The recent and long-term continuous increase in fuel costs, even in the still relatively cheap Middle East, is just one of the many challenges a company has to deal with that has a direct impact on the bottom line.
“Many well-managed fleets have already taken important steps to reduce fuel costs, such as negotiating preferred rates, joining a fuel purchasing network, and specifying equipment designed for fuel economy. Each of these measures can potentially make a significant contribution to minimising fuel costs,” says Sergio Torres, of Descartes System.
“Keeping in mind that fuel costs can be as high as 10 to 15% of total operating costs – and will continue to grow as prices of oil are driven upward – what else can companies do to further improve their margins?
One key area, where improvements can be found is in fleet operations, through the practical application of technology – notably route optimisation and planning, real-time vehicle tracking, and telematics.”
“Such technology has been around for some time, but has historically been expensive and complicated to deploy. In addition, this technology can be instrumental in reducing mileage and driving efficiency conscience driver behaviour without impacting customer service – and in many cases, improving it.”
While that’s all well and good but what do you when budgets are tight or you need to squeeze even more out of fleet?
After deliberating over how best to prove that fuel consumption can make a difference to fleet managers, PMV, took the decision to take it back to basics and the most important factor in making a vehicle efficient. The driver. So one fine Saturday we set off to prove that you don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune to make a mint. The test was going to take place in two stages.
The first would be the ‘normal’ drive where we would take a Ford Explorer from Dubai and follow a route many truck drivers have to do, up the Emirates Road and to Umm Al Quwain.
After filling up at an ENOC station close to Dubai’s Tecom area we set off on the Emirates Road at 11am heading to our designated turnaround point 125km to the north.
It would have been easy to have pushed the car hard in the first stretch but instead we kept to all the required speed limits while braking and accelerating as normal. The aim was to keep the engine revving at 3,000rpm as much as possible or the duration of the trip which, in our test 4×4, gave us a crusing speed bang on the national speed limit of 120km/h.
We also kept the air conditioning on – a known drinker of gas – all the way to the coast of the emirate before making our return journey.
Almost three hours after we had left we were back in Dubai and our now familiar spot at ENOC. Over the course of the 250km (a distance reached luck more than design) we had used 35l of fuel and recorded an average of 14l per hour.
After a quick turnaround we were back on the road but this time our approach was entirely different. Not only did we turn the air con off, but we eased back on the braking and accelerated purposefully (even the most careful of drivers needs to be able to hold their own in Dubai) but gently. We also cut the revs to 2,000rpm by simply engaging overdrive, and our 120km/h cruising speed remained.
By the time we had returned to Dubai under a setting sun, it became clear that the difference in fuel use was startling.
This time over the 250km, the change of driving style (and opening of the windows!) had us averaging 9.7l our hour and we had used 26l of fuel, 9l less than we had managed in the first run.
On long stretches of highway driving, cruise control can save fuel by helping your car maintain a steady speed. And we were much more watchful of pushing when we didn’t need to on the second run.
Undoubtedly turning the air con off was a major saver. Industry figures show that using a vehicle’s air conditioner on a hot summer day can increase fuel consumption as much as 10% when driving.
Even if we had managed to better that by twice as much, effectively 2.8l per hour, we were still way ahead of what you would expect. In fact at higher speeds, AC at the distances transport drivers travel and we had driven, becomes much more efficient to run, so the bulk of the fuel savings had to be made elsewhere.
That said it was clear to us that during the cooler months of the year, fleet managers should be monitoring its use, if they want to make some savings. Imagine the saving of just 1.4L per hour, over a fleet numbering dozens or even hundreds of vehicles.
Fuel consumption advisors tell you that in normal driving, nearly 50% of the energy needed to power your car goes to acceleration. Increasing your cruising speed from 90km/h to 120km/h can raise fuel consumption as much as 20%. Theoretically, you can improve your gas mileage by 10-15% by driving at 90km/h rather than 104km/h.
However we think we showed that the elongated ranges of transport vehicle traffic in the GCC can improve those even further. We also think that jack-rabbit starts, hard acceleration and braking increase fuel consumption and our easing back made a massive difference proving what some estimate are potential savings of 40%.
Tests have show that “jackrabbit” starts and hard braking reduces travel time by only four percent, while toxic emissions were more than five times higher. The proper way is to accelerate slowly and smoothly, then get into high gear as quickly as possible. In city driving, nearly 50% of the energy needed to power your car goes to acceleration.
Considering the erratic way that drivers behave, perhaps fleet managers should make advanced driving courses mandatory and monitor habits. We proved that just by careful driving, easing acceleration and braking and when possible turning off the AC, you can heed the speed limit and get savings.
But there are many other ways to improve fuel efficiency. Checking tyre pressures at least once a month, and ensure the correct inflations are used – according to the Energy Information Administration, tyre efficiency could save approximately 800,000 barrels of oil a day.
Servicing regularly, a poorly tuned engine can use up to 50% more fuel and produces up to 50% more emissions than one that is running properly.
Two steps to better fuel consumption
Optimisation
By optimising asset utilisation and daily routes, thereby decreasing overall miles driven, your company can reduce fuel expenses and maintain or grow profit margins. A variety of reporting tools will allow you to instantly monitor excessive idling, speeding and actual pathing of drivers’ routes. You will be able to view current and historical data values for these pieces of information that will help to reduce, or eliminate these hidden costs.
The hidden cost of idling . . .
When a vehicle is left idling, it can consume one gallon of gas each hour. The American Trucking Association states that one hour of idling per day for one year results in the equivalent of 64,000 miles in engine wear.