7 Ways to Drive Down Your Fleet Gas Bill

3_20_slide1 — In addition to bringing in Transit Connects for service techs, Dan Budinoff, president, Security Specialists, equipped sales staffers with Honda Fits, a unique looking vehicle but, according to Budinoff, the Fits fit in. Photo courtesy Honda America

3_20_slide2 — David Wade, group director for supply chain at ADT Security Services, has seen a relationship with GE Capital Fleet Services, his fleet management service, go beyond, way beyond, financing. Photo courtesy ADT Security Services

3_20_slide3 — Although essential, focusing on driver behavior, vehicle choices, maintenance and tracking technologies are a secondary focus of security businesses, points out Tom Raftery, vice president corporate services and purchasing for Protection 1.

3_20_slide4 — Tom Sansone Sr., president of T&R Alarm Systems, says that he has also gone to smaller vehicles. Photo courtesy T&R Alarm

3_20_slide5 — "We pass gas increases through to our clients,"says Bradford Caron, president, Signet Electronic Systems of Norwell, Mass. The increases are adjusted in "our mileage expenses per mile."

3_20_slide6 — In an effort to manage its fuel costs, optimization is the thing for Scott Taylor, director of field services for Vivint.

3_20_slide7 — Protection 1 as well as other firms is moving to smaller vans such as Transit Connects. It moved ladders from the roof to inside vehicles to cut drag and saving fuel. Photo courtesy Protection 1

3_20_slide8 — One emerging choice for fleets is electric vehicles but the infrastructure and return on investment are yet to come. Photo courtesy PRNewsWire

3_20_slide9 — Compressed gas vehicles are catching on with city transit fleets. But will it be an efficient option for security firms? Photo courtesy PRNewsWire

Will What’s Emerging Soften those Gas Pains?

You can’t count on anything these days. Federal, state and local gasoline taxes. Fights over drilling and pipelines. What about the Strait of Hormuz and those volatile Iranians? Hurricanes and exploding sea oil rigs. Winter blends and summer blends. Speculators gaming the oil industry.

So it is not surprising that there are emerging elements that may help or harm, too.

Insurance firms are slowly but surely embracing vehicle telematics.

The number of global insurance telematics users will grow at a rate of 90 percent from 1.85 million in 2010 to 89 million in 2017, according to ABI Research of Oyster Bay, N.Y.

Dominique Bonte, group director, telematics and navigation, comments, “While insurance telematics or use based insurance (UBI) is far from a recent phenomenon – U.S.-based Progressive was already trialing solutions back in 2002, a renewed interest in this market has occurred over the past two years, with an acceleration in uptake, as well as a dramatic change in the very nature of UBI, migrating from pay as you drive to pay how you drive based on continuous driver behavior monitoring and analysis.”

Such a migration encouraged by UBI could help disciplined security fleet owners, who have educated drivers and telematics systems. The can easily provide their insurance carrier the information it needed for better rates.

But what about the vehicles themselves?

Hybrids have been on the market for many years; but 2011 was significant for the introduction of the first plug-in and all-electric vehicles from major manufacturers, along with promises of more this year. While this will not lead to a major shift away from conventionally-powered vehicles, there will be steady growth over the next eight years.

“More competition is always good for sales, and as these vehicles become better known as mainstream products, both production efficiencies and demand will improve,” says ABI Research principal analyst David Alexander. “However, gasoline and diesel engine technology is not standing still and more efficient conventional solutions will not make it easier for [the alternative] producers.”

Still, as compared to consumer buyers who may wish to take a beating on buying one hybrid or all-electric, security fleet owners have a tougher set of mathematics.

Then there are vehicles running on compressed natural gas or CNG.

Although there are numerous manufacturers that offer factory-built natural gas trucks, step-vans, transit buses and school buses, there are fewer options for those who want light-duty cars, vans and pickup trucks. One is the Civic GX from Honda, which markets it as a fleet vehicle to a degree. And many states have federal vehicle tax credits in place to provide incentives for drivers to purchase CNG vehicles or to convert their vehicles, if it's one of the limited number that qualify, to run on CNG fuel.

On a more traditional basis, car, van and truck manufacturers continue to improve their miles per gallon success but may be slowed by a political dialog concerning government regulations, business needs and the ongoing debate over global warming.

Bill is the Editor Emeritus of Security Magazine, and he can be reached at (773) 929-6859.

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