Do driving habits matter? Yes!

Most of us are well aware that how we drive affects the fuel consumption of our vehicles. We now have some new numbers to show us how much. In an article on GreenBiz, Karen Healey of PHH Arval, a leading fleet management company with which EDF has partnered, tells us that the “early results of some of PHH's clients who are just in the beginning stages of instituting green driving training programs show that they have already been able to improve their fuel efficiency by up 4 percent overall, with individual drivers improving their efficiency by as much as 17 percent.”

What does that 4 percent mean? Well, for an average corporate fleet vehicle it’s about $100 difference a year at today’s fuel price ($2.70/gal). For a fleet of 1000 vehicles, of which there are more than 300 in the U.S., it would mean an annual savings of $100,000. Last time I checked, that was not an insignificant chunk of change.

Of course, improving driving habits can only ever be one piece of a comprehensive “greenfleet” program that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Selecting the most efficient vehicles that can do the job and minimizing vehicle miles traveled need to be at the heart of a comprehensive program. Driver training clearly matters though.

Others are catching on to the importance of driver training too. As we noted in our 2009 Innovations Review, there are now several training options for fleets to consider. EDF is happy to have played a role in this success too, as part of PHH’s program includes a training module that we developed. PHH has been piloting this tool for the past year. We plan to release it more widely this summer.

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