Six ways fleet operators save on gas (and you can, too)

While you may long for $2 gas, the truth is that higher prices – in the $3 to $4 a gallon range – are the new normal. Here are six money-saving tips, used by fleet operators, to save money on fuel:

4. Maintain vehicles properly

Ron Medvescek/Arizona Daily Star/AP/File
Javier Carrillo, of Mississippi, waits on his truck so that he can get back on the road in this 2011 file photo in Tucson, Ariz. Repair of an emissions problem can improve gas mileage by 4 percent on average.

Regular maintenance, tune-ups and prompt repair of major issues also can reduce fuel costs. The DOE notes that a tune-up or the repair of emissions issues can improve gas mileage by 4 percent on average. Fixing a serious maintenance problem, such as a faulty oxygen sensor, can result in a 40 percent gain. Keeping tires properly inflated can improve gas mileage by 3.3 percent, while using the manufacturer’s recommended grade of motor oil can result in a 2 percent improvement.

[i] 

4 of 6

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.