Driving style for better fuel economy

Driving style has emerged as an important determinant of fuel economy. There is now evidence that driving style can be influenced to improve fuel economy as well as other aspects such as safety. However, it is not clear which are the most appropriate and influential factors that affect an individual's, or a group's, driving style with respect to improving fuel economy. In this paper, such factors were identified from the literature and existing driver training programmes for fuel economy. The factors were then categorised under driver factors, operating the vehicle, vehicle dynamics and driver awareness. The influences of the factors on fuel economy were prioritised using a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) method called the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) using expert opinion to determine the relative importance of the identified factors. It was found that driver awareness, measured in terms of culture change and better management, was considered the most influential category. The second most influential category of factors concerned operating the vehicle or vehicle control where, acceleration and speed were found to have the highest influence on fuel economy in
the category. These results can be used to improve interventions such as driver
training for fuel economy by informing training modules.