Eco-driving training and fuel consumption: Impact,heterogeneity and sustainability

In this paper, we assess the impact of an eco-driving training session on fuel consumption using panel data. A random coefficient model is estimated to measure the effect of the course over a ten-month period, controlling for confounding factors and individual heterogeneity. We find that eco-driving training induced average city and highway fuel consumption reductions of 4.6% and 2.9% respectively. The effects are highly heterogeneous between individuals, with standard deviations of about 5%. Drivers' socio-demographic characteristics are not helpful to explain these discrepancies but we find that drivers of vehicles with manual transmissions achieve significantly larger reductions: 10% on city roads and 8% on highways. Finally, we show that reductions faded gradually after the course. City reductions go from 4.6% to 2.5% within ten months. Highway fuel use decreases average 3.5% in the first ten weeks after the course but become statistically insignificant after about thirty weeks. Overall, the average impact translates into an annual fuel saving cost of about 60$ per driver.