The truck and bus operators can reduce their fuel bills by over 7% by providing training on effective driving techniques and incentives for those who achieve better fuel economy to the drivers.
A project published in the International Journal of Sustainable Society suggested that offering reward or training alone can save 5% of fuel bill and offering both combined can save 7.3%.
Researchers from the University of Haifa at Israel studied the fuel economy and driving of 20 bus drivers in four groups in the "Egged Ltd" bus company. Financial reward and training was not provided to the control group. A professional training on minimizing fuel consumption for one week and an incentive for enhanced driving skills were given for three weeks to the second group. Only training for the third group and incentive alone for the fourth group was provided. Upto 30% of expenses for a litre of gasoline has been saved by the second group.
Salim Saadia, Shlomo Hareli and Boris A. Portnov of University of Haifa found that the first control group who did not receive training and incentives did not show any marked improvement in fuel economy. The second group that received both training and incentive minimized the fuel consumption by 7.3%. The third group that received training alone gave an enhancement of about 5.4%. The bus company saved up to US$ 1 to 1.2 million annually.
The researchers said that both training and incentive given together yielded better results. Largely, this practice saves cost to the bus and truck companies. They added that training alone can save 5% of the cost which is economical for transport companies.