Driver Behavior and

your Fleet Budget

A comprehensive look at how

and why different components
of driver behavior affect fuel
economy and your fleets
budget.
1

Our background:

Hybrid & Electric Vehicles:

Faster, Better, Cheaper

Energy & Emissions Made Easy.

Save dollars, gallons, and tons.

Car-Buying, Based on You.

Save dollars, gallons, and tons.

Model-based design services

& prototyping for vehicle
manufacturers.

Products for vehicle selection and

monitoring: FleetCarma TCO and
Energy & Emissions Reporting.

Dealership product for customer

engagement and conversion.
Decision-support for consumers.

Contents
Although it has been understood that there is a relationship between the way a vehicle is driven and the fuel
economy of that vehicle it has been difficult to calculate exactly how much. We quantified the effect of driver
behavior on real world fuel economy. This e-book was researched and written with the end goal of producing
actionable tips for fleet managers on how to make the largest impact on their fuel economy through improvements
in driver behavior.

How driver behavior affects operational costs

(4)

Strategies to improve driver behavior

(8)

Impact of driver behavior on plug-in vehicles

(15)

Driver Behaviors
effect on fleet budgets
Despite the recognition of driver behavior on a vehicles fuel efficiency, many
fleets may not know how much this cost can be managed. Through monitoring
real-world vehicles, we have quantified the effects of several facets of driver
behavior, including acceleration and braking events and idling.

Driver Behavior and Operational Costs

Outside controlled test conditions, fuel efficiency in the real world is extremely variable. Although significant gains
can be made by upgrading to more fuel efficient vehicles, what can fleet managers do with the vehicles already
operating within their fleets? Fuel costs are a considerable operational cost for fleets and one of the costs in which
a fleet manager has control over.
Fuel Economy (US Units)

Fuel Consumption (Metric Units)

40

25

35
20

30
25
Fuel
Consumption
(L/100km)

Fuel Economy
20
(mpg)
15
10

15

10

n=1783

0
0

20

40
60
FleetCarma Eco-Score

80

100

20

40
60
FleetCarma Eco-Score

80

FleetCarmas Eco-Score is a measurement of driver aggressiveness, with an aggressive driver receiving a low ecoscore for the trip, an a fuel efficient driver achieving a high eco-score. The graphs above demonstrate the impact
of an aggressive driver on the amount of fuel consumed.

100

Driver Behavior and Fuel Economy:

Size Matters
In our investigation of real world driver behavior we found that different vehicles display a different sensitivity to driver
aggressiveness. Through further analysis, we found that the greater the mass of the vehicle the more sensitive the fuel
economy was to the way the vehicle is driven.
Vehicle Mass and Eco-Score Sensitivity
US Units

Vehicle Mass and Eco-Score Sensitivity

Metric Units
Vehicle mass (kg)
>1800
1360-1800
1130-1360
<1130

50
45
40

30
25

35

Real World
20
Fuel Economy
(MPG)

Real World
Fuel
30
Consumption
(L/100km)
25

15

20

Vehicle mass (lbs)

10

15
10

>4000
3000-4000
2500-3000
<2500

5
0

0
0

20

40
60
FleetCarma Eco-Score

80

100

20

40
60
FleetCarma Eco-Score

80

100

When implementing a driver behavior feedback program, fleet managers can begin with larger vehicles in order to
make the most substantial reductions in fuel spend.

Acceleration and Braking Events

Hard Accelerations and Fuel Economy
30
y = -0.4892x + 24.145

25
20
Fuel
Economy 15
(mpg)
10
5
0

5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Hard Acceleration (as portion of all acceleration events)

When analyzing acceleration events, we looked at several

conventional vehicles. We looked at the average fuel
economy for trips that had hard accelerations over a
particular threshold.
With increased hard accelerations, a reduction in fuel
economy can be seen. There is some variability in how much
the fuel economy is affected, as the real-world results are
affected by driving conditions, weather, and altitude changes
over each trip.

