Bringing Down the One Cost That Keeps Going Up

The high cost of fuel. It's the No. 1 challenge facing fleet managers today. Fuel price volatility is insidious in itself, adding an average of 3% to your overall fleet operating costs, but its impact also pushes up other fleet costs. Like falling dominos, the cost of tires, mobile repair, towing and other services have all followed fuel in an upward spiral.

Proactive Fuel Cost Reduction is not a one-step, take-the-easy-way-out program that puts the axe to key items in your fuel budget. It was created by ARI to help win your war against soaring fuel costs by giving you tools to better manage the fleet activities that impact fuel economy: vehicle acquisition, operation and maintenance and driver training, behavior and communication.

Proactive Fuel enables you to eliminate or improve inefficient, wasteful practices and conduct—two major villains that conspire to drive your costs up every day. It replaces them with efficient processes and policies that you control to optimize your fleet's purchase and use of fuel. The approach is "proactive" because you manage fuel use and expenses by setting standards before purchases are made, thus helping to prevent unnecessarily high charges.

Your Safety Net
The war against soaring fuel costs is won through the successful partnership of ARI and each customer. We work together as equal partners, and that partnership becomes your safety net. A sampling of our successes:

• Saved client $188,539 in fuel consumption (average $900 savings per vehicle, or 10%) in first year through use of telematics that cut down on unnecessary vehicle use and idling
• Dual strategy of increasing vehicle uptime (diagnostic alerts signal maintenance due) and eliminating unnecessary mileage (units for company business only) improved fuel efficiency and lowered client's overall fleet expenses by $2,300 per month
• Produced $13,676 in annual fuel savings through replacement of 83 compact pickup trucks with newer, more fuel-efficient units, improving mileage by 1.7 mpg from 22.6 to 24.3 mpg
• Saved a major railroad more than $447,578 in fuel costs over three years by helping lower the number of premium fuel purchases, obtain a reduced rate and receive fuel vendor rebates
• GPS tracking system improved vehicle performance and driver productivity for plumbing, heating and air conditioning contractor with 200 employees and 20 route trucks, generating "a 20% reduction in fuel expenses and significant ROI." Managers track and route vehicles 24/7 via Internet as system collects data on mileage/fuel efficiency, maintenance needs, speed and idle time

As part of Proactive Fuel, we work with clients to conduct lifecycle analyses, collect vehicle and driver data, set performance benchmarks, explore alternative fueling, and establish a comprehensive fuel plan covering functional interactions, policy and behavior adjustments (e.g., stipulating grade of fuel to be used, enforcing driver purchase limits at the pump), vehicle/driver compliance, and success measurement.

A Bottom-Line Synergy
Proactive Fuel draws on the synergy of ARI's entire service offering. We touch all the bases and make sure that relevant services, including our WEX card, maintenance management, Driver Excellence, vehicle acquisition and telematics, work in sync as part of your program to bring sanity back to your fuel budget.

Greening Your Fleet the Right Way
It starts in the boardroom. As carbon strategy becomes a more pressing business issue, Corporate America is leaning harder on fleet managers to put planet-friendly vehicles on the road. In partnership with customers, ARI can equip fleets with technologies and methodologies that shrink your carbon footprint, save dollars through lower fuel use and better operation—and keep your fleet fully compliant with corporate mandates and the law.

We work with you to profile your fleet practices and fuel use, size up your carbon footprint and assess its cost impact on your company. Next we roll out our EnviroFleet® arsenal, help you choose from among the broadest and best environmental offering available today, and together we design a green solution that fits your fleet.

Real Clients, Real Savings
Our offering today is enabling ARI clients to post major efficiency and economy gains with car and truck fleets and diesel vehicles. Strategies such as adding hybrids and EPA-certified vehicles to selectors, "right-sizing” with minimum mpg requirements, and specifying/upfitting trucks by work application are generating fuel savings in the range of 12%-20% and emission reductions of 9%-15%.

