Using Real time truck fleet data to decrease fuel costs

Posted on October 4, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (Sept 12-18, 2011) describes used by the 10,000 fleet US Xpress trucking company. By adjusting truck temperatures during a driver 10 hour break to be 70 degrees the first two hours and 78-79 degrees after, the company lowered fuel consumption and saved $ 24 million per year. Analysis of driver interactions and data enabled them to improve systems and decrease turnover. Is the value of realtime data to improve cost and delivery performance a competitive imperative for trucking ? How does a company balance the “monitoring” of performance with enabling performance improvement ? When would this detailed monitoring detriorate performanc e?

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This entry was posted in Operations Management, Service Operations and tagged Capacity, Cost, Inefficiency, realtime, Supply Chain, Sustainable, trucks. Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to Using Real time truck fleet data to decrease fuel costs

Gokul says:

August 26, 2013 at 6:48 pm

This is certainly a good idea to implement as it will save fuel costs with fixed temperature control settings, however this might give the driver a feeling that he is being monitored to a great extent. I believe that at the outset, this should not be made a hard and fast rule, rather drivers who follow such guidelines should be incentivised, so that they may spread the word to other drivers and eventually the achieve the desired result. This system can integrate other aspects of the vehicle like tire pressure, automated email alerts to managers (about high engine temperatures), breakdown times etc to reduce cost and make increase levels of performance. When detailed monitoring is forcing drivers to make regular pit stops to increase refill tire or keep cooling at a certain temperature, this feeling of micromanagement can result in lower freedom for the driver.

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