Reduce Your Driving Costs

The way you drive can affect your income. Couriers were renowned for using excessive speed, the attitude being, the sooner I get this job done- the sooner I can start on the next. Unfortunately in this day and age, this reasoning doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. For a start off you may not have another job to go to, and taking on too much work can result in excessive driving hours, something the new C.P.C. has been brought in to combat.
But let’s talk about saving money first. The government have been pushing manufactures to produce vehicles which are less harmful to the environment, and do more miles to the gallon/litre. Manufacturers have tackled this on several fronts, firstly vans are now more aerodynamic increasing efficiency, secondly by reducing weight, and thirdly most ,if not all, new vans now have six gears.
The weight reductions mostly in the engines increases efficiency, in the short term at a future cost.
What influences your driving costs, is the way you drive. If the vehicle you are driving is fitted with a rev counter, you will be able to control your costs much easier. For instance you can see the dramatic difference in speed between fifth gear and sixth at a specific revolution. At 200 revs per minute in fifth gear, you can expect your vehicle to travel at around 45 m.p.h. in sixth gear you can expect to be doing 60 m.p.h. using only 2000 revs. The lesson being that the sooner you get into your highest gear, the cheaper your journey will be. When to change gear comes with experience, you should be able to tell at what speed you should change up or down a gear from the noise of your engine. A lot of speedo’s have markings on showing a gear figure against a particular speed [also some rev counters have the same markings]. These are not the recommended speeds at which you should change gear, they are the maximum speed or revs for that gear recommended for your engine.
Couriers had a reputation for driving fast and stopping fast, fortunately this type of driver is slowly learning the true cost of their actions on their profit margins. The cost of fuel is approximately 35% of your cost for a journey.[ you will charge your customer one way, you will pay for fuel on the outward bound and homeward bound journey]. Any thing you can do to reduce this cost, puts more money in your pocket. I have dealt with driving defensively before in the article Save money- Save the Planet One tip which will save you money is, as you pull off the motorway, once your van is clear of the motorway take your foot of the accelerator pedal. A diesel engine is a high compression engine which will slow you down. If the exit from the motorway is an uphill gradient, with a little bit of practice you will still be in top gear when you reach the roundabout at the top of the slip road, and travelling about 15 m.p.h. This gives you enough time to select the correct gear to negotiate the roundabout safely with out having to set off in first gear. Again you should be able to tell from the sound of your engine, how slow you can go before selecting another gear. A juddering noise from under the van usually means you have left it in too high a gear for too long.
Unfortunately now, engines are not designed to last very long, most will last 2 to 300,000 miles before major work is required. The manufacturers in their quest to reduce weight and increase fuel consumption have unwittingly weakened some parts in the engine. The cam shaft and cams were cast in one solid piece of metal, and then machined to the fine tolerances needed. In modern engines this has been replaced by a tube with the cams sweated on, in order to save weight. The con rods which move the pistons up and down were again made from a solid casting. These have been lightened by having holes or slots machined in them. Combine this with the trend of fitting more powerful turbos, produces faster more economical engines, at the cost of a shorter working life. To increase engine life it is now more important than before to warm your engine up before setting off.

Set Yourself a Routine

If you are not continually carrying goods that put you very close to the weight limit, always fill up your van with diesel the night before. This saves you time in the morning which you can spend more profitable. Continued..

Article by Vic Farron RFT Express

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