Understanding and Reducing Vehicle Idling: A Comprehensive Guide

The rising demand for online delivery and at-home services has led to massive growth in the use of trucks and delivery vans. As per a report, the fuel consumption by trucks used for business accounts for around 53.9 billion gallons in a year. So, if you have a team of drivers, you would want to know various ways in which you can cut down money on fuel consumption. This can happen by idle reduction of the vehicle’s engine. While your drivers won’t have a choice at times, they can still reduce motor vehicle idling. 

Being a dispatcher or delivery manager or business owner, you must ensure driver efficiency to maintain customer satisfaction. But you must also ensure that you reduce the idling fuel consumption to cut down fuel costs. So, ‘what is idling, and how does it impact your business?’ We will explain it in detail and provide ways to avoid it and save fuel costs.

What is Vehicle Idling and How Does it Impact Businesses?

To simply answer, ‘what is car idling?’, it means when the engine is kept running when the car is not moving. In mechanical terms, an idling engine spins at very low RPMs. It is also known as ‘lugging.’ Drivers keep vehicles idle while moving across traffic or on a signal. Car idling is also common for people on the driveway waiting for the excess traffic to get clear. 

Engine idling in drivers isn’t always deliberate. Truck drivers mostly keep their vehicle engines running to maintain temperatures while sleeping in the truck. School buses have idle time while waiting for all the children to board. In any case, idling engines burn the same amount of fuel and spread the same amount of air pollution.

How much gas does idling use?

Vehicles can use more gas than anticipated during idle time. This directly impacts the gas expenses as your drivers might need to refuel vehicles more often. But, no two vehicles spend the same amount of fuel during idling time. It varies based on factors such as engine size, weight, and fuel type used. 

• Gas usage for non-diesel engines and idling cars

  In general sense, smaller vehicles use less gas while idling. As per a report, the usage of non-diesel fuel for a compact sedan with no load is about 0.16 gallons per hour of idling. This means, for every expense on fuel, idling can greatly impact those drivers who are constantly on the road.

• Gas usage on diesel engines and idling trucks

  Compared to smaller vehicles, heavy and medium-duty trucks waste more fuel during idling. A report shows that idling heavy-duty trucks use around 0.8 gallons of fuel per hour. Truck drivers mostly leave their vehicles idle when they are resting. Let’s say it is a 10-hour time window. This would result in the wastage of up to 8 gallons of fuel. 

Moreover, when your drivers take lunch break, it could increase the cost and hence, the wasted fuel. A long-haul truck might idle badly and burn fuel for about 1800 hours over a year. This roughly comes to 1500 gallons of diesel being used. 

States with Anti-Idling Laws

There are some states and local governments that restrict idling and charge fines on drivers for violating their anti-idling laws. Some states also limit running engines when parked for up to three, five, or ten minutes. Here are a few states with anti-idling laws:

Arizona	Colorado	California	Connecticut	Delaware
Georgia	Illinois	Maryland	Vermont	Maine
Ohio	Pennsylvania	Utah	Minnesota	Massachusetts
New York	New Jersey	New Hampshire	North Carolina	Texas

The Detrimental Effects of Excessive Idling

Keeping a vehicle idle is more harmful than starting and stopping the engine. Idling is said to cause twice the damage on the internal parts of a vehicle as compared to regular driving. Here are a few ways in which idling can impact your business:

1. Wastage of fuel and increased operational costs

Being a business owner, it is important to see where your expenses are wasted. Specifically, if you handle large fleets, such as in the logistics industry, you might try to find ways to reduce fuel costs. But, when drivers leave their vehicles idle during heavy traffic on the road or long parking duration, they indirectly affect fuel usage.

As we saw earlier, there’s a high amount of fuel wasted when idling a vehicle. This directly impacts the fuel expenses, thus hampering your business.  Although a gallon may seem little, growing consumption can add up fuel wastage.                                                                                                                                          

2. Impact on vehicle maintenance and reliability

The belief – leaving the vehicle idle for some time saves fuel and doesn’t damage the engine – is untrue. The engine wear caused by idling increases the cost of maintenance. If the engine is beyond maintenance, replacing it can cost even more. When a vehicle is idling, it isn’t operating at a normal temperature. So, the residue left due to low combustion of fuel wears off the exhaust system, thermostats, and fan belts. 

