15 April 2011

Driving Skills

Skills, the Nottingham based coach holiday company, is putting its 100 drivers back to school to help offset the rising cost of fuel. Early efficiency tests using the company’s 60 coaches, buses and taxis show that better driving on a typical mixed urban and rural journey can cut diesel consumption by 22%.

“This is a remarkable saving. It almost offsets the recent fuel price hike,” says chairman, Nigel Skill. “Now we want to make these savings on all our tours where 30% of the cost is fuel. The benefits will be passed to holidaymakers and in driver benefits.

“Initially we estimated a saving of under ten per cent. This was doubled by rigorously enforcing the rules under the safe and fuel efficient driving standard.”

Skills’ coach test involves a 40 minute journey from Bulwell, through Hucknall, and the countryside to the M1 motorway. Tank levels were monitored before and after to record fuel use.

Skills driver performance manager, Tony Lambell, says it’s all about technique. “Proper use of the gears and accelerator, less unnecessary braking and slower cornering, are all important,” he says. “But perhaps the biggest tip is to look ahead and see what’s likely to bring you to a halt. The fewer times we stop the better, as 20 per cent of your fuel to get to 30 miles an hour is needed just to get the wheels turning. Keep them rolling and the savings follow.

“I’ve started to use these easy techniques on my car journey to work, and the savings there are nearly as good as in a coach. Surprisingly, our research shows journey times have not increased. In fact, in all our tests but one, there were time savings of up to 4 minutes an hour.”

A Skills 49 seater coach has a fuel capacity of 450 litres and costs over £500 to fill. Skills anticipate a significant improvement on the industry standard of 8.5 miles per gallon. Even without driving efficiency saving, Skills says coach journeys are cheaper per passenger mile than ship, air or self drive travel, and similar to rail travel.