Hard Braking and Fuel Economy

30
y = -0.875x + 25.723

25
Fuel 20
Economy 15
(mpg)
10

As with hard accelerations, with an increase in hard braking

events, the average fuel economy is reduced. However this
reduction is twice as severe as the effects of hard
accelerations. Fleet managers can focus on reducing hard
braking in particular in order to realize greater savings.

5
0
5%
n=1783

The same set of conventional vehicles were analyzed to

determine the effect of aggressive braking on fuel economy.

10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Hard Braking (as a portion of all braking events

Steps to improve
Driver Behavior
Improving driver behaviors goes beyond asking drivers to focus on driving less
aggressive. Defining aggressive driving, isolating idle events, and monitoring
real world performance is critical to giving the best feedback possible.

What does it mean to improve driver behavior?

Reduce hard acceleration and hard braking

Reduce the amount of idling time per vehicle

Reduce highway speed and use cruise control

when possible

For plug-in vehicles, charge at off-peak times

10

Steps to improve
driver behavior

Consistent Feedback

Goal Setting and Management

Consistent Feedback
The first step to improve driver behavior is to provide feedback
to drivers on how they are currently doing. Feedback before,
during, and after training programs helps ensure the success of
the program and maintains steady engagement with drivers.
Giving feedback on a variety of parameters puts control of fuel
spend into the hands of the driver and fleet manager and helps
guard against surprises at the pump.
With feedback, a fleet manager can isolate specific concerns,
such as hard accelerations that impact. Driver feedback can
focus only on the areas that need improvement, saving time for
both the driver and fleet manager.

Goal Setting and Management

Setting attainable goals is critical to improving driver behavior
and reducing fuel spend.

Driver Incentives

Prioritize the Process, not the

Result

Managing goals makes it easy to reward drivers that meet the

goal and target additional driver behavior strategies for those
that are having difficulty meeting the goal.

11

Driver Incentives
Driver incentives that have
been implemented in fleets
Financial incentives
Seasonal Prizes or entrance
into a raffle
Team incentives for vehicle
divisions

Even with high eco-scores, small

improvements in driver behavior
can make significant changes in
operating costs. Through continual
feedback, these changes can serve
as constant reminders to fleet
operators that efforts to improve
driven behavior are appreciated.

Driver Incentives
Create incentives for drivers who reduce fuel economy
through efficient driving techniques. Reward based
incentives can encourage good behavior and can increase
participation in fuel saving initiatives.

Prioritize the process, not the result

This goes hand in hand with incentives. Oftentimes fleets will
base rewards on factors directly connected to their operational
budget = fuel. With these rewards in place drivers may be
tempted to find alternative ways to meet rewards, resulting in a
loss of accurate data for your fleet.
There are several metrics related to fuel efficiency that can be
isolated and tracked.

Driver Aggressiveness or Eco-Score

Aggressive Acceleration Events
Aggressive Braking Events
Time spent idling

Emphasize the process behind better driving.

Focus on driver aggressiveness, hard
accelerations and time spent idling.

12

Acceleration Events and efficient driving

This drivers eco-scores take a
dive in September. In order to
prevent further losses in fuel
efficiency, provide feedback and
reminders to the driver and
investigate causes for the
reduction.

This is the drivers acceleration

metrics over the same period of
time. With this information,
driver behavior feedback can
focus specifically on ways to
reduce hard accelerations to
reap the greatest benefit.

Screenshots provided from FleetCarma Online Portal, demo the portal here

13

Driver training can emphasize gentle acceleration from stop lights, intersections, and traffic. Cruise
control can also be employed when possible to minimize accelerations at highway speeds.
In vehicle tools may be employed that make an alert or sound when an acceleration threshold is
crossed. Use caution in employing these tools as they may serve as a distraction while driving.
Consistent feedback after the drive is complete can be just as effective.

FleetCarma Acceleration Guidelines

Aim to keep hard acceleration events to less than 10% of the accelerations during a trip.

Braking
Braking is more difficult for drivers to control. Often times braking depends on other drivers and
vehicles on the road as well as traffic conditions. However, by being more aware of hazards and
the behavior of other vehicles, fuel efficient drivers can anticipate hard braking events sooner.

