Reduce excessive idling and see the fuel consumption benefits

Understanding the real cost of idling is essential to protecting your vehicles and your fleet budget.

When a vehicle is idling, it translates into unnecessary fuel costs; leads to increased maintenance costs and may even reduce engine life.

Studies also show that idling vehicles emit large amounts of NOx and CO2, with local government bodies already passing anti-idling policies to counter the negative impact these emissions have on the environment and public health.

It is true that drivers are focused on their work and in large part, these idle times are due to the daily activity of the fleet:
 

• queueing in traffic
• loading and unloading goods
• processing paperwork
• talking on the phone
• heat or air conditioning/warming up

At the end of the day, situations like those presented above translate into more than a few minutes with the engine idling. When this picture is expanded to the entire fleet, it is time to think about how to reduce time spent idling in an effective and intelligent way.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a typical commercial truck can waste a half-gallon of diesel fuel per hour while idling. Avoidable idling of just two hours per day squanders $780 per year per truck, based on a price of $3 per gallon. For a fleet of 10 trucks, that's $7,800 in avoidable fuel cost.
 

How to reduce fleet engine idle times

First, it's important to understand your fleet operation and verify if these circumstances apply to your fleet and specifically to which vehicles.

Keep in mind that changes can only be implemented if drivers receive training that teaches them to become aware of the negative impact that idling times have on everyone. We suggest the creation of company and fleet policies that reward the best drivers, for example with the provision of meaningful incentives.

Another important cost saving tool is your fleet management system, as it provides detailed information on the idling times of vehicles:

• Where and when idling occurs
• Identifies the drivers assigned to the vehicle in question
• What the real costs of idling are to your fleet budget

Analyzing this kind of data helps you to define strategies that allow operational efficiency to reduce/eliminate idling in your fleet.

Frotcom monitors the exact amount of fuel consumed by your fleet during idling; as well as the total idling time for each vehicle, thus meeting the needs of companies that require fuel consumption data from their vehicles or want to efficiently control how much time their vehicles spend idling.

Find out today how Frotcom can help you eliminate engine idle times.