Eco Driving: A Review of a Driver Assessment Tool
The concept of Eco Driving appeared more than 10 years ago, and it has nothing to do with protecting the environment. But it is closely related to the protection of oneself and other drivers, saving depreciation costs and the quality of cargo transportation.
When the car is used for personal purposes and belongs to the driver, the choice is his: you can rush, drown, go into turns by skidding and not be afraid to catch the Matiz riding in front of the hood.
And if you are the owner of a large fleet, are you responsible for dozens of trucks and tons of valuable cargo? This is where Eco Driving comes in handy. You can ask your employees transporting Chinese porcelain not to slow down sharply and carefully enter into turns. But not the fact that they will listen to you. But it is possible to check who is to blame for the fact that the cargo was damaged during delivery and the suspension was broken.
Our company has developed a driver assessment tool with the logical name “Eco Driving”. Using this application, the operator can see an objective assessment of the quality of driving of an accountable vehicle, both for a single trip and for a total period of time. Eco Driving also allows you to view general data on the driving style of all units of the fleet. The application is available to all customers of the company working with the Wialon transport monitoring system .
The algorithm for evaluating driving is based on data from a telematics device. The calculation is based on indicators of speeding, sharp acceleration, braking and turning, and arbitrary violation is also taken into account: for the analysis, you can use the values of any sensors to add arbitrary violation parameters to the assessment of driving quality. For each object, you can individually configure the penalty system.
Assessment of driving behavior is the amount of penalty points. The fewer points, the flawless the driving. Points are awarded for each trip, and then summed up or averaged depending on time or distance. You can independently increase the amount of penalty points for a specific type of violation in specific conditions (for example, sharp braking when the axle load sensor is on).
The key to quality driving is a calm and balanced ride. Calm doesn't mean slow at all. We are talking about optimal energy management of the vehicle, as well as reducing excessive braking and acceleration.
In the process of creating the Eco Driving application, we asked a logical question: what affects the quality of driving? And what spoils it (quality)? Having interviewed several real customers, we identified the following points that you need to strive for while driving:
Aggressive driving (in particular, sharp acceleration and braking) negatively affect not only the condition of the car itself, but also everything that is in it. And this: the driver, passengers, cargo, etc.
So, in the case of sharp accelerations, especially angular ones, the inertia force causes the cargo to move not synchronously with the car, because of which the cargo may arrive at the destination point damaged. And if the cargo is expensive, then its accurate delivery is the main criterion for quality driving.
In our application, all sharp and extreme accelerations and braking can be displayed in the following form:
Safe driving (in particular, avoiding emergency situations) is also one of the main criteria for analyzing driving quality, as in the event of an accident, besides the driver, his employer is also responsible. Indeed, in a serious accident, the car for a long time falls out of the workflow, and in this case, most likely, you can already forget about the cargo: it will not be delivered on time, the presentation will be lost, and the goods themselves will not be suitable for further use.
It is possible to provoke an accident not only by sharp braking, but also by creating a situation where the adhesion of the wheels to the road surface is lost. The reason for this may be sharp acceleration, and sharp turns. And here is how we visualized this moment in our application:
Of course, the value of many indicators can also depend on the time of the year, and on the quality of the road surface, and on the quality of the rubber and the degree of inflation of the wheels, so you can’t blame only the driver’s behavior while driving. The only thing we can do is make a general conclusion: the more often the driver slows down, the worse it is for the safety of the car and cargo. And to analyze this, in our application you can build a report on the number of brakes, for example, in 2 weeks:
If you correctly configure the GPS tracker in the car, the Eco Driving application reports will also help you figure out what happened to the car during the accident or what preceded it.
As an indicator for assessing driving safety, you can use the "smoothness" of the driver by comparing the number of sharp braking and acceleration of the "reckless" and "ideal" drivers in two weeks.
And if necessary, we can get clear and detailed evidence in the following form:
According to the research results, when the average speed is exceeded by 1 km / h, the probability of an accident increases by 10-15%. And when the average flow rate is exceeded by 10 or more km / h - the number of accidents begins to increase sharply on city roads. For suburban roads, the increase in the number of accidents is not so critical, but also takes place.
And the Wialon transport monitoring system in conjunction with the Eco Driving application allows you to accurately determine how many times and how much the driver violated the speed:
And also see all the violations on the map and statistics of violations on the trips of an individual vehicle:
The first step to saving fuel is to take advantage of the inertial movement of the car and reduce the total amount of braking, without forgetting, of course, about safety. About the ability to display and analyze the amount of braking and acceleration, we have already described above. However, note that the report can be built separately for trips and, accordingly, to compare the number of brakes, taking into account the duration of the trip and the distance traveled. In Eco Driving, it looks like this:
Or like this, in more detail:
All experienced drivers know: from the point of view of fuel economy, if necessary, braking should be braked by the engine, because it is more effective than braking when coasting. Also, when coasting, road safety is significantly reduced. Checking these facts (engine or coast braking) using data from GPS controllers is not yet possible, but it would definitely be interesting and useful (a hint to manufacturers).
