Influence of snowfall on the fuel consumption of winter maintenance vehicles

Abstract

Winter maintenance vehicle fuel consumption increases with snowfall due to changes in road conditions and driving behavior. Quantifying fuel use is important for estimating costs and for understanding the impact of snow-clearing operations on the environment. Calculating fuel economy is challenging in snowplows because recorded onboard diagnostics (OBD) data often do not include mass, which can fluctuate significantly when applying de-icing substances to the road. This paper outlines a novel method to isolate fuel usage associated with snowfall, accounting for gross vehicle weight, using OBD data. For days with snowfall totaling two inches or more, fuel use rose about 16.5% to 22.9% as compared to days without snowfall. Fully loaded trucks were found to use 13.2% to 18.5% more fuel than half-loaded trucks. The results could be used in practice by motivating better fleet management strategies, for example by optimizing de-icing loads, or to model the feasibility of snowplow electrification.