Dearer oil is increasing costs for many businesses - particularly those with large fleets of vehicles - and is adding a powerful financial impetus to the search for fuel efficiencies.

Technology has a significant role to play in reducing fuel consumption, which also has clear environmental benefits.

One company, for example, has saved 15 per cent of its fuel costs by tracking its vehicles with satellites: "And our CO2 drops as well because of that," says Mark Stimpson, commercial director for Interserve, a building management company. "We have cut the average speed of vehicles and tell [people who speed] ëwhat you're doing is not safe'. There's a marked difference now."

Interserve sends out hundreds of engineers and tradesmen to work on the buildings it manages.

That means it requires a large vehicle fleet and its carbon footprint would at some point come into question. But there are also management and efficiency issues involved.

"We have a large mobile workforce and we needed to know where they were," says Mr Stimpson.

Using GPS vehicle tracking technology and viewing interactive maps online enabled the company to see where it was losing money, time and wasting fuel - such as on duplicated journeys.

Company vehicles are now fitted with a small electronic unit that is tracked by GPS and transmits data to an online control centre.

"This also reduces extraneous trips and flags up when and where vehicles are used," adds Mr Stimpson. "We've reduced the number of vehicles we use as a result."

Interserve is using Cybit's Fleetstar-Online. It works over a web browser and reports vehicle locations every 20 seconds. It also displays mileage information, live traffic information and exception reporting.

Exception reports are used to notify fleet managers of drivers' more aggressive habits on the road, allowing speeds to be brought under control. Vehicles burn less fuel when they are driven within speed limits.

"Cybit said that it would cut our fuel bill between 10 and 20 per cent," says Mr Stimpson. "I was somewhat dubious when they said that. But it has, as it turns out. Now it pays for itself."

Research from GE Commercial Finance shows that while 90 per cent of fleet companies consider environmental issues a key consideration, only 39 per cent have measures in place.

Many companies may feel tempted to replace their fleet of vehicles in order to be more eco-friendly, but it is unlikely that many could afford to do so.

"With rising fuel costs, retailers are smart-routing to avoid traffic jams, either by combining deliveries, improving fleets or reconfiguring routes," says Phil Smith, vice-president, Cisco Systems.

"This is to maximise the number of deliveries while minimising time and distance. Office Depot found that even restricting the number of left hand turns can improve on time, efficiency and energy savings.

"Trials are taking place in Seoul, Amsterdam and San Francisco to address these issues, using smart transport pricing models, smart working centres, personal travel assistants and ëconnected buses'."

UCS Plant, part of the Rand Group, a UK construction businesses, says it has used Fleetstar's graphical mileage reports to cut between 500 and 1,000 miles a week through route planning.

"Our vehicle tracking solutions give people visibility of the workforce," says Cybit's sales director John Wisdom. "They could be engineers in vans, chauffeurs in limousines or whoever."

Yet in some countries, there are legal concerns over using tracking technology. In the UK, for example, the law stipulates that companies must tell drivers if they use telematics to monitor vehicles for anything other than asset tracking.

"The key attribute is that you are giving [companies] a wealth of information around fuel, costs and care," adds Mr Wisdom. "This whole green aspect is linked to that. You identify inefficiencies very quickly. You can spot any issues around private mileage. It depends on the type of vehicles you are running and obviously there is an issue with the cost of fuel.

"Trucks are generally doing somewhere around 7.8 miles to the gallon. So, a 12-mile detour will cost you £9 ($17) in running cost, fuel, tyres, and so on.

"Having an engine running and standing still will soon burn a gallon of fuel."

"When you start to add all this up, it quickly leads to substantial savings."