Easy, quit idling your vehicle.
Math follows. Skip to the end if you are prone to having your eyes glaze over.
We'll start with some simple math and some (obvious) assumptions.
Fuel economy of a V8 engine (typical in a large pickup truck - often used in company fleets) is about 10 litres per 100 kilometers. Which is also one litre per 10km (just drop a decimal point from each side of the equation).
At 60 km/hour, one covers one kilometre in one minute. Which is also ten kilometers in ten minutes (just add that decimal point back). 60 km/hour is a fairly average speed in suburban areas.
This implies that at 60 km/hour, that pickup truck uses a litre of fuel every ten minutes.
A litre of fuel is used whether that vehicle is in motion or is in fact stopped (i.e. "idling").
Somewhat better fuel economy means it will take a bit longer than ten minutes to burn that litre of fuel (gas or diesel). My little four banger five speed uses about 6 litres per 100 km - so it takes about 17 to 18 minutes to burn a litre of gas (moving or not).
Look at todays price of a litre of gas.
Is that the price of a cup of coffee? By idling your vehicle at Tim Hortons for 10 minutes, you spent twice as much for that cup of coffee.
Do you idle your vehicle waiting for someone at the bank? Better take out a bit more money to cover the cost of idling.
Were you waiting at that train crossing for half an hour? Were you idling that whole time?
Were you idling waiting for your turn at a gas pump? Is there something else besides your vehicle that is not in gear?
Many new vehicles automatically shut off the engines if they are not in motion. Just like automatic parallel parking, this is a feature that is more clever than most operators.
HERE IS THE END if you skipped the math.
Idling your vehicle costs money.
If you're a fleet owner, this wastage affects the bottom line. Multiply this bad habit by every vehicle you have in your fleet and quarterly profits are going to take a hit.
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