The Top 3 Ways to Beat the Gas Man This Summer

With the price of gas hovering between 1.20-1.30/litre, it's safe to say that everyone is feeling the oil crunch this year. But those of us in the construction industry, of course, are bent over the barrel (so to speak) even more than anyone else. 

Because whether you're a renovator with a single truck or van on the road, or a GC with a fleet of decal-ed vehicles, two universal truths hold true of your predicament: 1) Ladders don't fit very well on SmartCars (though apparently in them?); and 2) Dodge Rams and Chevy Astros are gas guzzlers.

So as trade contractors and construction companies, what are you to do? Suck it up while the gas man sucks you dry? 

Well, the way I see it, there are three main factors that affect your weekly gas spending: how much you pay per litre, how good your mileage is and how many kilometres you drive per day. In this article, I will address each of these in turn and present you with the Top 3 Ways to Beat the Pumps this summer.

NUMBER 1) Compare, Compare, Compare

Of the three factors listed above, the price per litre of gas is the one you have the least control over. But even if you can't make the evil petroleum companies give you a break, that doesn't mean you can't do anything to fill the tank for less. In fact, the best thing you can do in this department is to subscribe to the same philosophy your mother does when she's buying her monthly groceries: shop around! 

For fellow Ottawans, a great site to plug into your browser and bookmark is www.ottawagasprices.com. The interface is far from pretty, but the name is easy to remember and it delivers the promised goods. There, you will find a quick and easy display of all the highest priced stations in the city to avoid, and the lowest priced stations to hit up. (And after a brief overview of yesterday's prices, a secondary piece of advice to save on gas might be "Move to Orleans or Carleton Place", but I digress.) 

[For those of you not in Ottawa, just do a google search for "Compare gas prices MYCITY" and you will surely find a similar tool for your area on the first page of results.]

Checking this site first thing in the morning, before you head out, to see which station closest to where you're working has the cheapest gas might take you two minutes to do, but given the spreads I've seen on there, it could save you $6-$10 a tank when filling larger vehicles. Multiply that by the number of times you'll 'fill'er up' this summer, not to mention by the number of vehicles you have on the go (if more than one), and we're not talking chump change anymore.   

NUMBER 2) Drive in Hypermile Style

You may think that your kmpg (or mpg if you prefer the American term) rating is set in stone from the moment you drive your vehicle off the lot, and in some ways you're right. But aside from purchasing the most fuel-efficient vehicles possible for your business, there are other things you can do to squeeze more juice out of each tank.

Believe it or not, there is a whole movement around eeking as many miles out of your wheels as possible: it's called hypermiling and no, it has nothing to do with providing your drivers with cases of Red Bull. What it does concern is driving in a way that minimizes all unnecessary fuel use. 

The basic premise can be summed up in five points: 

• Brake as little as possible: Let off the gas and roll to a stop as often as possible because frequent braking wastes fuel.  
  
• Always accelerate slowly and smoothly: Nothing burns unnecessary gas faster than revving the engine to get off the mark at an intersection. It's a green light, folks, not a checkered flag.
  
• As often as possible, turn the AC off. Fresh air is good for you, anyway.
  
• Don't speed. In fact, the range of 80-90 kmph (50-55 mph) is a sweetspot that you should strive to hit for maximum fuel economy.
  
• Keep your tire pressure proper, your wheels aligned and your engine tuned: Your car is only as efficient as the sum of its parts, so take care of them, would you?

Now these tips may be easier said than done, and I am by no means implying that I abide by the above rules on regular basis. (Au contraire, I can turn into quite the Andretti when extreme circumstances require... where "extreme circumstances" usually means "I'm extremely hungry.") But hey, you're the one who wanted to save gas, right?

NUMBER 3) Make Every Kilometre Count

The final piece of the puzzle is the one you have the most direct control over: limiting how many kilometres your vehicles travel every day. And the biggest single piece of advice that I can offer in this regard is to plan ahead, and teach your crew leaders and supervisors and anyone else who drives your company vehicles to plan ahead, too.

What do i mean by this? I mean scheduling site visits and sales calls and meetings in a way that minimizes cross-city treks. Not only will this make your crews more efficient by freeing up lost travel-time, but it should cut down on the number of daily kilometres your vehicles are putting in, too.

I still remember when I had this epiphany myself. I was running my painting company at the time, and on this particular day I was managing four poorly-scheduled jobs, two in Ottawa proper (one downtown, one in South Keys), one in Manotick and one in Greely. Between delivering products to the four disparate sites, putting out fires and attending to sales calls in between, I literally went through almost an entire tank of gas (not to mention my entire reservoir of patience) in that one day. At that point, I made up my mind never again to let my poor planning make the gas companies rich.

Sitting down by yourself (if you're a one-man operation) or with your primary decision-makers (if yours is a larger company) for a few minutes, either at the end of the day, or in the morning before the day begins, and roughly planning out your travel can make all the difference in the world. I think you would  truly be surprised how much unnecessary to-and-fro-ing your vehicles are doing every day if you stopped to take a closer look; I know I was. 

No, you can't predict every trip you'll need to take tomorrow, but the bulk of your activity can and should be planned the day before to make every kilometre count. 

BONUS TIP: To save even more on gas, consider doing business with suppliers who offer free site delivery for their orders. This may sound like a no-brainer to some of you, but I am positive many (especially smaller companies) are still spending hours every day picking up materials and supplies and delivering them to job sites. Find supply stores who will deliver (like Alpine Construction Supplies, who we recently featured in these pages, for example) and save yourself the time and the mileage.

High fuel prices are here to stay, and they show no signs of going anywhere but up. But while you might not be able to control their devilish ascent, at least armed with these tips and tricks you should be able to put a sizable dent in your company's gas expenditures this summer just the same.

 

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Editor's Note: The preceding aticle was my monthly Publisher's Viewpoint Column, which will appear in the June edition of the Ottawa Construction News.