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 “Downtime reduction: 6 ways to optimize your heavy industry operations”
2023-09-11

Downtime reduction: 6 ways to optimize your heavy industry operations

To run a profitable business, you need to optimize the use of critical resources such as equipment, energy, and manpower. One of the most important elements of resource optimization in heavy industries is downtime reduction. The key to success? Proactivity. 
Featured image for “Resource Optimization”
2023-08-21

Resource Optimization

By optimizing the utilization of your resources, your business can increase your operational efficiency, reduce your carbon footprint, and cut costs. This comprehensive article covers various aspects of resource optimization, primarily in a heavy industry context. You’ll learn about everything from the definition of common terms to the benefits of implementing digital technology in your frontline teams.  Table of contents: 
Featured image for “Skills shortage in heavy industries: how technology can help”
2023-07-11

Skills shortage in heavy industries: how technology can help

If your business relies on skilled and experienced frontline workers, you’re probably struggling with the same challenges as many of your industry peers: How can you replace the generation of workers now reaching retirement age? And how do you ensure you don’t lose the valuable knowledge they’ve gathered through the years?
Featured image for “How to bridge the communication gap between frontline and office”
2023-06-08

How to bridge the communication gap between frontline and office

Where there’s a lack of communication between frontline workers and management in a heavy industry company, there’s also a lack of cooperation and mutual understanding. By successfully bridging this gap, your business won’t only improve workplace safety and employee engagement. You’ll also save vast amounts of money.
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 – What it is, examples, and benefits”
2023-01-13

Preventive Maintenance – What it is, examples, and benefits

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?”