Five ways you can get better fuel mileage, starting right now…
Have you ever been driving along without a care in the world, then you glance down at the fuel gauge and notice that the needle is below the empty mark? You’ve forgotten to fill-up, and you are not sure how much gas is left in the tank… you know where the next gas station is, but it’s not very close…
You lift your foot off the gas pedal a little, slow to a more gingerly pace, coast up to stop lights just hoping that it will turn green before you have to stop, then you slowly accelerate trying to get every last quarter-mile from those last few quarts of gas sloshing around at the bottom of your tank.
Congratulations! You just became an instant eco-driver, no special training required.
But you don’t have to be motivated by the anxiety of being stranded at the side of the road in order to improve your fuel mileage considerably, and as often as you wanted to. The same “techniques” that you instinctively understood would help you with a near-empty fuel tank can also help you go much further on every gallon of gasoline you buy.
Here are the top five techniques that are proven to work on every vehicle.
- Accelerate Gradually – You don’t need to hold up traffic or drive like you left your coffee on the roof. Just accelerate more gradually than normal. Be the slowest off the line, and relax knowing that you are going to get to the next stoplight in about the same amount of time as everyone else.
- Leave Your Aggression Curbside – We’ve all done this. You are in a rush, you didn’t leave early enough to give yourself enough time to account for traffic, and traffic has been slow. You are tailgating the knucklehead in front of you hoping that he’ll move out of your way. The first chance you get you dart over to the fast lane and “make up time” with a little extra lead in your foot. You may think you’re making time, but studies show that drivers who time lights and traffic patterns arrive at their destinations sooner than drivers who drive aggressively. Relax, leave a few minutes early, stop jockeying for “position” with the cars around you, and you’ll find you arrive on time, in a better mood, and with more gas left in the tank.
- Avoid Stopping – Don’t try to tell Officer Friendly that you were saving gas by rolling through stop signs, they can’t be avoided. But the proper timing of lights and traffic patterns like smoothly merging into traffic can go a long way to helping you maintain your momentum. Any amount of momentum you can keep means less work needed to re-accelerate. Avoiding having to start from a total stop will save fuel every time. This takes a little bit of practice to get right, but with a little effort you’ll be negotiating traffic like a pro.
- Loose the Need For Speed – It’s simple physics. The drag on your vehicle increases with speed. The more drag, the more work your engine needs to do to maintain or increase that speed. Work = Fuel. Sure your speedometer on your car goes all the way up to 150 MPH, and the traffic on most major highways zips along above the posted speed limit, but neither is an excuse for not slowing things down a bit if you want to save money on fuel. Stay out of the way of all those filthy rich people who have money to burn, move over to the slow lane, and enjoy the warm feeling of giving “big oil” the bird as you continue to drive to your destination – on your terms.
- No Excessive Idling – This one is a little different, and not my favorite. I don’t recommend turning your vehicle off at stop lights or when you are engaged in stop and go traffic, unless it’s clear that you are in a backup that isn’t going to be moving for many minutes on end. Even then, re-starting a car with a hot battery and hot starter can sometimes be iffy (especially in older cars). The last place you want to be stranded is in the middle of a backup. But there are times when idling is done excessively, more often out of laziness or poor planning. Idling gets exactly zero miles per gallon. Idling in a drive-thru lane is costing you money. You might want to park and walk inside instead. Idling while you eat lunch and listen to the radio is another way to waste gas. Idling to “warm up” your car is a waste, unless it’s winter, and you want the heat to work.
There you have it – five top ways to improve your fuel economy. Most drivers can easily improve 10%, some may get up to 25% or more, depending on how terrible their driving habits were to start with. You can track your progress for free on http://www.fuelclinic.com and see for yourself.
There are 15 more eco-driving tips online at: http://www.fuelclinic.com/eco-driving-tips/
And don’t let the “eco” turn you off, manly-men can eco-drive too!
POLL: What will $5 per gallon gasoline mean to you?
All signs are pointing to a continued run on fuel costs here in the US, with many experts predicting $5.00+ per gallon prices common by mid-summer. This is despite a continuing slump in crude oil demand here in the US – now at a 12-year low. This paradox between low demand and high prices has many wondering what’s really happening in the market, and where will it go from here.
Some industry advisors blame commodity speculators for the gouging at the pump, while others say a booming Chinese market and weakening dollar are to blame for near-record pump prices. Still others claim it’s the work of the Obama Administration to raise energy costs in order to make alternative sources of energy competitive in price. (After all he did promise to do just that during his campaign.)
Regardless of the cause, the reality to commuters and business owners is a painful reminder of the summer of 2008 when rocketing energy prices caused a wide ripple effect on prices in nearly every sector of the economy. Many businesses were in a panic about paying surging fuel costs while keeping prices low and people employed. Consumers felt it everywhere, but especially at the pump with painful total sale costs per tank of gas.
So what will $5 per gallon gasoline mean to you?
