4 tips on how you can become an even more eco-friendly driver

It’s a well-known fact at this point that driving cars contributes to global warming. So, you might be wondering if there’s anything that you can do as a driver to help reduce the impact that your vehicle has on the environment.

We’re becoming increasingly mindful as a society of how much our driving habits can impact the environment, so whether you’re driving your own vehicle, or one you’ve hired through our fantastic daily vehicle hire or Flexi vehicle hire services here at Intack Self Drive, and you want to reduce your level of pollution, here are a few things that you can do to become a more eco-friendly driver.

Keep your vehicle in tip-top condition

It’s worth making sure that your car is well maintained throughout its lifespan to ensure a smooth and efficient ride. Make sure your tyres are all fully inflated and regularly inspect the engine oil and brake fluid levels. It goes without saying that your car MOT plays a big part in ensuring the efficiency of your vehicle. All in all, a well-maintained vehicle is more efficient, therefore more environmentally friendly.

(Of course, this won’t be a problem if you’re renting a vehicle from us, as all of our vehicles are regularly checked to ensure that they’re clean and reliable for you to use whenever you need them.)

Smooth driving

This is a key part of being an environmentally friendly driver. Harsh acceleration and braking will increase your fuel consumption and emit more greenhouse gases, so try your best to effectively read the road in-front of you, so you can slow down and pull away accordingly (as a general rule, keep a sufficient distance between you and the car in front to ho help you to avoid braking unnecessarily).

Switch off your engine whenever possible

Idling your vehicle is one of the most unnecessary ways to waste fuel and pollute the air. Even when your car isn’t moving, just having the engine on increases the level of exhaust fumes your car puts into the air - these harmful gases include CO2, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and more. What can you do to avoid this? Well, a lot of new car models feature ‘automatic stop-start’ controls, which switch off the vehicle’s engine whenever it’s stationary, so that might be something worth investing in particularly if you live in a busy urban area where you find yourself stopped at traffic lights more often than not! As an added tip, if you’re stuck in a queue of static traffic for more than three minutes, you might as well turn off your engine because it’s likely you’ll be there for a while.

Reduce your speed

Quite simply - the faster you go, the greater your fuel consumption, and the more pollution you emit. Statistics from the Department for Transport reveal that travelling at 80mph uses 10% more fuel than travelling at 70mph, and that travelling at 70mph uses about 9% more fuel than driving at 60mph. So, by reducing your speed, you can drastically reduce the amount of pollution you put into the air. To do this, leave yourself plenty of time for any long journeys so you can take your time, and if your vehicle has a ‘cruise control’ setting, make use of it to get better mileage from your vehicle.

These are all small changes that you can make to your everyday driving habits that will greatly reduce the amount of pollution you put out.

We specialise in providing our customers with cheap and reliable car hire, van hire and minibus hire services, and our fleet now spans over 300 vehicles, so whether you’re a business owner looking for vehicles to meet your company requirements, or just a private customer looking for a personal car for short-term use, you can count on us to have exactly the right vehicle at exactly the right price. Feel free to give us a call on 01254 57811, and we’ll be happy to help however we can!