Idling Can Harm Your Car
18 Apr 2016You might not think that having your car in park idling is a big deal. In fact, most of us in earlier generations were even taught that idling your car before driving it was safer. But, how true is this really and what is it doing to your business’s bottom line? For one thing, when your company vehicles are left idling, it wastes gas and causes damage to the environment.
The good news is that today’s engines don’t even really need to be idling for more than a few seconds before they can be safely driven. In fact, studies have found that warming up your car by keeping it idling is not as effective as actually driving it to warm the engine. It not only wastes gasoline, but it also strips oil from your engine’s pistons and cylinders which creates extra wear and tear on your engine.
Ways Idling Does Harm
So in what ways can idling be harmful? Here are two important ones.
Bad for the Environment
As your company vehicles are left idling, pollutants are being released into the air, which makes your company environmentally unfriendly. The exhaust and fumes that come from the idling vehicles can cause respiratory and lung problems, exacerbate allergies and asthma and pose other health risks. Not to mention, the emissions from exhaust and carbon dioxide contribute to global warming.
Bad for your Bottom Line
When your drivers are sitting there allowing the vehicles to remain idle, it is sure to increase your fuel costs since the motor continues to run and continues to burn fuel. And since the fuel costs are high, the last thing you want is to waste business expenses on unnecessary fuel. You can’t decrease the amount of idling time at traffic lights, obviously, but you can reduce the amount of idling that goes on at job sites and employee personal use.
Idling does more than simply burn fuel. It also causes engine wear. Of course you are going to have your normal expenses like oil changes, tire changes and under-the-hood maintenance. You don’t want to add on extra maintenance charges due to excessive idling.
How GPS Tracking Helps
GPS tracking has helped a great deal of business owners monitor the location and movement of their company vehicles. It has saved many business dollars by allowing managers to keep an eye on their drivers and ensure they are practicing good business behavior.
GPS tracking can also alert you when there is excessive idling coming from a driver. This is huge since idling increases fuel costs, vehicle maintenance and is unfriendly to the environment which can hurt your business’s reputation and bottom line.
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