Efficient Fleet Fuel Management System. Cut on Fuel Costs with an AI-Based Fleet Refueling Strategy

Efficient Fleet Fuel Management System. Cut on Fuel Costs with an AI-Based Fleet Refueling Strategy

Dorota Owczarek - October 13, 2022

If fuel costs are eating into your bottom line, it’s time to take a closer look at your fleet fuel management system. Fleet fuel management is a critical part of fleet operations, accounting for a significant portion of fleet operating expenses. A good strategy can help you save money on fuel and improve your profits.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss how AI and machine learning are changing the world of logistics and how an AI-based fleet refueling strategy can save you time and money. We’ll also offer some tips on planning fuel stops for your fleet.

Fluctuating Fuel Costs

One of the biggest challenges for fleet managers is fuel cost fluctuation. Fuel prices can change rapidly, and keeping up with the latest fuel prices can be challenging. They also vary from one region or provider to another. This makes it difficult to budget for fuel costs and make long-term plans.

The increasing fuel costs have made fuel management a top priority for fleet managers. Fuel prices are one of the most significant controllable expenses for fleets, so it’s essential to find ways to reduce fuel costs.

Challanges faced by fleet managers

Fluctuating fuel costs are just one challenge out of many faced by fleet managers

What Is Fuel Management Software?

Fuel management software is a tool that fleet managers use to track fuel usage and costs. Fuel management software can help you monitor fuel consumption, identify fuel-saving opportunities, and create fuel budgets. It can also help you plan fuel stops for your fleet.

Modern fleet management systems operate with multiple sensors placed within each truck (telematics systems). They monitor GPS location, fuel levels, tire pressure, and engine performance. These sensors send data to a central system that analyzes the data and provides fleet management reports for track & trace systems, proactive vehicle maintenance, and of course, fuel management. The data collected this way generates the fleet’s fuel usage reports.

This information can be used to improve fleet fuel efficiency and optimize routes. It can also identify fuel theft and wasted fuel (e.g., speeding, excessive idling, or other inefficient driving behaviors). Fuel management systems can save you money by helping you reduce fuel consumption and improve fleet efficiency.

How to Improve Fleet Fuel Management Systems With AI-Based Solutions for Planning Fuel Stops

An AI-based fuel management system takes things a step further by using artificial intelligence to optimize your fleet’s refueling strategy. AI-based fuel management systems are designed to learn and adapt to your specific needs. They consider fuel spending, fuel consumption, and lane analytics to create a customized refueling plan for your fleet that is created dynamically as the truck travels along the lane.

Fuel Stop Planner - Considerations and Multidimensionality of Data

The fuel stop planner considers many factors to create an optimized fuel stop plan. The system considers the following data:

  • fuel data (prices together with gas stations location details)
  • fuel consumption (current level and vehicle consumption trends)
  • truck location
  • traffic conditions
  • weather conditions
  • lane details
  • past trends for fuel consumption along the route (traffic areas, terrain, and geography of the area)
  • driver fuel cards

This data is used to generate a fuel stop plan that minimizes fuel spending and fleet efficiency. The fuel stop plan is created dynamically as the truck travels along the lane, taking into account real-time changes in gasoline prices, traffic, and weather conditions. It also considers the time and effort needed for off-route gas stops and plans the final strategy. The predictive analytics model forecasts the remaining mileage based on past trends for fuel consumption along the lane.

The AI-powered fuel management system constantly monitors and adjusts the refueling plan to ensure that your fleet is getting the best possible price for fuel. The result is a customized fueling strategy that can save you money on fuel costs.

Increasing Fuel Efficiency - Benefits Besides Cost Savings

Fuel efficiency is not only about cost savings. It’s also about reducing emissions and protecting the environment. Fuel-efficient fleets emit less carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which can devastate our planet.

Route optimization solutions will not only shorten the final route but also help you avoid traffic jams, construction sites, and other delays. All these factors lead to fuel savings and a reduction in emissions.

Time is of the essence when it comes to logistics and transportation, and powerful fleet management software will also help you save time. Optimizing fuel stops and routing allows you to get your fleet to its destination faster and with less fuel consumption.