3. Reduced productivity and fewer deliveries

When drivers are in between traffic and have no way to reach their destination earlier, their deliveries are meant to get delayed. As a result of late deliveries, your customer satisfaction level goes down. This also means that your drivers may not be able to finish their delivery quotas as required. In the end, you will have less number of deliveries and may need to invest in more drivers and vehicles to meet the demand. 

4. Negative health consequences for drivers

Idling directly affects the environment and leaves a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. It also impacts the drivers due to close proximity. There are many chemicals and carcinogenic components present in gasoline. Hence, the air surrounding a vehicle that is idle can be harmful to breathing. This can result in damaged lungs, heart disease, asthma, or other health problems for drivers.  

Effective Strategies to Reduce Vehicle Idling and Save Fuel Costs

Now that you know the issues that can arise due to idling, finding the right solutions can help avoid it. Businesses or drivers who have daily transport operations can adopt the below techniques to stop idling time and save money:

Optimizing routes for efficiency

Using optimization to plan delivery routes is another way to reduce idling. It lets you find the best sequence of stops for faster deliveries. 

A route planning software will help schedule deliveries in the same region so drivers can complete them in one go. As a result, there are fewer chances of idle time, and better chances of multiple deliveries.

Implementing idle reduction technologies

• Fleet managers and individual vehicle operators can buy auxiliary power units (APUs) to stop idling. An APU device supplies cooling, heating, and electrical power that can be used during the resting period of a truck driver. This way they can have a comfortable time in their cabins without having to burn fuel. 
• You can even get GPS fleet tracking software to prevent vehicles from idling in your fleet. Such software can be beneficial in collecting data about their vehicles and drivers. Fleet managers will be able to track the speed and location of their vehicles with GPS technologies. When they have information on engine status, they can improve the driver’s performance if required and reduce idling.

Educating drivers on proper idling practices

Business owners or managers must have regular training sessions to coach drivers about idling. When drivers are taught about ways to reduce idling, they can include the best practices from the start. Vehicles must be turned off if drivers need to idle for more than a few seconds.

Leveraging Technology to Optimize Routing and Minimize Idling

If you wish to reduce fuel consumption and make cost-efficient deliveries in your transport business, you need something extra for a competitive edge. Switching to a route optimization software is an excellent way to save money on transportation. Upper Route Planner gives you the ability to automatically assign routes to multiple drivers and add multiple stops.

Let’s look at the key features of Upper.

1. Cost-efficient route planning

Are you wasting a lot of money on unplanned routes? Upper Route Planner helps you save expenses on fuel with an effective route optimization algorithm. Our dynamic route scheduling software provides the best optimized routes to help you ensure that your drivers spend the least amount of idle time on the road. This reduces excessive idling, thereby reducing fuel costs.

2. Route optimization 

Did you know you can save more fuel when you can prioritize delivery stops? Our intelligent software optimizes routes around the stops you set on high or crucial priority. With Upper, you can also schedule suitable routes for drivers based on the vehicle they are using. This will help ensure they reach their destination without keeping their engine running over idling.

3. One-click dispatch

What more do you need when you can optimize routes and dispatch them to multiple drivers in just a click? You can share delivery details with your drivers through an email/text message or through the driver app. This way they can get going with their orders without having to visit the depot. If one of your drivers isn’t available, you can also reassign a route to another driver. 

Learn more about using the features of Upper by signing up for a 7 days free trial!

Conclusion: Taking Action to Improve Fuel Efficiency and Environmental Impact

Idling is meant to happen with the number of vehicles and trucks on the road. It may not seem harmful, but slowly and steadily, it can impact everyone on a big level. It doesn’t just waste a significant amount of fuel, but also releases toxins into the air. Making use of the right technologies can bring down a lot of idling time and diesel fuel costs.

Thankfully, you have Upper as your route optimization software! It will ensure that you have the best and most effective route plans scheduled for multiple drivers. In a few seconds, you can upload addresses from your excel sheet and get your drivers to do the tasks. With accurate ETAs and customer notifications, you can also take the added benefit of customer satisfaction. Start your 7 days FREE trial now.