Fuel is statistically a fleet’s #1 highest expense, especially for heavy-duty truck fleets. Especially with the rising cost of diesel. Improving fuel efficiency improves your bottom line: so how can fleets make that possible?
Start by properly maintaining your vehicle: wheel alignment, proper inflation, and balancing. Small, yet effective changes can make a big difference: decreasing the amount of your haul, adopting good driving habits, and combining trips as much as possible can increase your vehicle’s fuel efficiency. Read along as we outline what affects your fuel efficiency and how you can reduce fuel consumption.
Your fuel efficiency is how well your truck uses fuel, or, how far it can travel with a certain amount of fuel. Fuel efficiency is affected in numerous ways: by everything from your speed to the rubber your tires are built from.
Rolling resistance also plays a large role in fuel efficiency. Rolling resistance occurs whenever your tires are in motion. It is essentially the power that your vehicle needs to keep the tires rolling at a consistent speed. While rolling resistance is not avoidable, it can be minimized (by the use of low rolling resistance tires, for example).
Rolling resistance affects fuel efficiency by 4-11%!
“A 10% reduction in rolling resistance would improve fuel economy approximately 3% for light- and heavy-duty vehicles.” — U.S. Department of Energy, afdc.energy.gov
There are certain aspects of fuel consumption that are unavoidable. For example, there’s not much you can do about heavy traffic that consumes your fuel while you’re idling. However, there are measures that fleet owners/operators can take to make improvements.
Choose Low Rolling Resistance Tires. About 13% of each gallon of fuel consumed goes solely to overcoming rolling resistance, and the less rolling resistance you have to overcome, the less fuel you will use. Save on fuel by equipping your trucks with low rolling resistance tires, starting with your trailer tires. Tires in all positions affect your fuel efficiency, but trailer tires take the lead with a 40-50% contribution to fuel economy.
Explore our Low Rolling Resistance tread designs.
Maintain Adequate Inflation Levels. Setting a standardized tire pressure for your fleet will depend on the speed, ambient temperature, and of course the load of your fleet vehicles. Many opt for a standard of 100 psi, but lower pressures around 80 psi may actually be more effective in some cases. In any case, watch out for both severe over- and underinflation, as they both cause uneven wear (and premature scrapping) and cause your fuel efficiency to take a hit. Unsure what to set your air pressure at? Contact the pros at Wonderland Tire and we can help!
Reduce Uneven Wear. Tire maintenance is key to reducing uneven wear—and fuel consumption. Regular services like balancing, alignments, and inflation checks will help in this area.
Balancing rids your tires of the vibration that takes away from your truck propelling forward. Getting regular balances also keeps your tires on the road longer with more even treadwear.
Proper Inflation ensures that your tires do not suffer from uneven inner or outer wear. Over-inflation causes the tire to run on the center of the tread, and causes more wear than the tread on the edges. In any case, improper inflation results in uneven wear, which affects how your tires work together on the road and therefore how you use fuel.
Alignments improve uneven wear and will alleviate strain on the engine. Proper alignment ensures wheels are cohesively working together allowing for improved fuel efficiency. How much can fleets save with regular alignments? The average savings is $4,083 per truck and trailer, between fuel and tires. Well worth having an alignment performed! View the data below which we use to create custom fleet quotes and provide our commercial customers with the best value.
Download Fleet Savings Sheet Here
As mentioned before, your tires are a key player in your fuel efficiency. For this reason, proper tire maintenance should be performed regularly: including pressure, balancing, alignment, and overall inspections of the state and safety of your tires.
Other vehicle maintenance includes:
Checking Up Under the Hood. Fuel efficiency depends on how well your engine is performing, and maintaining the proper fluid levels. Use the recommended grade of motor oil recommended by your vehicle manufacturer and keep oil changes regular for best results.
Exhaust maintenance and repairs will improve your engine’s power and efficiency. If you’re noticing that your fleet vehicles aren’t getting the mileage they used to, the exhaust systems may be at fault. Other indicators that repairs or replacement are needed include loud engine noises while operating, rattling, loss of engine power, and gas smells. These signs point to an exhaust leak that should be repaired and issues that require a closer look at your exhaust system as a whole.
Changing your air filter improves your MPG by almost 10%. You should be changing your air filter and replacing it at least once a year or more to improve fuel efficiency.
Implementing certain driving techniques across your whole fleet is another way to maximize your efficiency. Aggressive driving habits have a negative effect on your vehicle and its tires. For example, quickly accelerating the vehicle creates bald patches on the center of the tread. Also, quick maneuvering and cornering results in excessive wear on the edges of the tires. These tire wear issues will impact your fuel efficiency.
Here are some tips to improve fuel efficiency and increase the lifespan of your tires.
Monitor and maintain your speed to stay at the speed limit. The higher you go above this limit, the more fuel your truck uses to overcome rolling resistance and you will see an increase in fuel consumption.
Refrain from unnecessary idling. While you might not be able to avoid heavy traffic, do everything you can to not idle when it is preventable.
Decrease the vehicle’s load size if and when possible. The heavier your truck is, the more energy it takes to get moving (increased rolling resistance). This contributes to an increase in fuel consumption.
Plan truck routes and combine them accordingly.
Planning and optimizing your routes improves your fuel efficiency by potentially reducing your miles driven, idling time, stops, and fleet vehicles used. In all of these ways, you cut down on fuel consumption and maximize on your dollars spent.
Please click anywhere to continue browsing our site.