Efficient Driving Training of TÜV Rheinland Academy

Efficient driving: Fight against the heavy foot

In Chile, the transport and traffic sector is one of the country’s largest energy consumers with 33 percent. Transports in the mining and industrial sectors alone account for 82 percent. Energy consumption is mainly based on fossil fuels, with all the associated economic and environmental impacts. Against this background, TÜV Rheinland Academy Chile has developed a driving training course for “Efficient Driving” for the public sector. To date, more than 1,000 drivers from the Chilean government have undergone these training.

Through public elicitation in 2015, TÜV Rheinland Academy Chile was awarded the contract to give theoretical and practical driving courses for government staff in the whole country. Because of the team work and good results, it was such a success that, to date, more than 1,000 drivers, all belonging to the government staff, have been trained at a national level. “Efficient driving” in Chile can be considered as an unknown or unfamiliar concept; however, in simple words it means performing with a type of driving and attitude while in front of the steering wheel that allows one to obtain a higher performance and to prolong the life of the vehicle. The benefits associated with this practice are

  • energy benefits: lower fuel consumption
  • environmental benefits: reducing the gases of the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere
  • economic benefits: less maintenance and operation costs
  • social benefits: performing safe driving on all roads.

With the clear objective of making government`s resources more efficient, the Ministry of Energy entrusted TÜV Rheinland Academy to train public transport drivers. During the 3 years of the “Efficient driving” program, more than 1000 drivers were trained. A key factor for the success in this activity is the working team, the experience, the professionalism, and the management of the participants by the tutors. The trainers have more than ten years of experience in professional and non-professional drivers’ education, others are graduates in pedagogy with experience in drivers’ schools and transport companies. According to one of the “Efficient driving” participants, Marcelo Ramìrez, Regional Manager of the Professional Energy Efficiency Program, Energy Efficiency Division of the Atacama Region, this project had a good reception during its initial putting into action, stating that “the course was a complete success in view of its contents, the competence of the trainers and the work methodology”.

The team in Chile felt very proud to fulfill the main objective of the project: the significant reduction of fuel consumption, reductions that are easily quantifiable, tangible and valued. The average annual consumption is about 2 million liters of fuel. Applying efficient driving techniques, the projected savings would be nearly 142,000 liters per year; money savings would be around 139,000 Euro. For TÜV Rheinland Academy Chile, the training program has been a great challenge, because it places the company as the responsible entity for providing new competence and tools to the members of the different areas of the Chilean government. This makes TÜV Rheinland Academy Chile a facilitator of the government’s plan for the reduction of energy consumption which seeks to educate and generate awareness through good practices, where the government must always be an example to follow.

More about TÜV Rheinland Academy Chile.

Tips for efficient driving in moving pictures.

Competence Management TÜV Rheinland Academy

 

Gabriela Diaz