Over one client's four-year vehicle lifecycle, we succeeded in shrinking emissions by 9.4%, representing 1,147 fewer airborne tons and dollar savings of $354,751.

Our fuel management and alternative fuel strategies translate directly into savings, and several customers now spend an average of 15% less at the pump. Preventive maintenance with a focus on efficiency and safety has also lowered expenditures at the pump by a similar 15%.

One client's telematics system worked so successfully as a route-planning fuel-saver it earned the company enough payback to offset the system's entire cost. Another customer combined telematics technology with ARI Driver Excellence and an enforceable new driver policy, thus creating a powerful productivity tool that saved 30% on fuel purchases and cut back the number of fleet "speeders"—from 70 to 0!

Through improvements to a client's driver policy and highly effective replacement cycling, we were able to quantify savings of $236,393 in lower repair spending and fuel consumption and higher vehicle resale valuation.

Every day we join clients like these in reaching out in all directions for savings opportunities, including looking for fuel excise tax credits/refunds and other government incentives.

Your Fleet Can Make a Difference
The list goes on and includes many other successes, all built on ARI best practices that cut emissions, save measurable amounts of energy and dollars, and keep fleets in full corporate and legal compliance. Together we can color your fleet green. It starts with a call to your local ARI rep.

For Top Performance with Lowest Cost,
Just Follow the Rules—All of Them!
Say the word compliance and government regulations like IFTA/IRP and DOT come to mind. But today, with growing public concern over safety, global warming, corporate ethics and privacy, a new set of hurdles awaits.

Fleet managers are besieged not only with complexities of the law, but also with a loose agglomeration of other compliance rules and regulations imposed from both inside and outside the company. These include industry specs and standards, third-party manufacturer warranties, business best practices, and corporate policies mandated by your management to help build the company and keep it from running afoul of the law.

It's Work, But Compliance Works for You Compliance stamps its influence on every office and function from one end of the corporate hall to the other. For fleet managers, it's a double-edged sword: Fail to go along and you expose your employer to higher operating costs, business loss and possible criminal prosecution. Succeed in following the rules, and you get a fleet that runs on high-octane efficiency and low cost! That's what customers get from ARI Compliance. They are leveraging our specialized knowledge and successful experience to drive greater efficiency into—and even draw savings from—their fleets. Our program's success is based on a partnership of ARI and customers in which we combine abilities and keep fleet vehicles working legally, safely and efficiently by complying with relevant: Company Policy Standards. The ground rules you and your company set for vehicles and drivers. Government Regulations. Myriad of federal (EPA, DOT, IRS and SEC, etc.), state and local laws that impact every facet of fleet operation—from corporate record-keeping that must withstand legal scrutiny to federal and California emissions regulations which are prompting fleets to establish baselines and take remedial action involving retiring, retrofitting and/or moving vehicles. Industry Standards. Industry specifications and best practices that aim to improve fleet performance. Manufacturer Warranties. Manufacturers' agreements for the vehicles you order, operate and maintain. Synergy & Success What follows are examples of how we worked with three different customers to generate fleet efficiencies and savings through our compliance programs: · Helped a highly decentralized company enforce fleet policy requiring managers to use available surplus vehicles instead of purchasing new units. Customer saved $500,000 simply by reallocating vehicles sitting idly in storage. · Developed educational campaign that improved driver compliance with policy on purchasing glass repair work only from approved vendor. In first year, preferred vendor usage jumped from 38% to 56%, representing a 4.5% overall savings. · Recommended plan that helped delivery company enforce new off-site parking policy, eliminating non-compliant practices and related fees and fines, vehicle downtime, vandalism, product loss and customer dissatisfaction. Value-Driven Partnership Compliance makes harsh demands of fleet managers. It constantly re-defines and expands your work responsibilities, but its value far outweighs any inconvenience. Successful compliance is synonymous with best-practice fleet performance. And that means your fleet is operating at maximum efficiency and highest productivity at the lowest cost.