Thread: Gas Saving Tips For Feds

I am still driving my Honda Insight CVT 2001 and getting excellent mileage with a maximum reached of 70.9 miles per gallon over 100 miles back and forth to work.

http://www.delicious.com/wwwtractor/insight/

Interesting advice about getting the rest of us to pay you to drive to work.

The same thing works if you are going to be on travel status all week, get paid POV mileage for the ride in Monday and the ride home at the end of the week. Never made sense to me but then I am one of the few in my work unit that never travels. Most of my coworkers depart Monday in their GSA vehicles and come back at the end of the week.

I like the 4-10s thing though I have no choice and do sometimes curse the 6AM-4:30PM day. Every Friday morning I am quite pleased with the schedule.

Oh, the gas saving tip. When possible, turn off the engine when waiting at stop lights. I emphasize when possible meaning when safe and if the red light is a long one. Maybe that should be when prudent.

This only works if you have a lot of stop lights on your commute. It is better if you are familiar with the traffic light patterns. Some of the red lights on my commute are 2.5 minutes. Some are much less.

You also have to have faith in your battery. Out here they have a tendency to fail catastrophically without warning.

Most vehicles on the road today start pretty much instantly. You do have to pay attention. Stop, put it in N, (assuming you are the 90 something % with automatic) shut off the key, when engine stops turn key back to ON. This keeps all accessories like directional lights on. If you can see the opposing traffic light, when it goes amber, start engine. Apply brake and shift to D. If you are far enough back in line so you can't see the opposing light, watch for the light to turn green, you will have plenty of time to start the engine and shift to D.

Pay attention, I have had times when I started up and pushed the gas while still in N. Usually when the car immediately in front started moving and I was in engine off mode. If you do this and shift to D so as not to inconvenience the person behind you leaning on the horn, you may leave more of your tires on the road than you intended. But it might impress someone.

Your Mileage May Vary but I have noticed that I can increase my daily MPG and overall per tank MPG using this method. Especially if I get caught at the RR crossing at the UP switch yard near work. Those guys can and do legally block the road for up to 15 minutes.

Off topic somewhat as I think this thread started out as how to get the .gov to pay for your gas. Saving fuel will save you money.Maybe we need a thread about saving fuel instead of getting all of us to pay for your fuel? We are a very diversified MB.

Disclaimer: if any of the above terms like engine, key, off; traffic light, driving etc confuse you, don't try this. Just carry on as usual but try to pay some attention to driving and stay in your lane while texting, eating, reading etc.

Originally Posted by PessOptimist

Interesting advice about getting the rest of us to pay you to drive to work.

The same thing works if you are going to be on travel status all week, get paid POV mileage for the ride in Monday and the ride home at the end of the week. Never made sense to me but then I am one of the few in my work unit that never travels. Most of my coworkers depart Monday in their GSA vehicles and come back at the end of the week.

I like the 4-10s thing though I have no choice and do sometimes curse the 6AM-4:30PM day. Every Friday morning I am quite pleased with the schedule.

Oh, the gas saving tip. When possible, turn off the engine when waiting at stop lights. I emphasize when possible meaning when safe and if the red light is a long one. Maybe that should be when prudent.

This only works if you have a lot of stop lights on your commute. It is better if you are familiar with the traffic light patterns. Some of the red lights on my commute are 2.5 minutes. Some are much less.

You also have to have faith in your battery. Out here they have a tendency to fail catastrophically without warning.

Most vehicles on the road today start pretty much instantly. You do have to pay attention. Stop, put it in N, (assuming you are the 90 something % with automatic) shut off the key, when engine stops turn key back to ON. This keeps all accessories like directional lights on. If you can see the opposing traffic light, when it goes amber, start engine. Apply brake and shift to D. If you are far enough back in line so you can't see the opposing light, watch for the light to turn green, you will have plenty of time to start the engine and shift to D.

Pay attention, I have had times when I started up and pushed the gas while still in N. Usually when the car immediately in front started moving and I was in engine off mode. If you do this and shift to D so as not to inconvenience the person behind you leaning on the horn, you may leave more of your tires on the road than you intended. But it might impress someone.

Your Mileage May Vary but I have noticed that I can increase my daily MPG and overall per tank MPG using this method. Especially if I get caught at the RR crossing at the UP switch yard near work. Those guys can and do legally block the road for up to 15 minutes.

Off topic somewhat as I think this thread started out as how to get the .gov to pay for your gas. Saving fuel will save you money.Maybe we need a thread about saving fuel instead of getting all of us to pay for your fuel? We are a very diversified MB.

Disclaimer: if any of the above terms like engine, key, off; traffic light, driving etc confuse you, don't try this. Just carry on as usual but try to pay some attention to driving and stay in your lane while texting, eating, reading etc.

I'm not sure of the circumstance, but a federal employee can not use a GOV/GSA lease for travel to and from work. This is because you are not supposed to have the vehicle at the hose. But, as I learned when I the Officer in Charge of LORAN Station Searchlight, you could find ways around this law.

