Taxi Driver Online

Brum cab drivers in UK eco challenge

July 14 2011

Two Birmingham taxi drivers are bidding to become the most fuel efficient cabbies in the country.

Ansar Mahmood and Arshad Ali will be representing the city in a competition against other black cab drivers from all over the UK to see who can drive the most economically.

The Smarter Cab Drivers competition has been organised by Shell and is aimed at helping British cab drivers become more fuel efficient and save money by making simple changes to the way they drive.

Ansar and Arshad have set themselves a target of ten per cent fuel reduction to save themselves up to £1,000 in annual fuel costs.

Their efforts will be tracked in real-time on the Smarter Cab Drivers online hub – www.smartercabdrivers.com

Shell is working in collaboration with the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce), on the four week driving challenge which aims to apply both simple driving tips, as well as specially designed ‘nudges’ to see whether drivers can adapt their behaviour to reduce fuel costs.

Ansar, aged 41, from Ward End, spends up to 35 hours a week behind the wheel and his fuel bill regularly tops £450 per month.

He said: “I’m really interested to see what I can learn during the Shell Smarter Cab Drivers challenge. Driving for a living means I have to spend a lot of money on fuel, so I’m always keen to find out new ways of being fuel efficient and reducing my costs. Not only will it help my wallet, but it’s good to know that I’ll also be helping the environment.”

Arshad aged 41, from Saltley, has six children and is behind the wheel at 4am every day.

“High fuel usage comes with the territory,” he said.

“I’ve racked up many thousands of miles during my 20 years as a driver, and I’m looking forward to seeing what I’ll learn through the Shell Smarter Cab Drivers challenge, as I want to do all that I can to drive more efficiently and reduce my fuel bills.”

Last year, Shell’s Smarter Drivers challenge focused on family driving.

Source; http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top- ... -29049001/

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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Dunno If I can drive much more efficiently than I already do! I free wheel down hills, I take away smoothly etc....sadly I find my cars at its most fuel efficient at around the 65-70 mph mark but Id be breaking the speed limit if i tried that around here. its not Greenness that makes me drive light footed..its costs!!

Feck this green crap, lets just reduce the price of Fuel duty and get the economy smoking again..........

I was recently told that with modern cars this does not save fuel because whilst freewheeling the car is still ticking over but by removing your foot from the accelerator whilst in gear going down hill actually shuts the fuel supply off.
I have not checked to see if this is correct.

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Grandad,

if it did that the engine would cut out...and in mine the RPM still reads around 750 RPM..But in gear its reading around 1500RPM..

Some modern cars don't cut out like that. They even stop the engine when you pull up at the lights and then just pull away as usual when you put the accelerator down.

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Grandad,

Mine sometimes stops the engine when I pull away at the lights..but thats just called a stall