The tricks that helped cut fuel costs
Rising diesel prices spurred WH Malcolm, a haulage firm in Scotland with a fleet of 500 trucks, to review its fuel consumption situation. Here is the story of how the company succeeded in cutting its fuel consumption by 12 per cent.
DRIVER TRAINING FROM VOLVO TRUCKS
It was in 2006 that the management of WH Malcolm decided to do something about rising fuel costs. The company considered several different alternatives and realised that driver training was the most efficient tool.
Volvo is WH Malcolm’s first choice so Steve Sugden, Fleet Engineer, turned to Volvo Trucks for help in training the company’s drivers. The first step was to equip 20 trucks with Volvo Dynafleet Operate at the same time as their drivers were given training in economical driving by Volvo instructors.
The results were immediate. Fuel consumption dropped but as soon as the trial period came to an end, the drivers returned to their old driving habits. Something more was obviously needed.
MOTIVATION FOR CONTINUING
“The mistake we made when we completed the first period of driver training was that we did not continue to monitor our drivers’ individual performance,” explains Steve Sugden.
“My belief is that what we can measure we can also influence, and that approach formed the basis for our continued work.”
Reports that measured the drivers’ performance were regularly posted on the company’s notice-board for everyone to see. Initially there were some drivers who felt fingers were being pointed at them, that someone had basically put a spy in their trucks.
“But after they had completed their training and understood why we were doing this, these feelings were instead replaced by pride and increased professionalism. What is more, it‘s become something of a competition which everybody wants to win.”
TRAINED BY IN-HOUSE DRIVER COACHES
WH Malcolm continued to offer training in economical driving. The difference compared with the first time was that the company now let Volvo Warwick train some of the haulage firm’s own drivers as in-house driver coaches. They returned and trained the rest of the company’s drivers.
On the other hand, WH Malcolm chose not to give their drivers any financial inducements to drive more economically.
“Our approach is that we pay a good wage for our drivers to work professionally, and this includes efficient driving, irrespective of whether they receive bonuses or not.”
DYNAFLEET IS A PRECONDITION FOR EVALUATION
The precondition for being able to evaluate the results is still Volvo’s Dynafleet tool.
“Dynafleet means we can in a simple way monitor each driver’s individual performance within several areas and thus immediately see where we need to invest more energy for continued reductions in fuel consumption.”
And there has certainly been a reduction. Previously, each truck returned an average of 7.5 miles per gallon (about 2.65 km/litre), whereas today they return 8.5 mpg (about 3 km/litre), an improvement of 12 per cent. All told, this has given the company considerable savings per truck and year, something that has made a significant improvement to the company’s profits.
“What is more, we have become much more efficient, so we will definitely continue to use this tool.” ■