A fuel-efficient fleet is also a more productive fleet. By reducing fuel expenses, you free up funds that can be used to invest in other areas of your business. You can use the money you save on fuel to hire new employees, expand your fleet, or improve your company’s overall productivity. Improved productivity leads to increased profits and a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Benefits of AI-based solutions for managing fleet

Benefits of AI-based solutions for managing fleet

Investing in a fuel management system is an investment in the future of your business. It’s an investment that will pay for itself many times over as you improve fuel economy and the efficiency of your fleet.

Related case study: Implementing AI model to optimize routes and timelines of deliveries

A company from the logistics sector approached us to create a custom AI model that optimizes routes and the scheduling of deliveries.

Our challenge? The key challenge here was to prepare a dedicated AI-based system designed for carriers to optimize delivery time depending on the destination address. Thanks to the model we managed to reduce failed and late delivery rates by 30%. Read our detailed case study of this project.

Tips for Fuel Efficiency - How Can Drivers and Fleet Managers Increase Fuel Economy?

There are a few things fleet managers and drivers can do to increase fuel economy.

  • Make sure your vehicles are regularly serviced and that tires are properly inflated.
  • Keep an eye on fuel consumption trends and adjust driver behaviors and habits accordingly (unnecessary speeding, limit excessive idling, hard starts or stops).
  • Use fuel-efficient routing software to plan the most efficient route for your fleet.
  • Introduce a real-time monitoring system for vehicle tracking.
  • Dynamically change the route to omit traffic.
  • Implement a fuel management system connected with route planning to dynamically schedule fuel stops that are optimized to reduce fuel spending and are time-efficient.

You can also find some additional tips in our recent article on how AI helps in fleet cost reduction.

By following these tips, you can ensure your fleet is as fuel-efficient as possible. As fuel usage starts to decrease, your business will be more productive and profitable as a result. Every transportation management system can be improved with a custom implementation of a machine learning model to improve fuel efficiency.

Related case study: Delivering a dedicated IT system to manage and sell freight deals and plan transportation

A major logistics company approached us to create a dedicated IT system to handle their core business process – managing and selling logistics deals.

Our challenge? The key challenge in the logistics sector is cutting the time of concluding deals to an absolute minimum. The tool has to be very responsive and help in the smart matching of carriers and freight, fleet management, and other logistics operations. The platform helps shipping agents minimize fuel consumption, maximize operational efficiency, and optimize fleet performance by matching multiple loadings on a similar route with a single carrier.  Read more about this case study.

How to Implement an AI-Based Fleet Refueling Strategy

If you’re looking to implement an AI-based fleet refueling strategy, there are a few things you’ll need to do.

First, to train the machine learning model, you’ll need to gather data on fuel prices, traffic conditions, weather conditions, and lane details. This data can be gathered manually or through automated means such as GPS tracking devices and available online APIs.

Next, you’ll need to create a model that outputs a fuel stop plan and considers all of the collected data. This fuel stop plan will be created dynamically as the truck travels along its route. Once the model is ready, it has to be deployed to production environments and integrated with other IT systems to get real-time data and retrieve model outputs as needed.

Finally, you’ll need to monitor the fuel stop plan and model benchmarks and make adjustments as needed. This includes real-time monitoring of fuel prices, traffic, and weather conditions.

By following these steps, you can ensure that your fleet is getting the best possible price for fuel and that you’re saving money on fuel costs. Incorporating an AI-based fleet refueling strategy into your business now is a wise investment that will save you money in the long run.

Fleet Fuel Management Software - The Future of Fuel Economy

Fuel management systems are becoming increasingly popular as gasoline prices continue to rise. These systems help fleet owners and managers save money on fuel by optimizing fuel stops, routing, and driver behavior.

If you’re looking for help implementing AI-based fuel management tools in your business, contact the experts at nexocode. We have years of experience helping companies within the logistics industry like yours save money and improve business efficiency by implementing machine learning solutions. Let us show you how we can help you achieve these same results with a custom route optimization solution tailored specifically to your needs.

