So, the obvious topic of conversation would be Tuesday’s news that the House of Commons is to grant discussion time to the issue of fuel duty and the Government’s response to the e-petition, but I think we’ve heard enough about that this week.

Rather we’re going to focus (i.e. have a rant) on something else that’s hit the news – new doubts raised over 80mph limit plan changes following the M5 crash.

The Government is planning to raise the motorway speed limit from 70mph claiming the increase would be good for business. “Increasing the speed limit on motorways from 70 to 80 miles per hour for cars, light vans and motorcycles could provide hundreds of millions of pounds of benefits for the economy and I will put forward formal proposals for making these changes later this year”, says Transport Secretary Philip Hammond.

Erm, how can someone driving their vehicle faster be any good for business unless you own a fuel station? Driving at 80mph could use up to 20 percent more fuel than at 70mph – for businesses already struggling with high fuel costs, this isn’t going to help one iota.

Current guidelines suggest that speed limits should be enforced at ten percent over the limit plus two miles per hour. This means that in a 70mph limit, drivers are unlikely to be prosecuted for speeding unless travelling at 79mph or faster. If the speed limit was raised to 80mph and guidelines remained the same, it would be enforced at 90mph, 20mph above the current speed limit.

Goods vehicles exceeding 7.5 tonne maximum gross weight are currently restricted to 60mph on motorways, but recent plans suggested this may be reduced to 56mph. Increasing the gap between speeds travelled on the motorway is more likely to result in higher fuel bills, as drivers will be forced to adopt defensive driving techniques which can not only be dangerous, but actually increase fuel consumption by as much as 40 percent.

Increasing the speed limit of other vehicles will make it more difficult for trucks to overtake each other, forcing them to adopt a ‘stop-start’ style of driving in which truck drivers have to accelerate hard to overtake a vehicle, then brake suddenly to fall back in line with the slower-moving traffic. With nearly 50 percent of the energy needed to power a vehicle going into acceleration, this will result in the truck using far more fuel than is necessary, which will cost fleet businesses more.

Congratulations to the cabbies who took part in Shell’s Smarter Cab Drivers Challenge and slashed their average fuel consumption by 20 percent each. If they continue to maintain this level of fuel consumption, they will save a whopping £1,500 over 12 months – that’s equivalent to 1,100 litres of fuel.

But how did they do this, we hear you ask? Did they have special fuel monitoring equipment fitted? Use specialist tyres? Or perhaps some other fancy gadgetry? Well, no, none of these – they simply drove smarter.

Each of the cabbies received training on fuel efficient driving techniques and put into practice some of the tips they’d learnt, including avoiding over-revving their engines, turning their air conditioning down or off and reducing the load carried in boots.

As we’re sure you’ll agree, none of this is rocket science, more like plain old common sense and certainly techniques we business drivers can easily introduce into our own driving. Simply slowing down a little and changing gears more slowly will not only reduce fuel usage but is also much safer

Don’t forget, the vehicle itself needs a little TLC. Dirty oil, clogged sparkplugs and under-inflated tyres can also increase fuel consumption, so ensure fleets are serviced regularly.

Shell went on to say that, based on the cabbies’ savings, Britain’s 34.1 million drivers could make a collective fuel saving of up to £18.5 billion if they applied similar smarter driving techniques. That’s certainly a saving we want to be part of!

Visit Business Fuelcards to see what products are on offer and access detailed information about the benefits available – it may just make all the difference!