Focus on fuel burn will pay dividends

Contractors and plant owners should give more thought to the fuel efficiency of their fleet and operators, according to Neville Paynter, UK managing director of ADT manu-facturer Bell Equipment.

The company calculates that with red diesel costing £0.68 per litre a 1lit/hr reduction in fuel burn will save £1,360 per machine per year over the typical 2,000 running hours.

Paynter said plant owners have struggled to recoup any of the up to 12% increase in the cost of machinery and now they are being squeezed further by increased fuel costs. "Contracts will have been quoted for large projects, and fuel prices form a major part of the overall cost, so it has a huge bearing on the competitiveness of your quote," he added.

He said that there can be considerable differences in fuel consumption between competing products and across a number of trials Bell's B40D consumed fuel at 21lit/hr, whereas its nearest rival uses 24lit/hr while others topped 33lit/hr.

"That 3lit/hr saving reduces the fuel bill by more than £4,000 per year and that's true whether it is an ADT, an excavator, a dozer or whatever - which can be the difference between making and losing money," added Paynter.

According to Bell, its superior fuel economy comes from a lower unladen weight, in-line planetary transmissions, class-leading Mercedes engines and, on Mk5 trucks, fuel-saving software that adjusts gear-shift patterns according to the load.

On-board fuel monitoring also helps operators drive in the most fuel-efficient way and this is backed up by on-site training and its satellite fleet monitoring system.