Why is it important?
Road transportation contributes to about 17% of worldwide energy-related CO2–emissions(1). Road freight transport is estimated to be the number one sector in energy consumption. Worldwide the sector consumes around 50% of all diesel produced and is responsible for 80% of global net increase in diesel use since 2000 (2). Moreover, road freight activity is expected to double between 2015 and 2050(2). While a host of possible alternatives are available and necessary to decarbonise the road freight sector including adoption of alternative transport, greener fuels, route optimization, fuel efficient technologies and switching to electric vehicles; driver training and assisted driving (or eco-driving) is an effective way of reducing emissions with low adoption barriers.
What is the solution?
Eco-driving is a set of driving practices that reduce fuel consumption and its associated emissions. It is a low-cost, quick win solution that has been adopted by a number of organisations already, and can be applied for mid and small-sized companies, and even private driving. Training modules on eco-driving and refresher courses will reinforce eco-driving behavior and ensure sustenance of long-term good practices. In-vehicle monitoring and feedback systems can be leveraged to aid knowledge on fuel consumption and review trip economy to reinforce eco-driving lessons. Additionally, strategies like gamification can be adopted through telematic systems to promote eco-driving.
Key eco-driving practices
Before starting
- Maintain regularly: regular maintenance improves fuel efficiency by as much as 10% (3)
- Inflate tyres: underinflated tyres by a quarter can increase 2% fuel consumption (4)
- Choose fuel-efficient tyres and reduce fuel consumption of 2.5% (50km/h) to 6% (90 km/h) (3)
- Limit resistance and remove unused roof racks and roof boxes.
- Keep it light: Every additional 45 kg reduces fuel economy by 2% (3).
During the trip
- Start slowly, avoiding rapid acceleration.
- Avoid idling or long warm-up/cool-down periods can save up to 6,6% fuel consumption (5)
- Gear-up, use the highest gear possible, and lower engine speed to or below 2,500 rpm (3).
- Aim to maintain a constant speed and avoid pumping the accelerator.
- Use cruise control on the highway.
- Anticipate traffic conditions.
- Accelerate smoothly. Aggressive acceleration can raise fuel consumption by 37% (3).
- Decelerate smoothly. Use engine brakes.
- Avoid aggressive braking: it is safer, uses less gas, and reduces brake wear.
- Avoid air conditioning below 40 mph (65km/h) and open windows.
- Avoid opening windows above 40 mph (65km/h) and put on air conditioning (3).
Post-trip
- Review trip data: Review trip economy to reinforce eco-driving lessons learnt.
Point of attention
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Point of attention
Rebound effect – Improving the efficiency of energy use, instead of reducing fuel consumption, might encourage an increase in the number or distance of road trips. While eco-driving is meant to use less fuel on the same distance, it can also encourage to drive more kilometres with the same quantity of fuel.
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Key actions
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#1 Inform and educate
Inform relevant staff about the reason why emission reduction is important. Enhance motivation and interest to participate in eco-driving training and to implement effectively the recommendations. Emphasize all benefits of eco-driving. Create an interest to promote and apply eco-driving in personal life.
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#2 Seek expert trainers
Make sure expert trainers provide the training. If not found locally, seek partners and organise joint trainings with external/international trainers. Consider training of trainers to build up local capacities.
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#3 Implement practical eco-driving trainings
Include practical eco-driving modules and refresher courses. Include eco-driving as part of driver recruitment and annual evaluation.
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#4 Ensure long-term policy about eco-driving
Eco-driving trainings are not a one-shot activity. It should become part of the organisation’s way of working to implement and maintain an eco-friendly driving behaviour. Make sure trainings are included in the budget every year and choose a referent.
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#5 Promote Eco-routing
Choose flattest roads with few traffic light or stops and prefer off-peak times for planned trips when possible. Eco-routing can participate in reducing fuel consumption by 10 to 25% (9).
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#6 Implement incentives
A strong motivation is to measure the positive impact of the effort made. Keep measuring and sharing the fuel and CO2 reduction. Propose incentive like competitions, games or financial rewards. For example, record driving scores on safe speeds, acceleration, and braking with eco-driving telematic systems like Ford’s EcoGuide dashboard (10) or Fiat’s Eco:Drive app (11).
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#7 Use in-vehicle monitoring systems
Use real-time metrics and retrospective feedback for information on fuel consumption through telematics or in-vehicle technologies like eco-driving feedback information systems (EDFIS) (12).
To consider
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Potential co-benefits
- Reduce fuel-consumption and associated greenhouse gas
- Increased road safety
- Preserve car condition
- Noise reduction
- Lower maintenance cost
- Cost savings through reduced fuel consumption
- Increased comfort for passengers
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Prerequisites
- Availability of expert trainers
- Long term planning, imbedded in long-term strategy and practices, training plans and budgets
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Success conditions
- Importance of practical training. Theorical recommendation are not enough to make a change in driving behaviour
- Refresher eco-driving training courses. Without refresher courses and incentives, drivers can return to some of their previous driving styles, thus reducing the long-term benefits of the training.
