Valvoline and tiwi are launching a joint initiative to provide customers with a Fuel Proof Guarantee to test fuel economy improvements

. Under the new program, fleet operators with a minimum of 30 trucks will have 120 days to test Valvoline's Premium Blue Extreme engine oil and Syn Gard FE gear oil. The tiwi onboard system will be used to establish baseline data.

In addition, the tiwi verbal-coaching system is activated to provide drivers with real-time verbal mentoring about speeding violations, aggressive driving, other inefficient habits, seat belt use and more.

If the fleet does not experience an increase in fuel economy, the two companies will remove their products from the vehicles and reimburse the fleet for any incremental costs.

In its own tests, Valvoline used two independent test facilities and multiple real-life customers to validate miles per gallon gains, using the EPA SmartWay certified J1321 protocol. Tests were conducted with vehicles operating with Valvoline's Premium Blue Extreme SAE 5W-40 full synthetic engine oil and Syn Gard FE gear oil. Results varied depending on loads, routes and drivers. Less-than-truckload applications and P&D operations achieved the highest fuel economy improvement. Adding tiwi vehicle monitoring and driver mentoring is expected to yield greater gains in virtually every type of fleet operation, the company says.

"Fleet customers are understandably highly skeptical about mpg claims," said John Noal, vice president of the international and commercial platforms for The Valvoline Company. "They need proof that they're going to get better mpg with their own drivers, in their own operations."

"According to EPA statistics, driving habits affect mpg by as much as 35 percent," said Todd Follmer, CEO for tiwi. "Fleet testing has proven that using tiwi in-vehicle mentoring will decrease aggressive driving events by 89 percent and speeding violations by 86 percent."

For more information on the new program, visit www.fuelproofguarantee.com.