should start by understanding how much your company is really dependent on different modes of transportation (fleets of cars, trucks, etc.). How much gasoline or diesel does your company use annually? You can get information from purchasing records. Even look at indirect gasoline usage which you may compensate for in expense reports (for example, asking employees to travel somewhere to attend a meeting).

Then you can begin to look for solutions to reduce usage, save costs, and be more independent. For example, more meetings or webinars can be held via the Internet to reduce travel to meetings at destinations. Not only will this save your company money, but it will also allow your staff less time out of the office and be more productive.

Another strategy is to change the composition of your fleet to more fuel efficient automobiles over time. There have been successful programs to encourage such a transition, which allows cost savings while sales or other employees still do travel.

The good news is that nationwide gasoline usage has dropped about 5% in the last 4 years due to many reasons, including more companies and people implementing the tips above, as well as other tips and other factors.

Finally, as you implement some of these and other suggestions, continue to keep records of gasoline and diesel usage to track the ultimate success of reducing your fuel usage and the resulting monetary and greenhouse gas emission reductions.

CCES technical experts can help you evaluate your fuel usage in the transportation and heating realms and can recommend and manage workable strategies and implement proven ways to reduce fuel usage and save you money. See our website: www.CCESworld.com for more information or contact me at karell@CCESworld.com.