Drivers discover the benefits of `Switch it off’
A pilot carried out in Warwickshire to encourage the drivers of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) not to leave their engines ticking over on idle has been hailed a huge success.
Last year the vehicle freight watchdog Freight Best Practice announced its support for Warwickshire County Council’s `Switch it off’ campaign.
Freight Best Practice is funded by the Department for Transport and managed by Faber Maunsell Ltd to promote efficiency within freight operations in England.
And to demonstrate both the financial and environmental impact of not leaving engines idling the organisation arranged for a Warwickshire firm to take part in a pilot project.
Dr Jacky Lawrence, Warwickshire County Council’s Strategic Energy Manager, said: “The truck anti-idling campaign ran for four weeks and I’m delighted with the results.
“It’s been great to work so closely with Freight Best Practice on this project as a part of our Switch it off campaign, and hopefully the results will help them spread the message further.”
The aim of the pilot with the Warwickshire company was to assess the impact on fleet fuel consumption of an anti-idling awareness campaign for drivers, using presentations, leaflets, posters and stickers to highlight the financial and environmental impact of excessive and unnecessary truck engine idling.
Fuel consumption figures for 49 44-tonne articulated vehicles were monitored for the two weeks prior to the campaign and for the two weeks immediately following the campaign. Weekly mpg (miles per gallon) figures for each vehicle were provided by an operator in Warwickshire and averaged for the two weeks prior and for the two weeks following the campaign. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ averages for each vehicle were then compared to calculate percentage increases or decreases in mpg.
All the company’s 49 staff drivers and some of the company’s 50 regular agency drivers received a presentation by a senior driver trainer, supported with promotional campaign material.
Below are headline findings for the 49 vehicles monitored before and after the anti-idling campaign was launched:
· 76% of the operators fleet (37 vehicles) reported an improvement in mpg during the two weeks following the anti idling briefing
· 17 out of the 49 HGVs reported an improvement in mpg of up to 5%. This represented 35% of the fleet
· 10 HGVs had recorded mpg improvements of between 5% and 10% (20% of the fleet)
· 56% of the fleet (27 vehicles) reported improvements in fuel consumption of up to 10%
· 20% of the fleet (10 vehicles) recorded mpg improvements greater than 10%.
Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “We’re not talking about companies saving a few pence here. It’s about tens of thousands of pounds.
“On average a goods vehicle in the UK does 80,000 miles per annum. If it has an average of 8 mpg, then it uses 10,000 gallons of diesel (45,400 litres). At £0.80 per litre, that equates to £36,320 per annum. If mpg was to be improved by roughly 10% to 8.8mpg, then it uses 9,090 gallons (41,270 litres). Again, at £0.80 per litre, that equates to a fuel spend of £33,016. Total financial saving of over £3,300 through 10% improvement in mpg.
“The Switch it off campaign has proved to be extremely popular and effective in getting people not to leave electrical items on stand by in their homes, and now I hope to see this study have a real impact, not just in Warwickshire, but nationally.”
On tick-over a typical heavy-duty truck engine consumes fuel at the rate of about two litres per hour. That equates to roughly £1.60 and more than 5kgs of carbon dioxide emitted per hour.
There are 8,800 HGVs licensed in Warwickshire (DfT Vehicle Licensing Statistics 2004) and if each of these were to reduce their idling by just an hour per week, that would see two litres of diesel saved per vehicle per week, totalling 17,600 litres and just over 47 tonnes of CO2 saved weekly.
Over a year that’s 915,200 litres and more than 2,400 tonnes of CO2 – and that’s just for Warwickshire.
Freight Best Practice offers free information and advice for the freight industry covering topics such as saving fuel, developing skills, equipment and system, operational efficiency and performance management.
CO2 is the gas which is directly linked to the causes of climate change and Warwickshire County Council signed up to the Warwickshire Climate Change Strategy in July of last year, pledging to cut the amounts of CO2 being emitted in the county.
For more information on taking steps to `Switch it off’ visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/switchitoff or call the energy advice hotline on 0800 512012.