Making the best fuel management solutions affordable to even the smallest fleets provides the same fuel access security money, and time-saving features that large fleets enjoy, ensuring the smallest, most vulnerable fleets are as secure and efficient as the largest.
By Mike Wade
Time is valuable, budgets are tight, and the uncertainty factor is huge in today’s unique climate. The pandemic, the growing possibility of strict future government mandates and a possible increase in gas prices put fleet and fuel managers in a difficult position. You must keep your fleet running efficiently, ensure fuel usage is fully accounted for and access is secure. There is also an increasing number of alternative fuel vehicles available even in the waste disposal industry.
Customized Fuel Management Bundles
We all know the simple process of purchasing communication services for our home. You, pick out a combination of cable, internet and cell phones, and select a data service plan to suit your personal needs. With no upfront cost, you sign your contract and make monthly payments. The bundled package cost less than purchasing the same services a la carte.
What if bundled fuel management systems were available for fleets? Any sized fleet? Centralized, pool and service fleets can all benefit. Bundling fuel management allows the fleet and fuel manager to look to a single-source provider offering customized system(s) and suite of solutions to meet your fleet’s individual requirements and size. The savings structure of bundling services and solutions also allows fleet managers to purchase or upgrade a fuel management solution earlier than they might otherwise be able to because there is no upfront expense.
Customer Satisfaction
Bundling a fleet’s fuel management without loss of features or services provides the fleet manager with the power to efficiently manage fuel usage by always having the most up-to-date IoT solution with cloud-hosted software for fuel management. A single source provider ensures all systems are integrated and covered under the same service plan.
According to a study by BroadbandNow in 2019, “When measuring the combined satisfaction across home services, customers that purchased multiple services from the same provider were much happier than those who did not. In fact, satisfaction increased with the size of the bundle, with Triple Play (internet, cable, phone) customers being the most satisfied.”1
Oversight and Accountability
A full-featured fueling solution should consist of:
• Fuel control terminal
• Access/communication hardware
• Cloud-hosted fuel management software
• Installation
• Training
• Call-center support
• Lifetime warranty for hardware and software
• Lifetime software updates
You have complete oversite and accountability over your fleet’s fuel usage to allow automated access, record odometers, control fuel types, fueling frequency, and quantity limits as needed to individual vehicles or drivers. In-depth reports provide a detailed analysis for each site, vehicle, and driver in multiple dimension selections. Detect shrinkage (fuel theft), compare similar vehicle type usage, and monitor CO2, N2O, and CH4 emissions. Track take-home vehicles for personalized fuel use monitoring and even manage small asset engine hours.
Integration
Like growing families adding phones, fuel system bundles allow for easily meeting future demands and mandates for fleets to begin growing their alternative fuel vehicles. As a fleet expands and alternative fuel or EV vehicles become more prevalent, the ability to add vehicles, and easily include management of multifuel and alternative fuels becomes necessary. Fully integrated solutions under bundled services allow for the simple inclusion of additional hardware such as fuel storage tanks, EV chargers and even GPS solutions..
Affordability
Perhaps the biggest benefit of bundled fuel management is affordability. With some plans including Zero upfront fee(s), the government entity or company makes a simple monthly payment. The customer owns all the fueling access hardware, and for the life of the contract, full hardware warranty, software updates, and call center support are included.
Ensuring Efficiency
Making industry-leading fuel management solutions affordable to even the smallest fleets provides the same fuel access security, time and money saving features that large fleets enjoy, ensuring the smallest, most vulnerable fleets are as secure and efficient as the largest. | WA
Mike Wade is Director of Sales and Marketing for E.J. Ward Inc. (San Antonio, TX). He has extensive Fortune 500 sales, marketing, and business development experience in delivering triple-digit profit and revenue returns. His global acumen includes the appointment as the first European Marketing Manager for a global Fortune 200 conglomerate, and has been a featured blogger for the Automotive Fleet/Government Fleet since 2010, and has presented on GPS and Fuel Management technologies at local, state and national conferences. Mike can be reached at [email protected].
Note
1. https://broadbandnow.com/research/internet-tv-phone-shopping-study-2019