Published on November 18, 2009
by Rolf Lockwood
November 18, 2009 Vol. 5, No. 23

VALVOLINE GUARANTEES FUEL SAVINGS. A health issue also kept me away from an interesting press event in Dallas. There, Valvoline announced that it's teamed up with Inthinc, a Utah company that develops and sells telematics and driver-mentoring systems. They're launching a program that promises fleets better fuel mileage by as much as 4%, backed with a limited 'Fuel Proof Guarantee'.

It covers a 120-day customer demonstration period and is being offered to fleet operators with a minimum demo of 30 trucks. Valvoline and Inthinc work with fleet maintenance managers to establish baseline data, using the tiwiPro™ onboard mentoring/monitoring system. Valvoline's Premium Blue Extreme engine oil and Syn Gard FE gear oil are then installed. Inthinc's 'tiwiPro™' verbal-coaching system is also installed and activated to provide drivers with real-time verbal mentoring about speeding violations, aggressive driving, other inefficient habits, seatbelt use and more.

After the completion of the demonstration period, if the fleet hasn’t shown an increase in fuel economy, Valvoline and Inthinc will remove their products from the trucks and reimburse the fleet for any incremental costs.

Valvoline says it enlisted two independent test facilities and multiple real-life customers to validate miles-per-gallon gains, using the EPA SmartWay-certified J1321 protocol. Tests were conducted with vehicles operating with Valvoline's Premium Blue Extreme SAE 5W-40 full synthetic engine oil and Syn Gard FE gear oil. Results varied depending on loads, routes and drivers. Less-than-truckload applications and P&D operations achieved the highest fuel economy improvement. Adding tiwiPro™ vehicle monitoring and driver mentoring is expected to yield greater gains in virtually every type of fleet operation.

"According to EPA statistics, driving habits affect mpg by as much as 35%," says Todd Follmer, CEO at Inthinc. "Fleet testing has proven that using tiwiPro™ in-vehicle mentoring will decrease aggressive driving events by 89% and speeding violations by 86%. The EPA reports that simply obeying posted speed limits will increase fuel efficiency by as much as 23%."

See test data and a return-on-investment calculator at www.fuelproofguarantee.com.
See also www.valvolinehd.com, www.tiwi.com, and www.inthinc.com.

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