Recently, the concept of Ecodriving has become more and more popular. While prices at gas stations are soaring inexorably, everyone is looking for a reduction in the amount of fuel used. In this case, a fundamental question arises: are we reducing the fleet of vehicles or introducing drastic savings in the use of vehicles by employees? The answer may be surprising, but all you need to do is pay attention to the proper use of the company's vehicles.
The main prerequisite for reducing fuel costs is a sustainable and economical driving style. In practice, this consists of maintaining the appropriate smoothness of driving. It is known that each acceleration and then sudden braking causes an effort of the engine and all mechanical elements of the vehicle, which in turn leads to an increase in fuel consumption and causes premature wear of the vehicle components. Therefore, the key to success is maintaining a constant speed as long as possible and reacting in advance to specific road events.
Easy to say but hard to do
Easy to say but hard to do. So how can this problem be solved? The answer is the eco-driving module from TransMobil with the device (GPS recorder) installed in the vehicle. The device itself plugged into the car's on-board computer (CAN bus) allows you to monitor the status of many vehicle sensors on an ongoing basis, from the data from the injectors to the level of pressing the accelerator pedal. However, it must be remembered that "dry" data is worthless without proper analysis and visualization with tools dedicated to drivers themselves.
The best solution is to include drivers in the game, i.e. the game in which the goal is the employee's victory, and at the same time the company's victory, i.e. real and large cost savings. The tool offered by the TransMobil software allows you to create your own operating conditions for the eco-driving model itself, depending on the fleet owned and the conditions and guidelines resulting from the company's internal policy. For example, company "A" wants to focus only on reducing fuel consumption, so in the system configuration, the conditions taken to evaluate the method will be, for example, average fuel consumption, sudden braking and sudden accelerations. Company "B", on the other hand, puts a lot of emphasis on safety, because it is obliged to do so by the safety policy guidelines, so in this case the conditions related to the assessment will be e.g. fastened seat belts, continuous driving time, exceeding speed in built-up areas and speeding as the upper limit . Ratings based on personalized configurations are issued to each driver. At the same time, under the so-called gamification, each employee scores points for the way they drive, thanks to which, after completing a predetermined round, they receive, for example, the "best driver in the company" award. All progress along with assessments may (do not have to) be presented in the form of reports on the application to the employees themselves, which increases the commitment and willingness to improve results. In addition, every month, employees' e-mails or in the form of text messages with links may be sent information about the factors influencing this and not another rating for the last month, taking into account the elements that need to be paid special attention. It should be mentioned that each company can create its own award policy based on the ratings, which opens up great opportunities to influence the final results. After all, everyone likes to receive rewards!
Does it pay off?
So we come back to the basic question: is it worth it? There can be only one answer: YES, it is very profitable! The operating costs of vehicles driven by conscious drivers are significantly reduced. In addition, there are fuel costs, which can drop by up to several dozen percent compared to months where the eco-driving module was not used. It is also worth mentioning the costs of possible repairs in the event of an accident or collision, and the cost of losing an employee for the recovery period.