About the author

Dorota Owczarek

Dorota Owczarek

AI Product Lead & Design Thinking Facilitator

Linkedin profile Twitter

With over ten years of professional experience in designing and developing software, Dorota is quick to recognize the best ways to serve users and stakeholders by shaping strategies and ensuring their execution by working closely with engineering and design teams.
She acts as a Product Leader, covering the ongoing AI agile development processes and operationalizing AI throughout the business.

Would you like to discuss AI opportunities in your business?

Let us know and Dorota will arrange a call with our experts.

Dorota Owczarek
Dorota Owczarek
AI Product Lead

Thanks for the message!

We'll do our best to get back to you
as soon as possible.

This article is a part of

AI in Logistics
51 articles

AI in Logistics

Artificial Intelligence is becoming an essential element of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, where it offers many benefits to companies willing to adopt emerging technologies. AI can change how companies operate by providing applications that streamline planning, procurement, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, transportation, and sales.

Follow our article series to find out the applications of AI in logistics and how this tech benefits the whole supply chain operations.

check it out

Logistics

Insights on practical AI applications just one click away

Sign up for our newsletter and don't miss out on the latest insights, trends and innovations from this sector.

Done!

Thanks for joining the newsletter

Check your inbox for the confirmation email & enjoy the read!

This site uses cookies for analytical purposes.

Accept Privacy Policy

In the interests of your safety and to implement the principle of lawful, reliable and transparent processing of your personal data when using our services, we developed this document called the Privacy Policy. This document regulates the processing and protection of Users’ personal data in connection with their use of the Website and has been prepared by Nexocode.

To ensure the protection of Users' personal data, Nexocode applies appropriate organizational and technical solutions to prevent privacy breaches. Nexocode implements measures to ensure security at the level which ensures compliance with applicable Polish and European laws such as:

  1. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (published in the Official Journal of the European Union L 119, p 1); Act of 10 May 2018 on personal data protection (published in the Journal of Laws of 2018, item 1000);
  2. Act of 18 July 2002 on providing services by electronic means;
  3. Telecommunications Law of 16 July 2004.

The Website is secured by the SSL protocol, which provides secure data transmission on the Internet.

1. Definitions

  1. User – a person that uses the Website, i.e. a natural person with full legal capacity, a legal person, or an organizational unit which is not a legal person to which specific provisions grant legal capacity.
  2. Nexocode – NEXOCODE sp. z o.o. with its registered office in Kraków, ul. Wadowicka 7, 30-347 Kraków, entered into the Register of Entrepreneurs of the National Court Register kept by the District Court for Kraków-Śródmieście in Kraków, 11th Commercial Department of the National Court Register, under the KRS number: 0000686992, NIP: 6762533324.
  3. Website – website run by Nexocode, at the URL: nexocode.com whose content is available to authorized persons.
  4. Cookies – small files saved by the server on the User's computer, which the server can read when when the website is accessed from the computer.
  5. SSL protocol – a special standard for transmitting data on the Internet which unlike ordinary methods of data transmission encrypts data transmission.
  6. System log – the information that the User's computer transmits to the server which may contain various data (e.g. the user’s IP number), allowing to determine the approximate location where the connection came from.
  7. IP address – individual number which is usually assigned to every computer connected to the Internet. The IP number can be permanently associated with the computer (static) or assigned to a given connection (dynamic).
  8. GDPR – Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals regarding the processing of personal data and onthe free transmission of such data, repealing Directive 95/46 / EC (General Data Protection Regulation).
  9. Personal data – information about an identified or identifiable natural person ("data subject"). An identifiable natural person is a person who can be directly or indirectly identified, in particular on the basis of identifiers such as name, identification number, location data, online identifiers or one or more specific factors determining the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of a natural person.
  10. Processing – any operations performed on personal data, such as collecting, recording, storing, developing, modifying, sharing, and deleting, especially when performed in IT systems.

2. Cookies

The Website is secured by the SSL protocol, which provides secure data transmission on the Internet. The Website, in accordance with art. 173 of the Telecommunications Act of 16 July 2004 of the Republic of Poland, uses Cookies, i.e. data, in particular text files, stored on the User's end device.
Cookies are used to:

  1. improve user experience and facilitate navigation on the site;
  2. help to identify returning Users who access the website using the device on which Cookies were saved;
  3. creating statistics which help to understand how the Users use websites, which allows to improve their structure and content;
  4. adjusting the content of the Website pages to specific User’s preferences and optimizing the websites website experience to the each User's individual needs.