An important contribution to fuel consumption is also made by the use of the engine at higher speeds. This can easily be seen on the speed characteristics of the engines:
Although engine power increases with increasing revolutions, torque decreases and specific fuel consumption increases. Thus, it is very important to control the use of the correct gear, switch in time and not exceed the optimal engine speed. If the GPS tracker is configured so that it can transmit data, in which gear the car is traveling, it will be easy to set up the necessary report. As a basis, we can take the rule of thumb taught in driving schools: the gear number should equal the rounded integer part of dividing the current speed by 10 km / h (i.e., at the current speed of 32 km / h - the car should move in 3rd gear) .
However, in most cases, GPS trackers do not provide such information, but, as an alternative method, the same acceleration values can be analyzed, paying attention to speed. Indeed, accelerating with the same acceleration from 0 to 30 km / h is far from the same as from 40 km / h to 70 km / h, even for the same time. Therefore, for example, you can see accelerations greater than 0.3g at different speed ranges.
You can configure any speed ranges and acceleration values: for different types of cars, transported cargo, engine characteristics, etc.
We think it is obvious that frequent sequences: gas-brake-gas significantly increase the wear of the clutch systems during sharp acceleration and the brake system during sharp braking. And as shown above, this can also be fixed and analyzed.
A separate item is the overspeed of the engine, because this is the same factor in the deterioration of car resources, as the inefficient use of fuel. To control this, it is possible to analyze data from the engine speed sensor by connecting to the OBD II or the CAN bus of the car, setting the boundaries of the optimal speed in the appropriate parameters (such as sensors), as well as the corresponding penalty points for violations.
Given the above-described flexibility of Eco Driving settings (the ability to specify the amount of the penalty for any exceeding the threshold of any criterion and choose the method of averaging estimates), depending on the organization of work processes and the needs of the end customer, you can individually customize the driving quality assessment system for almost any task. Accordingly, this tool can be used in various fields: from taxi services to the transport of dangerous goods.
If you still have questions about the functionality, technical implementation of the solution, etc., ask in the comments - I will try to answer in detail.
When the car is used for personal purposes and belongs to the driver, the choice is his: you can rush, drown, go into turns by skidding and not be afraid to catch the Matiz riding in front of the hood.
And if you are the owner of a large fleet, are you responsible for dozens of trucks and tons of valuable cargo? This is where Eco Driving comes in handy. You can ask your employees transporting Chinese porcelain not to slow down sharply and carefully enter into turns. But not the fact that they will listen to you. But it is possible to check who is to blame for the fact that the cargo was damaged during delivery and the suspension was broken.
Our Eco Driving Solution
Our company has developed a driver assessment tool with the logical name “Eco Driving”. Using this application, the operator can see an objective assessment of the quality of driving of an accountable vehicle, both for a single trip and for a total period of time. Eco Driving also allows you to view general data on the driving style of all units of the fleet. The application is available to all customers of the company working with the Wialon transport monitoring system .
The algorithm for evaluating driving is based on data from a telematics device. The calculation is based on indicators of speeding, sharp acceleration, braking and turning, and arbitrary violation is also taken into account: for the analysis, you can use the values of any sensors to add arbitrary violation parameters to the assessment of driving quality. For each object, you can individually configure the penalty system.
Assessment of driving behavior is the amount of penalty points. The fewer points, the flawless the driving. Points are awarded for each trip, and then summed up or averaged depending on time or distance. You can independently increase the amount of penalty points for a specific type of violation in specific conditions (for example, sharp braking when the axle load sensor is on).
What affects driving quality?
The key to quality driving is a calm and balanced ride. Calm doesn't mean slow at all. We are talking about optimal energy management of the vehicle, as well as reducing excessive braking and acceleration.
In the process of creating the Eco Driving application, we asked a logical question: what affects the quality of driving? And what spoils it (quality)? Having interviewed several real customers, we identified the following points that you need to strive for while driving:
- cargo safety;
- traffic safety;
- fuel economy;
- reduction of car wear.
Cargo safety
Aggressive driving (in particular, sharp acceleration and braking) negatively affect not only the condition of the car itself, but also everything that is in it. And this: the driver, passengers, cargo, etc.
So, in the case of sharp accelerations, especially angular ones, the inertia force causes the cargo to move not synchronously with the car, because of which the cargo may arrive at the destination point damaged. And if the cargo is expensive, then its accurate delivery is the main criterion for quality driving.
