How Truck Routing Software Can Help You Reduce Fuel Consumption and Carbon Emissions

It’s true that using truck routing software can help you and your company save a great deal of time and money. But did you know that this powerful technology can also help you reduce fuel consumption and contribute to the goal of reducing harmful carbon emissions?

Your trucks’ environmental impact can play a huge role in how your business operates. In fact, in one survey, 77 percent of fleet managers admitted to being asked about the environmental impact of their organization’s fleets by somebody in their organization.

Why is that significant? Because it shows how important your company’s global impact truly is to the people within your company as well as outside of it. With that in mind, let’s discuss how implementing truck routing software can help your business and find out…

More Efficient Routes

In an ideal world, your trucks would arrive at their destination and collect or deliver a shipment without any issues. But that’s not always the case.

Some common issues you and your drivers may face include:

• Unexpected traffic delays
• New construction zones
• Poor weather conditions

These issues often occur without warning and can be costly if you don’t account for them while mapping out your truck routes. When you implement truck routing software, you are able to anticipate and plan around many factors that could delay your shipments—you are even able to make critical adjustments on the fly.

Why is this so important? Because with the proper transportation planning software, you can:

Give your drivers real-time route updates. This is especially helpful because you are able to provide updated traffic conditions, customer requests, etc.

Analyze your drivers’ routes. When you analyze the behavior and exact routes of your drivers after they are completed, you can discover any trouble areas and help your drivers perform more efficiently on future routes.

Improve customer interaction. Get quick and accurate updates of the location of your trucks and let your customers know if you’re running early or a little behind. In addition, your customers can let you know if there is a delay on their end, which could cause your drivers to fall behind schedule.

And with this useful tool, your transportation routes can run a lot smoother, creating fewer delays and allowing your drivers to use their fuel more efficiently.

This is important because you want your trucks to run optimally to ensure that your…

Drivers Avoid Fuel-Wasting Practices

Excess fuel consumption not only has a financial impact on your business, it also has a global impact. As your trucks travel and burn fuel, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which has been shown to negatively affect the environment. Therefore, the more fuel your trucks use, the more harmful carbon emissions they release. And with the threat of global climate change on the rise, the white house and the EPA are focusing on improving fuel economy by developing alternative fuels, electric vehicles, and other methods that can help reduce carbon emissions.

So, how does truck route optimization software help?

With the ability to plan and monitor your truck routes more carefully, you can help your drivers avoid traffic and other delays that may lead to fuel-wasting practices such as idling. Idling occurs when a truck is parked and waiting to collect or deliver a shipment. It also happens if a driver is stuck in slow-moving traffic.

Idling is problematic because it can create:

• An excessive amount of vehicle exhaust being released, which has been linked to several respiratory health issues
• An increased amount of ozone-depleting carbon dioxide, which has been shown to harm the environment
• An enormous amount of wasted fuel, as an idling truck burns roughly one gallon of fuel every hour

Truck routing software can help your drivers anticipate delays, hit their collection and delivery time windows with more precision, and avoid issues such as idling. By doing this, you can effectively save on fuel costs and reduce your trucks’ carbon emissions.

Final Thoughts

There are a great deal of factors that go into measuring and cutting fuel consumption, as well as fuel emissions. Normally this would be a time-consuming (if not impossible) task, but with Paragon’s truck routing software, you have the ability to plan more efficient routes for your drivers without all of this hard work.

In addition, you can accurately monitor your drivers’ routes and behavior allowing you to help them cut down on fuel waste, while maximizing their future productivity. This will help you reduce your fleets’ fuel consumption—which is not only a financial boon, but an environmental benefit as well.

Reducing the environmental impact of your trucks may seem like a lofty goal, but with Paragon’s transportation optimization software, you can make it a reality.

For more information on how, contact our local team today!