Energy Saving Trust efficiency driver training

PUT the Audi into stealth mode today and slipped under the BMW radar and into BMW towers in Bracknell, Berkshire.

I was there to take part in the Energy Saving Trust Smarter Driving programme, which is supported by BMW with a fleet of BMWs and MINIs. The programme is designed to ensure smarter driving in every sense of the word: more economical, and safer driving.

Funnily enough, as I left the office my landlord, accountant Peter Edney (Mercedes SL with sound-enhancing exhaust system for extra V8 sonority) suggested it would be boring…”lots of coasting and that sort of stuff”. Ha! Not a bit of it.

I like eco-driving. It makes you think so much more about your driving. About how you can drive more efficiently.

I went out in a rather nice BMW 116d – there was auto start-stop but as it was too cold the system wasn’t working (it’s designed to do that, rather than being a fault). My trainer was Dave King from DriveSense, a RoSPA gold-standard trainer with a national diploma in advanced driving. If I was going to learn anything, then it would be from him.

I had been picking up tips from my son’s DriveTech Advantage trainer Craig McCall while he has been learning to drive, and efficient driving is very much part of the driver training provided. So I was interested to see how much I’d learned…and how much I’d missed.

A fair amount it seemed. We did one lap out on a mix of 30mph urban roads and 70mph dual carriageways. We then stopped and Dave told me that I wasn’t giving myself enough space and my approach to roundabouts could do with some improvement. We then went off again on the same course with Dave providing tips. We stopped again after and then recorded my average times for those two laps – and the mpg.

Here you go: 41mpg and 28mph. Not bad…but not the 50mpg of a colleague that had gone before me. Right. This was the big one – last lap to put all my new skills into practice. Never mind the cold, the heated seats were going off.

So how did I do? Well, I can tell you this: I anticipated more, made better judgement calls and kept the car moving along better. And the result? Hey, get this, a higher average of 30mph and fuel economy of 55mpg. Yeehah! Like I said, there’s nothing boring about eco-driving. It’s about driving more efficiently. Which saves you time. And fuel. Which also means less cost