In our application, all sharp and extreme accelerations and braking can be displayed in the following form:
Traffic safety
Safe driving (in particular, avoiding emergency situations) is also one of the main criteria for analyzing driving quality, as in the event of an accident, besides the driver, his employer is also responsible. Indeed, in a serious accident, the car for a long time falls out of the workflow, and in this case, most likely, you can already forget about the cargo: it will not be delivered on time, the presentation will be lost, and the goods themselves will not be suitable for further use.
It is possible to provoke an accident not only by sharp braking, but also by creating a situation where the adhesion of the wheels to the road surface is lost. The reason for this may be sharp acceleration, and sharp turns. And here is how we visualized this moment in our application:
Of course, the value of many indicators can also depend on the time of the year, and on the quality of the road surface, and on the quality of the rubber and the degree of inflation of the wheels, so you can’t blame only the driver’s behavior while driving. The only thing we can do is make a general conclusion: the more often the driver slows down, the worse it is for the safety of the car and cargo. And to analyze this, in our application you can build a report on the number of brakes, for example, in 2 weeks:
If you correctly configure the GPS tracker in the car, the Eco Driving application reports will also help you figure out what happened to the car during the accident or what preceded it.
As an indicator for assessing driving safety, you can use the "smoothness" of the driver by comparing the number of sharp braking and acceleration of the "reckless" and "ideal" drivers in two weeks.
And if necessary, we can get clear and detailed evidence in the following form:
According to the research results, when the average speed is exceeded by 1 km / h, the probability of an accident increases by 10-15%. And when the average flow rate is exceeded by 10 or more km / h - the number of accidents begins to increase sharply on city roads. For suburban roads, the increase in the number of accidents is not so critical, but also takes place.
And the Wialon transport monitoring system in conjunction with the Eco Driving application allows you to accurately determine how many times and how much the driver violated the speed:
And also see all the violations on the map and statistics of violations on the trips of an individual vehicle:
Fuel economy
The first step to saving fuel is to take advantage of the inertial movement of the car and reduce the total amount of braking, without forgetting, of course, about safety. About the ability to display and analyze the amount of braking and acceleration, we have already described above. However, note that the report can be built separately for trips and, accordingly, to compare the number of brakes, taking into account the duration of the trip and the distance traveled. In Eco Driving, it looks like this:
Or like this, in more detail:
All experienced drivers know: from the point of view of fuel economy, if necessary, braking should be braked by the engine, because it is more effective than braking when coasting. Also, when coasting, road safety is significantly reduced. Checking these facts (engine or coast braking) using data from GPS controllers is not yet possible, but it would definitely be interesting and useful (a hint to manufacturers).
An important contribution to fuel consumption is also made by the use of the engine at higher speeds. This can easily be seen on the speed characteristics of the engines:
Although engine power increases with increasing revolutions, torque decreases and specific fuel consumption increases. Thus, it is very important to control the use of the correct gear, switch in time and not exceed the optimal engine speed. If the GPS tracker is configured so that it can transmit data, in which gear the car is traveling, it will be easy to set up the necessary report. As a basis, we can take the rule of thumb taught in driving schools: the gear number should equal the rounded integer part of dividing the current speed by 10 km / h (i.e., at the current speed of 32 km / h - the car should move in 3rd gear) .
However, in most cases, GPS trackers do not provide such information, but, as an alternative method, the same acceleration values can be analyzed, paying attention to speed. Indeed, accelerating with the same acceleration from 0 to 30 km / h is far from the same as from 40 km / h to 70 km / h, even for the same time. Therefore, for example, you can see accelerations greater than 0.3g at different speed ranges.
You can configure any speed ranges and acceleration values: for different types of cars, transported cargo, engine characteristics, etc.
Car wear reduction
We think it is obvious that frequent sequences: gas-brake-gas significantly increase the wear of the clutch systems during sharp acceleration and the brake system during sharp braking. And as shown above, this can also be fixed and analyzed.
A separate item is the overspeed of the engine, because this is the same factor in the deterioration of car resources, as the inefficient use of fuel. To control this, it is possible to analyze data from the engine speed sensor by connecting to the OBD II or the CAN bus of the car, setting the boundaries of the optimal speed in the appropriate parameters (such as sensors), as well as the corresponding penalty points for violations.
Given the above-described flexibility of Eco Driving settings (the ability to specify the amount of the penalty for any exceeding the threshold of any criterion and choose the method of averaging estimates), depending on the organization of work processes and the needs of the end customer, you can individually customize the driving quality assessment system for almost any task. Accordingly, this tool can be used in various fields: from taxi services to the transport of dangerous goods.
If you still have questions about the functionality, technical implementation of the solution, etc., ask in the comments - I will try to answer in detail.