Title: Good to the Last Drop: With Diesel Prices Soaring, Class Is Continue to Lean on Education, Equipment and Experimentation to Conserve Fuel
Abstract: Fuel costs are second only to compensation and benefit costs for Class 1 railroads, and as fuel costs climb railroads continue to search for ways to reduce their fuel needs. This article outlines some of those efforts, including motivation and educational programs for employees. At Union Pacific each engineer is graded by comparing his fuel consumption against engineers in the same territory. Engineers are rewarded for keeping their consumption down. UP uses a Fuel Masters program to train its engineers. Similarly at BNSF, engineer’s fuel conservation is rewarded with a $50 gift card. The article also describes various technologies to control idling time, while one railroad is piloting a GPS-based device that captures data on fuel levels, speed and track conditions that can help engineers learn the most fuel-efficient way to operate a train.
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
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