How to reduce your fleet’s fuel costs in Uganda: a practical guide

For most transport, construction and distribution businesses in Uganda, fuel is the largest cost after salaries. It is also the cost most owners know least about, because it is paid in small amounts, by many drivers, at many pumps.

This guide is for anyone who runs vehicles for a living: a boda boda association, a school with three buses, or a haulier with forty trucks. None of it needs special equipment to start.

1. Measure fuel use per vehicle, not per month

You cannot reduce what you do not measure. A monthly fuel bill tells you how much you spent; it does not tell you which vehicle, which route or which driver is costing you money.

For every vehicle, record three things each time it is filled:

• the date and the litres bought
• the odometer reading
• the driver and the route

From that you get the number that matters: litres per 100 km (or kilometres per litre, if your team thinks that way). Divide the litres used by the distance driven and multiply by 100.

After a month, compare vehicles doing similar work. The one that uses noticeably more than its twins is where you start looking.

2. Put a shilling figure on it

A worked example makes the stakes clear. Take one diesel truck that:

• drives 60,000 km a year
• uses 30 litres per 100 km
• buys diesel at UGX 5,000 a litre (use your own pump price)

That truck burns 18,000 litres a year, which is UGX 90 million. Every 1% you save on that one truck is worth UGX 900,000 a year. Multiply by your fleet and small improvements stop being small.

3. Stop paying for idling

An engine running while the vehicle stands still uses fuel and goes nowhere. It happens while loading, while waiting at a client's gate, and while a driver keeps the air conditioning on during a break.

Set a simple rule, such as switching off when a stop will last more than a couple of minutes, and check it against your fuel log. Drivers respond to rules they can see being measured.

4. Keep tyres and engines in condition

Under-inflated tyres make the engine work harder on every kilometre. Check pressures weekly, with the vehicle cold, against the figure on the door pillar or in the handbook, and adjust for the load you carry.

On the engine side, the cheap items matter most on dusty Ugandan roads: air filters clog quickly, and a choked filter means a richer, wasteful burn. Fuel filters and injectors deserve the same attention. Follow the service interval for your conditions, not the one for ideal roads.

5. Plan routes and loads

Empty return journeys, two half-loads where one full load would do, and routes chosen out of habit all burn fuel without earning money. Before buying anything, look at a week of trips and ask which ones could have been combined, shortened or timed to miss the worst traffic in Kampala.

6. Coach the way vehicles are driven

Hard acceleration, late braking and high cruising speeds use more fuel than a smooth, steady drive. The difference between drivers on the same vehicle and route is often larger than owners expect, and your per-vehicle log (step 1) will show it. Share the numbers with drivers, recognise the best ones, and coach the rest.

7. Close the gaps where fuel disappears

Not every missing litre is burned. Reconcile what you paid for against what each vehicle should have used for the distance it covered. Use fuel cards or receipts tied to a vehicle, lockable tank caps, and spot checks. A gap that keeps appearing on one vehicle or one route needs a conversation.

Where fuel-saving technology fits

Once you are measuring properly, you are in a position to judge any product that claims to save fuel, including ours. The test is simple: does your own log show a saving, on your own vehicles, on your own routes?

Fuel Eco Tech is a device fitted to the fuel line, between the pump and the filter, without modifying the engine. In an independent field test in Germany, a Volkswagen T5 van went from 11.52 to 9.92 litres per 100 km, a 13.9% reduction (we explain that test, and its limits, here). One vehicle is not your fleet, which is why we sell it the same way this guide recommends: we measure a few of your vehicles before and after fitting, and you decide on the result, including if the saving is small or none.

Start this week

1. Start a fill-up log for every vehicle.
2. After four weeks, rank vehicles by litres per 100 km.
3. Fix the obvious: tyres, filters, idling.
4. Then test anything else against your own baseline.

If you would like a second pair of eyes on your numbers, estimate your saving with our calculator or book a free fuel assessment. We will tell you honestly if the device is not worth it for a vehicle.