Cookies usually contain the name of the website from which they originate, their storage time on the end device and a unique number. On our Website, we use the following types of Cookies:

  • "Session" – cookie files stored on the User's end device until the Uses logs out, leaves the website or turns off the web browser;
  • "Persistent" – cookie files stored on the User's end device for the time specified in the Cookie file parameters or until they are deleted by the User;
  • "Performance" – cookies used specifically for gathering data on how visitors use a website to measure the performance of a website;
  • "Strictly necessary" – essential for browsing the website and using its features, such as accessing secure areas of the site;
  • "Functional" – cookies enabling remembering the settings selected by the User and personalizing the User interface;
  • "First-party" – cookies stored by the Website;
  • "Third-party" – cookies derived from a website other than the Website;
  • "Facebook cookies" – You should read Facebook cookies policy: www.facebook.com
  • "Other Google cookies" – Refer to Google cookie policy: google.com

3. How System Logs work on the Website

User's activity on the Website, including the User’s Personal Data, is recorded in System Logs. The information collected in the Logs is processed primarily for purposes related to the provision of services, i.e. for the purposes of:

  • analytics – to improve the quality of services provided by us as part of the Website and adapt its functionalities to the needs of the Users. The legal basis for processing in this case is the legitimate interest of Nexocode consisting in analyzing Users' activities and their preferences;
  • fraud detection, identification and countering threats to stability and correct operation of the Website.

4. Cookie mechanism on the Website

Our site uses basic cookies that facilitate the use of its resources. Cookies contain useful information and are stored on the User's computer – our server can read them when connecting to this computer again. Most web browsers allow cookies to be stored on the User's end device by default. Each User can change their Cookie settings in the web browser settings menu: Google ChromeOpen the menu (click the three-dot icon in the upper right corner), Settings > Advanced. In the "Privacy and security" section, click the Content Settings button. In the "Cookies and site date" section you can change the following Cookie settings:

  • Deleting cookies,
  • Blocking cookies by default,
  • Default permission for cookies,
  • Saving Cookies and website data by default and clearing them when the browser is closed,
  • Specifying exceptions for Cookies for specific websites or domains

Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0
From the browser menu (upper right corner): Tools > Internet Options > Privacy, click the Sites button. Use the slider to set the desired level, confirm the change with the OK button.

Mozilla Firefox
browser menu: Tools > Options > Privacy and security. Activate the “Custom” field. From there, you can check a relevant field to decide whether or not to accept cookies.

Opera
Open the browser’s settings menu: Go to the Advanced section > Site Settings > Cookies and site data. From there, adjust the setting: Allow sites to save and read cookie data

Safari
In the Safari drop-down menu, select Preferences and click the Security icon.From there, select the desired security level in the "Accept cookies" area.

Disabling Cookies in your browser does not deprive you of access to the resources of the Website. Web browsers, by default, allow storing Cookies on the User's end device. Website Users can freely adjust cookie settings. The web browser allows you to delete cookies. It is also possible to automatically block cookies. Detailed information on this subject is provided in the help or documentation of the specific web browser used by the User. The User can decide not to receive Cookies by changing browser settings. However, disabling Cookies necessary for authentication, security or remembering User preferences may impact user experience, or even make the Website unusable.

5. Additional information

External links may be placed on the Website enabling Users to directly reach other website. Also, while using the Website, cookies may also be placed on the User’s device from other entities, in particular from third parties such as Google, in order to enable the use the functionalities of the Website integrated with these third parties. Each of such providers sets out the rules for the use of cookies in their privacy policy, so for security reasons we recommend that you read the privacy policy document before using these pages. We reserve the right to change this privacy policy at any time by publishing an updated version on our Website. After making the change, the privacy policy will be published on the page with a new date. For more information on the conditions of providing services, in particular the rules of using the Website, contracting, as well as the conditions of accessing content and using the Website, please refer to the the Website’s Terms and Conditions.

Nexocode Team