According to a recent survey conducted by German tyre manufacturer Continental, drivers in Britain collectively throw away more than £1 billion per year just because of their driving style. Based on current fuel prices, this comes to a total of around £300 per driver per year in the UK, and over an average lifetime would be enough to buy you a brand new Audi A1 Hatchback with 3 doors and a 1.6TDI engine, and have some change left over.
According to the survey almost 90% of us are concerned by the ever rising costs of fuel, and although eco driving can save up to 20% of your fuel bill, 2 in 5 British motorists have no idea what it entails.
Fuel price rises have inevitably affected the pockets of UK families as levels of pay remain relatively stagnant, whilst bills go up and up. The rises have also been felt across the transport industry and many fleets have been looking to adopt new driving practices to help them save money on their fuel bills too. So if you’re a fleet owner and you’re looking for ways to bring down your fuel bill, here are a few tips and stories that might help.
1. Three Turns Are Better Than One
American parcel deliver firm UPS made huge savings on their fuel bill by asking drivers to take three right turns, rather than waiting to take a left turn in order to reach the same place. In a single year they saved more than 11 million litres of fuel across their fleet. Just remember if you’re thinking of employing this technique, the Americans drive on the wrong side of the road.
2. Get Your Truck A Spoiler
Retail giant Walmart, who own ASDA in the UK made a 5% – 8% saving on their fuel bills across the pond when using the ‘highway’ simply by fitting spoilers to their trucks. Spoilers are used in order to disrupt the airflow over the body of the vehicle, and therefore help to reduce drag, which improves your fuel economy.
3. Sleeping? Turn Your Engine Off!
Whether you like it or not, by law drivers have to stop once in a while. Legally they can only drive for a fixed period of time in certain vehicles before they have to rest, and many vehicles are equipped with sleeper cabs so that they’ve got somewhere to get their head down for the night. And one huge retailer managed to shave a cool £15 million off their operations whilst the drivers are fast asleep. Just ask them to remember to turn their engines off!
4. Investing In Systems And People
US hardware manufacturer Xerox made large savings from investing in driver training for its mobile service technicians. Not only did the companies drivers learn to drive more economically, but new technology and company processes also helped to reduce distances travelled using satellite navigation, advanced scheduling and rerouting. This rerouting and scheduling helped to improve the allocation of work to the nearest mobile agent, which not only brought down fuel costs, but also increased efficiency.
5. Keep Up The Pressure
Regularly monitoring and adjusting your vehicles tyre pressures to the correct level helps not only to prolong the life of your tyres, but also helps to improve fuel efficiency by reducing rolling resistance. Tyrenet uses its regular fleet inspections as an opportunity to check tyre pressures where applicable, in order to highlight problems and make adjustments as necessary. By regularly checking and maintaing the pressure not only do our agents ensure that tyre life is maximised, but also that fuel economy is increased within your fleet.
One of the primary aims of Tyrenet has always been to establish a reciprocal trading relationship with all of its network members, the theory being that the more breakdown work Tyrenet gets, the more it has to share out between its independent tyre dealer members so that everyone benefits.
Recently Tyrenet issued a letter to its entire dealer network, in order to reaffirm the company’s commitment to reciprocal trading with its network members and the company would like to thank a large number of dealers who have now started to give a portion of their breakdown work to Tyrenet for their positive response.
Tyrenet understands that the majority of our members also carry out work on behalf of other networks, and therefore we aren’t looking for people to give all their breakdowns to Tyrenet as we know this may impact upon other business they receive from elsewhere, but we are asking for a fair share of work from those who get work back.
The response from dealers has been fantastic, although it did get me thinking why should you and your customer choose us when you pick up the phone? So here are 5 very good reasons:
1. Bigger Is Better:
When it comes to network coverage, we honestly believe that we can offer the most comprehensive UK coverage of any tyre breakdown network. And although it’s not always the case, this time round bigger really does mean better because the more independent tyre dealers we have working with us across the UK, the greater the level of assistance and expertise we can offer you and your customers.
