BECOMING AN EFFICIENT DRIVER

What comes to mind when you hear someone say “that person is a driver”? What is driving? For some it means possessing a driving license which legalizes one to operate a vehicle on public roads, for others it means someone employed as a driver at their place of employment, furthermore to yet some others it means being able to propel a motorized vehicle from one point to the next. Let me change the gear up a little and ask, “What is efficient driving”? Having worked with vehicles for over 20 years, and met and worked with thousands of drivers, I have a thing or two I would like to share in this area which might help someone become an efficient driver.

I must ask, what make and model vehicle do you drive? What are your expectations from driving your vehicle? What are some of the features of your vehicle that are at your disposal? I hope that, by the end of this driving '5 gear series', I would have shared some knowledge, which may be new to some, about how to combine skills with fantastic product features, to drive efficiently. This article will focus on areas like fuel efficiency, environment (carbon foot-print), tyres, driver wellness, road safety and other bonus material. My belief is that after going through this '5 gear series', you will have my version of an effective and efficient driver.

GEAR 1. FUEL EFFICIENCY

Fuel cost has become a cost that one cannot simply ignore, whether at household or at corporate level. The price of fuel has a spiral effect on pricing in the economy. In transport organizations, fuel costs account for anything between 20% and 30% of total Operational Costs, some are even higher. At your home, how much is your fuel cost in relation to the rest of your recurring costs? Later in Gear 2, I will share knowledge on the impact of fuel on our environment and what it means to you and me, our children and their children. It will be important to note that fuel consumption is a product of a variety of things such as driver behavior, speed, topography, vehicle technology and age, engine load, speed, wind drag (drivers in areas like Port Elizabeth will attest to this), tyre pressure, vehicle maintenance as well as the quality of the fuel. In this article, I shall not dwell on things that you, as a driver, have no control over. Therefore, how can you influence your vehicle’s fuel consumption?

The picture above shows one of my classes in Professional Driver Training. This was in Twangiza, DRC, near Bukavu, the border town with Rwanda on the North-Eastern side of DRC. Some of the drivers managed to improve their fuel consumption by more than 10%, hence saving this particular organisation where they were employed thousands of US Dollars in the process. “Is that really possible?” you may ask.

Let us look at some of the driving behaviors and techniques that help you achieve this kind of saving or better.

To illustrate that how you drive has a huge impact on your fuel consumption, even if your average speed remains the same, experiment this on your own by driving the same vehicle, the same distance carrying the same load. Hoping that all the other factors remain the same, you may have different fuel consumption results. How so? Let’s find out.

1. Changing gears. How you change your gears, as well as how many times you do so, has an effect on fuel consumption. Drivers who avoid changing gears unnecessarily have better fuel consumption than those who change frequently. I often hear drivers, especially truck drivers, changing 10 or more gears in a space of less than 20 meters. Back in the days, I used to think that this was a sign that a person is an excellent driver with unparalleled driving skills. Now I know better. When you change gears frequently, not only are you putting unnecessary strain on your clutch plate and the rest of your drive train, but you are also negatively affecting your fuel consumption. This will become clearer as you read on.

Tip number 1. Whenever possible, learn to change gears in clusters rather than in sequence and see if that won’t improve your fuel consumption.

2. Plan your driving. Here, I am not talking about the type of planning when you sit down and say ‘What am I going to do today?’, ‘Where am I going?’ and so on and so forth, though that helps too. I am talking about anticipation when driving, being alert, driving in sync with traffic to avoid unnecessary stopping. The lower the gear is, the heavier it is and the more it demands for fuel. So remember that every time you have to change down, stop and start all over, you are using more fuel than someone who avoids stopping. Later when I talk about efficient braking, I will also discuss braking away energy.

To illustrate the above, the following drawing, borrowed from one of the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers, shows two drivers driving two identical vehicles.

The two drivers are driving at the same speed, 50km/h, and parallel to each other on the y-axis. However, as they are approaching the traffic light, which is red, they behave differently. The driver of the red truck continues driving at 50km/h until he/she realizes that he/she is coming in too fast and the traffic light won’t change before he/she reaches, so he/she has to brake harshly. How do I know that it is harsh braking? Because his/her speed reduces from 50 to 0 in a short space of time. I will revisit the braking aspect when I deal with efficient braking later in this article. On the other hand, the driver of the green truck, plans for his/her driving. As soon as he/she notices the red traffic light, he/she leaves the accelerator, allowing for the truck to roll, using the already generated energy from the engine. The gradual loss of energy results in a gradual drop in speed. As illustrated, the traffic light changes to green before the green truck comes to a complete halt. The driver of the green truck then changes up his gears and is back to his/her cruising speed in no time. On the other hand, the other driver has to start from the lowest gear up and it takes him/her longer to get back to his driving speed.

