The research, gathered from almost 1,000 business drivers across the UK, found that almost two-thirds believed they could achieve fuel savings of 5 to 10% if incentivised while one in ten drivers believed they could reduce their fuel use by 15 to 20% and 3% believed they were capable of reducing consumption by a quarter.

For a typical fleet of 50 vehicles averaging 25,000 miles per annum and an average fuel consumption of 40mpg, fuel spend would be approximately £200,000 for this period. The results of the survey suggest cost savings of £10,000 could easily be achieved, simply by incentivising all drivers to reduce their fuel spend by 5%. Alternatively if around a third of drivers reduce their fuel spend by 10% this will still equate to a saving of £6,000 per annum.

The research also found that telematics is increasingly being used as a means to measure and act on fuel consumption.

Mel Dawson, managing director at ALD Automotive, said: ‘This survey makes interesting reading as much of the focus, historically, has been on fleet policy and adopting more fuel-efficient vehicles. In recent years, however, we’ve certainly seen a growing interest in telematics systems and these are now at the forefront of effective fleet management.

‘Telematics provides a wealth of previously unseen information to fleet managers and drivers alike. By using data collected from systems, businesses can set up monthly league tables for their drivers promoting more efficient driving and making it far easier to implement any fuel-saving incentive schemes.’

ALD’s ProFleet2 telematics system is currently installed in over 25,000 cars and light commercial vehicles throughout the UK and is integrated seamlessly within the company’s service.

One security company that is using ALD Automotive’s ProFleet2 system said: ‘By introducing ProFleet2, we have the ability to monitor vehicle movement and identify unnecessary journeys, idling times and erratic driving behaviours. Using this information we have been able to set up league tables and incentivise drivers with monthly awards as well as a yearly “driver of the year”. All of which has led to a 37% reduction on fuel spend.’

Mel Dawson continued: ‘We’re constantly investing in innovative telematics technology to help fleet managers improve their operations and manage their costs. Our award-winning system, ProFleet2, has been proven to help fleets run their vehicles more effectively in terms of fuel costs, reducing risk and carbon emissions, without the outlay cost usually associated with this type of technology.'