FleetCarma Braking Event Guidelines

Aim to keep hard braking events to less than 15% of the braking events during a trip, this
number is higher than the corresponding acceleration event because of the occasional
necessity of sudden stops.

How to quantify preventable

idle fuel use:

14

Quantify idle fuel use

Many fleets may set idle policies which require the engine to be shut off
when idling greater than a set period of time. Monitoring idling events
beforehand as well as throughout the implementation of this policy can
help fleet managers quantify savings and identify drivers that may require
additional feedback.
140

Total Idle Fuel Use

120
100

Take the measurement of all idle fuel usage, this includes

all idling such as small infrequent stops in traffic.

80
Total Fuel
Used during 60
Idle Events (L)
40

Potential
Fuel Savings

20
Isolate idle
events, where
idling occurs for
a prolonged
period of time
(1-10 minutes)
and can be
managed or
prevented

Screenshots from FleetCarma web portal

0
0

Idle Event Reduction

4
6
Duration of Idle Event

Yearly Savings

Remove Events >1 min

$ 583.72

Remove Events >2 min

$ 546.47

Remove Events >5 min

$ 503.23

Remove Events >10 min

$ 409.32

10

When we change the

amount of time for each
idle event we can see
that fleets that set idle
events to smaller time
intervals save the most

Plug-in Vehicles
& Driver Behavior
Start-stop engines, regenerative braking, and a variety of built in eco-driving
modes help drivers of plug-in vehicles achieve excellent fuel economy.
However plug-in vehicles also add an additional level of operator control: How
and when they charge. These charging times can affect the vehicles utilization
and fleet budget.

15

16

Plug-in Vehicles
Driving behavior

Charging behavior

With plug-in electric vehicles, consideration for how drivers behave doesnt end when the
vehicle is parked. Optimizing charging behavior is critical to maximize the financial benefits of
electric vehicles as well as increase their utilization within the fleet.

17

We looked at the cost of fueling plug-in hybrid

vehicles (PHEV) including budget spent on
gasoline and electricity.
When we looked at the trip data across a fleet
of Chevrolet Volts we can see that trips in
which the driver has a higher eco-score, result
in substantial fuel savings over the course of
the year.

Fuel
Cost

20
40
60
80
FleetCarma Eco-Score

With plug-in vehicles, specifically plug-in hybrids, good driver

behavior can help in multiple ways. Driving less aggressively can
help extend the electric range for battery electric vehicles (BEVs)
and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) alike.
For BEVs this means that the vehicle can travel farther, increasing
the vehicles overall utilization and saving the fleet money. To learn
more on how maximizing electric range can reduce fleet
operational costs check out our utilization webinar.

$4,000
$3,500
$3,000
$2,500
$2,000
$1,500
Eco Driving Score Goal
$1,000
$500
$0

Plug-in Vehicles Part 1:

Driving Behavior

100

From the graph above we can see that as a

PHEVs eco-score improves, the cost of fueling
decreases dramatically. This is primarily due to
the increased electric range and the low cost of
electric power as compared to gasoline. The
eco-driving score goal is set at 70 as it is a
reasonable goal that results in the largest
savings.

With plug-in hybrids, good driver behavior helps the budget in

two major ways. First, fuel efficient driver behavior extends the
electric-only range of the vehicle. This helps fleets to transfer the
fueling costs away from expensive gasoline, to electricity instead.
When the vehicle runs out of electric range, good driver habits
help minimize fuel consumption. With these two effects
combined, we see a unique opportunity for fleets with plug-in
hybrids to use driver behavior to improve fuel spend.
An example of this can be seen in the case study on the left. We
looked at the Chevrolet Volts within a fleet and how driver
behavior affects their fuel spend, both gas and electric power
included.

18

Driver Behavior and Range: All electric vehicles

Nissan Leaf: Available Range
as affected by hard acceleration
130
y = -4.7828x + 127.63

120
110
100
Available
Range
(km)

90

When analyzing acceleration events, we looked at several

Nissan Leaf vehicles. We looked at the average available
range for trips and sorted those trips by the portion of
aggressive acceleration events that occurred.
With increased hard accelerations, a reduction was seen in
available range. Variation in data exists due to a number of
other factors affecting range such as ambient temperature,
altitude changes and driving conditions.

