How to Save Money On Your Company Car Fleet

There isn’t a business owner on the planet that wouldn’t be happy to save some money. The only question they’ll have is whether it’s saving money in the right way, one that doesn’t undermine the quality of their company.

Car fleets have high operating costs, with fuel, maintenance, and ownership all setting your business back plenty of cash.

I’m here to tell you that you can save money in all these areas and it won’t undermine the standard of your business one bit.

Want to know how? I’ll explain.

Invest in fuel cards to save money and reclaim cash

Fuel cards are credit cards for diesel and petrol. While this may not sound like something that can save you money, they have great features that help you to reduce costs and can even help you reclaim some cash.

There are lots of ways that you can save money with fuel cards:

• Cheaper fuel – access to petrol and diesel discounts
• Reduced admin – account management software
• Cashflow management – buy now and pay later

But one of the best things about fuel cards is that they can help you reclaim money that you’re owed. This is because they create HMRC-approved invoices, making it easier for you to reclaim the correct VAT you’re due.

There are lots of fuel card brands and each offers its own card(s). For instance, there are several different Shell fuel cards so even if you decide you want to use that brand it could still be tricky deciding what Shell fuel card is right for your company fleet.

The best way to approach this is to decide what benefits matter most to your business. You can then enter them into a comparison tool and it will highlight the right fuel card for you.

Get your drivers to operate your vehicles more efficiently

Improving the efficiency of your drivers saves money on your car fleet in two ways – it costs you a smaller amount to maintain your fleet and your drivers spend less money getting to their destination.

These two things boil down to one issue: speed. And the simple point is this, driving faster costs your business more money. Here’s why:

Firstly, driving at a higher speed puts more stress on your vehicles’ engines and makes them work harder. This can cause them to age faster, meaning you need to spend more money on their maintenance, repair and replacement.

Secondly, driving faster burns fuel more quickly – studies show that driving at 70 mph uses 9% more fuel than if you drive at 60 mph. This means your deliveries might arrive faster, but it costs your company more money to get them to your customers.

The simple answer to both these problems is to get your drivers to slow down. You can make this happen by telling them to do so and monitor it by installing tracking devices on your vehicles.

Establish if you’ve got the right vehicle ownership model

Vehicle ownership seems pretty straightforward for a fleet business – you have plenty of cars and you own all of them. But the thing is that this might not be the best ownership model for you and it could be costing you money.

One ownership model that could work for your business is to use a grey fleet – where your employees own the vehicles and use them for business purposes.

This is ideal if you’re operating a fleet that uses cars because it means you can get your employees to cover the cost of their maintenance, while your business pays for the fuel.

Another model that could work is to go electric. Electric cars are more efficient than ones that run on diesel or petrol, meaning you get more bang for your buck when fueling them.

Of course, you could combine the two and then you’ll be able to save even more money – though, it might be a while before you can do this as most people don’t own an electric car.

Recommended reading: The Common Car Problem Solutions

Fuel cards, driving more efficiently, and reviewing your ownership model are just three of the great ways that you can save money on your company fleet – you might also want to consider becoming a night driving operation, or reducing the number vehicles you use.

Pick the ones that work best for you, put them into practice today, and it won’t be long before your business is saving cash.