SPECIFY TO SAVE DIESEL Monitoring gives operators the knowledge to
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specify, but that's wasted without driver training. Richard Scrase also looks at the add-ons now available.
• Diesel prices are falling, but fuel still accounts for up to a quarter of hauliers' annual costs. Despite this, few operators take advantage of all the fuel saving opportunities available to them.
From the very start, at the purchase of the vehicle, the haulier can benefit by fitting fuel saving devices. Most manufacturers offer attachments which will save fuel, such as air deflectors, speed governers and gear-change indicators.
Dal offers a system called VISAR on its trucks and coaches, which prompts drivers to change gear at the most fuel efficient times. Air deflectors will save operators between three per cent and seven per cent of fuel costs, claims Daf.
Leyland claims even greater fuel savings for its air deflectors. A Leyland Roadtrain fitted with a complete air deflector pack costing around £1,000, can return fuel savings of almost 12 per cent.
Speed limiters can be equally effective. West Midlands Farmers fitted a Lucas Kienzle top-speed limiter to a Leyland Roadtrain 20 months ago and saw fuel consumption fall from 47 lit/100km (fimpg) to 28 lit/1001cm (10mpg), providing total savings of £6,000.
Tyres can also play an important part in keeping fuel consumption to a rninirmur Shell UK fits wide-single tyres to its fleet of trailers and 38-tonne tractive urr and reports fuel savings of seven per ce overall.
More fundamental to fuel economy i: the way in which the vehicle is driven. Jim Lockhart, managing director of the Transport Development Group, says: "Our policy is to keep company fuel col sumption to a minimum and we find the best way to save fuel is through driver training," Manufacturers can help with driver training. Most operate programmes wh help hauliers get the best from their vehicles. For example, Seddon Atkins() operates a driver training centre to which hauliers can send their drivers. The training can be tailor-made to suit the needs of the haulier. It will cover engine principles, and include some practical driving instruction. If necessar Seddon Atkinson will send instructors t the haulier's premises.
Ron Cater operates a similar scheme Volvo Trucks, which operates at each be company's distributors. He has sonally trained 7,000 drivers over the t nine years, and says: "Nine tenths [rivers do not know how to use their ides."
:ach Volvo training session involves I and a half hours of detailed instruc, on how to use the vehicle properly, )wed by three quarters of an hour of tical driving experience. Cater says: train people to use the machinery erly to enable it to do what we say it
-istructors have to be careful in their roach to drivers. "You must not tell ers they can't drive," says Cater.
u have to show them that heat in the ies is energy taken from the fuel Leyland trucks estimates drivers can taught to improve fuel consumption by und 10 per cent. "We want hauliers to the best out of their vehicles," says eyland spokesman. "Uninformed drivwill produce poor fuel consumption." .arge hauliers tend to take advantage le manufacturers' training pro nmes, but many smaller operators fail )enefit. "We see the classic situation re the boss of a modest, privately ied haulage firm trusts his driver with rand-new £50,000 truck without any ning, but won't let the driver pop-out a packet of fags in the company Is," says the Leyland spokesman. 4anufacturers clearly have some in,st in ensuring their products are d properly, but there is a limit to the ent they can assist hauliers in miniing fuel consumption.
faders themselves can make surprisy large fuel savings through efficient :t management. For example, Air ducts of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, achieved fuel savings of six per cent its fleet of 200 tankers, through the iitoring of fuel consumption, the elimini:on of excess vehicle weight, and the ting of fuel consumption targets at h depot. That is, a fuel saving of six cent for a fleet which covers a total of 14,500,000km (9,000,000 miles) a year.
As a result of vehicle monitoring, Air Products has selected a slow-running Cummins engine for each of its tractive units, to provide long running life and improved fuel economy. All AP's drivers are now trained to drive efficiently with the new engine. The company has recently taken further steps to reduce fuel consumption by sending its managers for training to Seddon Atkinson's driving centre. The company feels that managers should appreciate how vehicles can be operated most fuel efficiently.
• At the end of of 1984, Air Products' success in reducing fuel costs was acknowledged, when the company won the Shell Energy Award for fuel economy in transport.
Last year, the competition was won by Bolton-based Carton Carriers, which claims to have achieved fuel savings of 40 per cent. Carton achieved this after commissioning a consultant's study to find how the company could save money. The consultant came up with a set of proposals, which included a reduction in the size of the company's vehicle fleet, and the use of larger engines in all the vehicles in the fleet. He also advised a reduction in the use of contract vehicles and contract drivers.
Carton Carriers now undertakes regular monitoring of the vehicle fleet and sets fuel consumption targets for all vehicles. Careful suiting of particular vehicles to particular tasks ensures that the most efficient vehicle is used for each job and close attention is given to route planning to ensure that vehicle journey distances are kept to a minimum.
All the drivers in the fleet measure their vehicle's fuel use from tachograph records and fuel receipts, and the resulting figures are openly displayed on a chart which is updated weekly. The company also displays a chart showing vehicle performance in terms of route planning. Each vehicle's weekly operations are appraised in terms of cubic feet of load carried per kilometre travelled.
The charts provide Carton Carrier's drivers with detailed information about the fuel consumption of their vehicles and encourage them to improve fuel economy.
• Finally, one company based in Norfolk, DMT Transport takes the problem of fuel costs so seriously that it rewards its drivers when they achieve low fuel consumption figures, Mike Rook organises the company's fuel monitoring scheme. He says: "We set up a three-month trial, unknown to the drivers, to find the average fuel consumption of our vehicles."
A figure of 32.61h/100km (8.66mpg) was achieved and the company's drivers were told they would be rewarded if they returned better than average fuel consumption figures.
For a frugal driver, the rewards can be impressive. He is paid £10 each month he hits the target fuel consumption figure, and receives a bonus of £5 for every 0.29kmAitre (0.1mpg) saving he makes over and above the target. Although this money is taxable, it still adds up to an additional £130 a month for the driver who averages 25.681it/100km (11inpg).
After operating the scheme for 18 months, DMT Transport has seen considerable fuel savings. Perhaps more importantly, the drivers are more aware of the need for fuel economy and are driving their vehicles more carefully, providing additional benefits in terms of vehicle wear and tear.
With recent falls in the price of fuel, the direct benefits of [)MT's fuel saving incentives scheme are reduced, but the company still plans to extend the scheme to all 90 of its drivers by the end of July.
Rook says: "The initial set-up of the scheme is fairly laborious," but he admits: "With the scheme operational, you are saving money. Though this is getting marginal with the recent falls in diesel prices, you also get benefits in terms of vehicle wear and tear."