How to Achieve Maximum Fuel Efficiency in Commercial Vehicle
Summary
The blog discusses ways to improve fuel efficiency in commercial vehicles, which is crucial for reducing carbon emissions and saving fuel. The key methods include regular vehicle maintenance, proper route planning, avoiding aggressive driving, minimizing vehicle idling, following vehicle loading and load distribution standards, maintaining proper tire pressure, controlling truck speed, and making the truck more aerodynamic. Implementing these methods can lead to significant savings in fuel consumption and contribute to a greener economy.
With changes in climatic conditions, nations are now focusing more on a greener economy to reduce carbon emissions, searching for fuel alternatives to overcome the shortages of crude oil in the global market.
In today’s scenario most of the logistics trucks, containers, and trailers are running on diesel. In order to improve vehicle efficiency, business growth the fleet operators should focus more on increasing the fuel efficiency of the commercial vehicle.
A recent study conducted by a logistics expert team in the US market found out that, in the United States of America 70% of the logistic delivery are done using trucks. If there is an improvement in fuel efficiency by 1% — it would save 2.5 billion liters of fuel annually.
The above-mentioned case study is a classic example of how fuel efficiency improvement will lead to the nation’s economy if the same is implemented in all logistics companies across the world imagine the amount of fuel saved, business developments, nation progress, all are interrelated in one way or another.
In this article, we will discuss in detail what are the possible ways to improve fuel efficiency in the logistics business.
Ways to Improve Fleet Fuel Efficiency
1. Regular Vehicle Maintenance
In logistics fleet business vehicles are the key player along with drivers to run successful fleet operations. The fleet manager should have proper preventive maintenance schedules for his entire fleet to avoid last-minute damage and for better fuel efficiency.
Inspect the truck regularly to check for any oil leak or fuel leaks in vehicles, corrosion in any vehicle parts, and other such factors that can affect the fuel efficiency.
The vehicle wheels should be aligned properly as per the guidelines provided by the manufacturer to increase fuel efficiency. Clean the air filter properly and if there is any damage, then replace the filter. The clogged filter can affect the engine performance resulting in an increase in fuel consumption.
Periodic change of engine oil should be part of scheduled vehicle maintenance. For certain vehicles, it should be changed after 20000 KMS and for a few after 50000KMS. The vehicle driver should check the engine oil, if the color has changed then oil should be replaced for better vehicle fuel efficiency.
2. Proper Route Planning
The fleet manager should plan the route to avoid the traffic locations and check for alternative routes to reach the destination quicker also improve vehicle fuel efficiency.
For better route optimization, the fleet manager can use the best fleet management software with a GPS vehicle tracking system to track and optimize the route. Using the tracking device the fleet manager can guide the driver to avoid congested roads, this will improve the fuel efficiency where the vehicle idling is reduced and unwanted fuel consumption can be controlled with the aid of vehicle tracking technology.
3. Avoid Rash Driving
Driver’s aggressive driving is one of the reasons for fuel wastage in fleet operations. In this kind of driving, drivers use harsh braking, over speed driving, and uncontrolled acceleration will affect the vehicle performance and fuel efficiency.
In such cases, the fleet manager should train the driver properly on how to handle the vehicle and drive according to the situation for improving vehicle life span, fuel efficiency, and driver safety.
The fleet manager can use the technology to track the driver driving behavior using the fleet management software with GPS tracking system with reports like overspeeding reports, fuel mileage reports, braking pattern reports using these reports fleet manager can evaluate the driver’s performance.
4. Avoid Vehicle Idling
When the vehicle is stuck in traffic or slow-moving times, the driver should be conscious enough to engine on / off and acceleration control.
By way of switching off the vehicle on congested roads, the fuel efficiency can be increased and fuel consumption will be decreased in a considerable range.
5. Vehicle Loading as per Standards
The vehicle loading capacity varies according to the vehicle dimensions and engine capacity.
The arrangement of goods and loading the trucks properly will have an effect on vehicle maintenance, fuel efficiency, and reduction of risk factors. The majority of logistics risks occur because of improper loading and overloading of trucks.
6. Load Distribution on Truck
Proper distribution of loads on trucks should be strictly followed by the load operators on logistics trucks. The load should be evenly distributed on the vehicle, if there is an imbalance in the truck, it may lead to risking of vehicles, goods, and driver life.
If proper distribution of load is maintained, the vehicle will give better fuel efficiency and reduce the risks.
7. Tyre Pressure Maintenance
The load trucks should have properly inflated tires according to the surface, loading weight, trip distance, and destination en route.
The tyre pressure should be checked before starting the journey and at every stoppage point, the driver should check the tire pressure.
The load trucks should have properly inflated tires according to the surface, loading weight, trip distance, and destination en route.
The tyre pressure should be checked before starting the journey and at every stoppage point, the driver should check the tire pressure.
8. Maintain Your Truck Speed
Controlled driving speed of the vehicle will help in fuel consumption reduction of the fleet. When a vehicle is on the highway, the driver should turn on the cruise control, such activity should be avoided when traveling up or downhills.
The driver should drive the vehicle at a regulated speed to avoid unnecessary fuel consumption. More acceleration or inconsistent pressure on the accelerator pedal will burn more fuel.
It is always good to maintain the proper speed limit which is 80 to 90 kph with loads on trucks on highways. Proper speed maintenance on highway will reduce the fuel usage by 20% in truck fleet operation.
9. Make the Truck More Aerodynamic
Wind drag is one of the key components in reducing fuel mileage on semi-trucks. When you have cargo that’s higher than your cab, fuel consumption increases because there is limited aerodynamics. Wind drag makes your engine work harder, as it’s trying to push through the resistance of the object against the wind.
One way to minimize wind drag is to adjust the deflectors. If your rig has roof-mounted air deflectors, change them to rebound the air over the highest part of your semi-trailer. Another way to help fuel efficiency is to keep your windows up. It helps the air move over the body of the truck, reducing drag.
Source: noregon.com
10. Braking Pattern of Truck while Driving
The vehicle drivers should follow the rules and regulations laid by the organization, traffic rules, and laws of the land for safety standards. The fleet manager should train the driver on braking methods to improve the vehicle life and fuel efficiency.
The above mentioned are the basic and fundamental rules that need to be followed in fleet operations by fleet managers, drivers, technicians, and fleet operators. For better fuel monitoring, the fleet operators should install GPS fuel monitoring on their vehicles to get live fuel level, fuel mileage reports, and diesel theft alerts if happen.