Therefore, what was the effect of their different driving behaviors on fuel? Please take a look at the boxes at the bottom of the graph. The boxes symbolize the fuel consumption. As you engage lower gears, the boxes get bigger because lower gears demand more fuel. As you get to cruising speed, the boxes are about half in size. When the drivers let go of the accelerator, the boxes become almost flat. In this illustration, there are no prizes for guessing which driver has more bigger boxes than the other hence consumed more fuel. Not only did the driver of the green truck save more fuel, but his/her average speed was more than that of the driver of the red truck because he/she avoided stopping and, as a result, ended up being ahead of the red truck.

Tip number 2. Drive in sync with traffic and avoid stopping unnecessarily.

3. Hill driving technique. How do you drive when driving in hilly terrain? There is no easy way to say exactly how you should do on a specific hill because the steepness of the uphills and downhills vary a lot. The load on the engine also plays a big part. This is where you, as a driver, can sense when to release the accelerator pedal. Especially if you are driving the same route all the time, you will have to challenge yourself and try to ‘feel’ when it is the best situation to lift your foot off the accelerator pedal.

Here is a rule of thumb: when you are climbing a hill, accelerate to generate the needed energy. Before you reach the crest, lift your foot off the accelerator pedal and use the energy generated to finish off the hill. As you start the descent, because of gravity, your vehicle will naturally start to accelerate back to cruising speed. At this point, avoid the temptation to step on your pedal. Before reaching the bottom of the descent, start to accelerate to enter the next phase with power to climb the hill. With this technique, the climb is faster and saves some time in a fuel efficient way. Then we come to a point where we adjust the speed for the upcoming descent. . In other words, we save time going uphill ... and save fuel going downhill.

? Do you think this is rocket science?

? Do you think you can maintain this level of concentration for a whole day?

? Do we always know what's behind the next corner? Not always. But if we drive the same way continuously, oftentimes we might have some idea, all things being equal.

 Let’s see the picture below: Try this technique using a bicycle, if possible, changing the positions when you start pedaling and when you coast. You will see that the technique illustrated below will correspond with the positions in which you will use the least energy and climb the hill with ease. Experiment with your bicycle, see what happens when you start pedaling your bicycle before reaching the bottom of the hill, as opposed to rolling past it and then start to pedaling on the following ascent. That is exactly how your vehicle behaves in those situations. Well, you may enjoy the use of more energy, if you want to build muscles but remember, your vehicle doesn’t need the muscles, so go easy on the machine.

Word of caution: Never drive your vehicle with your gear lever in neutral position. This is a very dangerous practice for both you and your vehicle. I know individuals who have lost their lives and/or lost their vehicles because of this practice.

Tip number 3. Practice the hill driving technique wherever possible.

4. Coasting. When you step onto your accelerator, your motor uses fuel to generate energy necessary to propel your motorized vehicle to move. When you allow your vehicle to roll freely, utilizing the generated energy without accelerating, that is what is referred to as coasting. We know from experience, that there is big potential of saving fuel and Repairs & Maintenance bills by coasting and rolling. When you practice this technique check, for the lap time and your average speed. Practice when to let go of the accelerator pedal and use the energy already generated. The more anticipation and planning of your driving, the more rolling and coasting you can get. Please note, you do not consume fuel when coasting. Again, please DO NOT coast WHILE YOUR GEAR LEVER IS IN NEUTRAL POSITION, as is the custom of some drivers. It is a dangerous practice. “How so?” one may ask. I’ll tell you- you may miss the correct gear when you eventually decide to engage a gear. This may damage your clutch or other components of your drive train including your gearbox. Now imagine if this were to happen while you are driving up or downhill and you need that drive the most.

According to data obtained from Scania’s driver training program, if we consider a vehicle (40 tonnes) with a velocity of 100km/h, this vehicle has generated about 15,500 KJ of energy. This means that on a flat road and under perfect conditions, the vehicle will free roll almost 4km before coming to a standstill. If the same vehicle was travelling at 50 km/h it will free roll a little more than 1km. If we look at what this means in terms of fuel, say that this is done for example 10 times or more in one day, this means that the fuel saved is in litres perhaps even up to 10 liters per day, depending on the size of your engine. If we are driving, say 250 or more days of the year, then this fuel adds up to several hundreds into thousands of litres per year!!! Please apply this to your daily driving, it’s a lot of money to save.

Tip number 4. Whenever possible, practice coasting.

5. Braking Efficiently. Braking is a necessary evil when you are driving. If it was practical to drive all the way from point A to point B without braking, that would be the most desirable situation. It is good to remember that every time you are braking, you are braking away energy. You are no different from someone who puts a finger in his/her mouth soon after a delicious meal and vomits everything out before benefiting nutritionally from the meal. So how then does one brake efficiently?

