‘By Default’ May Not Be Most Efficient

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‘By Default’ May Not Be Most Efficient

You may have heard about the recent Apple iOS system upgrade that resulted in lower battery life for an iPhone. I did some research and found an article on ZDNet explaining that this new update contained 34 different settings that could potentially affect daily battery life.

So, when I got my new iPhone, I went through each setting and was amazed at what each one did. Some were not so surprising – photos and iTunes, for instance. But there were some in there that I had no idea would significantly impact my battery life: Reduce Motions and Auto-Lock? Anyway, I found that I could adjust most of the settings and substantially increase the battery life on my phone.

This exercise in changing defaults to conserve my battery life made me think about conserving fuel in general and what little adjustments might have a big impact. I recently ran across an article in Heavy Duty Trucking magazine explaining how fleets could “Optimize Engines to Improve Fuel Efficiency.”

Author Jim Park describes how a fuel increase of 5-8% is possible simply by adjusting the default settings and tailoring them to your fleet operations. There are literally hundreds of settings on a truck that can be tweaked to improve performance. It’s really interesting how, just like with the iPhone, a few minor setting adjustments can significantly increase efficiency. Sometimes “Default” just doesn’t cut it!