Gas prices in Illinois are creeping higher and higher every day. Nationally, gas prices have risen by 21 cents since October. This is a nightmare for ground transportation and trucking companies, and is even a burden on local service businesses that must commute to jobs. After factoring in Illinois’ sky-high gas taxes, you’re probably wondering how you can reduce gas expenditures for company vehicles. Well, we have good news! J&A Fleet Maintenance is going to tell you exactly how you can improve fuel efficiency and keep costs down when your fleet hits the highways. Keep reading for our top 4 fuel saving tips.
Driving Habits Affect Fuel Efficiency
There are numerous driving habits that can trash a commercial vehicle’s fuel economy. One common way that drivers waste gas is by letting company trucks idle. Whether they’re eating, avoiding starting and stopping multiple times, or doing something else– two minutes of idling uses up the same amount of gas as driving one mile would! On the other side, aggressive driving can hurt your fuel efficiency. Revving your engine and speeding up quickly just to hit the brakes wastes gas and will land your trucks in our Morris auto repair shop for truck repairs more often than you might like.
Vehicle Maintenance Improves Fuel Economy
As a fleet repair company based in the midwest and serving major trucking and transportation companies, we know very well how often poor maintenance lowers fuel economy and leads to costly repairs. Here are some things J&A Fleet Truck Repair in Morris, Illinois, can do to save you money on fuel.
Check tires– One of the top things that lowers fuel efficiency is bad or uninflated tires. Improper inflation can reduce fuel economy by up to 3%. Under-inflated tires can also lead to blowouts and costly roadside repairs in the future.
Motor oil– Upgrading your oil can increase fuel efficiency by up to 2%. You’ll spend a little more for an oil change, but you’ll make it back since you won’t have to fuel up so frequently. Check your owner’s manual to figure out which oil is best for your vehicle, or ask the mechanics at J&A Fleet Repair Morris about our preferred motor oil brands with friction-reducing additives.
Air filters– Replace clogged air filters to maximize any commercial vehicle’s fuel efficiency. If you have a newer fleet vehicle, you might not see improved fuel economy but this will still improve vehicle acceleration. If your vehicle doesn’t have a computer-controlled gasoline engine, you’ll kill two birds with one stone.
Reduce Mileage
Now, this one’s a bit of a no-brainer but one of the best ways to reduce your fuel expenses is to drive less. Outfit all of your company vehicles with GPS systems so your drivers will always know where they’re going, and will have help choosing the quickest route. Long-haul trucking companies especially will want to invest in offline GPS so their drivers won’t get lost in areas with poor connectivity. Traffic-based routing is another serious benefit so your drivers won’t get stuck in traffic and construction zones!
Cruise Control
Cruise control is probably one of the best vehicle technologies to grace the modern era. If you’re hoping to save money on gas, we recommend that you use it often. Most drivers know that speeding up and braking a lot wastes gas and puts strain on the vehicle, but some might not consider the solution that’s right in front of them. Cruise control maintains a constant speed and saves gas money!
J&A Fleet Repair Improves fuel efficiency
We hope that some of these tips will help save your ground transportation or local service area business money, but if you’re still losing too much money on gas– give us a call. This could be a sign that there’s an underlying problem with your fleet vehicle. If so, one of our Morris fleet mechanics will investigate and repair your truck in no time!