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With the price of diesel on the rise, fuel saving tips for truck drivers have never been more important. Prices are so high that truckers are forced to put a good portion of their paychecks back into fuel for their trucks. While it’s unknown when prices will come back down, there are a few things that you can do to save on fuel.
We recommend following some of these essential fuel saving tips for truckers so you can get the most out of your gas tank:
These fuel saving tips for truck drivers, along with a few others, are sure to prevent you from wasting any gas inside your tank.
It might come as a surprise to some, but your tire pressure can hurt your gas mileage. When your tire pressure is low, the tires will spread out on the road slightly more than usual. Since the tires are making more contact with the road, the amount of friction they incur will increase.
This increase in friction will cause you to burn more gas. Your tires will also wear down faster because they’re making more contact with the road. To improve fuel economy and lengthen the lifespan of your tires, be sure to maintain the appropriate amount of tire pressure.
Idling your truck for too long can cause you to burn extra fuel. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, idling can cause you to burn 0.8 gallons per hour. Due to the extremely high costs of fuel, you’re losing a lot of money when you idle your truck.
Many truckers idle their vehicles without even realizing it. For example, idling can occur when you warm the engine up, run your engine during a delivery, or when you keep the engine on to use equipment like the truck’s cellphone charger. Try to stay aware of things like these so you can avoid needlessly using fuel.
Braking has to be done when you’re out on the road. However, speeding back up after breaking will lead to more fuel consumption. A good way to avoid unnecessary braking is to leave enough space between drivers and slow down by letting off the gas. Since you won’t be slowing down as much by letting off the accelerator as you would when using your brakes, you won’t burn as much fuel when you speed back up.
Cruise control is another great tool that helps improve your fuel efficiency. Even when you're going down a road without much traffic, you might unconsciously release or increase the pressure you put on the gas pedal. This will prevent you from maintaining a consistent speed, which will cause your fuel mileage to suffer.
A great speed to set your cruise control at is 65 mph to 70 mph. By staying somewhere at these speed limits, your gas tank will be burning fuel at a much more consistent rate.
Reducing the drag of your truck is another way that you can improve your fuel efficiency. Resistance to forward movement causes you to burn fuel much more quickly. With some modifications, you can ease the amount of drag on your truck which helps save fuel.
Some modifications that you can make include:
The only downside to these modifications is the money it will cost to get them installed. However, even just one of these modifications will be able to make a difference in your fuel mileage. There are also plenty of providers that you can purchase these aerodynamic parts from.
Getting to your destinations on time is important when you’re a truck driver. That said, you should never speed to get somewhere on time. As you can probably guess, speeding will cause you to burn your gas faster than at a slower speed. Lowering your speed from 75 mph down to 65 mph can save a good amount of fuel.
There’s also the fact that speeding puts your safety and the safety of other drivers on the road at risk. For more safety tips, check out our 10 summer driving safety tips for truck drivers.
Finding gas stations with the best prices is an essential part of saving money on fuel. Glancing at gas prices when you notice that you’re running low is one method of finding good gas prices.
Another way is through the use of apps on your smartphone. There are a variety of apps that are dedicated to finding gas stations with the best prices. Many of these apps also can help find good places to stop for a meal. Some apps we recommend that you try out are:
Getting your truck the proper maintenance that it needs is not just important for the health of the truck, but it also helps improve the fuel economy of it. Something as simple as old spark plugs or dirty oil can harm your fuel efficiency. Make sure to complete routine checks on your vehicle so you can identify these problems to prevent burning unnecessary amounts of fuel.
With the summer months comes the summer heat. The rising temperatures will make your air conditioner indispensable. Unfortunately, using your A/C can burn more fuel than is needed. The best way to avoid this problem is by being more conscious of how you use it.
After you’ve started your truck up on a hot day, it’s usually common to put the A/C on full blast. This is fine, but once you’ve cooled yourself down, ease up on how high you have your blowers. Blowing air high enough to stay cool rather than having it on a high blast will eat up less of your gas.
ABCO is the perfect company for truckers for numerous reasons. For example, we offer competitive wages and top benefit options. That means when you drive with us, you can trust that you’ll get the compensation you deserve.
Having enough time off and a personal life is important when you’re a truck driver. That’s why at ABCO, we ensure that our drivers have a flexible schedule that suits their needs.
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