Tammy Newcomer, center, with Jet Express President Kevin Burch, left, and Vnomics' Ed McCarthy.Photo: Vnomics
2 min to read
Tammy Newcomer, center, with Jet Express President Kevin Burch, left, and Vnomics' Ed McCarthy. Photo: Vnomics
There’s more to fuel economy than just a number. Yes, it’s exciting to read about fleets that are achieving 10 mpg and even more — but typically those are with the most fuel-efficent-spec’ed trucks and the top drivers. But you don’t have to achieve those lofty levels to make a big difference in your bottom line.
Take Tammy Newcomer, a driver for Ohio-based Jet Express. Between January and August, she averaged 8.38 mpg. That’s pretty impressive on its own — but what was more impressive was that according to an onboard fuel optimization/driver coaching system, she reached 99.9% of her potential mpg.
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During a single week, according to Vnomics, Newcomer drove almost 2,500 miles with an efficiency of over 99.92% of potential mpg. That means only 2/10ths of a gallon of the over 280 gallons her truck consumed was in excess of the fuel an ideal driver would have used under the same conditions.
Newcomer was the first winner of Vnomics’ new Fuel Champ Award program, chosen from among the more than 20,000 drivers who use the Vnomics in-cab fuel optimization solution. She received a check for $350, which represents approximately how much money she saves Jet Express each month in fuel costs with her efficient driving, explained Ed McCarthy, vice president of operations and customer success at Vnomics.
“Compared to Tammy’’s achievement of 99.92% of potential mpg, the average driver unassisted by True Fuel would have used over 9% percent more fuel on average, or more than 100 gallons more per month. In addition, due to Newcomer’s skill, last year alone her truck emitted 13.2 tons less CO2 compared to a typical driver.”
The Vnomics True Fuel fuel optimization solution only considers factors that a driver can control, such as engine speed, speeding and idle time, normalizing out variable factors such as payload weight, route, weather and truck configuration. It establishes a truck’s potential fuel economy independent of route, load and other external factors, and then helps drivers achieve that full potential through in-vehicle driver coaching.
HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park, a former driver himself, took True Fuel for a spin; check out the results in these videos:
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