Tips for Reducing Engine Idling to Maximize Machine Efficiency

When it comes to construction, demolition, road building, and a wide variety of other projects, your equipment and your fuel are some of your largest investments and make up a big portion of your operating expenses. Excessive idling can significantly increase those already expensive costs. For example, one excavator manufacturer estimates that for a 36 ton excavator that works 1,000 hours a year, 400 gallons of fuel are consumed while idling. To help you avoid that waste, we’ve put together some tips and best practices to minimize idle times and prevent accelerated wear and tear.

The problem with heavy equipment engine idling

Engine idling is when you leave your equipment running while not moving or actively working. The issue with this activity is that it can seriously impact your bottom line, reduce machine efficiency, and waste your company’s limited resources. Here’s how:

• Increasing your fuel consumption and costs without any productive gain
• Accelerating wear rates on engine components
• Reducing time between routine maintenance procedures
• Creating unproductive “ghost hours” on your machine, which can negatively affect resale value
• Idling does not allow the machine to warm up to operating temperature, leading to issues with emissions systems that are not covered by a factory warranty and adding to the cost of machine ownership

The negative effect of “ghost hours” or time spend idling, is not immediately apparent, but it can creep up on you and decrease the value of your assets. For example, there are two machines, A and B, that both worked for 5,000 hours, but machine A had significantly more idle time. So when it comes time to resell, machine A has 10,000 total hours and machine B has 7,500 total hours. A difference of 2,500 lifetime hours can cost you significantly on the sale; even up to $20,000, depending on the machine size and type. And it’s all because of excessive idling.

Despite the multiple negative impacts on the profitability of a business, engine idling is very common on construction sites. But there are some strategies that you can implement to minimize idling as much as possible.

Educate your operators

It’s important to make your equipment operators aware of the financial impact of engine idling and of improving machine efficiency in general. It should be ingrained in them that if the equipment isn’t working or completing a necessary task, then it needs to be shutdown. Don’t idle an engine for more than 10 seconds. Some companies even implement an incentive or rewards program for operators who effectively and consistently reduce idle times, resulting in significant gains on your bottom line.

Use equipment monitoring tools

You can’t improve machine efficiency if you don’t understand what’s hurting it in the first place. New technology and tools help you more accurately monitor equipment, collect data, and convert raw data into actionable information. Most of these machine monitoring tools will allow you to view and track idle times. If you recognize when engine idling is occurring, you can take the proper steps with educating the operator or changing the workflow on the jobsite and better planning your operation to avoid excessive waiting around.

Carefully plan your job

The better you plan your project operations, the less time your equipment will end up sitting idle waiting to be loaded or unloaded or to execute a critical task. It’s important to assign the right number and type of machines to each jobsite to avoid redundancies or delays, as these often lead to idle time. You also want to correctly size your excavators and loaders for the specific work being completed. For example, if you’re loading an articulated truck with an excavator, it should take three to five bucket loads to fill the truck bed. If it takes more than five loads, you will likely have machines waiting around, idling, and wasting time and fuel.

Choose machines with auto start and stop technology

Many types of new equipment will include features that help operators significantly limit engine idling. They go by different names, but whether it’s called auto idle, auto stop, auto start, idle stop system, or something else, we recommend considering options that offer some type of idle limiting technology when purchasing a piece of machinery.

If you have any questions about minimizing engine idling or increasing machine efficiency in general, contact our team today!