Photo credit: Duncan Hull
What’s in the boot of your car right now? I hope you don’t mind me asking an impertinent question right at the start but it might save you some money.
Ok then, I’ll start by telling you what is in my boot; a Barney the Dinosaur jigsaw with half the pieces missing, a couple of jumpers, a kid’s tricycle, a couple of umbrellas and a few stray potatoes. This isn’t a bad haul but I have to admit that I don’t know when anyone last used any of those things.
This clutter in the boot of the car matters because it seems that it means we spend more money on fuel. In fact, a survey carried out on behalf of Shell suggests that 22% of British drivers use their boots to permanently store things and 10% admit that they have never cleared it out.
This extra weight affects your fuel efficiency and while the jigsaw probably isn’t costing me much money I guess the total weight of all of these things must contribute to my monthly fuel bill.
The Top Five
So what do other people keep in their boots unnecessarily? The top answer is tools, followed by boots, sports stuff, baby equipment and, perhaps more strangely, shoes.
Most of the people who were questioned say that cutting down on fuel costs was a good incentive to change the way they drive. Although to be fair they weren’t asked if they were willing to cut down on the number of shoes they carry about with them. It’s not really a problem for me. As I have never owned more than 3 pairs of shoes at any one time I simply can’t afford to leave any of them lying about in the boot.
Anyway, there is a Shell promotion type thing going on now to help you save fuel. It is called Target One Million and you will find some online games if you check it out.