The Station was 55 miles from housing one way. Talk about an expensive commute. But we took the GOV's. The vehicles were are the Bureau of Land Management in Boulder CIty. We would drive to the BLM in POV's, about a 3 minute commute. Then drive the GOV's to the Station and Back to the BLM. THis was considered a Coast Guard mission as the entire station used the vehicles daily, there was a memorandum of agreement to keep the vehicles at a federal installation, and no one person kept the keys every day. The 2 duty personnel held the keys and the keys rotated weekly.

If your situation is similar and the unit can pay for the mileage for operational reasons, then this may be a good option. PM me for details.

- Emo

Originally Posted by EmoDx

I'm not sure of the circumstance, but a federal employee can not use a GOV/GSA lease for travel to and from work. This is because you are not supposed to have the vehicle at the hose. But, as I learned when I the Officer in Charge of LORAN Station Searchlight, you could find ways around this law.

The Station was 55 miles from housing one way. Talk about an expensive commute. But we took the GOV's. The vehicles were are the Bureau of Land Management in Boulder CIty. We would drive to the BLM in POV's, about a 3 minute commute. Then drive the GOV's to the Station and Back to the BLM. THis was considered a Coast Guard mission as the entire station used the vehicles daily, there was a memorandum of agreement to keep the vehicles at a federal installation, and no one person kept the keys every day. The 2 duty personnel held the keys and the keys rotated weekly.

If your situation is similar and the unit can pay for the mileage for operational reasons, then this may be a good option. PM me for details.

- Emo

it can be worked around in civilian agencies too. trigger seems to be if it results in savings to the gov. example, a person lives midway between duty stations, wastes time to drive to homebase office then take a GOV back down the same road you just came in on to get to todays location. why not just park the GOV at home on your way back and head out again in the morning? results in 1/2 mileage and 1/2 on the clock driving. i forget the form number and takes high level supervisor approval but it can be done.

Originally Posted by burrocrat

it can be worked around in civilian agencies too. trigger seems to be if it results in savings to the gov. example, a person lives midway between duty stations, wastes time to drive to homebase office then take a GOV back down the same road you just came in on to get to todays location. why not just park the GOV at home on your way back and head out again in the morning? results in 1/2 mileage and 1/2 on the clock driving. i forget the form number and takes high level supervisor approval but it can be done.

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Common sense is not allowed where GSA vehicles are concened.

Burro, send along that form number. Better yet, a copy of the signed and approved one.

I can't even begin to count the number of times I have driven to work, got in the GSA vehicle and retraced my route to the work site. Or been a couple miles from home at quitting time and told to drive the GSA thing back to work on OT instead of taking it home. What would the neighbors think?

They know you are going to pile the entire family in that 3/4 ton utility body truck and go to railroad pass or somewhere if you are allowed to take it home. You Boulder City people are something else.

PO

Originally Posted by PessOptimist

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Common sense is not allowed where GSA vehicles are concened.

Burro, send along that form number. Better yet, a copy of the signed and approved one.

I can't even begin to count the number of times I have driven to work, got in the GSA vehicle and retraced my route to the work site. Or been a couple miles from home at quitting time and told to drive the GSA thing back to work on OT instead of taking it home. What would the neighbors think?

They know you are going to pile the entire family in that 3/4 ton utility body truck and go to railroad pass or somewhere if you are allowed to take it home. You Boulder City people are something else.

PO

no paperwork forthcoming,

wasn't my detail but saw it done, not going to delve into personell files that are not my business to share.

i'll go with common sense everytime, it still happens some places in .gov

Yeah, unfair and unreasonable of me to ask. Common sense is not policy and if it rears it's ugly head it must be stopped.

I still wonder why Boulder City details always end up staying in Lost Wages instead of the perfectly adequate El Rancho Motel.

I really need to get with the program.

Originally Posted by PessOptimist

Yeah, unfair and unreasonable of me to ask. Common sense is not policy and if it rears it's ugly head it must be stopped.

I still wonder why Boulder City details always end up staying in Lost Wages instead of the perfectly adequate El Rancho Motel.

I really need to get with the program.

example two, employee on a flexible training task, lots of folks and distance to cover, some take more some take less to get to the point where it's done. my general rule of thumb is if less than 60 mile 1 hr drive on good roads then i go home at EOD, labor and fuel less than partial per diem and hotel and more per diem the next day. over an hour and it's more productive to stay, more hours in a day that way, make the best use of other's time too. i prefer holiday inn, but will often take the $45 option too, mom and pop or motel 6, i've seen worse. get the job done, the benefits of freedom of task outweigh nickle and diming the .gov buffet. and i sleep better that way, no matter where i'm at.

was total flex my choice on the hours & comp time until the budget throttled, now no common sense, can't work or drive past certain hours no matter the economics, even at great cost.

i guess we're both right, can be done, but often isn't.