There has been a relative reduction in the fuel price as compared to the earlier times, which was supposed to be a tremendous relief for the heavy-duty truck operators. However, it’s still a herculean task to improve fuel efficiency and it is the primary expense of truck operators.
Whether you own your trucks or are looking for commercial trucks at rent in Malawi, you need to know how to cut down the fuel cost. Three are many ways to increase efficiency, but very few seem to be practical to implement. So this article will enlighten you with the most feasible ideas to implement to cope up with fuel consumption’s escalating cost.
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Reduce the cruise speed
The foremost thing for the fleet to manage is to minimize cruise speed. More speed means more the burning of fuel. You should know every 1 MPH increase in speed results in a .14 MPG decline in the fuel economy.
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Manage the RPM of cruise
It is crucial to manage the speed of the engine in increasing fuel efficiency. You must find the “sweet spot” that can be the most effective RPM to run the engine. The right “sweet spot” is between 1250-1350 RPM.
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Prefer the station with lowest cost
Find the station that can provide you with the lowest cost of fuel as compared to other stations. There are many trucking specific GPS that can plan for your route to stop at the least expensive fuel stations on the way.
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Opt for the shortest route for your journey
You can guide your fleet operators to go through the shortest routes. There are often many routes that are the shortest as compared to others. So taking a shorter route is the best approach to reduce the cost of fuel for your fleet.
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Get a break from unnecessary driving.
Unnecessary driving can also cost you a lot on fuels, so keep a thing in mind that you should stop the practice of unnecessary driving. If you go out of your way to purchase something, you should check this practice and find some other alternative so that you don’t have to go out of your way.
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Avoid unnecessary items
It must be kept in mind that your truck should not carry any unnecessary items. The more weight it carries, the more it has to work to move down the highway. You can reduce the unnecessary load to avoid putting an extra burden on your vehicle.
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Monitor the pressure on the tires
Being a professional, you should be aware that underinflated tires can lower the fuel economy to a greater extent. 1PSI drop in pressure, and the fuel mileage would get reduced by 0.3%. This tip becomes more relatable to the ones who run commercial trucks on rent as they have to pay heed to the truck’s maintenance.
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Reduce idling
It’s best to avoid idling. The more your truck would be idle, the more it would burn gallons of fuel. If your fleet has hundreds of vehicles and each of them gets idle for a day for a complete hour, then it would waste so much fuel and so much money.
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Avoid overfilling the tank.
Look out when the fuel is heated; it begins to expand. It means when the tank is full of capacity, the expanded fuel can make the tank overflow, so a lot of fuel would get wasted.
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Moderate breaking would help.
Braking is an essential part of driving. Whenever you slow down the brake, it takes more fuel to get back up to speed. So go moderate with the braking.
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Keep the vehicle in high gear.
When you drive in the highest gear possible, fuel efficiency maximizes. But when you travel faster at low gears that can consume 45 percent more fuel than needed.
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Keep the load of the weight low.
Keep in mind the more evenly distributed the load is in the trailer, the better it is for the truck as it would have to make fewer efforts to keep moving. So it’s an advisory to keep the load as low and as level as possible.
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Cut down the air conditioning.
Whenever you use the AC, it increases the fuel consumption by 0.2-0.4 miles per gallon. So avoid air condition whenever possible to cut down the fuel efficiency.
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Use cruise control
Use cruise control. It can limit the unnecessary acceleration and deceleration, which can save up to 6 percent in fuel consumption.
You have to take care of all these tips to ensure that your truck uses as less fuel as possible. Additionally, considering the excellent quality of heavy-duty trucks while buying or renting can also make a big difference, so you can rely upon Dongfeng heavy-duty with best fuel efficiency.
