17% Fuel Reduction Achieved During FuelGood Training

ISA employees achieve 17% fuel consumption reduction following FuelGood training sessions delivered by Roadwise Driver Training CIC

Most organisations have employees or volunteers who are out on the road from time to time. They can be attending meetings, transferring clients from A to B, making sales visits or delivering goods and services to clients. For some organisations this may be an occasional activity, others regard their employee/ volunteer training as a priority and keep it at the very heart of their organisation.

For a number of years Roadwise has been working with the International School of Aberdeen delivering minibus driving assessments.  Most recently Roadwise has been engaged in a combined driving assessment and FuelGood training programme for ISA employees.

To highlight the positive results achieved by ISA and how other companies could benefit from participating in similar courses with their employees an interview was conducted with Ron Falconer, Transport Coordinator at ISA where he shared his organisation’s results and experiences. 

Why did your organisation decide to engage in the driver training? 

ISA decided to engage the services of Roadwise as training had been provided previously, the Transport Coordinator knew one of the instructors personally and was assured that a professional service would be provided. This was indeed the case.

Is this the first time your organisation has been involved in a FuelGood training programme? 

It was the first time ISA had implemented this style of training programme and this was as a result of taking delivery of a new minibus and wanting to expand the number of trained and competent minibus drivers.

What were your expectations in relation to the driver training programme?

The training provided professional tuition, looked at different driving styles and identified improvements in relation to driving both safely and economically. Arranging the training could not have been simpler. Our 9 candidates received comprehensive training sessions spread over 3 days from Kenny McLean, one of the Roadwise instructors who specialises in both minibus and FuelGood training.

The FuelGood part of the session comprised of:

• An initial drive of approximately 20 min, measuring MPG, average speed, time taken and distance covered.
• Advice was given on how to improve each delegate’s eco driving. Skills covered included anticipation, early reaction to potential hazards, use of gears and other economic factors such as speed, tyres, wind resistance, air conditioning associated with fuel consumption.
• The initial drive was repeated, measuring MPG, average speed, time taken and distance covered. During this part of the session each delegate was coached to adapt their driving style where necessary, ideally to improve the mpg without taking longer to complete the route.
• The remainder of each session allowed the coach and delegate time to discuss/ work on other areas of driving to improve their all-round awareness and safety margins.

How has the training been received by your staff?

Our staff certainly benefited from the training and adopted the advice given into their daily driving routines. ISA was very pleased with the training provided by Roadwise. ISA average improvement was almost 17% compared to EST average improvement of 13.1%

Dave Watson, Managing Director at Roadwise stated “We are delighted to engage with Energy Saving Trust in delivering FuelGood to companies and individuals as it complements our defensive driving and behavioural courses highlighting how good driving practises can considerably reduce fuel consumption.”

Heather Quin, Assistant Programme Manager at Energy Saving Trust commented: “International School of Aberdeen’s (ISA) commitment to the environment is demonstrated by taking part in FuelGood driver training with Roadwise. The exceptional results achieved illustrate that with a complimentary approach, FuelGood can be incorporated within existing and established driver training programmes. FuelGood training focuses on driving techniques to reduce fuel consumption, resulting in savings on both fuel costs and carbon emissions. With an above-average result, I am hopeful that ISA’s staff will continue to see significant fuel savings, both at work and in their own vehicles for personal use.”

Energy Saving Trust

Energy Saving Trust is an organisation providing evidence-based advice and ground-breaking research that helps people save energy, every day.

Trusted by consumers, businesses and organisations for our expertise and independence, our goal is to find new and better ways to drive change and reduce energy and fuel consumption. www.energysavingtrust.org.uk