Over a quarter of large fleets said that data analysis is reducing operating costs by at least $4,000 annually per truck, according to a recent survey by Fleet Advantage. As many as 30% of the respondents lowered operating costs by at least $1,000 annually per truck.

Fleet Advantage, which uses data analysis to help fleet customers manage lifecycle costs, talked to more than 700 transportation executives and managers who oversee large fleet to ask them questions about analytics adoptions, what areas they use analytics in, and what results they had seen. Over 45% of those surveyed manage fleets of more than 200 vehicles.

Five years ago, 81% of the respondents had no analytics strategy for their fleet, the survey found. Today, 61% of the fleets use analytics on a daily or weekly basis to track everything from vehicle location to maintenance to fuel trends.

Fuel data was the area in which analytics showed the greatest return on investment, with 27.5% of fleets tracking how their vehicles were using fuel. Up to 19% of the fleet professionals pointed to service and maintenance and driver behavior improvements as other key areas data is impacting.

In the next five years, a large majority (87%) of those surveyed expect data and analytics to continue playing a key role in managing fuel costs and truck performance or feel that data will drive their business operations in all areas.

“The movement toward comprehensive business intelligence speaks volumes about this industry’s thirst to truly leverage and maximize the technologically advanced trucks on the roads today,” said Jim Griffin, chief technical officer of Fleet Advantage.

“It’s notable that we’ve evolved from focusing on routes almost entirely to now analyzing every facet of truck performance to identify where improvements can be made for the bottom line," he added.

Fort Lauderdale-based Fleet Advantage provides equipment financing and lifecycle cost management to large private fleets.

To read more about Fleet Advantage’s report, click here.