Better for the environment and more respectful to the whole community, driving with a nod to eco friendliness is a no-brainer. Fuel consumption and vehicle emissions are a big focus for all car owners. The more we spend, the more we produce. This simple equation turns petrol or diesel into the fumes which find their way into the earth's atmosphere.
Eco-safe driving is a style. It is something that you can change tomorrow. This guide will help you take on the challenge, improve your overall driving, and reduce your CO2 footprint.
Driving eco-safely covers a whole host of elements to driving, such as:
● Checking your tyres
● The weight that you carry in the car
● The acceleration that you use; the gentler the better
● Braking in good time, trying to avoid heavy, late braking
● Not idling your engine for long periods
● Route planning and understanding the hazards
● Reverse parking to enhance fuel consumption
● Safe distances between you and the car in front
Although many things impact eco safe driving, most are easy to change. In the next step, we will discover how you can turn into a safer, more eco-friendly driver overnight.
How can I drive eco safely?
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Benjamin Franklin may not have been talking about driving, but his much-attributed quote is apt in every element of your driving. We will now go through the four main stages of eco-safe driving: preliminary checks and maintenance; planning your journey and anticipating new hazards; moving off and reducing energy expenditure; braking and parking.
Preliminary checks and maintenance
Tyres are vital, and often forgotten. The tread of the tyre improves your grip, but the air pressure in your tyres is integral to eco-safe driving. Make sure you keep it at the right pressure to improve the efficiency of your drive with every mile.
Removing unnecessary weight is also a great way to make your driving more eco safe. The more weight, the more fuel you need to use to move the car.
Planning your journey
Eco-safe driving starts with planning your route. Check for traffic, and try to choose roads that will allow you to maintain a more consistent or regular speed – motorways and cruise control are perfect for long journeys.
Moving off and reducing energy expenditure
Acceleration is where you expend the highest level of emissions. Gentle acceleration greatly improves your eco-safe driving because you will spend less fuel getting up to speed. Energy expenditure also includes every aspect of your driving, even the switches in your car. Heating and air conditioning can make a real dent in the energy you use on every drive, so use it sparingly and only when necessary.
Braking and parking
On the other hand, or foot, is braking. It encompasses the speed you drive at, your awareness and anticipation of hazards – it all impacts on how quickly you will need to slow down. By braking more gently, you will get more from the fuel that you use.
A top tip for any drivers that dread reverse parking is that driving out of a space uses less fuel than reversing out. By reversing at the end of a journey, you can make a small but important change to your driving.
Start your eco-safe driving journey with WS Driving
Take these tips into your driving and you will quickly see plenty of benefits. Your brakes will love you, your car will regard you as a family friend, and the planet will appreciate the small changes you make in every mile.
WS Driving offers Eco-Driving Courses:
Element 1 – Looks at things you can do, to ensure your vehicle is as economical and efficient as it can be. We look at your tyre pressures, how often you get your vehicle serviced, if you’re carrying any unnecessary weight in your vehicle, and any other things, which can be impacting on your fuel usage rate.
These things may be overlooked by many people, but by making sure your vehicle is well serviced, have correctly inflated tyres, and is not carrying any unnecessary weight can help improve fuel economy by up to 10% or more.
Element 2 – We provide bespoke on-road training. This element, which makes up the vast proportion of the course, is designed to help you become much more fuel efficient in your approach to driving. During this element, we place focus on:
Forward planning and observation – By seeing hazards much earlier, you will be able to plan accordingly. Sudden and unplanned braking and acceleration will increase your fuel consumption, not to mention causing increased wear and tear on your vehicle.. Furthermore, taking this proactive approach by planning and observing more effectively will make you safer too. Forward planning and observation underpins advanced driving, and is looked at in careful detail with you, on a number of roads and different situations. Feedback during the course is vital and forms a key part of the training. .
Speed awareness – Being aware of your speed and speed limits (and sticking to them) will not only make you safer, and help avoid points on your licence, it will also make you a more fuel efficient driver. Just by lowering your speed a little can have a significant impact on your fuel economy, especially at motorway speeds. .
Use of controls – Skilful use of your vehicle controls, such as accelerator, use of brakes and gears will reduce wear and tear on your vehicle, and like with the points above, will help you improve your fuel economy.
We will measure you MPG (Miles Per Gallon) at the start of the session, and then again at the end, so you can see by implementing various techniques you can save fuel. Typically we see improvements of around 20% .
Key Elements:
Learn how to prepare your vehicle for optimum economy
Identify and eliminate habits, which will could be impacting on you fuel economy
Become more skilful in all areas of driving
Take control and demonstrate your commitment to lowering your carbon footprint
Please contact us here for further information and to book.