Sustainable & Green Fleet Management

Green fleet management can help optimize your fleet's performance. That’s important in crowded industries where fleet managers and owners must work hard to help their firm stand out.

These fleet management professionals have plenty to keep them busy before you start factoring in green initiatives. They must coordinate employees, technologies, and systems to ensure efficient operations and keep their enterprise profitable.

However, a green fleet can actually make life easier for fleet managers providing that they are smart with how they incorporate this new technology. It’s essential to be strategic about adopting any new tool. Implementing them too quickly or slowly can put your fleet at a disadvantage.

Read on to learn more about how you can implement sustainable fleet management to supercharge your fleet operations and lower your emissions.

The Benefits of Converting to Zero-Emissions

The business case for a green fleet is strong. It can increase your fleet’s fuel efficiency and reduce operating costs, which we’ll dive into below, but it also offers many environmental benefits.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly a target for many firms, from small family businesses to large corporations. As fleets are often one of the largest sources of these emissions, they are a good place for any organization to start. Converting to a green fleet can significantly reduce the total emissions for any company. Your organization will benefit the community by reducing its impact on the environment and human health.

A green fleet can also improve your organization’s reputation. As concerns over climate change increase, companies face more pressure to lower their emissions. Sustainable fleet management gives you tools for reducing emissions in quantifiable ways that you can convey to all your stakeholders, from customers to employees.

The Health Impact of Diesel Exhaust

Diesel-powered fleets do important jobs for various industries and keep the economy moving. Unfortunately, diesel engines release exhaust that results from the combustion of diesel fuel. Diesel exhaust contains a mixture of particulates and gases, including diesel particulate matter (DPM). DPM is comprised of very small particles, some of which may be the polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) that have been shown to cause cancer in animals.

Occupations with workers who are exposed to diesel exhaust, including truck drivers, are at risk for certain adverse health effects. They include:

• Eyes and nose irritation
• Headaches
• Nausea
• Respiratory disease
• Lung cancer

Switching to a green fleet can protect drivers who operate diesel trucks from these dangerous health outcomes. It may also attract new workers who were previously deterred by this workplace hazard.

READ MORE: Learn more about diesel exhaust from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the U.S. regulatory agency that ensures healthy working conditions in the country’s workplaces.

Green Fleet Management: Features and Benefits

Green fleet management can refer to the alternative fuel vehicles and other green equipment in your fleet. It can also refer to any initiatives, policies, telematics tools, hardware, or software that you use to help reduce your fleet’s emissions, consumption of conventional fuels, and environmental impact.

Features

• Electric vehicles (EVs)
• Green initiatives and policies
• GPS
• Dashcams
• Telematics dashboard
• Fleet management software and mobile apps

Benefits

• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
• Lower maintenance and fuel costs
• Better optimize routes
• Limit idling time
• Encourage efficient, safe driver behavior
• Incorporate preventive vehicle maintenance
• Engages drivers

What Does a Green Fleet Management Strategy Entail?

Meeting your goals for fleet management takes a customized strategy. With so many kinds of fleets out there, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. Your fleet may have multiple vehicles that may not even take the same fuel. Every fleet is different.

However, there are some critical areas that every green fleet management strategy should address:

• Staff driving behaviors
• Maintenance plans
• Electric vehicles
• Transportation alternatives
• Mobility as a Service (MaaS)
• Priority for cleaner vehicles

Different fleets can develop their own strategies for dealing with each of these aspects of green fleet management. Developing your strategy can be a significant undertaking that includes research, planning, and implementation. You’ll need a multi-phased plan that can be revisited and updated as technology changes. This should be a formal, carefully executed process with buy-in from leadership. Getting input from managers, drivers, and anyone else in your organization can also help. That way, you get all your stakeholders on board and improve the chances of your strategy’s success.

Electric Vehicles

Your fleet is a highly visible part of your organization’s operations. A green fleet comprised of electric vehicles can make a good impression on behalf of your organization. As the vehicles go about their daily operations, community members will see that your organization cares about the environment.

It’s essential to choose the right EV for your fleet. That way, you get the most fuel savings while still ensuring that your vehicles can stand up to the hard jobs you do every day. Let’s do a quick run-down of the most common types of EVs you’ll find in green fleets.

• Battery electric vehicles (BEVs): EV with rechargeable batteries and no gasoline engine
• Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs): EV that recharges through an external power source or via regenerative braking
• Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs): EV powered by gasoline and electricity and also uses regenerative braking

An EV’s range and the available charging infrastructure can be a deciding factor for many fleets. Make sure that the vehicle can do what you need it to do.

READ MORE: Learn more about EV range from Car and Driver.

Top 3 Benefits of Green Fleet Management

Green vehicles combined with fleet management practices and tools that prioritize fuel efficiency can benefit your operations. Let’s dive deeper into the benefits of green fleet management to understand its business impact.

1. You’ll lower your operational costs.

Gas can be costly, and the prices can fluctuate. You’ll save on gasoline with an EV. According to Consumer Reports, the total ownership cost of an EV is lower than an ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle, and the fuel savings alone can total $4,700 or more in the first seven years. The savings improve the longer you own the vehicle.

Telematics tools, whether OEM or aftermarket, can further reduce costs. It can raise awareness among your drivers about fuel-efficient driving behaviors (limiting idle time, speeding, hard braking, etc.). It can also dispatch the nearest vehicle and provide the fastest route to avoid traffic and save time and fuel.

2. You’ll improve driver safety.

Safety can be a significant concern for drivers and push them to leave the job. EVs and other green fleet management tools can make drivers safer. In crash testing performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, EVs were determined to be “more crashworthy than their conventionally powered counterparts.” Additionally, if you’re switching from diesel-powered vehicles to ones powered by alternative fuels, you’ll prevent your drivers from inhaling harmful diesel exhaust.

OEM or aftermarket telematics tools can offer collision-avoidance features that can do even more to improve driver safety. Some telematics devices help drivers avoid collisions and detect other driving hazards. They can alert fleet managers to driving events and use mobile apps to engage and coach drivers on safer driving habits.

3. You’ll have fewer maintenance issues.

ICE vehicles require lots of maintenance. EV technology is relatively simple and has significantly lower maintenance requirements. The motor, battery, and other related electronics require almost no regular maintenance. Fewer fluids also reduces the vehicle's maintenance needs, and regenerative braking limits the wear on your brake system.

Telematics tools can boost the maintenance benefits even more. Fleet management technology can make sure you utilize vehicle and equipment assets effectively and evenly, so that wear and tear are spread across the fleet. That way, you get the maximum usage out of every vehicle. It can also help you track charging so that vehicles are ready when you need them.

Contact MiX by Powerfleet to find out more about fleet management and how it can complement green fleets.