Are Your Drivers Smarter Than You?

Here’s a theme I have kept alive here at the GPS Tracking ROI blog for years.  It’s just as true now is it was 5 or 6 years ago, only more so.

Truckers Slowing Down to Save Fuel

By JAMES MacPHERSON – 5 hours ago

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Coast-to-coast trucker Lorraine Dawson says fellow drivers used to call her "Lead Foot Lorraine." But with diesel fuel around $4 a gallon, she and other big-rig drivers have backed off their accelerators to conserve fuel.

"I used to be a speed demon, but no more," said Dawson, based at Tacoma, Wash. "Most drivers have cut their speed considerably."

Dawson said she’s cut her speed by five to 10 miles per hour to save money for her company. Many independent owner-operators have slowed even more, she said.

"My fiance is an owner-operator and he’s been crying a lot about the price of fuel," Dawson said. "He’s been slowing way down."

Truckers and industry officials say slowing a tractor-trailer rig from 75 mph to 65 mph increases fuel mileage by more than a mile a gallon, (my emphasis)a significant bump for machines that get less than 10 miles per gallon hauling thousands of pounds of freight. Even sitting still with the engine idling, a rig gulps about a gallon of diesel every hour.

"We just can’t afford it," Dawson said of diesel as she was topping off her fuel tanks at a Bismarck truck stop…. read the whole article about why you are spending too much on fuel.

Just recently I was cleaning up my hard drive when I came across a sales letter I sent to  a potential client back on the day crude oil prices first hit $60 a barrel.  I told the client I wanted to help him before oil hit $70 a barrel.  Those were the days, eh?

I well remember the "double nickel" 55 mph nation-wide speed limit.  I pray that won’t happen again.  But on the other side of the coin, most people in big rigs or sports cars just run too damn fast … that’s all there is to it.

So smart people might give a thought to slowing down sensibly, instead of waiting until the day the government issues another decree.

You can save substantially by just slowing down 10 lousy miles per hour.  An extra mile per gallon id well worth it, even for a private car …worth it big time on a heavy truck.

You can install GPS tracking and save 15% to %30 overall … I used to guarantee these saving when I sold systems and I never had to refund anything.  If it was worth saving 15% at $2.00 a gallon, isn’t it worth a lot more to save 15% of $4.00 a gallon?  And here’s a tip … the US dollar … which is the currency of international oil, is weak as a rotted out shrub … oil prices are going nowhere but up).

We have several reputable companies who advertise their GPS fleet tracking equipment and services here on GPS ROI tracking, (check over there on the "Recommended Sites" section, I only allow advertisers I feel have reputable GPS tracking products and services) and there are many others out there as well.  Whatever you do, do something now before diesel hits $6 a gallon … and it will, rest assured.