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Simulator training set to slash your fuel bill
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A truck simulator training programme is delivering huge improvements in fuel efficiency when drivers get back behind the wheel.
Louise Cole reports.
EXCLUSIVE
ith fuel accounting for about 40% of costs and rising, most operators would leap at the chance to cut fuel consumption by almost 20% and a new study suggests it could be possible.
The Transport Research Laboratory's (TRL)TruckSim project, based in Crowthorne. Berkshire, claims to be able to re-educate drivers so effectively that they save an average of 15.7% on fuel without dropping their speed.
Since its inception two years ago the TRL project has trained more than 1.200 drivers. Chief research scientist Professor Andrew Parkes says the latest study of fuel efficiency is based on extensive preparatory work to pinpoint where a simulator works best.
We trained an initial wave of 600 drivers, looking at which things a simulator is good at teaching and which it's not suited to," Parkes adds. "I would never suggest that simulator training should replace on-the-road driving. but there are certain things which it can excel at teaching.We needed first to define them.
Monitoring drivers
The next phase involved monitoring driver responses. Many drivers were used, to assess how good and had drivers respond to standard scenarios. This allowed TRL to program the simulator to measure and assess driver response and give comprehensive feedback.
"It's the detailed quality of this feedback which has produced the astounding results we see in the fuel efficiency study," says Parkes.
So far none of the operators involved in the study has had to pay. with the total cost of 11.6m being funded by the Df1"s Road Haulage Modernisation Fund. This has been the largest study of its kind in North America or Europe. The fuel efficiency programme has trained 60 drivers from different parts of the logistics industry, including automotive, food and hazchem. It carefully matched each candidate with a driver in the same firm who shared his or her experience, vehicle and work profile. One received training, three times over six months, and the other did not.The trained drivers were monitored at work for a week before and a week after their training.
The drivers familiarised themselves with the system,then tackled urban and rural routes, observed by a trainer, who followed up by giving advice about more fuel-efficient driving. Only after the second attempt did the simulator start collating data about their performance, giving 'traffic-light colour coding for critical aspects of vehicle use clutch, accelerator, brakes, steering, gears. revs and fuel consumption.
The biggest difference was seen after the first visit to the simulator, although after three visits drivers were showing fuel improvements of up to II %. The most remarkable aspect of the study, however, is that after training, the drivers continued to show a progressive improvement out on the road they just kept getting better compared with their matched drivers, even after the training had ceased.
When graduates of the simulator course went back on the road their trucks' fuel consumption fell by an average of 15.7%."This is the crucial aspect of this study," he says. "The benefits to real-world driving are startling and apparently ongoing. This is important because people often ask: Does this not just teach you to drive a simulator better?' This study addresses this issue and proves that it makes a huge difference out on the road as well."
But is it possible that a driver's improvement will peak shortly after training when everything is still fresh in his or her mind and then slump back as had habits reassert themselves? "Conceptually, of course that is possible," says Parkes. -That's why what we'd like to do although we don't have a contract for this yet is to continue to track these drivers and monitor their performance and training needs.
It is not only fuel that the TruckSim model saved, he points out."The fuel efficiency training involves a lot of work on 'vehicle sympathy' how you handle the engine and other components. This cuts down wear and tear on the vehicle substantially."
The simulator data showed that not only did drivers remember what they learned between visits, but they handled their vehicle much more sensitively. For instance, revs during acceleration fell by an average of 22%, meaning the engine pulled more efficiently and torque delivery rose by 45%. There were 29% fewer gear changes, suggesting that transmissions and clutches would last longer.And these improvements were not made simply because drivers dropped their speed to cut fueloverall they were running 8% faster than before.
Without tracking these drivers further, TRL cannot predict when these improvements will peak. But certainly its results so far could have dramatic implications for operators who invest time and money in TruckSim training. Even if the project moves towards offering its services at commercial rates-which is under investigation firms would rapidly recoup their money many times over if these figures were repeated.
Not for everyone Parkes has one word of warning however: not only is the simulator clearly never going to replace on-road training, it is also something some people will never respond to. "It's a very small number,"says Parkes,"but there are some people who have a physiological reaction to simulators in the same way that some have claustrophobia or some get motion sickness. The Army has the same problem some people cannot be trained this way."
For those who can, however, TruckSim's contribution to the industry is far from over. TRL is now looking at configuring the simulator to replicate a vehicle with a high centre of gravity so that it can train drivers to avoid rollovers and to understand trailer stability.
"The one thing we can't do at the moment is find data on safety," says Parkes. "We will have to track drivers for three or four years to see an improvement in their accident histories-you can't do that with a snapshot approach." •