Category: fleet fuel cost

Video: Smarter Fuel-Buying Tips

With fuel prices at or near record highs, HDT Talks Trucking looks at how fleets can save money beyond better fuel mileage. Glen Sokolis is CEO of Sokolis Group, a company he founded nearly 20 years ago to help fleets save money on fuel. On this episode of the HDT Talks Trucking video podcast, Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge talks to him about why oil and fuel prices have spiked, and what fleets can do about it short- and long-term.

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Is Fueling Time Impacting Your Drivers’ Availability?

Time is money, how many times have we all heard that? We all know it’s true, particularly when it comes to fleet management. The recent changes to the Hours of Service (HOS) regulations have definitely created some challenges for companies that need to maximize their drivers’ productivity.

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How Proper Vehicle Maintenance Improves Fuel Efficiency

Fuel costs are a major cost of doing business when operating a fleet of any size. Purchasing new vehicles can significantly reduce fuel cost, but can be prohibitive as a capital investment. Most fleet managers are unable to replace their entire fleet and may continue to operate older vehicles for some time. This means that proper maintenance to improve and maintain fuel efficiency is an important, and cost-effective, way of reducing overall costs. Here are a few things you can do

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Do You Qualify for a Fuel Tax Refund?

Throughout the year, Sokolis Group must update its records for all of the changes made to fuel taxes. It’s a tedious task to sift through the information scattered across the internet for each state. Even though there are web sites that consolidate fuel tax rates in one place, identifying potential exemptions takes more research than just glancing at summarized data. That usually means a visit to a state’s site and digging into their tax regulations.

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The Future of Fuel Taxes – What Might Happen as Trucks Become More Efficient

Traditionally, state governments have funded road construction through taxes on fuel. As vehicles become more efficient, though, the income from fuel tax is affected, with long-term concerns that it might eventually become insufficient. An increase in electric cars – and the introduction of electric trucks (Tesla recently unveiled an electric semi-truck) is starting to cause revenues to drop. With more than 90 percent of federal Highway Trust Fund receipts being collected at the pump, this is a very real concern.

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Is Your Fuel Management Ready for Winter?

Every year the transportation industry faces new challenges during the winter months, and this year is no different.  Among those challenges, many states have mandated biodiesel blends while many have mandated idling restrictions. To add to that, fleet fuel prices are rising, and weather forecasters are predicting a colder and snowier winter than any in recent memory. And with the early showing of winter weather in many states, they may be right. Truck breakdowns are certainly more prevalent during the cold winter

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Even the FBI Hasn’t Investigated Their Fuel Purchases

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General recently released their audit findings regarding the FBI’s fleet fuel procurement program.  A number of deficiencies were identified with the FBI’s purchasing controls including not verifying quantities and prices invoiced by their fuel suppliers.  You might find it surprising that the FBI didn’t pay close attention to these details but fuel management is obviously not one of their core competencies.  In fact, it’s easy to do a web search and find

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Does Fueling Time Reduce Your Drivers’ Availability?

Time is money, how many times have we all heard that? We all know it’s true, particularly when it comes to fleet management and Hours of Service (HOS) regulations can create challenges for companies that need to maximize their drivers’ productivity.

Read More »