Although gas prices are starting to come down from record highs this month, there doesn’t appear to be any major relief soon, even if oil prices drop, according to AAA. The summer months often lead to additional drivers on the road and an increased demand for fuel. But don’t worry, finding ways to save on your company’s fuel costs can come down to something as simple as improving your inventory management and replenishment processes.

• Reduce or eliminate costly excess trips to the warehouse or supplier

How many times per day are your techs leaving the job to get a part that they should have had? How are far away are your local supply houses? Not only are you losing out on billable technician hours, but your trucks turn into part running vehicles burning up fuel. Getting a handle on your material and keeping your trucks stocked should be a main priority to stop time and gas from going down the drain. Your customers will thank you too for getting the job done the first time.

• Shed that excess weight!

No, I’m not talking about diets! I’m talking about removing the extra parts and materials that your trucks are carrying. We have yet to onboard a customer that didn’t have at least one overburdened truck carrying way too much inventory, and often its more than one. It’s natural for techs to stock up on parts that they’ve run out of on occasion, but the hoarding tends to become habit. It’s no surprise that reducing weight is an effective way to improve fuel efficiency by reducing friction and the amount of energy needed to get the vehicle moving. Tracking your inventory and preventing overstocks while running lean has allowed our customers to free up on average 100-300lbs of material. That could translate to an over 1 mpg increase in efficiency. It may not sound like much, but that adds up to a lot of money over time. Bonus – less wear and tear on your vehicles!

• Purchase smarter – replenish in batches

Many contractors cannot efficiently replenish their trucks or restock their vehicles and resort to trying to replace parts 1-for-1 as they are sold. This leads to a bloated amount of purchase orders that require loads of Backoffice hours to administer and excessive touches of inventory. Often trucks are stuck idling outside the warehouse waiting for minimal parts and supplies. With an inventory management system that can automatically review the minimums and maximums of your parts, you can reduce the number of times you need to restock your vehicles and reduce the number of total purchase orders to restock your warehouse.

To maximize savings, consider adding an inventory management software like MarginPoint Mobile Inventory. Our cloud-based solution is designed to manage all your parts, regardless of where they are stored or who supplied them. Contact us today and schedule a demo to see what MarginPoint can do for you.

Author – Trevor Evans, Director of Product Marketing