What Will You Do When Gas Is $4 A Gallon? How To Reduce Fuel Costs With Gps Fleet Tracking


by Keith Tench - Date: 2007-05-09 - Word Count: 385 Share This!

For a fleet of 25 vehicles, idling time reduced by only 15 minutes per day can result in fuel savings of 562.5 gallons at a cost of about $1,800 per year at current gas prices.

It is estimated that 1.2 billion gallons of fuel are consumed nationally from diesel engine idling. Based on today's gas prices, this means almost $4 billion per year in wasted fuel!

DIESEL ENGINE IDLING: A Waste to Your Bottom Line

What is idling?

It means running your fleet engines for extended periods of time at low speeds…And it causes more wear on internal parts than running the engine at normal speeds!

Additional facts you should know:

Just 60 minutes of idling time is equal to 80 to 120 minutes of driving time.

Excessive idling can waste up to 800 gallons of fuel each year.

Today's truck and engine manufacturers often recommend a warm-up time of less than five minutes.

Idling for more than ten seconds uses more fuel than restarting the engine.

Equipment such as flashing lights or radio can generally be operated for up to an hour without the engine running.

For a fleet of 25 vehicles, idling time reduced by only 15 minutes per day can result in fuel savings of 562.5 gallons at a cost of about $1,600 per year. If you reduce idling time by 60 minutes, it would result in a fuel savings of 2,250 gallons at a cost of over $6,000 per year!

Improve Fleet Maintenance Costs

Another negative consequence of idling is excessive engine wear - a truck idling for one hour suffers engine wear equal to about seven miles of driving. The American Trucking Association states that one hour of idling per day for one year results in the equivalent of 64,000 miles in wear and tear on your fleet vehicles.

Idling is only considered reasonable and necessary under the following conditions:

Idling during sleeping or resting in a sleeper booth.

Idling during traffic congestion.

Testing, servicing, or diagnostic purposes.

When operating defrosters, heaters, air conditioners, or other equipment to prevent a safety or health emergency.

Engine idling impacts more than just your bottom line!

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), health problems associated with vehicle idling exhaust are premature mortality, bronchitis, respiratory symptoms, sudden bronchial constriction, pneumonia and influenza…all of which can lead to work loss days. And exhaust from idling produces gaseous emissions, creating numerous environmental concerns.

Related Tags: gps fleet tracking, fleet management gps tracking, reduce fleet fuel costs

Our GPS Fleet Tracking Program can help you reduce idle time and save on rising gas prices. And, at $4/gallon, you'll save $2,250! Universal Tracking Solutions offers one of the only real-time fleet management GPS tracking systems on the market. Tracking devices installed in your fleet will allow monitoring of fuel consumption through Individual Idle Alerts and Individual Engine Run-time reporting. For a FREE QUOTE, call us toll-free at 1-877-279-8877 or contact us at www.GPSYourFleet.com

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