80
70
60
10%
20%
30%
40%
Hard Acceleration (as % of all acceleration events)

Nissan Leaf: Available Range

as affected by hard braking
130
120

y = -3.1762x + 125.61

110
Available
Range
(km)

The same set of Nissan Leaf vehicles were analyzed to

determine the effect of aggressive braking on range.
As with hard accelerations, with an increase in hard braking
events, the average available range for a Leaf reduces.
However the data suggests that this reduction is less severe
than with acceleration events, an indication that some of the
energy that is typically lost from aggressive braking may be
recouped from regenerative braking.

100
90
80
70
60
10%
20%
30%
40%
Hard Braking (as % of all acceleration events)

Plug-in Vehicles Part 2:

Charging Behavior
In the charging behavior webinar, we
looked at when fleet vehicles were
plugging in. We found that even
though vehicles were overwhelmingly
used throughout business hours, and
not during the night, only 27% of
charging events occurred off-peak.
This data suggests that fleet operators
are plugging in the vehicles as they
leave for the day. The vehicles charge
fully after 3-4 hours based on their daily
usage.
In jurisdictions with time of use rates, shifting the charging profile of a fleet lowers the operational cost to
fuel the vehicles.

FleetCarma Charging Guidelines

Commonly, fleets set a goal for 80% of charging to occur Off-Peak, this minimizes both the
fleets costs as well as environmental footprint. Daytime opportunity charging can be used if it
is done to maximize the all-electric range of the vehicle, offsetting other fuel costs.

19

Case Study: Charging Behavior

A fleet partner had set charging guidelines to reach a goal of 80 - 90% off-peak charging. Internal surveys suggested
that ~90 % of charging was happening off-peak. However, when FleetCarma analyzed the data from logged charge
events, it was found that only 49% of charging was occurring off-peak. The distribution of charging times can be
seen on the graph below.

Screenshots from FleetCarma web portal, view additional screenshots from an online demo account

20

Case Study: Charging Behavior

After feedback was given to the fleet, a scheduled charging time was set to begin at 7 pm each night. With this
program in place the fleet achieved 89% of charging Off-Peak, meeting and exceeding their goal of 80%. The
case study demonstrates the value in providing consistent feedback from real-world data.

The graphics on the following page show an example of days before and after the feedback was sent. The graphs
highlight utilization patterns. Most importantly they show that while the utilization of the vehicle remained similar,
the scheduled charging times provided a more reliable method to ensure off-peak charging.
Screenshots from FleetCarma web portal, view additional screenshots from an online demo account

21

Case Study: Charging Behavior

Before Driver Feedback

Time of Day (24 hour clock)

View more utilization graphs from our online demo account

After Driver Feedback

Time of Day (24 hour clock)

22

23

Conclusions
Fleets can quantify the effect of good driver behavior practices on the operational costs of fueling
the fleet. These results can be presented to stakeholders within the organization as justification for
introducing strategies to improve driver behavior.
Driver behavior can be modified through monitoring and feedback. Monitoring and incentivizing
good driver behavior can help to reduce fuel costs and encourage driver involvement in the fleets
overall objectives.
Monitoring idle times, and idle fuel usage can help fleets set realistic targets, and set expectations of
operating cost reductions of idle reduction programs.
Consistent feedback can be used to improve both driver and charging behavior and to highlight
discrepancies between what a fleet operator may perceive is happening and actual behavior. This
information can be used by fleets to further reduce operating costs.
If you have any questions about the content of this e-book or our other free resources, we would be
happy to help by either email contact@fleetcarma.com or telephone 1-800-975-2434.

24

Free resources referenced in this eBook

Check out our on demand webinars and other free resources online at
www.fleetcarma.com/Resources

Want to start tracking your driver behavior right away?

Request a quote by filling out the form here and well get started on
setting and achieving your fleets goals.