Volvo Trucks continues unrelenting focus on improving fuel efficiency

Sixth edition of India Fuelwatch competition held

It is not without reason that the global trucking heavyweight Volvo has its special focus on fuel efficiency and considers it a core brand value. In line with its global philosophy, Volvo Trucks India continued with its fuel efficiency drive at the sixth edition of the Fuelwatch competition held at Kothegudem mines in Telangana.

The Fuelwatch competition aims to bring out the best driving skills among drivers and encourages them to drive safety and efficiently, while also promoting both the financial and environmental advantages of fuel-efficient driving. While the Indian commercial vehicle industry is faced with acute driver shortage and the driver fraternity is confronted with multiple challenges, the competition offers the much-needed encouragement for the community as it acknowledges and rewards drivers who are central to the theme of minimizing fuel consumption.

Having conducted the first edition of the India Fuelwatch Competition in 2010, Volvo has received very good response for the program, expanding in a big way over the years. “The event has taken good shape as we continue striving to take it to international standards. We had initially started a single round involving a few customers who owned 50 to 100 vehicles, and now we have reached a level where many customers take part in it. Now there are 13 regional rounds before the final. Customers have given very encouraging response to this initiative of ours and want more such events to be conducted at their sites”, says Mr. Hari Babu who heads Volvo’s driver training initiatives.

This year’s competition

The India Fuelwatch event, which has grown in popularity and reach over the years, is conducted to help drivers build their competency and bring out the best fuel-efficiency from Volvo trucks in real-life mining conditions. After 13 regional rounds, 15 finalist drivers were ready to compete for the India Fuelwatch champion crown. The edition also saw the new FMX I-Shift variant make its Fuelwatch debut in the Indian market with each driver having to drive both the FMX I-Shift and classic FMX tippers. The total round-trip distance per trip was approximately five km with each participant taking four trips – one in each of the vehicles under both loaded and unloaded conditions.

Volvo takes utmost care to ensure there is no variation in any of the parameters such as the route taken, operating conditions, vehicle load, etc., so that the competition result completely lies with the drivers, clearly ranking them based on fuel consumption, with the one consuming the least fuel adjudged the winner.

At the end of each trip, data such as distance covered, fuel consumed, engine hours, etc., are downloaded using the Volvo Dynafleet Online trip manager, giving a clear indication of which driver is the most fuel efficient among the lot. The fuel average of only the drive time is taken into account, thus eliminating idle hour fuel consumption to precisely assess the driving skills of the participants. In the unlikely event of a tie, despite the fuel average being considered up to two decimal places, the time taken to complete the trip becomes the deciding factor. In addition to fuel consumption, qualitative parameters such as safety and driving behavior are measured, which help in further driver skills assessment.

After two days of exciting battle in the finals, this year’s competition was won by Mr. P. Ravi of SV Engineering Construction with Mr. Kameshwar Rao of Mahalakshmi Infracontracts and Mr. D. Ganapathi of Sushee Infra coming in as first and second runners-up respectively. The latest edition saw a fuel efficiency difference of 15.4 per cent between the best and the worst drivers, a figure which would actually translate into an enormous amount of saving in real-time operating conditions.

Mr. Ravi, the winner, now heads to the Asian level Fuelwatch competition, hoping to be able to make it to the global finale which would be held subsequently.

Benchmark for driver training

Volvo-FuelWatch-pic-2 — Mr. Hari Babu, incharge of driver training at Volvo

It is a known fact that drivers play a crucial role in the overall profitability for fleet operators, and Volvo Trucks’ sustained focus on improving fuel efficiency stands testimony to its commitment to help improve customers’ profitability, while at the same time encouraging safe driving practices and environmental care by saving fuel.

Volvo Trucks currently has a 14-member team engaged in driver training across the country. The Swedish outfit has clearly been the benchmark when it comes to training and is committed to continue its efforts on the front.

“We have been pioneers in driver training and were the first company in India to ensure that every truck or bus being sold is driven by a trained driver. We have received a lot of of recognition for the same in the form of the Prince Michael Award and the IRT Award. Considering the encouragement we receive from drivers and the response from customers, I think we are in the right direction and will continue to put in more efforts in this aspect”, adds Mr. Babu.

Interview with Mr. Siddharth Kirtane, Head – Marketing, Volvo Trucks

This is the sixth edition of the Volvo Trucks India FuelWatch competition. Can you tell us how the event has evolved over the years?

Like last year, we have expanded the scope of the competition. Earlier the competition used to happen on a smaller scale with drivers competing in a single round and the winner going on to take part in the Asian level. In order to drive the message to customers further, we have started conducting multiple FuelWatch competitions at customer sites as well, and this year we have done 13 rounds at 13 different sites. We have literally taken the competition to our customers’ doorsteps, and our ambition is to continue this with more customers in future.

How important is the Fuelwatch initiative for Volvo Trucks?

I think this is a very unique event done by Volvo globally and the reason we do it is because fuel efficiency is core at our heart and it is a part of our brand value, and so are environmental care and safety. Technology improvements can help improve efficiencies in the product in terms of better performance and lower fuel consumption, but we believe in participating in our customers’ business in such a way that they benefit from our solutions. From that perspective, Volvo is completely committed to this activity as we work on expanding its scope and coverage, which is receiving excellent response from customers.

This is the first time the I-Shift technology was part of the India Fuelwatch event. What impact do you think it would have on the participants?

The FMX I-Shift present a ‘hands on wheel, eyes on road’ comfort for drivers, making it extremely comfortable for them while driving and thereby enhances productivity for the customer. The I-Shift tries to reduce the fuel efficiency difference between a poor and a good driver as the technology takes the role of reducing fuel consumption. We are trying to give an experience to the drivers as to how the I-Shift can help make their lives comfortable and easy. At the end of the competition we are confident that the I-Shift will result in superior fuel efficiency than before.

How do your customers and their drivers benefit from the Fuelwatch program?

When the drivers go back after the competition, they communicate to their colleagues as to how much of a difference minor aspects such as applying brake excessively, over accelerating and not following the green band, can make in fuel efficiency. This helps create a mind-set in them to save money for their owner and from a customer perspective there is enormous saving when fuel efficiency is improved. We have seen in the past that the difference between the best and worst drivers in terms of fuel efficiency has been nearly 20 per cent which could translate to savings of around crores of rupees every year for a fleet of 100 vehicles. This is exactly why our customers are responding very well to the program.

How do you plan to take things forward in the coming years?

We will continue to expand the scope of the event by reaching more customers. We will try to expand to around 20 customers next year. In the last six editions, including this year, we have been conducting the competition only for the off-road segment. Our ambition is to extend it for our on-road customers as well, going forward.