So whether you’re in Aylesford or Auchtermuchty, Welshpool or Wolverhampton we’ve got you covered.
2. Going That Extra Mile:
If there is one thing that we hate, it’s not being able to source a breakdown on your behalf. That’s why when Tyrenet had a driver who needed to drive in to a dealer in Wick and we didn’t have one, we went out and found one.
We are committed to getting your customers back on the road again, and what is good for them is also good for us.
3. Clear, Consistent And Competitive Pricing:
Tyrenet offer a completely transparent and competitive fixed price to all our members. Unlike other networks we make a realistic fixed fee on every breakdown we handle, and unlike some networks we don’t base it on a percentage of total cost either. Our fixed fee is split between both customer and supplier, and it is not excessive unlike some other networks.
Because our pricelist is based on realistic profit margins, it is attractive to both customers and suppliers, and ensures that both parties maintain a healthy margin where possible without being overcharged or underpaid for the work they have carried out which ensures a fairer system for all network members.
4. More Than Just A Call Centre:
When you get through to Tyrenet you’re not just talking to a call centre operative working from a script. You’re talking to an office full of real people, with hands on experience in the tyre industry which means that we understand your problem, rather than just write it down to pass on to someone else who does.
It is this mixture of the personal touch and tyre industry experience that makes Tyrenet unique within the industry and it ensures that you get through to someone who speaks the language of tyres. Not only this but our state of the art call handling systems allow us to control your customers policies from brand fitment by position(s) right through to casing destination and retorque policies. For more information on registering your customers with us, all you need to do is call and we can do the rest.
5. A Fair Share For All:
The aim of reciprocal trading is to share business amongst independent tyre dealers across one single network of active customers and suppliers.
Unlike some networks we don’t charge you to join the network, and we aren’t owned by multiple people with their own business interests elsewhere. Tyrenet doesn’t believe in charging tyre dealers to become part of the network, because just by your very location you can be at a very distinct disadvantage with regards to the volume of business you can expect to receive.
And why would you want to pay a joining fee, and pass a network a large amount of your breakdowns, only to see all the breakdowns in your area going to your competitor who happens to be owned by a director of the very same breakdown network? That’s why our single point of ownership means that we aren’t looking after multiple people’s other interests in what end up becoming ‘territories’ on a map of the UK.
Tyrenet aims to allocate a fair share of all breakdown and fleet management work to every dealer where ever possible. However, the more active Tyrenet partners in any area can expect to get a greater share of work, but again this is done as fairly as possible to encourage all network members to become more active, which in turn gives us more work to share around.
So next time you’re picking up the phone, just stop and think about how much value you’re actually getting from your current breakdown provider before hitting speed dial.
0845 230 1144
The real tyre experts are only a phone call away, 24 hours a day.
Authorities in Italy have reported the seizure of around 50,000 counterfeit wheels from China, found during a random check on a lorry coming into the country.
Counterfeiting is a major problem for manufacturers across many industries, and the automotive industry is no exception to the rule. Many of the items seized in the check also bore the copied logos of a number of major parts manufacturers.
According to the Guardia di Finanza, in conjunction with the Association of Italian Wheel Manufacturers the wheels not only violate the intellectual property rights of the real manufacturers, but they are also extremely unsafe. Many of the wheels lack the material and build quality of the genuine products, in a way which would not be visible to the average consumer. However, these differences can cause a number of problems and the counterfeit wheels are much more likely to succumb to damages from breaking at speed and hitting potholes but to name a few potential scenarios.
A recent campaign by a Manchester MP in the UK brought to light the problems of fitting second hand wheels to vehicles, and this latest news once again brings the quality of vehicle wheels, this time brand new, to the forefront of discussions.
One of the main pieces of advice issued by Italian Authorities, which applies to all retailers who buy and sell wheels is that you must be able to ensure that all products are traceable, so that you know who produced them and where. A number of unnamed Italian firms are already being investigated over the importation of these dangerous counterfeits that could have put people’s lives in danger.