Keeping drivers comfortable while on the road and ensuring fuel efficiency is a tricky balance for fleet managers, especially in cooler climates. After all, weather conditions already offer plenty of challenges, and the last thing anyone wants at the end of the day is a cold, uncomfortable cab. Being faced with a cold engine that won’t start when it’s time to get back on the road is no fun either.

Engine-off heating can help fleets combat these issues and is an idle reduction solution as well. Keeping drivers comfortable and pre-heating engines make life as a truck driver easier. The fact that fuel savings can quickly add up to thousands of dollars and that overall idle time and harmful emissions are significantly reduced make no idle heating an ideal solution for fleets.

For example, engine-off products such as fuel operated cab heaters and engine pre-heaters from Webasto, are engineered to maximize fuel efficiency and improve overall performance. On average, fuel accounts for about 34% of total commercial trucking operational costs (according to ATRI’s Analysis of the Operational Cost of Trucking 2015 Update); and a large chunk of that is devoted to idling engines used to keep cabs comfortable and engines warm.

So how do engine-off heaters work? Simply put, they tap into a vehicle’s diesel fuel source for power that is used to run cab heaters or engine pre-heaters instead of idling. For example, Webasto’s Air Top 2000 ST cab heater is installed in the bunk of most sleeper cabs. It uses as little as one gallon of diesel fuel to heat the cab for up to 22 hours. To put it in perspective, traditional idling burns through up to a gallon of fuel an hour and idles an average of six hours a day (1,800 hours annually, according to research from the Argonne National Laboratory).

Engine pre-heaters like Webasto’s Thermo Top C come into play when it’s time to get back on the road. Like the in-cab heater, Thermo Top C is powered by a small amount of diesel fuel to heat an engine’s coolant and keep it circulating. In addition to contributing to fuel savings, the Thermo Top C prevents cold starts, reduces DPF wet stacking and reduces DPF face plugging.

Idle reduction technologies that find a delicate balance between overall fuel efficiency, environmental policy, industry affordability and timely ROI are worth the investment because they have the potential to pay for themselves and save thousands of dollars per year, per truck.