Asset Tracking Cuts the Fuel and Emissions Wasted on Finding Missing Equipment

Diesel hit a record average of 200.01p per litre at the start of October, according to RAC figures. For any business running vans, every mile costs more when pump prices peak. That includes the miles that have nothing to do with the actual job. Sources: evidence

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Drivers spend some of those miles hunting for equipment. In a typical scenario, an engineer might drive back to the depot for a forgotten tool, or a van might head out to collect a generator from a site it left two days ago. Vehicle telematics will log every trip, letting a fleet manager watch a van go back and forth, yet the data won’t show that the driver made the trip to find a missing item. Asset tracking fills that gap by pinpointing the equipment itself, so teams can avoid many of those journeys altogether.

• Rising van mileage: UK vans covered 58.5 billion miles in 2024, up 9.5% from 2019.
• Single-trip impact: An illustrative 20-mile detour in a 35mpg diesel van burns about 2.6 litres of fuel and emits nearly 6.7kg of CO2e.
• Main causes of extra miles: Wasted journeys usually come from returning to base for shared tools or trying to collect gear from the wrong site.
• Pre-dispatch checks: Checking an item’s location before departure lets dispatchers route the closest van or use gear already on site.
• Stronger emissions evidence: Pairing equipment location logs with vehicle telematics gives businesses verifiable proof of avoided trips for carbon reporting.

Van mileage keeps rising

Department for Transport figures show vans covered 58.5 billion miles on Britain’s roads in 2024. That’s a 9.5% jump from 2019, and vans make up roughly 17% to 18% of all motor vehicle traffic.

Most of those miles do real work. Engineers must reach customers, and equipment has to move between depots and sites. When teams share tools, plant, and spares across a fleet, though, part of every week goes toward journeys that only happen because nobody could see where an item was sitting.

What a single unnecessary trip costs

As an illustrative calculation, take a diesel van averaging 35mpg on a 20-mile round trip to fetch a piece of gear. Using an illustrative greenhouse gas conversion assumption for diesel of around 2.58kg CO2e per litre, that same trip puts out nearly 6.7kg of emissions.

By itself, that looks small. Across a whole fleet, an illustrative scenario shows how fast it stacks up. If 40 vans each make one avoidable trip like this per week, that example fleet burns over £10,000 a year on fuel for unnecessary drives and generates almost 14 tonnes of CO2e. That’s before you even count the engineer’s lost time or the job delays caused by the detour.

Where the extra miles come from

Two common situations cause most avoidable trips: driving back to base for an item, and trying to collect or replace gear that isn’t where the records say it should be.

Return trips to base

Shared tools and test equipment move between vans all week. When a job requires a specific item, crews usually assume it’s sitting at the depot. In a typical day-to-day scenario, if it’s actually in another engineer’s van across town, the depot run was wasted, and someone has to make a second trip to get the tool to the right place.

Collections and replacements

Recovering gear left at a finished job – or moved to a different site than the one on record – often takes multiple visits in practice. Every failed collection is a full journey with nothing to show for it.

Sometimes nobody tracks down the item in time, so dispatch sends out a substitute. The original tool might show up a week later, after the extra delivery has already happened and the business has paid for a second unit it didn’t need.

Knowing before anyone sets off

Most of these wasted runs disappear once staff can check an item’s location before a van pulls out. A dispatcher or engineer looks up the tool or piece of plant, sees which van or site holds it, and plans the route accordingly.

A driver can pick up a needed tool from a colleague parked a mile away, skipping the long drive back to the depot, and dispatch can assign the closest unit that actually carries the right kit. Sometimes they’ll find the item is already sitting on the right site, requiring no trip at all.

Movement alerts also flag when gear leaves a site unexpectedly or stays on a finished job longer than planned. Managers can sort the issue out while a van is still in the area, eliminating the need to book a dedicated collection run days later.

Over time, location history reveals which items cause the most running around. Certain tools always end up in the wrong place, and some sites hold onto equipment longer than others. Those patterns help managers decide where to store spare stock and which items to tag first.

Better evidence for emissions reporting

Larger UK companies already report energy use and emissions under the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) rules. Across the wider market, smaller contractors often face similar questions from customers and tender boards during procurement, so cutting wasted journeys also strengthens a company’s environment and emissions reporting. Fuel card and telematics logs show how much diesel a fleet burned and where each van drove, yet they don’t explain why the trip happened.

Pair asset location data with vehicle journeys, and the picture gets much clearer. A business can point to the exact trips it cut and back up its reduction figures with real operational records.

FAQ

How does asset tracking reduce fuel costs for van fleets?

Asset tracking reduces fuel costs for van fleets by showing the exact location of shared tools and plant before drivers set off. Checking equipment beforehand eliminates unnecessary depot runs and failed site collections. In an illustrative calculation, cutting a single 20-mile round trip in a van averaging 35mpg saves roughly 2.6 litres of diesel.

How can fleet managers track missing equipment?

Managers attach tracking tags to shared tools, generators, and test gear, then set geofences around depots and job sites. Location lookups and movement alerts show which van or site holds an item and flag when equipment stays behind after a job finishes.

How does asset tracking improve emissions reporting?

Asset tracking improves emissions reporting by pairing equipment location logs with vehicle telematics to give businesses verifiable proof of avoided trips. While fuel card and telematics logs show how much diesel was burned, adding asset location records explains why journeys happened and which retrieval runs were eliminated to support carbon reduction figures under SECR.

Where to start with fleet equipment tracking

Fleets looking to cut these journeys should start with the gear that causes the most trouble in day-to-day operations: shared specialist tools, test equipment, generators, and portable plant that moves between sites. You don’t need to tag every item on day one.

Setting geofences around depots and regular work sites alerts managers whenever tagged items arrive or leave. A quick weekly review of where gear has been – and how many trips drivers made to fetch or return it – will quickly show if wasted journeys are dropping.

When diesel prices sit near or above £2 a litre, as seen during October’s record peak, cutting even a handful of these trips each week makes a clear dent in fuel bills and lowers the year-end emissions figures a business has to report.