Fuel On the Fly

Small fleets and owner-operators have a new resource for on-the-road fuel savings. Integrated Decision Support Corp. (IDSC) of Richardson, Texas, has launched a web-based fuel optimization routing service called FuelAdvice. It was officially announced in June.

Small fleets and individual drivers access the FuelAdvice software over the Internet. The price of individual routes varies according to fleet size and the complexity of a given optimization–the number of stop-offs, for example–but optimized routes generally range between $1 and $1.50 (all figures U.S.), according to David Harris, IDSC’s sales director.

Like some other web-based routing services, FuelAdvice will sell optimized routes in pre-paid blocks. A driver or company can sign up with a credit card. “He buys a block of transactions,” says Harris. “Once those transactions are expired he can continue or he can stop. It’s not a long-term commitment.” While he would not reveal a bottom-line, one-truck minimum block price, Harris claims FuelAdvice can result in savings of between 4 and 10 cents per gallon over non-optimized routes.

Weighing Choices

Fuel optimization routing generally applies to truckload and long-haul markets because it takes advantage of price differences among fuel outlets, often truck stops. Optimization weighs a number of parameters that include the fuel capacity of a particular truck, fuel levels at the time of dispatch, the rate of consumption, and fuel prices at specific locations between stops. A FuelAdvice user logs onto the FuelAdvice web site, fills in identification information, then enters the starting point for the trip, the ending point, and whatever stops might be in between. The program prompts for other information, such as fuel capacity, fuel level, and consumption rate.

First FuelAdvice will generate a route, then weigh the various factors to come up with a plan for fuelling along the way. The resulting trip plan will offer highway-by-highway directions and specific fuel-buying instructions, including the number of gallons to buy at each stop. FuelAdvice receives real-time pricing information from more than 8,000 locations in the United States and Canada. It also allows users to add their own network deals.

According to Harris, the program is based on ExpertFuel, another IDSC program. ExpertFuel was the first fuel optimization program of its kind when it was introduced in 1994.

Before that, fuel optimization and routing were not generally related in most trucking operations. Aside from the occasional savvy driver or small fleet operation, getting the most from fuel dollars was a matter for diesel engineers and people who negotiated fuel-buying contracts.

“We’ve found over the years that motor carriers already have a fuel network. They’re already asking the drivers to stay within a particular network. They already measure compliance within that network,” Harris says. “The addition of an automated fuel optimization system is telling them the appropriate level of gallons to put on at each of the stops.”

Some big fleets were already using databases of day-by-day prices to exploit differences from one outlet to another, particularly along established routes. ExpertFuel automated the process and made it possible to generate fuel-optimized routes virtually anywhere and very quickly.

ExpertFuel is licensed software that runs on the carrier’s own computer, typically an IBM AS/400. The program integrates with major truckload enterprise software from Maddocks Systems, Tom McLeod Software, TMW Systems, and Innovative Computing Co.

Integration provides opportunities. For example, when a driver is dispatched over, say, Qualcomm’s OmniTRACS, ExpertFuel automatically generates a route optimization. The driver can refer to detailed instructions on the truck’s onboard display for the duration of the run. ExpertFuel monitors driver compliance with those instructions.

IDSC brought together a number of technologies in ExpertFuel. The underlying mapping engine comes from ESRI. Actual highway routing is laid out using either ProMiles or Rand McNally software, whichever the customer chooses. Customers can download fresh data from one of two daily fuel price suppliers, either OPIS (Oil Petroleum Information Services) or T-Chek Systems. T-Chek once offered a web-based fuel optimization program of its own, but now prefers to supply the price data to software providers, according to T-Chek spokesman Mark Derks.

As you might expect, FuelAdvice–targeted to smaller operations–isn’t so elaborate. For instance, the web-based product cannot track driver compliance. That’s up to the small-fleet user. Options are limited as well. For example, FuelAdvice customers do not get to choose between ProMiles and Rand McNally for basic highway routing. FuelAdvice uses the Rand McNally routing engine, period.

However, FuelAdvice may soon interface with enterprise software much like ExpertFuel does. In such instances, management rather than the drivers would access the service enabling small-fleet managers to run optimizations prior to dispatch. “There are a lot of carriers that have 75 or fewer trucks and have these dispatch systems,” says Harris. “So we’re going to make (FuelAdvice) available to them so it looks like it’s totally integrated, but they’ll only pay on a transaction basis.”

According to Harris, the return on investment for, say, a $100 worth of optimized routings would be rapid. “Each truck should generate anywhere between $800 to $1,000 a year in fuel savings,” he says. With diesel fuel prices having risen to their highest levels all year in recent weeks, it would be money well saved.