How to monitor fuel consumption and idle time with real-time data

Published: 2022-03-22
Written by: Linn Björklund
Image

As petrol and diesel prices reach new record levels, fuel costs make up a rapidly growing share of the total operating costs for companies in fuel-intensive industries. Monitoring your fuel consumption and idle time is the first and most important step towards cutting your fuel costs, as well as reducing your CO2 emissions. Make sure you have the right tools to collect and utilise real-time data from your fleet and machinery.

Apart from the obvious incentive of reducing unnecessary consumption and idle time due to high fuel costs, there are also other financial factors to take into account. For example, the second-hand value of any vehicle or machinery quickly decreases with every hour it’s been running – regardless of whether those hours were spent productively or not. Service costs are also based on running time. And if your company has the intention of replacing equipment, vehicles, or machinery after a certain amount of running time, you’ll want those hours to span over as many years as possible.

BEST PRACTICE  How to reduce operating costs through frontline digitisation  Download guide

Let the data show you where there’s room for improvement

Private cars are often fitted with stop-start systems that shut down the engine automatically after a certain time to reduce idling. Similar solutions are being used for heavy machinery in some industrial production facilities, but are still far less common. Although removing idle time completely within a company isn’t a realistic goal, excessive idling due to thoughtlessness can be reduced significantly. But before you can change the behaviour of your staff, you need the right data to know where there’s room for improvement. By monitoring your fleet and visualising the data, you’ll be able to establish your fuel consumption baseline and detect any deviations from the expected pattern.

CheckProof admin view

How well are you monitoring the fuel consumption and idle time of your fleet today?

While some companies already have a reasonably accurate view of their fuel consumption and idle time data, others still have a long way to go. To evaluate how well your business is performing in this area, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do you know the average fuel consumption in your organisation – per site and per vehicle/machine?
  • Do you know how much of your fleet’s total running time is made up of idling?
  • Do your drivers and machine operators report their refuelling digitally or on paper?
  • Do you follow up and take action on your fuel consumption and idling data, or are you only collecting it ‘for the sake of it’?

Here’s how to efficiently monitor fuel consumption and idle time

To monitor your fuel consumption and idle time in an efficient way, you need:

  • real-time telematics data from the equipment manufacturer
  • a digital maintenance system, connected through an API, that can visualise the incoming data

With these key elements in place, you’re ready to start measuring. You’ll immediately have complete insight and traceability into when and where each machine or vehicle is refueled, with what volume, and by which staff member (provided that your maintenance system requires your employees to log in with a personal user account). You’ll also be able to compare fuel volumes with mileage to detect waste.

By monitoring your data this way, you’ll be able to establish a benchmark based on the average consumption. This will help you detect and investigate deviations from expected levels. A sudden rise in consumption could be caused by an increase in production, but it could also indicate waste that needs to be dealt with. With the right data in place, you can ask the right questions. You can also compare data from different sites to discover local issues that need addressing – as well as best practices to share with the rest of the organisation.

Want to know what CheckProof can do for you?

CheckProof's easy-to-use app makes it easier to do the right thing at the right time. Discover how you can run world-class maintenance that is both cost-effective and sustainable.

Book a demo
Featured image for “Sustainable aggregates: challenges and solutions for a rapidly changing industry ”
2023-05-02

Sustainable aggregates: challenges and solutions for a rapidly changing industry 

Electrification, technological development, and tackling climate change are all top priorities for the aggregates industry. What are the main obstacles toward a more sustainable industry, and what actions must be taken to reach the climate goals going forward? Although the numbers are looking bleak, there’s a great deal of optimism among industry players and experts within sustainable technology.
Featured image for “Unannounced inspections? With these 6 steps, your plant is always ready ”
2023-03-22

Unannounced inspections? With these 6 steps, your plant is always ready 

All of a sudden, a government inspector walks into your plant. Before you could blink, they already noticed that one of your processing equipment is missing its guard. The next minute, you’re served a hefty fine, and your plant is ordered to shut down until it’s fixed. To prevent this from happening again: what steps can you take to ensure your plant is always ready for an inspection?
Featured image for “Health, safety, environment, and quality (HSEQ)”
2023-02-10

Health, safety, environment, and quality (HSEQ)

Without exaggeration, health and safety in the workplace is a matter of life and death. ILO (International Labour Organization) estimates the yearly number of work-related deaths globally to be nearly 2 million. Creating and maintaining a solid HSEQ framework is crucial for protecting your employees – but also your business – from harm. This comprehensive article will walk you through the key areas of HSEQ and what you need to set up a successful strategy.
Featured image for “Preventive Maintenance – Maximizing efficiency with CheckProof”
2023-01-13

Preventive Maintenance – Maximizing efficiency with CheckProof

Preventive maintenance is the practice of routinely inspecting and proactively servicing your facility’s equipment. This way, you’re able to notice minor issues and fix them before they turn into machine failure – in contrast to acting after. In this comprehensive article, we touch on everything from different types of preventive maintenance to implementing an efficient and future-proof maintenance plan.
Featured image for “Improve your maintenance with IoT”
2022-12-12

Improve your maintenance with IoT

Tired of guesstimating when you need to perform maintenance for your assets? The Internet of Things, or IoT, connects non-traditional computing devices to the internet and transfers their data over a network without human interaction. Use this data to create optimal maintenance routines for any piece of equipment in your facility.
Featured image for “How to make accountability a core value at your facility”
2022-12-12

How to make accountability a core value at your facility

When you return to work on Thursday morning, you soon notice that the feed conveyor still hasn’t been fixed. The technicians have a lot on their to-do list, but this is a high-priority matter that must have fallen between the cracks. You start to wonder: “How can I make my team more accountable?”
Featured image for “Highlights and insights from the Bauma trade fair”
2022-11-11

Highlights and insights from the Bauma trade fair

What were the hottest topics at the 2022 Bauma trade fair in Munich, Germany? What was a miniature wheel loader doing in the tech section? And did it all end with a big bang – or was it more of a beep? Get ready for a glimpse behind the scenes of this massive industry happening.
Featured image for “How Swerock reduces their maintenance costs through smart digitization”
2022-10-21

How Swerock reduces their maintenance costs through smart digitization

Data-driven optimization through digital tools has helped Swerock – a major Swedish construction material supplier – reduce their maintenance costs per produced metric ton by a third. Find out why Swerock’s Project Director Payman Namvar has chosen a somewhat unusual setup for his team’s maintenance work, and why he considers CheckProof the most modern maintenance system on the market today.
Featured image for “Let the games begin: how gamification can reduce idling in heavy industries”
2022-06-21

Let the games begin: how gamification can reduce idling in heavy industries

Breaking bad habits is hard, and forcing change top-down in bigger organisations is ineffective. That’s why you need to implement engaging elements into your heavy industries’ transformation, and gamification is a terrific tool for that. In this post, we’ll show you how activating core motivators can boost organisation-wide behavioural change.
Featured image for “How to establish a continuous improvement culture for your facility”
2022-06-17

How to establish a continuous improvement culture for your facility

Continuous improvement is exactly what it sounds like. You strive towards always doing better, because there’s always room for improvement. The practice lets you identify opportunities for production and equipment optimisation – resulting in higher efficiency and lower costs. The concept itself seems straightforward, but how do you establish a continuous improvement culture for your facility?