When you drive, you must have your sight in the near surrounding of the truck, nothing strange with this. But at the same time, you must look ahead. I mean, as long ahead as possible. If you can detect a hazard or traffic situation that may require you stop or reduce your speed, you have a chance to avoid harsh braking or a complete stop. A start from stand still is a lot more expensive compared to a rolling start. Have you ever pushed a car before? If you have, you will agree with me that it takes a lot more energy to push a stationary car than when it starts rolling. Once it starts rolling it becomes lighter. There is a huge difference because rolling resistance is at its highest when an object is not moving. Therefore, it’s a good idea to maintain speed as much as you possibly can. To gain speed costs fuel, and you don’t want to brake it away, do you?

In this example, the driver notices a goat crossing the road far ahead, releases the accelerator and evaluates the situation. The car is rolling without consuming fuel. The driver engages the appropriate gear so that the engine does not stall. (Not neutral). The driver notices that the speed is a little too high and starts to gently apply service/foot brakes bit by bit, then increases the brake power. The goat crosses before the car comes to a complete halt and the driver releases the brakes and accelerates again.

Please note that if your vehicle is equipped with an auxiliary braking system, you must engage this first before engaging your service brakes. In the end, you may not need to apply your foot brakes at all.

This is a good way of showing how to increase the average speed, save fuel and save a lot of wear and tear.

Tip number 5. Practice efficient braking by anticipating as you drive. Remember, when you are braking, you are tossing energy away.      

6. Energy Consumers. As your motor is generating energy, there are systems, components and elements that compete for the same energy which you should be aware of. Some of these include air resistance, rolling resistance, speed, internal friction, auxiliary equipment, braking, topography etc. We have already spoken about rolling resistance and by now you should agree with me that when driving, we must avoid unnecessary stops if we are to save fuel as it costs more to start from zero. We also mentioned that brakes toss away the generated energy. Of the numerous energy consumers mentioned, I would like to draw your attention to air resistance.

Naturally, you want a vehicle which will move as freely as possible through the air. Everything that disrupts air flow creates a resistance which increases fuel consumption. Air resistance has a great effect on fuel consumption, especially at speeds greater than 50 km/h.

I would ask you to carry out an experiment with me: Please take an A4 paper and hold it in the middle on both sides using both your hands as shown on the image below. Please make sure you are in a wind-free environment or room. Move it slowly from one side to the other, with the paper facing the direction of your movement. If you move it slowly, chances are the paper will remain straight. Now, move the paper again, but this time as fast as you can. What happened? Did the paper not bend backwards from the pivot, the place you are holding it? Why did it move? That is because of air resistance. It increased as you increased speed.

Wind resistance increases at an increased rate in relation to speed. In order to achieve your target of driving fuel efficiently, you should bear this in mind and not drive at higher speed than necessary. For any given vehicle, if the speed is increased, for example, from 80 km/h to 100 km/h, an increase of 25 % in speed, air resistance will be increased by 56%.

-A typical semitrailer combination will save for example 1.5L/100km if speed is reduced from 90km/h to 85km/h. However, in most countries, the allowed speed limit for a long haulage truck, is only 80 km/h!!

The rest is extra!

Accessories that contribute to increased air resistance and therefore to increased fuel consumption include: Auxiliary lights mounted on the roof, Decorations that you may put on your vehicle protruding outwards, Insufficiently tightened covers, etc.

Tip number 6. Be aware of energy consumers and avoid speeding unnecessarily.

7. Idling. Some modern vehicles have a system that allows the engine to stall if it’s been idling for a number of minutes. Idling is one of the fuel wasters when one is driving. Some keep their engines running while in parking lots at malls for hours on end, some in traffic congestion, while others do that at ports of exit and entry into other countries. Whatever the reason, idling should be kept to a minimum, ideally between 2 to 5 minutes.

Depending on the engine size and technology, some vehicles consume about a liter per hour while idling and others about 4 liters per hour. This is a waste of the liquid gold which is avoidable. In the following parts of this series, I will also share with you the environmental impact of such behaviors.

Tip number 7. Avoid running your engine at idling speed beyond 5 minutes while stationary.

As I conclude Gear 1 of this efficient driving series. I hope that I have shared new or additional knowledge with someone. The intended result is that you, as a driver, become more skillful, thoughtful and caring! It′s not only advanced technique that brings nice fuel figures, but it’s a combination of knowledge, behavior and most importantly, your attitude! Are you willing to change? Are you willing to try new things?

The hardest thing for a human being is to change a behavior. It takes time AND understanding of WHY one should change their way of doing something. Some of you have driven cars, trucks or buses for many years, others into decades and you have a certain way of doing things. And now I challenge you and ask you to change this! I guess it feels a little odd, but positive change is ALWAYS good change. So I urge you to press your reset button and let this be your new driving behavior. Try it, it’s worth it and worth your pennies.

Watch this space for Gear 2!

Grant Mudyiwa

[email protected]