Delivery fleet better mpg

[Hardattack]

My wife was telling her boss about me playing arround with my car trying to get better mpg. She was joking about it but sounds like he took it to heart. Now he wants me to help him with his fleet. He has 21 delivery trucks approx. 1 million miles per year. Don't have exact list of makes yet. I know there is some sprinters, ford and chevy vans, nissan box vans and some box trucks. I believe the box trucks have cummins in them. It is a FedEx ground/home delivery fleet so any thing that he does will have to be user friendly. I have not talked to him yet but am going to suggest him making drivers check tires(max air) every morning and keeping big clumps of mud off trucks as much as possible just to get things started.
I would love to hear y'all's ideas. Thanks

[dirtydave]

Tell him to put a scangauge in every vehicle and reward the driver with the best mpg.

[cowmeat]

Every mile counts when you're averaging 10 mpg, so I'd say that the first mod should be made in the office, tweaking the routes.
The delivery routes probably aren't going to be optimal, so tweaking them daily to cut the drive time down will bring an immediate gain. There is always room for improvement in a route, and with the holiday season here that will reap a great benefit when they need it most.

With 21 trucks, a 10% overall increase in efficiency of the routes would immediately be the equivalent of having one of the drivers working for free every day.

[Joris]

Get some more air in those tires, remove some mudflaps, and instruct the drivers how to drive more economical!

[Cd]

Originally Posted by Joris

Get some more air in those tires, remove some mudflaps, and instruct the drivers how to drive more economical!

As much as they are bad for aero, I think the mudflaps are there to protect the company from being sued from incidents of flying rocks and such.

[Frank Lee]

Yeah, it depends on how much of the route is urban; if average speed is low then it's a non-issue.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

Every mile counts when you're averaging 10 mpg, so I'd say that the first mod should be made in the office, tweaking the routes.

I thought FedEx (and other delivery companies) had already done that? Look for "route optimization software".

[adam728]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Yeah, it depends on how much of the route is urban; if average speed is low then it's a non-issue.

Except in many states where tire coverage laws apply.

[cowmeat]

I'm sure they do but not so sure the sub contractors would

There is always room for improvement in any program anyway, and when millions of miles pile up it makes a difference

[Hardattack]

Thanks for input guys. Dirty fave that is good idea about rewarding driver. Have to study on how to do so with the different trucks and routes. Have to check on the mud flaps. There is some highway miles from terminal to route and back. Wife has drove 340 in one day. Routes are made up in office but doesn't make any sense at times. Only the new drivers use them though. After they learn route it's done to get done as early as possible which go in hand with fewer miles. Thanks a lot for the input and keep it coming.