More Gas Saving Tips
Here’s another article on how to improve fuel economy, lifted from the Yahoo-Finance homepage, where I go every day to see how much money I’m losing in the stock market. Pretty much your standard fare, although if you’re seeing it for the first time, there’s good information in there.
“Here are six ways drivers typically waste gas every on every trip:
1. Racing away from green lights
When the light turns green, you don’t have to take off as quickly as possible. That pedal under your right foot is called the “gas pedal” for a good reason. The more you press down on it, the more gas you’re pumping into the engine.
Press lightly on the gas pedal, and you’ll still accelerate, and you’ll still get where you’re going. You might be surprised at how little pressure it takes to get your car up to speed in a reasonable time.
2. Racing up to red lights
When you’re driving down the street, and you see a light red light or stop sign up ahead, you should lay off the gas sooner rather than later.
There’s no point in keeping your foot on the gas until just before you reach the intersection. Let off the pedal sooner and give your engine a rest as you coast to the stop while braking gently. As an added benefit, your brake pads will last longer, too.
By themselves, these first two tips can improve your fuel economy around town by as much as 35 percent, according to tests conducted by automotive information Web site Edmunds.com.
3. Confusing the highway with a speedway
Even if it doesn’t involve hard acceleration, speeding wastes gas. The faster you go, the more air your vehicle has to push out of the way. It’s like moving your hand through water. The faster you try to move your hand, the harder the water pushes back.
In tests by Consumer Reports, going 75 instead of 65 miles per hour reduced fuel economy by between 3 and 5 miles per gallon, depending on the vehicle.
4. Bumper-buzzing
Tailgating is a bad move for many reasons. First of all, it’s unsafe. You reduce your ability to react if the car in front of you slows or stops. It also means you have to pay ultra-close attention to that car which reduces your ability to scan for other hazards ahead of you and to the sides.
And tailgating wastes gas. Every time the driver ahead taps his brakes, you have to slow down even more than he did. (That’s because you can’t react immediately so you have to slow even more because you’re slowing down later.) Then you accelerate again to get back up to speed and resume your bumper-buzzing routine.
Hang back and you’ll be safer – plus you’ll be able to drive more smoothly and use less fuel. A good rule of thumb is to allow two seconds of space between your car and the one ahead. You can figure that out by counting off two seconds after the car in front of you passes an obvious landmark like an overpass.
5. Driving standing still
You’ve probably heard that it takes more gas to restart a car than to let it run. Maybe that used to be true, but it isn’t anymore. With modern fuel-injection engines, it takes very little extra gas to restart a car once it’s warmed up.
Idling, meanwhile, burns about a half-mile worth of gas every minute, according to the California Energy Commission. That’s why hybrid cars shut down their gasoline engines whenever they stop, even for a moment.
Now you don’t want to shut your engine down for every little stop in your regular, non-hybrid car – it’s not designed for that – but if you’re waiting for someone to run in and out of a convenience store, turn off the engine.
And don’t go through the drive-through at fast food restaurants. You’re already paying enough for the oil in those chicken nuggets.
Bonus tip: Don’t idle your engine to let it warm up before driving. It does your engine no good and it wastes gas. Instead, start driving right away, but drive gently until the engine is warm.
6. Short hops
For really short trips, take advantage of the opportunity to get some exercise. Try walking to the store instead of driving. You can save gas and burn a few calories instead.
If you can’t hoof it, save up your errands. A lot of short hops that let the engine cool down at home between trips can use twice as much gas as starting the car once and making a big sweep to all your stops, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Go to your farthest destination first so your engine has a chance to reach its optimal operating temperature. Then make your other stops on the way back. With the engine warmed up, the car will restart easily and run efficiently all the way home.”
More Positive Driver Information
Did I mention you have to shut down a positive driver immediately? It seems like I just said that, but I recently ran into another instance where this has happened. When one of your drivers flunks a random test, you must immediately find him after being notified by the MRO of the failure. It doesn’t matter if he’s across town, or across the country, you must make that driver park the truck. You can’t let him drive back to yard, you need to take all practical steps to relieve that driver from duty.
