The American Lung Association has published its Annual Report on the State of the Air. Why is this important on a Fleet Truck Tracking Blog? One of the biggest impacts our industry can make to better the air quality, is to cut hydrocarbon emissions. While not all of us can afford to implement new equipment, we can all work to manage the amount of fuel we burn unnecessarily.
By reducing idling, we immediately reduce fuel emissions. What a great thing that we can save money, reduce wear-and-tear on our equipment and help the environment - all at the same time.
To learn more about how your specific area is doing, see the State of the Air Report here: American Lung Association: State of the Air
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
You wanna save 8% on your monthly fuel cost? (On-Track Newsletter, April 02, 2012)
(Psst! Hey, you! Yeah, you. C'mere...)
Last Friday on my way home from work, I made the mistake of stopping at the local quick-fill to
get gas. I say "mistake" because that also happened to be the drawing-day for the Giga-gillions lottery. However, as I was filling the Suburban and passing the time by swearing, I got to thinking about starting a "fuel-lottery." Buy a ticket; win a chance at lower fuel costs. The more I thought about it, I came to realize that we pretty much already had something like that.
So, what am I talking about? (I seem to get that question, a lot.)
If there were a lottery, and you were fairly certain to trim 8% off your monthly fuel cost, would you buy a ticket?
You look skeptical. I suspect that those of us in the industry have caused some of it. When a typical business owner hears/reads/smells the "GPS Carnival Sideshow Hawker" screaming: "Come and see the Great Idle Reduction! Just one thin Ulysses - two Jacksons and a Hamilton! Hurry while it's still here!," they tend to put one hand on their wallet and walk past just a little bit faster.
(Side note: This is not about idling per se, by the way, but interestingly, excessive idling wasn't much recognized as a problem until location and telematics systems were installed and started showing how much time was spent. And yet many of these original measurements were (and still are) inflated by the systems not being able to differentiate between the engine actually running or the key being in the "On" or "Accessory" position. So, the numbers have tended to be inflated and have a degree of uncertainty in them. Why shouldn't people be skeptical?)
Last Friday on my way home from work, I made the mistake of stopping at the local quick-fill to get gas. I say "mistake" because that also happened to be the drawing-day for the Giga-gillions lottery. However, as I was filling the Suburban and passing the time by swearing, I got to thinking about starting a "fuel-lottery." Buy a ticket; win a chance at lower fuel costs. The more I thought about it, I came to realize that we pretty much already had something like that.
So, what am I talking about? (I seem to get that question, a lot.)
If there were a lottery, and you were fairly certain to trim 8% off your monthly fuel cost, would you buy a ticket?
You look skeptical. I suspect that those of us in the industry have caused some of it. When a typical business owner hears/reads/smells the "GPS Carnival Sideshow Hawker" screaming: "Come and see the Great Idle Reduction! Just one thin Ulysses - two Jacksons and a Hamilton! Hurry while it's still here!," they tend to put one hand on their wallet and walk past just a little bit faster.
(Side note: This is not about idling per se, by the way, but interestingly, excessive idling wasn't much recognized as a problem until location and telematics systems were installed and started showing how much time was spent. And yet many of these original measurements were (and still are) inflated by the systems not being able to differentiate between the engine actually running or the key being in the "On" or "Accessory" position. So, the numbers have tended to be inflated and have a degree of uncertainty in them. Why shouldn't people be skeptical?)
Monday, April 2, 2012
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| Learn more about how to cut fuel costs |
The April 2nd issue of On-Track outlines how to effectively get fuel for $3.50 per gallon or less. This article from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency outlines some of the strategies and actions you can take today, with very little investment.
U. S. EPA (www.fueleconomy.gov): Keeping Your Car In Shape
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