- Keeping interest and incentives for drivers and fleet managers – the motivation must be encouraged in the long term
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Potential risks
- Rebound effect (see point of attention)
Tools and good practices
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Fleet Forum’s Eco-driving Training Guide
The Fleet Forum guide on eco-driving presents the key techniques and practices which can be adopted by drivers to enhance fuel efficiency. It includes a template for an eco-driving license and a checklist for drivers.
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International Road Transport Union ECO-driving course
The International Road Transport Union (IRU) offers a one-day course on ECO-driving followed by a period of driver performance monitoring using the web-based ECO-Driving Training System. This allows driver behaviour to be measured objectively and its impact on fuel consumption analysed. Participants receive an ECO-Driving certificate when they have completed the course.
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Low emission eco-driving training video for heavy duty vehicles
Funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, the video provides low-emission driving tips for professional drivers of heavy-duty vehicles. It is geared towards truck drivers, but learnings can be applied by bus and coach drivers.
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Eco-driving toolkit for trucks, 2020
“Changing transport” is an organisation working towards a sustainable future of transport. The eco-driving toolkit provides experiences from around the world, offers tools for planning and implementation and makes training materials available.
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Guidelines for National Eco-driving Initiatives
Presents guidelines focussing on the sustainable and energy-efficient use of motorised vehicles (particularly cars, trucks and buses). Whilst the document is geared towards governments, many of the recommendations can also be applied by organisations.
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Guidelines and handbook on eco-driving
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To go further
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Policy brief on Eco-driving, Odysee-Mure, 2021
Brief for policymaker to implement eco-driving.
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MODALES Guidelines on low emission driving
Reducing air pollution from all types of on-road vehicles by encouraging adoption of low-emission driving behaviour and proper maintenance choice.
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A review of gamified approaches to encouraging eco-driving, 2022
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Featured
Freight
Commuting
Car use rationalisation
Sources
(1) Jaramillo, P., S. Kahn Ribeiro, P. Newman, S. Dhar, O.E. Diemuodeke, T. Kajino, D.S. Lee, S.B. Nugroho, X. Ou, A. Hammer Strømman, J. Whitehead, 2022: Transport. In IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926.012
(2) Liv, ‘Towards Road Freight Decarbonisation’. in ITF, 2018. Available here.
(3) Wengraf, I. (2012). Easy on the Gas: The effectiveness of eco-driving. RAC Foundation. Available here.
(4) Şoica, A, A Budală, & IS Comănescu, ‘Tyres influence on vehicle fuel economy’. in IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 997, 2020, 012134. Available here.
(5) Sigurjonsdottir, SS, AK Elnes, & KC Couto, ‘Turn off your engine: Reducing idling amongst professional truck drivers’. in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 15, 2022, 100654. Available here.
(6) Fleet Forum. (n.d.). Clean Fleet Toolkit. Cleanfleet.fleetforum.org; Fleet Forum Association. Retrieved April 8, 2024. Available here.
(7) Jellinek, R, & T Bogner, ‘Eco-driving & CO2 emissions | Smart or modern driving initiatives | Policy brief | ODYSSEE-MURE’. in www.odyssee-mure.eu, 2021. Available here.
(8) Wang, Y., & Boggio-Marzet, A. (2018). Evaluation of Eco-Driving Training for Fuel Efficiency and Emissions Reduction According to Road Type. Sustainability, 10(11), 3891. Available here.
(9) Fafoutellis, P, EG Mantouka, & EI Vlahogianni, ‘Eco-Driving and Its Impacts on Fuel Efficiency: An Overview of Technologies and Data-Driven Methods’. in Sustainability, 13, 2020, 226. Available here.
(10) Inbar, O., Tractinsky, N., Seder, T., & Tsimhoni, O. (2011). Driving the Scoreboard: Motivating Eco-Driving Through In-Car Gaming . In gamification-research.org. Gamification Research Network. Available here.
(11) Stavros, N., Lalos, A. S., Tselios, C., Bitzas, D., Amaxilatis, D., Chatzigiannakis, I., Gerasimos, A., & Moustakas, K. (2018). Gamification of EcoDriving Behaviours through Intelligent Management of Dynamic Car and Driver Information. OPPORTUNITIES and CHALLENGES for European Projects. Available here.
(12) Gimpel, H., Heger, S., & Wöhl, M. (2022). Sustainable behavior in motion: designing mobile eco-driving feedback information systems. Information Technology and Management. Available here.
(13) ECOWILL. (2013). ECODRIVING Short-duration training for licensed drivers and integration into driving education for learner drivers Experiences and results from the ECOWILL project. ECOWILL. Available here.
(14) Hemming, R. (2011, March 17). Stagecoach Multi-Million-Pound Investment in Eco-Driving Technology. GreenRoad. Available here.
(15) GIZ. (n.d.). Road Freight Transport NAMA in Mexico . Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Available here.
Credits
Photo credits: William Bout/Unsplash