Using Diligence and Technology to Reduce Your Fleets’ Fuel Consumption

Fuel can put a large dent in a company’s budget, being that it represents approximately 60% of a fleet’s total operating costs. It can be a difficult cost to pin down as fuel prices fluctuate depending on a variety of factors, leaving everyone at the mercy of the pump. Unfortunately, it’s a necessary evil that all fleets must deal with.

The cost of fuel is by far the most obvious concern, but fleets also must take their environmental impact into account as well as compliance with regulations, such as the greenhouse gas (GHG) and fuel consumption standards for heavy- and medium-duty vehicles. The three above issues should be enough to motivate you to closely monitor how much fuel your fleet is consuming and then implement actions to reduce it.

Before you can take action to become more cost effective and environmentally minded with your fuel consumption, you need to know where your fleet currently stands. You can do this by calculating your miles per gallon (MPG), prior to implementing any fuel saving measures. This helps to establish a baseline for all your vehicles’ fuel consumption so that when you do act, you can see whether it’s working or not.

Low-Hanging Fuel Savings Fruit

Are you using a telematics solution to automatically measure your fleet’s fuel usage.? The reason for this is because it connects directly to a vehicle’s engine, ensuring that results are more accurate than when you measure fuel consumption manually. Also, it packages the results into reports so it’s much easier to get both the big picture as well as drill down to the details (for example, the fuel usage profile of a specific driver).

However, if you are still on the fence about getting a solution or want to go the manual route as well, start with these methods. First, select the vehicles you want to monitor and have your drivers fill up their gas tanks. Make a note of each vehicle’s current mileage as displayed on their odometers.

Then have the drivers operate their vehicles as normal until their gas tank is approximately halfway. As soon as that happens, the driver should fill up again and a note must be made of the updated odometer reading as well as how many gallons it took to fill up the gas tank.

Subtract the first mileage number from the second one. This number is the total mileage traveled on that amount of gas. Divide the number calculated in step 3 by the number of gallons it took to fill up the tank. The number you will get is your miles per gallon (MPG).

Manufacturers also provide their own fuel consumption figures as obtained from laboratory tests. However, these figures rarely reflect real-world situations so don’t rely on them to guide you. There are many unpredictable things that come into play and no mile driven is ever the same.

• There are many factors that can increase your fuel consumption. Some of these factors include:
• Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking);
• Excessive idling;
• Cold weather (engines need more time to warm up, which uses more energy);
• Hilly, mountainous or unpaved roads;
• Air conditioning and heating; and
• Transporting excessively heavy loads.

Obviously, there are some things that are out of one’s control (such as the weather) but there are plenty of preventative and remedial actions you and your drivers can take to improve the fuel efficiency of your fleet.

Stop Unnecessary Idling

Idling, when a vehicle’s engine is turned on, but the vehicle is not in motion, is an inevitable part of driving. Drivers will likely idle during heavy traffic conditions, while stopped at a red light, waiting outside a business or residence or to keep the air conditioner or heater running during rest periods. Idling every now and then for a short duration of time is not necessarily an issue but doing so excessively certainly is.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that more than six billion gallons of fuel are wasted by idling vehicles each year. Not only does idling waste fuel but it also costs $8 billion a year across the United States and releases an extra 30 million tons of harmful carbon dioxide into the air.

To reduce idling time, you need to start monitoring your drivers’ behavior with a telematics solution since you can’t physically be on the road with your drivers to check the amount of idling they’re doing. Such a solution connects directly to a vehicle’s engine to provide an accurate representation of idling and allow you to deep dive into idling data. You can see exactly which drivers are excessively idling (according to your preset parameters) and then provide those drivers with appropriate training to help them understand why idling is bad and what techniques they can employ to reduce it.

Speeding less is one of the most well-known ways to save fuel. A truck travelling at 65 mph instead of 75 mph can see a 27% improvement in fuel consumption, according to American Trucking Associations (ATA). Also, for every one-mile increase in speed, there is a corresponding 0.14 mpg penalty in fuel consumption.

Drivers need to be told the effects of speeding and provide relevant training to make them more aware of their actions on the road. A telematics or fleet management solution can help you monitor your drivers’ average speed and determine which drivers are speeding excessively.

Eliminate Unauthorized Vehicle Usage

Any time one of your company vehicles are driven for personal use, your company’s fuel is wasted. These vehicles are entrusted to your drivers for the purpose of completing jobs and they should only be used for that purpose. You can eliminate or reduce unauthorized or personal usage by:

• Drawing up a company policy. This should outline clearly what activities company vehicles can be used for and what activities are out of bounds. It should be made clear that there are consequences for not following this policy and exactly what these consequences are.
• Introduce driver identification. Many telematics solutions offer a driver ID system so that you can monitor exactly when a driver starts and finishes a job. Combine that with GPS tracking and you can see at what locations they stop, for how long and if they take unauthorized detours or run personal errands on company dime.
• Finally, consider using geo-fencing. This allows you to determine invisible boundaries for your drivers so that if they travel outside of these boundaries, you are notified and can follow up on why this happened.

Stop Overhauling

The more cargo your drivers haul, the harder your vehicles’ engines need to work because of the increased resistance it creates. In turn, vehicles will consume more fuel. Reducing the amount of weight, a vehicle carries will thus improve fuel economy. This is especially true for heavier trucks as they produce more rolling resistance than lighter vehicles, meaning they need more power to move. For every 1,000-pound increase in vehicle weight, fuel economy drops by around 0.5%.

You can avoid overloading by making your drivers aware of the maximum payload that their vehicle can carry and setting a limit on the amount of cargo they can haul via company policy. One way you can monitor that employees are loading correctly is by setting up external cameras that are focused on trailers or other cargo-holding accessories.

Running any kind of electrical accessories in a vehicle (such as the air conditioner), decreases fuel economy. If the air conditioner is put on full blast, it reduces MPG by 5% to 25% in comparison to when it’s not on at all. Of course, it’s difficult to completely stop drivers from using the air conditioner or heater because you can’t deny them that comfort during extreme weather conditions.

However, you can teach your drivers to use the air conditioner and heater responsibly. They can reduce their usage by:

• Aiming for comfort instead of putting settings on high all the time.
• Hitting the re-circulation button on the air conditioning system. This uses the air already in the vehicle instead of bringing in air from outside which, in turn, uses less energy.
• Finding shade to park in where possible to reduce how hard the air conditioner needs to work to cool down the car.
• Letting air flow in using the ventilation system and opening the windows when driving on the highway.

As you can clearly see, there are numerous ways you can improve your fleet’s fuel economy (with little effort) and reduce the amount you spend on fuel. The more you save, the more you can spend on other operating costs that will bring you more value in the future.

While looking at alternative fleet fueling solutions is an option, it all really comes down to becoming more conscious of the actions of your drivers and making your fleet’s movements on the road more visible with the use of telematics technology and data.

from Quick Transport Solutions Trucking Blog https://ift.tt/2ucyZmg




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