Final ACTUATE partner meeting and public conference held in Brussels
The final partner meeting and conference of the ACTUATE project (Advanced Training and Education for Safe Eco-driving of Clean Vehicles) took place on December 11 /12 2014 in Brussels. About 30 stakeholders from public transport companies and associations, educational organisations and clean vehicle industry attended the conference on Friday December 12 to hear about the outcomes of the project and the potentials in energy consumption and emissions reduction through eco-driving.
Presentations were held by the coordinator of the project, Rupprecht Consult, and the project partners from Leipzig, DE (LAB and LVB), Salzburg (SAG), AT and the bus manufacturer Van Hool, BE. Furthermore, presentations were given by the external experts Kienzle Automotive, the international public transport organisations’ association UITP, the DEKRA Academy as well as by the local public transport company STIB on experiences made in the area of eco-driving initiatives in its metro network.
Throughout the event it became evident that eco-driving is a topic that matters and that has huge energy savings potential, even for clean fleets for European cities. Thus, the goal of ACTUATE’s eco-driving training programs is to optimise the driver’s behavior of electric-driven vehicles and by this to realise the energy efficiency of these technologies, maximising the impact of investment in new clean vehicles and their environmental friendliness. 1500 drivers have been trained so far to drive more eco-friendly and more than 75% of the trained drivers were able to cut down their use of energy. Savings varied from driver to driver and mode to mode (e.g. trolleybus, tram or hybrid bus) but reached numbers that were up to 20% in training environments and between 3 to 6% in daily operation. As a positive side-effect, drivers also showed reduced levels of stress and passengers benefited from the smoother driving style. The majority of drivers (more than 80%) rated the trainings as excellent or very good and also very relevant to their daily work and showed great enthusiasm applying what they’ve learnt in the training course.
Program Final Event
