How to Save Thousands on Fuel for Trucking Companies

Thank you for viewing this video. We know you have some questions about fuel costs and we’re here to bring you some answers. I’m Sarah and I’m Jeremy and we’re with Apex Capital.

Fuel can account for about 40 percent of the trucking company’s business expenses, so it’s no secret that saving money on fuel is a big deal from most carriers. Because fuel is one of the largest variable costs and trucking, it can be really tough to manage. So while you can’t control the price of fuel you can use technologies, equipment, and techniques to help you increase your fuel efficiency.

When 40% of your total operating cost goes to fuel, discounts at the pump can add up to big savings. First, let’s start with the different types of diesel fuel prices. “Cost minus” is the cost minus a negotiated amount. “Cost” is the price that the truck stop pays for the fuel, including taxes and the amount paid to deliver it to the truck stop. “Cost plus” is the cost of the fuel plus a negotiated amount, usually about a few cents. “Retail minus” is the retail, or the cash price, minus a negotiated amount. “Retail” fuel prices, also known as “cash”, are set by competition in the market place. The “credit” price is the price paid when using a credit card. this prices typically the retail price, plus 5 or 6 cents.

Thankfully, there are a lot of resources that can help you save big on fuel costs. OOIDA has this cool fuel surcharge calculator that helps you figure out what your freight rate is. All you have to do is enter your fuel costs, average miles per gallon, average diesel fuel price and you’ll get the per mile surge charge, that way you know how much it costs to run and how much to charge.

Another helpful calculator is the apex fuel savings calculator which shows the amount you could save on the fuel with the Apex Fuel Card based on your truck specifications and how many miles you drive.

First, you select the miles per week that you run, then you add the miles per gallon of your rig, next you’ll select the closest diesel price and finally select a discount to see your savings. This tool can show you how fuel cards can be a great way to save on one of your biggest trucking expenses.

Speaking of fuel cards, while you can’t control the price of fuel, you can still save big at the pump by using a fuel card. That’s right! You can get signed up through your favorite truck stop or join one through a third party like the Apex Fuel Discount Program. You’ll get deep discounts off fuel at the truck stops you visit most and they offer you special deals and incentives just for using a fuel card.

So how much can save you? Well, most Apex clients save an average of fifteen cents per gallon. Based on the Federal Highway Administration’s average miles per gallon, average gallons of diesel fuel used in a year, Apex fuel discounts could save you $2,300 a year per truck. Wow! that’s a lot of bacon. Literally! The $2,300 saved can buy about four hundred and sixty seven pounds of bacon.

And you can save even more by using the Apex Fuel Finder. This tool helps Apex Fuel Card users find the best fuel discounts at truck stops along their route. The Fuel Finder can be accessed from the Apex Mobile Factoring app available on your Android or iPhone, so you can pull up your location and see the best discounts near you.

By taking advantage of the Fuel Finder, you can save an average of 20 cents off the price at the pump. That’s around $3,000 a year and even more bacon!

We’ve talked about how to save money at the pump and how to save with technology, But, did you know there’s also equipment that you can use to make your trucks more fuel efficient? When trucks reach speeds of over 50 miles per hour, aerodynamics is the most important factor in fuel economy. So for long-haul truckers, who spend most of their time at those speeds, there’s a huge opportunity for fuel savings. For every 2 percent reduction in aerodynamic drag, you can get one percent improvement in fuel economy. To break it down, aerodynamic drag reduces your MPG, when you reduce drag, your MPG goes up, When your MPG goes up, fuel costs go down, so if you lower your aerodynamic drag, you lower your fuel costs.

It’s also important to keep correct air pressure in your tires. This helps your tires last longer, and your truck handle better which saves you money on fuel. For every psi that a trucks tires are under-inflated, fuel economy is reduced by about 1%. Low-rolling-resistance tires can also increase fuel efficiency. Immediately after motion, tires use energy, heat up and soften. This increases rolling resistance, or how much effort the truck has to put into making the tires roll. Basically, tires with low rolling resistance are built so less fuel is needed to make the truck run. This is pretty important, as rolling resistance accounts for a third of the truck’s fuel consumption.

Another way to save money on fuel costs is to use fuel-saving driving strategies like reduce driver speed. By encouraging drivers to slow down and avoid aggressive driving you could save big on fuel costs. Drivers who practiced fuel efficient strategies get about 30 percent better fuel efficiency than those who don’t, according to Cummmins. As a rule of thumb, you can assume that each five miles per hour over sixty miles is like paying an additional 20 cents per gallon of fuel. The ATA says the truck traveling at 65 mph uses about 27% less fuel than a truck traveling at 75 mph. Another way to use less fuel is to reduce idling. Idling increases stress on a truck’s engine which uses more fuel and increases maintenance costs. In fact, every hour spent idling can decrease fuel efficiency by 1%. Did you know that minimizing the use of the air conditioner can help you save on fuel costs? Running the air conditioner increases fuel consumption by 0.2 – 0.4 miles per gallon.

Want to learn more about how the Apex Fuel Discount Program and Apex Fuel Finder can help you save even more on fuel costs?

Call Apex at 1-855-211-0927. We offer clients quick payments, industry leading service, and the best credit system in the industry. When you factor your freight bills with apex, you can find loads on our free load board, NextLOAD.com, run free credit checks 24/7 to make sure you’re hauling the right load and save big the truck stops you visit most with the Apex Fuel Card. We specialize in factoring for the trucking industry for nearly 20 years and we only factor freight bills. We’re experts in the industry and continually add new and innovative programs and processes to help our clients save money and manage their business.

So let Apex be your factoring company. We have everything you need to keep you on the road. if its Apex Capital, America’s Favorite Factor.