Due to rising fuel costs, the main incentive for reducing CO2 is the same for businesses and consumers alike: if you do it right, you actually save money. As a result, more and more companies are adopting new technologies to measure and reduce the impact of their vehicles on air pollution.
How much CO2 does your company actually emit? There are two ways to calculate the environmental impact of your fleet: a mathematical estimate or a precise measurement.
1) Mathematical estimate
Step 1—Amount of fuel
If you know how much fuel you buy each month, this step is easy. If you don’t know this, take the number of kilometres your fleet covers per month and their average rate of fuel consumption. This will allow you to calculate how many litres of fuel your fleet has burned.
Step 2—Amount of CO2
One litre of diesel corresponds to 2.68 kg of CO2. To get your CO2 emissions in kilograms, you simply need to multiply your total consumption (in litres) by 2.68. Most of our customers’ fleets are diesel-fuelled. However, if you have a mixed fleet, you can also use the emission number for petrol (2.31 kg/l), or pick a figure in between the two.
Example:
Imagine you have a fleet of 100 vans. Every month, every vehicle covers 1500 kilometres, with an average fuel consumption of 10 litres per 100km. This means that each vehicle burns 150 litres of fuel (1500/10) per month. 150 litres of diesel equals 402 kg of CO2 (150 * 2.68 = 402). As such, the emissions of your entire fleet amount to 40.200 kg of CO2.
That’s a rather large number, and is certainly worth investigating further. However, remember that it’s just a rough estimate. The actual consumption of each vehicle will vary depending on the brand and model of the vehicle and the age and driving style of the employee. As a result, this method makes it impossible to know exactly which levers must be pulled to reduce costs and emissions.
2) Precise measurement using a fleet management solution
Now, let’s have a look at a more precise measurement—one using a fleet management solution. Modern vehicle tracking technologies collect actual fuel consumption information directly from each vehicle’s computer and then analyse that data to produce actionable insights. A simple dashboard provides fleet and operations managers with an overview and an option to view the results.
You can view the actual consumption of each vehicle at any time and compare it to others on the same route, or you can compare performance among vehicles of the same model.
Speed and idle time are the first points to address. They account for lots of fuel wastage and, once you have the data and values for driver behaviour, they are relatively easy to remedy. You can set alerts to go off as soon as defined limits are exceeded or a too-aggressive driving style is detected.
Photo by Marija Zaric / Unsplash
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