Optimizing fuel efficiency of Transinco B80 buses operating in urban transport: A case study in Ho Chi Minh City

This study develops and validates a practical approach to estimating and reducing fuel consumption in urban bus operations using real-world data from Transinco B80 buses on Route 30 (Ho Chi Minh City). Against the company supply baseline ( Q c c = 24.42 L/66 km), the computed actual consumption under current practice is <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Q</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ct</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>22</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:mn>41</mml:mn> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">L</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> (8.23% lower). Two gear-skipping strategy are assessed: (i) skip first, <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Q</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>bp</mml:mi> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>22</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:mn>37</mml:mn> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">L</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> (8.39%, marginal +0.2 pp vs current practice) and (ii) skip second, <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Q</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>bp</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>21</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:mn>71</mml:mn> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">L</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> (11.14%, +2.9 pp). Uncertainty propagation yields ±0.55 L/66 km (≈ ±2.26 pp vs <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Q</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>cc</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ). Hence, measure (ii) remains robustly beneficial, whereas measure (i) is not practically distinguishable from noise. A simple longitudinal simulation reproduces smoother acceleration/jerk under gear-skipping and is consistent with the observed reductions. At fleet scale, the measures translate to meaningful monthly savings. These results support low-cost, behavior-centric strategies to improve fuel efficiency in urban bus systems.