As fuel prices remain volatile and sustainability expectations rise, fleets are under growing pressure to reduce operating costs while improving environmental performance.

According to Samsara, even small gains in fuel efficiency can lead to significant savings, especially when multiplied across dozens or hundreds of vehicles.

“It’s no secret that fuel has historically damaged operating expenses in some industries. It could even be as high as 60% operating costs,” said Ryan Baldeo, senior manager of product marketing for Samsara Canada during to company’s webinar on May 8. “We have seen Canadian gas price fluctuations, not to mention inflation, reaching unprecedented highs this year.”

Here are the five tips shared during the webinar to help carriers slash fuel costs and boost efficiency.

Monitoring fuel usage

Having real-time visibility into total fuel consumed, fuel wasted, idling hours, and cost across the organization can help fleets identify problem areas and prioritize corrective action. Baldeo shared a story of Samsara’s customer Sobeys, which claims to have saved 175,000 liters of diesel and reduced its carbon emissions by 469 metric tons in under four months just by tracking its performance.

Minimize harsh driving behaviors

It’s well known that high torque burns more fuel, but one of the main causes of excessive fuel use is harsh braking after rapid acceleration. Instead of accelerating quickly only to brake hard, drivers should be coached to ease off the gas and coast when possible.

Encouraging smoother driving habits — particularly minimizing harsh braking and acceleration — can lead to meaningful fuel savings across a fleet, Samsara says.

Baledo added that giving drivers access to their own efficiency data — via apps or dashboards — can boost engagement. Some fleets have seen success using gamification and incentives to encourage improvement, as it often results in driver competition for the highest safety scores.

“Gamification is a great way to reduce fuel costs while rewarding and engaging your drivers,” he said. “This can be especially impactful when a program like this is paired with incentives like bonuses or gift cards.”

Analyze driving behavior data

Wasted fuel is often a direct result of driving behavior, and data is instrumental in understanding where drivers have the potential to increase efficiency.

“For example, if drivers in your fleets spend the majority of their time on highways versus an inner city, you can align more weight to cruise control and high speeds,” Baledo said. In contrast, city driving involves more stop-and-go traffic, where factors like idling and frequent braking have a greater impact on fuel economy and should carry more weight in driver behavior analysis.

Reduce unnecessary idling

Idling is by far the worst offender when it comes to fuel waste, especially for medium- and heavy-duty fleets, where idling even 15 seconds can waste more fuel than restarting the engine, Samsara says.

“While you might not be able to eliminate all idling, especially here in freezing temperatures in Canada, insight into idling behavior will inform how and where to take action to conserve fuel,” Baledo recommended. “If temperatures are low, consider coaching drivers to turn the vehicle on and drive at a slow speed, to warm up the engine and the cabin rather than idling, especially any drivers that are new to your fleet.”

Baldeo shared an example of one fleet customer that discovered a driver had idled for 45 minutes while eating lunch in the cab. After investigating the location tied to the event, the customer found the vehicle parked outside a restaurant, with the engine running the entire time. That single incident resulted in nearly four liters of wasted fuel.

Make sustainability a core business practice

Finally, Baldeo emphasized the growing importance of sustainability, saying fleets need to make sustainability a priority. He pointed to data that show it’s not just a corporate priority, but a competitive one.

According to a recent Morgan Stanley study, 78% of consumers say they want to live more sustainably, while 95% of millennial investors now prioritize ESG-focused investments. Meanwhile, 77% of job seekers factor a company’s sustainability efforts into their employment decisions.