Employment Center

Drivers:
Compare Companies
Employers:
Register your Company

Username

Password

Forget your password?
Need to register?

Over the last several months I've been covering two topics, fuel mileage and recordkeeping. With fuel prices well into the high two dollar range and at times slipping over the three dollar mark, these are the two most important areas for an owner operator to focus on. The reason that I talk about these two topics together is that they are so intertwined. You have to do everything possible to increase your fuel mileage because of the huge profit potential, and in order to increase your fuel mileage you need a very good system of tracking it.

In last months article I told you that I had released my new software program "Gauges". You can download a free trial copy of that software at www.masterthejourney.com or call my office at 888-262-8585 and we'll send you a copy.

Since that time I have been hard at work improving the fuel mileage calculator in that program and I will be releasing version 2.0 soon, but don't wait get a copy and start using it now to track your fuel mileage and all of your operating expenses. Once we have a system in place to track our fuel mileage on every tank, then we start working on strategies to improve it.

So that's what I want to focus on this month, some ideas on improving your fuel mileage. As we start to look at ways to improve our fuel mileage and lower our operating costs, we need to be aware of a concept called Return on Investment or ROI. This simply means that If I have to spend money in order to lower my costs how long will it take to return my initial cost and then start producing a profit.

There are ways to lower your fuel cost without spending any money at all and then there are things that we will have to spend money on first. So I'll give you an example of how to figure the ROI, it's not as complicated as it may seem.

The first and most effective strategy to lower fuel cost doesn't require you to spend any money at all so we don't even need to consider ROI. Simply slowing down will improve your bottom line immediately. Every one mile per hour you slow down will improve your fuel mileage by one tenth of a mile per gallon. Think about that, as I write this todays national average fuel price is $2.86 per gallon. It may be higher or lower when you read this but at $2.86 per gallon, every one tenth of a mile per gallon improvement will save you around a thousand dollars per year. So it really is worth it to track your fuel mileage to the tenth or even the hundredth of a gallon and work on improving it. Now here is a short list of things that don't cost you anything to change but will improve your fuel mileage.

• Slow down - one mile per hour = $1,000/year
• Reduce idle time - every one hour of idle time each week you eliminate saves $150/year reduce your idle time by ten hours each week and you put another $1500 in your pocket
• Check and maintain tire pressure - try increasing your tire pressure 5 - 10 pounds above what you may have been using, this can reduce rolling resistance and improve mileage, watch for increased wear in the center of the tire as this would indicate that the pressure is too high.

• Drive like you have an egg taped to the bottom of your shoe and your trying not to break it - easy on the stops and starts, practice progressive shifting.
• Tighten up your trailer air gap as much as possible - the closer you get the trailer to the back of the cab the better the aerodynamics.

Now you have some great strategies for lowering your fuel cost without spending any money, here is exactly how to get started. Go to my website and download my software, this won't cost you anything either, then put in your fuel receipts from the last month, this will give you a baseline fuel mileage, then choose one item from the list above and work on it. Watch in the software what starts to happen to your fuel mileage and your cost per mile. Work on one new idea each week and you will be saving thousands of dollars. Then you can take your savings and invest them in other strategies that will Lower your fuel cost even more. I'll start this month and bring you those new ideas in the order I think you should implement them. I'll start with the strategy that has the shortest ROI and then move on, one strategy paying for the next.

Here is strategy number one, slow down 5mph this week, that will save you $100 per week, if you do that for three weeks you'll have saved enough money to buy the turbo 3000d vada. (with a little left over to treat yourself to a nice dinner) The turbo 3000d could save you as much as 10%, which in turn will help pay for your next fuel saving investment. Next month I'll continue on with this concept so stay tuned, in the meantime "Be Safe, Be Profitable, and Master the Journey".
 
Kevin Rutherford
The Rutherford Group
www.cmcseminars.com
trucktax@mac.com
888-CMC-8585
888-262-8585