FleetBeat

Summer in the City: Air Conditioning or Open Windows?

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

When temperatures start to rise, fleet drivers have one of two options: they can crank the air conditioning or open windows.  We’ve all heard that opening windows is more environmentally-friendly solution because air conditioning requires a running engine, and a running engine takes fuel.

The answer isn’t as cut and dry as you might expect, but it’s very simple.

“When you’re driving across town in stop-and-go traffic,” says Frank Hampshire, Director of Market Research with the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA), “it’s more fuel efficient to drive with the air conditioning off, windows down.”  More specifically, when your vehicle is travelling at 40 miles per hour, or slower.[i]

But once you hit the open road of the highway and your speed starts to increase, aerodynamics become a factor.  Go over 45 miles per hour and open windows will create drag, reducing fuel efficiency by 10 percent.  Go over 55 miles per hour with your windows down and you’ll reduce fuel efficiency by 20 percent.  [ii]

[ii] http://www.bankrate.com/finance/auto/will-rolling-down-windows-save-fuel-or-not.aspx

A Guide to Reducing Fuel Consumption with Vehicle Telematics: How to Select the Right Solution

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Fuel costs account for 28-30% of most fleet’s budgets. Considering how much fuel costs, this makes reducing fuel consumption one of the most important issues facing fleet managers. Culprits such as prolonged idling and excessive speeding make driver behavior the number one factor in fuel consumption.

A speed and idling monitoring solution allows managers to monitor idling, instances of excessive speed, and unauthorized use of their fleet vehicles. Armed with this information, they can address wasteful driver behaviors to significantly reduce the amount of fuel consumed by their fleet and save their company money.

An urban paratransit agency that recently began piloting a speed a monitoring system was immediately able to identify over 17 hours of unnecessary idling per vehicle in a single week. This costs the agency almost $35 per vehicle, per week in wasted fuel. Extended to their 650 vehicle fleet, the agency would waste more than $1.6 million dollars a year in fuel from excess idling.

Click here to download a white paper to learn more about reducing fuel consumption and how a telematics solution can help.