Fuel Cards & Good Driving Habits Reduce Fuel Costs

There has been a lot of publicity over the savings that the introduction of fuel cards can make to your business. However, it is not as well known that driver training and education can have as much effect on your overheads as fuel cards but at the same time improve your driver’s safety.

‘Bad’ driving habits such as speeding, leaving the engine idling and excessive braking (usually used if the driver has been speeding and has not got enough reaction time to break gently) use more fuel than ‘good’ driving habits, such as driving within the speed limit. Perhaps not surprisingly, research has found that driver’s that display more of the negative driving habits have far higher incidences of road traffic accidents. This knowledge is a compelling motivating factor for businesses to introduce employee road safety training and vehicle fuel efficiency education, especially coupled with the news that driving a company vehicle accounts for approximately 50% of all work related injuries or fatalities.

Changing gears a lot can also use an unnecessary amount of fuel. The Drivers Instructors Association recommends that driver’s change gears downwards once for an impending bend, roundabout or junction, once they have reached a suitable speed. The timing of gear changes is very important and it is advised that a gear is only changed when a driver will not have to use the accelerator to maintain their speed in the next gear. Changing gear too soon, even to fifth gear, can waste fuel and increase your company’s overheads each month.

There are some vehicle related myths that, if countered, could make small but significant improvements to the fuel used by your drivers. For example, engines in modern cars do not need to be warmed up on cold days before you can drive the vehicle. In fact, the engine will work at its optimum temperature much more quickly when being driven, rather than being stationary. Introducing driver training can help to counteract these instances of excessive idling. Once drivers have passed their test they tend to relax their driving style and this is when bad habits can be formed. Company motivated employees will really try to improve their driver behaviour if they are told that their actions could be wasting their company money. However, other drivers may need it emphasised to them that they could save money out of their own pockets by adopting the driving habits encouraged in the training to their own vehicles.

Fuel efficiency is strongly linked to Carbon Monoxide emissions, and more and more people are ‘signing up’ to becoming more environmentally responsible, so this could be another motivating factor for your company drivers to ‘clean up their act’, if you excuse the pun. With statistics suggesting that good driving behaviours have the ability to reduce your fleet’s emissions by up to 30%, investing in driver training in this area would enhance your companies ‘green’ credentials.

Persuading employees to trade in their inefficient cars for more fuel efficient ones, or even take part in trial for electric or hybrid cars may be difficult without incentives. Therefore, your company could offer a cash bonus if your employees swaps vehicles. On the other hand, employees can be penalised or monitored if they exceed pre agreed miles per gallon readings regularly or have a high monthly fuel expenditure compared to other employees with similar amounts of mileage. This could become a key performance indicator in periodic reviews. Some companies have taken this further by producing league tables of their most efficient driver’s with incentives offered to the most fuel efficient employees.

May fleet managers ask us ‘how can we best monitor’ driving behaviour, and ensure that the mileage being claimed for on expenses is accurate?’ Our answer is simple; install a vehicle tracking system.