Will you choose to car-pool, buy a more efficient car, walk or bike to work (where possible), take fewer trips, buy gasoline on discount-days, adopt eco-driving habits, or cut-back in other areas of spending to afford your normal driving habits?
Gas Prices Approaching $5 at the same time Demand for Crude Oil at 12-Year Low
Can anyone explain to me how this system works. We are seeing near-record costs for gasoline at the same time demand for crude oil is at an all-time low.
…”Imports fell 1.7 percent to $210.9 billion. A big reason for the decline was that demand for crude oil fell to a 12-year low, which offset higher prices.”… (Source: Forbes)
The EIA indicates that higher crude oil prices are the cause of the higher gasoline prices, not additional taxes or increases in refining.
Graphic Source: EIA
UPDATED – POLL: What will $5 per gallon gasoline mean to you?
Examining the effects of an eco-driving system on driver distraction
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane Australia is seeking participants for a study on potential effects of an eco-driving system on driver dsitraction.
One of the possible causes of driver distraction is in-vehicle driver assistant systems such as eco-driving systems. Eco-driving systems send messages to drivers so that driving performance can be improved in terms of fuel efficiency.
The purpose of this research is to better understand driver distraction caused by in-vehicle systems, in particular, eco-driving systems. This project may ultimately assist in decreasing the number of road fatalities.
The driving component of the study will be conducted in the CARRS-Q Advanced Driving Simulator.
One of the key aspects of the FuelClinic Methodology for eco-driving (using CarChip) is that a simple audible feedback tone is used to remind the driver of previously trained behavior without requiring them to look at a display. There are many gadgets with visual feedback that one can assume might prove to be a distraction for drivers, and this study may help establish if this is in fact true or not.
A Recent Study from IIHS Reveals Underride Crash Guards Installed on Most Trucks are Not Strong Enough
The Institute has studied the underride crash problem for more than 30 years, including mid-1970s crash tests demonstrating how then-current guards were ineffective in preventing underride (see Status Report, March 29, 1977; on the web at iihs.org). Federal rules put in place in 1953 required interstate carriers to have rear underride guards meeting speci? cations for ground clearance, setback, and width, but not strength, energy absorption, or attachment methods.
The National Highway Safety Bureau, predecessor to the National Highway Traf? c Safety Administration (NHTSA), indicated in 1967 that it would develop a new standard, but the agency abandoned the effort in 1971 even though the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that energy-absorbing underride and override barriers on trucks, trailers, and buses be required. In 1977 the Institute demonstrated that a 30 mph crash of a Chevrolet Chevette into a tractor-trailer with a rear guard meeting the US rule resulted in severe damage to the car’s occupant compartment.
The Institute petitioned NHTSA for a new standard. It took the agency nearly 20 years to publish new rules. The upgrade took effect in 1998 and resulted in lower and wider underride guards under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 224. Another standard, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 223, introduced quasi-static test requirements specifying minimum levels of strength and energy absorption (see Status Report, March 2, 1996). The standards cover new trailers but exempt many types of heavy trucks used in everyday commerce including straight trucks, wheels-back trucks, and special purpose trucks. The result is that the majority of trucks on the road aren’t subject to underride rules.
Meanwhile, the passenger vehicle ?eet has changed dramatically since NHTSA wrote the standards. Regulators then were concerned that “overly rigid guards could result in passenger compartment forces that would increase the risk of occupant injuries even in the absence of underride.” The agency also recognized the need for balancing energy absorption with guard strength because “the more the guard yields, the farther the colliding vehicle travels and the greater likelihood of passenger compartment intrusion.”
The Institute’s latest analysis indicates that guards too weak to adequately mitigate underride are a bigger problem than overly stiff guards.
Understanding Negligent Entrustment Issues and Your Company-Owned Fleet
Orlando, FL – BrightFleet.com, the premiere hazard perception evaluation and risk mitigation website, has published a white paper “Understanding Negligent Entrustment Issues and Your Company-Owned Fleet,” describing the liability that lies in entrusting employees to drive company vehicles and ways in which fleet managers can work to mitigate the threat of exposure to their company’s financial health and reputation.
The average fleet driver will travel our nations highways at eight to twelve thousand miles more a year than the rest of us, making them more likely to cause, or be involved in, a motor vehicle accident. Companies and their owners who think they’re hiring a well trained, top quality driver, simply by looking at his or her resume, may be held accountable in the event their driver causes an accident that could have been prevented.
“Understanding Negligent Entrustment Issues and Your Company-Owned Fleet” is intended to assist fleet and risk managers and CFOs in understanding the relationship between company and driver and ways in which they can protect their assets – both financial and human.
Read “Understanding Negligent Entrustment Issues and Your Company-Owned Fleet” by clicking here: http://www.brightfleet.com/whitepapers/understanding-negligent-entrustment-issues
Interview requests and live product demonstrations of the BrightFleet.com Hazard Prevention and Evaluation software can be requested by contacting Kathy Kniss, kathy@k2prgroup.com, (626) 429-2723.
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