Fuel efficiency can save a business thousands of pounds, but
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how do you get that message across to drivers and, more importantly, get it to stick?
Words: Lucy Radley With fuel accounting for up to
35% of operating costs, encouraging fuel eficiency among drivers has never been more important. The hard part is getting your drivers to appreciate the extent to which their behaviour affects your bottom line. Persuading employees that an annual saving of as little as 0.1mpg per vehicle can result in a difference of thousands of pounds isn’t easy. We talked to drivers about what would – or does – make them care, and looked at a few popular fuel-saving schemes.
Most drivers do care
A poll of employed drivers on website TruckNetUIL com revealed that only 13% of respondents claim not to care about their own fuel consumption at all. Some 21% make a small effort, but a whopping 56% consider fuel eficiency an important part of their job, and try to keep their igures down purely as a matter of pride. Of the remainder, 8% are purely motivated by the earning of a fuel bonus, and another 2% have environmental motivations.
We concluded that it is more a matter of encouraging existing good habits than trying to radically change attitudes, which makes the task in hand less onerous than previously thought. While some drivers commented about the levels of empty running and seemingly incomprehensible trafic planning, others were able to look at the bigger picture and appreciate that servicing a customer effectively might make it dificult in practice to achieve full utilisation at least some of the time. Competing priorities – between transport seeking fuel eficiency and warehousing within the same company needing stock fast, for example – will always scupper some drivers’ best efforts and a balance needs to be achieved.
At the same time the debate is still raging as to whether reducing speed limiters to 52mph, or even 50mph, has a real effect beyond forcing those who really don’t care to be less heavy on the throttle.
Fuel bonuses
More and more companies are moving towards a straight inancial incentive in the form of a fuel bonus system to motivate drivers. Even the most cynical of old hands can’t argue with extra money in their own wage packets, although it might take a little time for them to see targets as achievable. “Better in my pocket,” is the general consensus, in spite of those who are yet to be convinced of the fairness of bonus calculations across leets.
As Stephen Mitchell – a driver representative working with management at his company to improve an existing scheme – says: “I have always been a fairly good driver regarding fuel consumption, but I try harder when I am getting a bonus.” While many of his colleagues dislike the current scheme, they do make some saving, but those not eligible at the moment simply don’t appear to try at all. So, if even a ‘bad’ bonus scheme can make a small difference, it is deinitely an avenue worth pursuing.
Hillington, Glasgow-based JW Filshill is a retail wholesaler distributing products to convenience stores and small shops across Scotland and the north of England as far south as Leeds, including those under it’s own Keystore brand. It operates 26 rigid vehicles with a GVW of 26 tonnes, ive of which are run from satellite depots, plus one 44-tonne artic.
Scott Meikle is the man responsible for everything to do with fuel, from ordering it in to encouraging drivers to use as little as possible.
“We put all our drivers through a SAFED course back in 2005/2006, and then brought in a bonus system with targets based on the igures achieved before they had the training,” he says. “We monitor fuel usage using a Triscan system, asking every driver to fuel daily in the yard and input their mileage. The system then calculates the mpg for us. While it’s true to say local runs don’t do so well, we spread the work across the vehicles and calculate the bonus payment quarterly to keep things reasonably fair.
“About 80%-85% of drivers are now on a bonus, and we talk to drivers who don’t get it to address any problems. The scheme is saving fuel and has paid for the investment involved. Originally we were getting around 9mpg; now we’re seeing 10mpg-12mpg, with the target set at 10mpg.” Brett’s Transport is based in Guyhirn, Cambridgeshire and has a mixed leet of 80 vehicles. Its business is largely based around consolidating LTL consignments for common destinations, also serving several packaging customers requiring full loads. MD Simon Brett is truly passionate about his business and his drivers, so adding a fuel bonus to the existing productivity-based pay scheme at the company was an obvious step forward, and he won’t rest until he feels he’s got it right.
“We have a benchmark igure for each type of vehicle and type of work, but I do feel we still have room for improvement,” he says. “The interested drivers make a real effort and see real beneits, but there’s another contingent who just aren’t interested at all; the danger is we end up only paying the drivers who are good anyway.
“Among those drivers who are achieving a bonus, we’re seeing 0.25mpg-1mpg savings on distribution work, and we have a couple of older Scanias on packaging contracts where the igure is as high as 2mpg-2.5mpg, so it is worth doing. Any diesel saving is an advantage for the company, but if we can give some of that back to the drivers, it’s a win-win situation.”
Clear benefits
According to Brett: “If you boil it down to the bare bones, fuel-eficient driving is all about driving carefully, so you also see beneits from fewer accidents and insurance claims, and less wear and tear on the vehicle and its tyres. Going forward, we’re looking at using systems like Dynaleet on the Volvos and Fleetboard on the Mercedes vehicles, which monitor the overall way the trucks are driven rather than just the basic fuel consumption, as well as including fuel-eficient driving as part of Driver CPC courses.
“Assuming they would rather earn a bonus than not, the only way to make drivers care is to engage with them about the business and what’s happening within it. That way they feel part of that business and it’s future.” There’s no denying the overall message. Communication between drivers and management is key, and encourage ment of those performing well is vital in order for them to continue – or even increase – their efforts. Publishing weekly league tables can foster a spirit of competition, providing the calculations are seen to be fair, taking into account the types of load carried and roads covered by vehicles performing different functions within a leet.
Paying a fuel bonus gives an added incentive, while several drivers who had been given fuel eficiency training were surprised how much they learnt, and what difference it can make in day-to-day practice. Also, use of telematics can make it easier to weed out problem vehicles and staff, and highlight the speciic problem in each instance, enabling it to be more effectively resolved.
Like it or not, this is a problem that can only be cracked if everyone within an operation works together and fully understands the beneit to the organisation as a whole. ■