As petrol, diesel get costlier on a daily basis, six tips that will help you deal with it

Petrol price has been hiked by Rs 6 per litre since the beginning of July. Diesel price has increased by Rs 3.67 a litre. The system of daily revision in fuel prices was put in place primarily since the oil marketers could increase the prices gradually so that the customers do not feel the pinch all of a sudden. [caption id=“attachment_3107126” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image[/caption] But pinch it will. It is only the shock that can be dealt with. While there isn’t much you can do as a consumer when it comes to the price of fuel, which is revised at 6 am every day, there are a few steps you can take to make sure you get more miles out of every drop of your fuel. 1) Don’t brake heavily and forcefully, that way you lose more fuel. Instead slow down gradually. 2) Avoid driving with your foot placed on the clutch at all times; this causes the car to consume more fuel. The clutch has to be used only while changing gears or when you want to start the car. To ensure fuel efficiency; you should drive in the gear that corresponds to the speed you are at. 3) If you can avoid using an AC in the mornings and evenings when it’s a bit cooler, it will decrease the fuel consumption. AC increases the fuel consumption of the car by around 10 percent. So may be you can roll down the windows or use the fan mode instead. If you can possibly park in a shade, it works best. It takes lesser air conditioning to cool-off a car which is parked. 4) The way you drive matters too. Unnecessarily moving the steering wheel from left to right and vice versa increases the drag on the tyres and hence leads to higher fuel consumption. 5) Maintain the car properly and service it regularly. Ensure that your car tyres have proper air pressure in them. This gives you better mileage by around 2-3 percent. Air-filters need to be cleaned, and spark plug needs to be checked regularly too. 6) And finally, the best way to keep cost down on your travel is to consider other alternatives like Uber, Ola etc to having your own vehicle. According to a recent Crisil study, the cost of hailing an aggregator cab is Rs 19 per km, compared with Rs 18 for a traditional taxi, and Rs 22 for own car. A shared aggregator cab is available for as low as Rs 11 per km.