When an audit takes place, you can’t hide the positive test, either. DOT will go to your MRO, and get a list of all test results in the past 12-18 months. They will investigate all positives which took place on a random test. They will determine the exact time the MRO notified you of the positive test. If the driver drove beyond that time, you are liable for a penalty of several thousands of dollars.
Secretary of Transportation’s Blog
Secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters, has recently unveiled a new blog. I’m not sure if there will be anything interesting on there….. I suppose anything is possible. Rest assured: the blog is 1) being written by some low-level flunky, 2) being written by lawyers, or 3) being written by Peters, and then re-written by the agency lawyers. Nevertheless, anything you get out of the super-secretive DOT is a bonus, so check it, see what they have to offer.
Tips on Better Fuel Economy
High gas prices are simply crushing everybody’s standard of living. Everything costs more…. food, entertainment, housing, everything.
I found an old article I wrote 2 years ago about how to save money on fuel. I edited it to make it current (I changed “$3 gas will soon be here” to “$5 will soon be here”.) What do I think will happen with fuel? I don’t know. My gut tells me eventually gas will plateau, and recede, probably back into the $2.50 – 3.00 range. But right now, there just seems like there is no end in sight. One idea I had was to invest in oil. My broker told me about a fund called “USO”, which pretty much moves in lockstep with the price of oil. So if I put money into that, I am pretty much limiting the pain if gas keeps going up. Lose at the pump, win in the stock market. Anyway, here are some tips:
1. Stay on the highway. Stop and go driving in town uses at least 50% more fuel compared to the same number of miles driven at steady highway speeds.
2. Drive the speed limit. It may take a little longer to get there, but you use 10% to 30% more fuel if you drive 75, instead of 60. The faster your trucks drive, the more fuel they waste. An old rule of thumb says that you lose 0.1 miles per gallon for each mile per hour you drive over 55.
3. Older equipment uses more fuel. Older tractors generally do not have the aerodynamics that later model tractors do. In addition, newer trucks have electronic engines, both of which enable the later model trucks to achieve better 2fuel economy than the old mechanical engines.
4. Avoid using the engine fan when possible. This uses fuel; if possible, use ram air to cool the radiator.
5. Tires. Rib-style tires give you less traction, but they also have less resistance to the road, as compared with the big lug-style tires. Reduced road resistance equals greater fuel economy. Proper tire inflation also reduces road resistance. Under-inflated tires cause more heat and resistance with the road, burning more fuel.
6. Avoid idling whenever possible. The engine is running, fuel is being burned, but you’re not going anywhere! An idling truck will burn around a gallon of fuel per hour.
7. Driver skills. A driver who is paying attention can save you money on reduced fuel costs. Drivers who accelerate and brake gently will always get better fuel mileage than those who start and stop suddenly. Drivers who drive at or near the speed limit will use less fuel than those that speed, not to mention be less likely to get speeding tickets, and have accidents. Many over-the-road trucking companies offer fuel economy bonuses to their drivers.
8. Terrain. Driving in flat areas takes less fuel than in rolling or mountainous terrain.
9. Use the Internet to find where the best fuel prices are. Many people know in advance what their routes are going to be. You can plan how you are going to fuel your trucks (or cars) in advance as well. Not all truckstops or gas stations are created equal. Also, some states have cheaper fuel than others. There are websites out there, which will tell you where the cheapest fuel is. I use www.gasbuddy.com. For example, gasbuddy tells me that there is a station 5 miles away selling unleaded $0.10 cheaper than the station across the street from my house. While that’s only $2.00 savings if I buy 20 gallons, what if I was buying 200 gallons of diesel? That’s $20.
The high fuel prices now make it important to pay attention to how your trucks are being driven, and where you are getting fuel. Your bottom line depends on it!
