Five Driving Tips To Improve Fuel Efficiency

Choosing a fuel efficient vehicle is all very well, but how you drive can be just as important as what you drive in terms of overall fuel costs. If your foot plays a duet on brake and accelerator your driving is too expensive. According to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), the fuel consumption of individual drivers may vary by as much as 30 percent, and even experienced drivers may have little understanding of how their actions affect fuel use.

Speed is another big factor as the faster a vehicle is driven, the more fuel it uses. And, while you may find this hard to believe, driving faster won't necessarily get you there sooner. Average speed, not peak speed determines total journey time. And reducing peak speed by 8km/hr can typically result in fuel savings of 10 to 15 percent.

Idling is another fuel guzzler: EECA puts the average fuel use of an idling engine at 2 litres an hour. It might not sound much but it quickly adds up. Fuel savings of up to 5 percent are achievable from reducing idling, and for a large truck travelling 100,000km a year, the savings can be worth up to $3,000 per year. Other factors include vehicle maintenance, vehicle size, age, weight, load, and aerodynamic profile, road types and traffic conditions, and weather and season. Taken together, it's a lot to think about.

What can you do?

A big part of how much fuel a vehicle uses is the skill of the driver. Real-time GPS fleet tracking catches speeding, abrupt braking, and excessive idling, all of which increase fuel use — and recordings of these behaviours via telematics make great training tools to help drivers improve their behaviour. Driver training should include scanning, space management, knowledge of danger zones, speed management, an awareness of other motorists, and fostering an attitude of safety. Fuel efficient driving is also safer driving as both require drivers to watch the road carefully and anticipate situations ahead, and to drive at a consistent speed minimising the need for fast acceleration and harsh braking.

A GPS fleet management system allows you to view your fleet in real time and use the range of different reports, graphs, alerts, logs and maps to make sense of the data. Several of the reporting functions in a GPS fleet management system specifically help reduce fuel usage:

• Maintenance logs and reports - access previous service logs, monitor key metrics and schedule the right level of maintenance for every asset in your fleet.
• Monitor idling time - see the location and duration of this wasteful activity and receive alerts when it occurs so you can educate drivers and make changes to schedules if necessary.
• Planned vs actual - compare actual delivery and departure, revealing unplanned activity during the day.
• Monitor speed - monitor speeding violations that increase the fuel consumption and safety risks.
• More efficient route selection also goes a long way toward reducing fuel usage.

Dispatchers using GPS software can locate the most efficient routes in real time and easily assign jobs to the closest drivers. And drivers can in turn communicate directly with dispatchers and their office to get help and confirm jobs so that deliveries are made in a timely and productive manner.

Given the impact that driving style has on fuel consumption, it's well worth it to focus on how your drivers are handling their vehicles. There are significant cost savings to be made in improving fuel efficiency. In a highly competitive market, if you can trim your costs, you're in a better position to win new business.