What you can do to reduce fuel consumption
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"The best thing you can do to reduce fuel costs is to fill up in France where diesel is considerably cheaper," says RHA southern region information officer --' .
"But all joking aside, firms can still make considerable savings on fuel by proper driver training. Driving technique can matter a lot and some cabs have a green sector on the rev counter which drivers should aim to keep within to lessen fuel consumption," he adds.
Other useful tips given by the RHA include maximising the load carried by vehicles. "It is much better to have one vehicle fully loaded, which might have to travel a bit further, than to use two vehicles on the same operation," says Devenish. "Picking up backloads is also an important way of making fuel costs pay. The introduction of the 44-tonne lorry could also help to make the hest use of fuel, but the key to that will be getting clients to pay for the increased payload and not expect to pay the same rate as for a 41tonne lorry, because the larger vehicle is more expensive to operate. Route planning, so that congestion black spots are cut out, can also help. But sometimes, especially if there is a destination in a city centre, traffic jams can be unavoidable."