...paperwork, later forcing estimators to base internal operating rates on out-of-date numbers. "It’s very difficult to get good information back [from the field]," says Halverson. "We just don’t have a real good system for that."

In Touch. Some construction machines hold on to fuel data available for routine inspection. (Photo courtesy of Volvo CE)

Some contractors "are getting savvy about it," Bushelli says. Volvo since 1992 has offered a $350 to $500 option on its vehicles called the Machine Tracking Information System. Lately, "it’s getting a lot of attraction," he says. Downloaded via laptop in the shop or in the field, the watchdog system gives equipment owners detailed run-time data for each operating session, including fuel consumption. Volvo also has developed free tools, such as an interactive owning-and-operating cost calculator, which takes into account the price of fuel, available on the Internet at www.volvo.com. Similar tools also can be found at McGraw-Hill Construction’s Equipment Center site at www.construction.com. ENR also is a unit of McGraw-Hill Construction.

Training operators to conserve energy is another factor for many construction firms, but there’s no easy solution. Equipment idle time consumes energy while machines sit unused with the engine running. "We are trying to train the people to just turn it off," Gleason says.

Other times, construction machines are put to use for unintended purposes. "It drives me crazy when I see an operator climb into a crawler dozer and go across a field just to go to the bathroom," Andrade says. "If you are doing it right, you should be making money with the machine."

Equipment designers are working on building in fuel-saving features to boost the return on investment. One item that is showing up more frequently controls how much fuel the engine consumes when it is not in a working mode. "With the rising price of diesel, we are trying to make machines more intelligent," says Nadine M. Powell, marketing specialist at Caterpillar Inc.’s medium-wheel-loader factory in Aurora, Ill. The $30.3-billion-a-year manufacturer claims that onboard idle software, introduced last November on some models of wheel loaders, can save fleet owners between $200 and $1,400 a year per machine, according to recent dealer literature. Officials at Deere & Co., Moline, Ill., which has an industry reputation for machine efficiency, declined to comment for the purposes of this article.

Cruising

Heavy-duty trucks that deliver construction materials and machinery to jobsites can be real fuel hogs as well. But some models have built-in software that automatically shuts down the engine when it settles down to a low RPM over a long period of time. Still, equipment operators have a way of getting around that. "The operator can bump up the cruise control," Gleason notes.

Closer attention to preventive maintenance, or PM for short, extends oil-change intervals and increases engine life. It is also a way to mitigate rising petroleum costs through economies of scale, but takes time and resources to implement.

"The average PM is about $700 to $800. If I can extend that out doing 50% to 60% less, that is a substantial savings based on 1,000 machines," Warner says. This year, the cost of various machine oils and lubes are up 30¢ to 40¢ per gal since the same time last year, he adds.

Equipment managers commonly call Warner’s strategy "severity-based maintenance," or in other words, using fuel consumption as a leading indicator of a machine’s wear and tear. The alternative is sticking to hour meters and manufacturers’ guidelines.

The technique works by correlating fuel consumption in the field to engine oil usage and engine displacement, instead of operating hours. For example, on a typical construction machine, "if you use a quart of oil, you should be using 70 gallons of fuel," notes Richard LeFrancois, president of Equipment Maintenance Innovators, Morrison, Colo. Applying that same formula and multiplying by a factor of four, a machine that burns up 280 gal of fuel would need 4 quarts of oil. LeFrancois then suggests, "if you put in 280 gallons and used 10 quarts of oil, that’s not good." By using this method, Warner says, "we have been able to extend our oil change intervals by as much as 50 to 55%."

Beyond fuel usage, managers who track fuel religiously say they will know beforehand when machines are approaching major repairs and when operators are using vehicles for the wrong application. Doing this detailed homework is not a new concept, but for some equipment owners, it has become part of a multi-pronged approach to fuel management. Surprisingly few are willing to take the plunge. Warner estimates that less than 5% of construction fleets in the U.S. use it today.

That lack of use largely is because implementing complex cost tracking and fuel controls through-out an enterprise is "cerebral work," according to LeFrancois. Not knowing true costs has other important ramifications. "If you don’t understand your costs, how can you make a logical decision?" asks LeFrancois rhetorically.

Less proactive contractors may be more inclined to act if crude prices bubble up to $60 bbl or higher. By mid-June, the U.S. average price for on-road diesel topped off at $2.28 per gal, 57% higher than last year, while regular-grade, retail gasoline was $2.13. EIA expects retail diesel to stay above gasoline prices through year-end 2006.