I recently saw results from Trimble’s Transportation Pulse Report, which surveyed carriers and fleets about their priorities for 2025. Sixty-one percent of all survey respondents said their top priority was to reduce costs. To break it down further, 76% of the surveyed shippers rated cost reduction as number one, and 44% said sustainability initiatives were a priority for this year. Fifty-two percent of carriers list cost reduction as a number one priority, and 39% said sustainability initiatives were a priority.
In my opinion, those are excellent priorities. They are also achievable priorities, especially for fleets. There are a host of things fleets can do to be more fuel efficient, and improving fuel economy is a great way to reduce costs.
NACFE has studied 86 different technologies and practices that help improve fuel economy. Not every technology or practice is right for every fleet, but fleets that use a combination of some of these technologies and practices consistently achieve better mpg. For example, the fleets in our recent Fleet Fuel Study averaged 7.8 mpg in 2023 compared to the national average of 6.9 mpg. The overall adoption rate of the studied technologies and practices among the studied fleets has grown to 42%.
See also: Study: Does technology help improve your fleet’s mpg?
The increased adoption rate of the studied technologies meant that the 14 fleets operating 75,000 trucks saved $512 million in 2023 compared to the average truck on the road. Talk about cutting costs!
The interesting thing is that fuel economy can be tackled in a variety of ways. It could mean adding aerodynamic devices like skirts, wheel covers, or roof fairings to the tractor. Or it could be adding rear devices, underbody devices, or gap devices to the trailer. But it could also mean switching to low rolling resistance tires or adding tire inflation monitoring/inflation systems. A fleet also could improve fuel economy by switching to 6x2 axles where appropriate or by spec’ing lighter weight components on their vehicles. It could also be something as simple as setting electronic engine parameters for fuel economy or limiting speed. In addition, fleets can look at things like route optimization and reducing empty miles.
As for the sustainability goal, it is important to remind everyone that an improvement in mpg also means a reduction in emissions. It’s always nice when you can achieve two goals with one effort. If you are not sure where to begin your fuel efficiency journey, use the benchmarking tool in our Fleet Fuel Study to get started.
