Motorists were cautioned that fuel shortages may be experienced in South Africa and just a few days later, Cape Town was affected by the unplanned refinery outage. Several stations around Cape Town metro experienced a shortage of the higher-octane fuel, 95 ULP, last week.
A fuel vessel destined for Durban was redirected to Cape Town and despite bad weather conditions, the issue has been resolved. The CEO of MasterDrive, Eugene Herbert, says: “Despite this, as South Africans face another hefty rise at the pumps in November, this is a good reminder to drive economically, reducing fuel consumption where possible.
“MasterDrive shares their top ten tips for saving fuel whether you are affected by shortages, price increases or plan on travelling this December,” says Herbert.
- Tyres: regularly check tyre pressure matches OEM specifications with your own tyre pressure gauge. This has a potential fuel saving of 3-5% as it can reduce rolling resistance.
- Telematics: use real-time telematics data for route planning, correction of costly driving behaviours and reduction of other fuel-consuming habits to save between five and 15%.
- Harsh acceleration: accelerating gently and leaving adequate following distances helps avoid unnecessary braking and acceleration and save up to 15% in consumption.
- RPMs: in manual vehicles, changing gears before reaching 3 000 RPMs increases fuel efficiency and saves up to 20% in fuel costs.
- Defensive driving: defensive driving techniques, including anticipating traffic conditions and watching 12 seconds ahead, is essential to economical driving. Undertake training to learn how to benefit from savings of up to 20%.
- Speed: the greater the speed, the greater the rolling resistance and drag. Reducing speed by 20km/h can also save up to 20%.
- Aggressive driving: this reduces efficiency by 15 to 30% on highways and 10 to 40% in stop-and-go traffic. Remain calm behind the wheel and avoid losing your cool.
- Unnecessary loads: remove unnecessary items from vehicles. As a rule of thumb, with some variations, each unnecessary item increases consumption by 1%.
- Planning: fuel is wasted by not making your route as efficient as possible. Within fleets, it is essential to educate drivers on how costly out-of-route trips can be.
- Idling: if you idle for longer than 30 seconds, fuel is wasted. Additionally, fuel consumption regulating sensors prevent modern vehicles from ‘warming up’ sufficiently making it unnecessary.
It is through implementing all these strategies that you will achieve the best result. “Only following one tip and expecting a 20% reduction is unrealistic. It takes a concerted effort in all aspects of driving to see tangible results,” says Herbert.
*Figures are affected by driving style, vehicles, region and fuel grade. Percentages provided are reflected as ‘up to.’ It should, however, be noted each factor is tested on its own merits and if all or some are combined, the savings are not cumulative.
