Optimized routing using highly accurate and up-to-date mapping data may be seen by fleet managers as purely a tool for dispatchers, route planners and operations management personnel. In reality, however, effective advanced planning can also lead to fuel savings.

“For trucking companies,” says Jonathon Husby, vice president of Automotive, Telematics and Transportation at Tele Atlas, “fuel savings result from running the fewest miles most effectively. Mapping products that support planning of smarter and faster routes are essential in successful trucking operations, especially considering uncertainty over fuel prices.

“There is a great opportunity today to leverage data that can optimize powertrain output,” Husby continues. “A combination of new types of data and real-time information are helping to create powerful and critical tools for route planning that can help enhance fuel efficiency.”

Speed profiles
Highly accurate speed profiles that allow users to better estimate travel time and find the most optimal routes to their destinations are the latest types of data that Tele Atlas is able to provide to trucking companies. Tele Atlas Speed Profiles, covering five-minute intervals in as many a 26 countries and integrated into navigation and transportation logistics systems, can help fleets accurately predict travel times and choose optimal routes.

“In practice,” Husby states, “Tele Atlas Speed Profiles can save minutes or even hours as opposed to existing methods of routing calculation, saving users time, money and fuel. The system aggregates and enhances real speed data from hundreds of billions of GPS-enabled devices, using driving patterns to provide true average speeds on individual road segments. In contrast, traditional systems available today use standardized estimates to calculate routes and ignore hurdles that can severely impact travel times.”

Live traffic
Another Tele Atlas technology that can save fuel by maximizing road time and minimizing idling time is currently available in Europe but also set for possible use in North America. Tele Atlas HD Traffic, incorporated into a navigation solution, delivers live road congestion data from multiple real-time sources, including GPS-enabled devices, incident reporting systems and road sensors, and delivers it to onboard systems.

“With Tele Atlas HD Traffic, users can automatically be rerouted around traffic jams and potentially save time and money by cutting fuel consumption,” Husby says. “This solution determines the quickest route to a destination by considering live road conditions.”

Routing efficiency
Tele Atlas maps are derived using sources as varied as teams of mapping vehicles and digital cartographers, satellite and aerial imagery, and data from millions of GPS users. For commercial vehicles, Tele Atlas Logistics is a digital map database for fleets designed to optimize routing efficiency. Tele Atlas maps are also currently in use by providers of the industry’s routing and mapping software, companies that also have developed products to help fleets generate fuel savings through optimal routing.

PC*MILER routing, mileage and mapping software solutions from ALK Technologies provide North American truck-specific routing, mileage and mapping that spans more than 785,000 miles of roadway including more than 2.89 million commercial truck restrictions and allowances, and can include U.S. and Canadian street-level map data. Also offered by the company is PC*MILER|Fuel Optimization that helps determine where to purchase the most cost-effective fuel and tells drivers where to find it. Optimized fuel purchase plans based on daily fuel prices are integrated into PC*MILER’s routes, reports and driving directions.

The Maptuit FleetNav suite of tools covers over 40 million roads in North America to recommend the most efficient, truck-friendly route, taking into account distance, speed limits, bridge clearances, tolls, driver HOS rules and fuel prices. FleetNav Fuel is a transportation optimization solution for reducing fuel costs through route analysis and fuel price evaluation. FleetNav Fuel integrates with FleetNav Directions to give drivers the most efficient truck-to-door directions, calculating all critical parameters, including the vehicle’s current location and destination, fuel level, fuel consumption and fuel prices within a network.

ProMiles XF Kingpin commercial truck routing and mileage software for fleets covers more than one million locations and more than 931,000 North American road miles. ProMiles Fuel Management software enables fleets to create, compare and modify fuel purchase networks using new fuel-price mapping technology to show where the lowest priced fuel is available. ProMiles Fuel Management comes in “Pro” and “Lite” versions. Both offer a variety of pricing options and filters while Fuel Management Pro includes wholesale price data and other information.

Rand McNally IntelliRoute with MileMaker enables practical, quickest and lowest-cost routing across North America. Available as well for fuel-optimized trip planning is IntelliRoute Fuel. The fully integrated solution provides daily fuel location pricing information for any U.S. or Canadian location, and optimal fuel trip planning to generate a purchase plan for a desired route by entering origin, destination, truck ID, fuel level, fuel capacity and fuel efficiency. Users also can view information and routes onscreen and print reports including a fuel trip itinerary, location and detailed fueling information for each fuel stop, plus fuel trip optimization statistics.

Generating fuel savings
With advanced solutions, trucking industry mapping and routing software providers are enabling fleets to use the best possible information to improve route planning. That capability helps to minimize transportation costs through fuel savings.

Fleets are feeling some relief at the pump this year following diesel prices at unprecedented heights in Summer 2008. Last year found many fleets scrambling to uncover the “secret” to reducing their fuel costs. It turned out that the secret to systematically reducing fuel spend has been commercially available and in use by smart fleets for some time.

Five years before the $4 diesel fuel spike, Cullman, Ala.-based McGriff Transportation Inc. approached the former Integrated Decision Support Corp. (IDSC) for a solution to reduce the fuel spend for the 225-power unit fleet. McGriff incorporated IDSC ExpertFuel and IDSC TripAlert in 2003 and began building a robust fuel purchasing and compliance program for its drivers to reduce out-of-route miles and their fuel spend. Both software products, now owned by TMW Systems, incorporate industry-standard truck routing technologies from either ALK Technologies or Rand McNally to deliver unique fleet benefits.

“IDSC ExpertFuel allows our dispatchers to create and transmit detailed route and fuel purchase solutions directly to our drivers while monitoring out-of-route miles with TripAlert,” Robert Motter, productivity manager, McGriff Transportation, said. The benefits have not been tied to high diesel prices either. “With today’s lower diesel prices, we are able to further decrease our fuel spend while decreasing driver out-of-route miles at the same time.”

Over the last year-and-a-half, McGriff Transportation has seen nearly a 2% reduction in out-of-route miles while improving their driver compliance with purchasing and routing plans to 95%. “The key to IDSC ExpertFuel is explaining the program and the process to your drivers to ensure they comply with the plans provided,” Motter said.  “Driver compliance was the hardest factor in the transition. Once they were onboard, the key is to make sure you monitor compliance and keep on top of the information.”

McGriff’s dispatching team uses IDSC TripAlert to monitor the fleet’s on-road productivity. The software generates exception alerts to flag dispatch when a truck moves out-of-route or a driver’s HOS status jeopardizes on-time pickup or delivery of a load, among other conditions it tracks. “We utilize IDSC TripAlert daily to allow our dispatchers to help drivers manage out-of-route miles,” Motter said.  “We continually see a reduction in out-of-route miles each year, which reduces fuel consumption and increases asset optimization.”

Contacts for more information
ALK Technologies:  www.alk.com
Maptuit: www.maptuit.com
ProMiles: www.promiles.com
Rand McNally: www.randmcnally.com
Tele Atlas: www.teleatlas.com
TMW Systems: www.tmwsysystems.com