"Back seat ecodriver" guarantees fuel savings to truck fleets

[MetroMPG]

Interesting: Valvoline has partnered with the company that makes that electronic "TIWI" device and is offering a “Fuel Proof Guarantee”: in combination with their lubricants plus the feedback from the device, truck fleets will improve fuel economy by 4%.

4% is nothing to sneeze at when you consider how much money a trucking co spends on fuel.

The Tiwi (pronounced “tee-wee”) system is designed to monitor vehicle speed as compared to the posted highway speed, seat belt usage, hard braking, rapid acceleration and more. When an out-of-range event occurs, a small windshield- or dash-mounted in-cab device provides verbal prompts to the driver, advising him or her to take immediate corrective action. In the case of speeding, drivers generally have a few seconds to respond before a violation notice is also automatically sent back to dispatch; in the case of aggressive driving incidents, the violation notice is also immediate. Fleets can set performance and sensitivity parameters for each tiwi system.

Source: Valvoline partners with Tiwi to guarantee miles per gallon boost

I guess when your job is on the line, you've got more incentive than Joe public to make an effort to avoid being overtly wasteful.

[Hermie]

I can see it now.. Someone cuts a truck off and they hit the brakes, and the cops are called because of it. XD

[Christ]

They have neat little things that you can install in your kids' cars that has GPS awareness and can monitor speed and other parameters, and send txt alerts to your cell phone.

It's kinda ridiculous that it has to come down to that, but I'll bite.

Regarding truckers, many fleets have governed their trucks to 63 MPH to save fuel and wear and tear on the engines. I've hear estimates that the engines last up to 50,000 miles longer between rebuilds or major service just from slowing down from 75 governed top speed to 63-65 GTS.

You have to remember, though, that the original intent for GPS systems in trucks may have been better efficiency, but it also monitors things such as vehicle speed and miles traveled. If anything were going to make trucks more fuel efficient, you'd think that'd have been it. The GPS systems are kind of like someone breathing on your neck all the time, and yet, nothing comes of it.

One of my Uncles is a trucker, and I've taken his bob-tail rig down to pick up a semi-trailer that I bought... GPS recorded the miles, and he was never called on it. Almost 50 miles round trip, and they never said anything. Never even charged him the fuel surcharge for those 50 miles.

[MadisonMPG]

I was thinking this thread was about the feeling you get when you ride with other people and they drive aggressively.

[jkp1187]

So 'hard braking' is considered 'aggressive driving'? I can envison a scenario or two where that isn't the case at all.

It would be much better if these sorts of 'aggressive driving' incidents activated a camera to record what was actually going on, for later review. Like DriveCam: About DriveCam | About | DriveCam Driver Risk Management

[Hermie]

I tend to be a little aggressive around corners. Then again, it's also keeping momentum.

[MetroMPG]

Re hard braking "events" I'm very sure they've thought this through. Management is going to be looking for consistent patterns of high-g decel, not isolated events.

[99LeCouch]

Yay, so the days of trucks whizzing by me doing 75-80 may be coming to an end! I hate when a fully-loaded semi zooms by me at 80 mph, then I need to pass the same truck crawling at 50 mph up the next large hill.

[Matt Herring]

I'd be happy just to be able to keep up with a semi so I can draft...maybe this will help!

During highway driving I usually get in the back and forth tug o war with the semis...I'm sure they are not pleased with this and neither am I.

At 60-65 mph uphill I am able to keep up with them to draft but on the downhill I lose them because I stay at 60-65 mph and they are getting up to 75-80 mph. Or, if it's a big uphill I have to pass them going 50-55 mph and on the downhill they zoom past me.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by 99LeCouch

Yay, so the days of trucks whizzing by me doing 75-80 may be coming to an end! I hate when a fully-loaded semi zooms by me at 80 mph, then I need to pass the same truck crawling at 50 mph up the next large hill.

This is not likely, actually. Many truck drivers are already somewhat efficient because they hate crawling up the hills... they allow overspeed down the hills, so that some of that momentum allows them to crawl up the next hill just a little bit faster, using less fuel to maintain a higher speed. It's a key tenet of hypermiling, actually.

This, among other things, is one of the reasons I don't think this device is going to make as much of a difference as some would hope in certain applications, especially OTR trucking.