Are You Looking For A Fleet Fuel Saver?

By Author: Lisa Murray
Total Articles: 5
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Some companies that make and sell mud flaps for big rigs feature flap styles that allow 80 percent of oncoming air to pass through. Yet the design still does what mud flaps were originally intended to do: stop and deflect road debris and water.

The average person wouldn’t think that this kind of mud flap could be a significant fleet fuel saver, but look at these three statistics:

When a truck passes 60 miles per hour, about 65 percent of fuel consumption is used to power through wind resistance.
By cutting down just a small portion of the wind resistance trucks face, open-style mud flaps save trucking companies approximately eight percent on fuel costs for Class 8 vehicles. The fleet fuel savings for straight trucks is five percent.
When operating in heavy cross winds, costs are cut even further.

What does that add up to in fleet fuel savings? For the average tractor, using these mud flaps will save around 650 gallons of diesel fuel per year. That’s like getting two weeks of fuel fleet-wide each year for free.

Less fuel usage is beneficial to the ...
... environment. A truck using open-style mud flaps will emit between six and eight fewer tons of C02 per year. So this fleet fuel saver mud flap not only adds to a trucking outfit’s bottom line, it also does its part in helping make the environment cleaner.

There’s also the time advantage: less time filling up at the pump means more time on the road, which means more profits for the company. Drivers appreciate the time savings, as well, particularly those who are paid by the mile: no miles are racking up when you’re waiting for you truck’s tanks to fill.

Most open-style mud flaps are made with DuPont Zytel nylon. They’re tough, and users report them lasting for up to three years – much longer than traditional flaps. They install quickly, in about 10 minutes, just like their predecessors.

In an industry where controlling costs is an everyday concern, trucking companies are constantly on the lookout for products and procedures that save or make them money. The open-style mud flaps allow them to do both.

To sum up, fuel consumption in large trucks is increased by wind resistance. Mud flaps that allow wind to pass through them provide a fleet fuel savings of between five and eight percent, depending on the type of truck. In addition to cash savings, the mud flaps considerably reduce the amount of CO2 emissions coming from the big trucks.

Lisa Murray is a freelance writer for Fleet Fuel Saver, a Pennsylvania-based company that offers open-style mud flaps in the form of Eco-flap kits to trucking fleets throughout the country. You can learn more about Fleet Fuel Saver by visiting FleetFuelSaver.com.