Influence of operation management on fuel consumption of coach fleet

In this paper, the relationship between the operation management and fuel consumption of a coach fleet was studied. The box diagram method was used to remove the abnormal data and improve the quality of sample data. Multiple stepwise regression analysis was used to confirm the major influencing factors for fuel consumption of the coach fleet. For the selected coach fleet company, the passenger quantity fluctuated periodically in the course of a year, and the time of the lowest passenger quantity appeared during the Chinese New Year. Fuel consumption per unit turnover (fct) increased with the increase of the rated engine power in general. Fuel consumption increased and fct decreased with the increase of carrying mileage and turnover. According to the fluctuation of passenger quantity, the number of operation vehicles was adjusted and part of the route was rearranged. The improvement measures increased the actual loading rate and reduced fuel consumption considerably, which verified the effectiveness of the measures. •Stepwise regression was used to confirm influencing factors of fuel consumption for coach fleet.•The passenger quantity of the studied coach fleet fluctuated periodically in the course of the year.•The effect of influencing factors on fuel consumption of coach fleet was analysed quantitatively.•Energy saving measures were proposed and verified by the practical results.