Excessive idling increases hidden fuel costs and emissions across your fleet. Motive’s Idling Coaching helps monitor idle time, reduce waste, and support sustainability goals.
Overview
The Idling Coaching feature helps fleet managers understand fuel waste and driver behavior, enabling more effective management and decision-making. Key features include:
- Fuel cost savings: Estimated fuel volume and fuel cost are displayed in the fleet’s configured currency, helping identify and reduce unnecessary idling-related fuel consumption to lower overall fuel expenses.
- Emissions reduction: Minimize your fleet’s carbon footprint by tracking and reducing idle times, contributing to environmental sustainability.
- Actionable insights: Access detailed data to pinpoint drivers and vehicles with the highest idle times, helping prioritize areas for improvement.
- Improved driver coaching: Leverage real-time data to coach drivers on fuel-efficient habits and reduce idle time, leading to better performance and cost savings.
- Location and temperature context: View the geofences associated with each idling event, along with the ambient temperature at the time of the event, to understand whether idling conditions were necessary.
Viewing the Idling events
- Log to the Fleet Dashboard > click Fuel > Events.
- Use the Status filter to search for required events.
- Click the selected event > click View details.
- Event details including Driver, Geofences, Coaching history, and Idling event location on map are displayed, click the required detail to analyze the event history.
Event Behaviours
| Behaviour | Definition |
| Unproductive Idling (formerly “Long Idling”) | An idling event that doesn’t qualify for any exception (temperature, geofence, PTO) and is eligible for coaching. |
| PTO Idling | Idling while Power Take-Off is engaged. This is classified as productive and is excluded from coaching. PTO data now lies exclusively in the AUX Activity report. |
| Coachable Event | An unproductive idling event marked for coaching, either manually by a Fleet Manager or automatically by policy. |
Event Status
- Pending Review: The event needs to be reviewed by a fleet manager.
- Coachable: The event is marked for coaching and should be addressed with the driver.
- Coached: The event has been reviewed and coaching has been completed.
- Dismissed: The event was reviewed and does not need coaching.
Setting fuel limits for vehicle idling
- Log in to the Fleet Dashboard > click Admin > Products > Fuel.
- Click Edit in Fuel Efficiency Detection > Customize.
- Set the required Duration and Ambient Temperature for Long Idling.
- Click Save.
| Note: The exempted events are not displayed in the Idling Report. |
Idling Events Coaching
- Log in to the Fleet Dashboard > click Performance.
- Set the Behviours filter to Unproductive Idling.
- Click Coach for required Idling event.
- Click Start Coaching.
- Review the Idling details > add Notes > click Mark as Coached > click End Session.
Idling Events Report
- Go to Reports > Browse > Utilization > Idling Events Report, review, and export the report to share.
- If multiple geofences apply, they are displayed as a comma‑separated list in CSV/PDF exports.
- The report also provides Geofence, Temperature, and Idling Duration filters so fleets can extract focused reports without exporting extra data.
Using idling data for coaching
Support performance improvement by using report insights during driver coaching:
- Highlight specific idling events and estimate fuel costs to make the impact clear.
- Use temperature and location context to reduce idling while using exemptions.
- Set expectations for acceptable idle times and monitor ongoing performance.
Implementing idle time policies
You can use the Idling Events report to inform and enforce idle-reduction policies:
- Establish clear, measurable idling limits based on report trends.
- Communicate policies to drivers along with the environmental and financial benefits.
- Track compliance over time and adjust coaching or policies as needed.
- Use temperature and geofence context to set more accurate and fair policy criteria.
FAQs
How will this help fleets save money?
Fleets can view the fuel cost per idling event and use filters to focus on the most expensive and least necessary idling. For large fleets, reducing unproductive idling can translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual savings.
How are temperature and geofences calculated and displayed?
Temperature
- Ambient temperature for each event is taken from the Vehicle Gateway and averaged across the event.
- If no temperature data is available, the event shows “NA”.
Geofence
- If geofences exist within 1 km of the idling location, they are shown on the row. If not, the geofence is blank for that event.
How much fuel does idling waste?
A typical truck can use nearly one gallon of fuel per hour while idling. This adds up across an entire fleet.
Can I view idling data for a specific time period?
Yes. Filter the report by date to view daily, weekly, or monthly trends.
How do I identify excessive idling?
The report shows which drivers and vehicles have the highest idle time, making it easy to spot outliers.
What should I do after identifying high-idle drivers?
Use the data to provide targeted coaching and set performance goals. Does reducing idle time help with maintenance? Yes. Less idling reduces engine wear and lowers long-term maintenance costs.
What does Idling with PTO vs Idling without PTO mean in the Idling type filter on Fuel reports?
PTO stands for Power Take-Off. Idling with PTO means the engine was idling while PTO-driven equipment (e.g., blower, pump, or mixer) was active, typically productive idling. Idling without PTO means the engine was idling with no PTO input active, usually non-productive or avoidable idling. This requires your PTO input to be wired and configured so Motive can distinguish PTO-related idling.
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