The Twitter Writing contest was so challenging because we had a whole week to write a story limited to just 140 characters. This post is rather the opposite - I could write as much as I wanted (theoretically), but I've only got about 4 minutes before I'll be jumping in the car with my family to go to an open house celebration for the university graduations of my brother Josh and his girlfriend Megan. Ok, make that 3 minutes now.

This post by James over on the great blog Men With Pens, couldn't have come at a more fitting time. In it, he moderates a debate about whether bloggers should be able to take a break, and what the consequences can be if they do (lost readers, etc.) He doesn't exactly come to a consensus, but he does relate many fears those in the blogging community have around being quiet for too long and losing those subscribers they had worked so hard to hook! Wow, 2 Minutes and counting already?

Well it should come as no surprise that over the past two days, the exact time that I am home enjoying a great visit with my family, celebrating my brother's achievement and as a result, not paying as much attention as usual to this space, I would be flooded with half as many visitors here as I had received in the entire month since I launched combined (thanks to the links graciously directed here from Brian at Copyblogger and Josh at ReadWriteWeb and the residual linkage those produced.) Less than minute? Yikes!

But some things are more important even than blogging (hard to believe, I know), and family is definitely one of them. So I hope you will be patient - I promise I have some great material on deck and I will get it up as soon as possible. Stick with me, I'll stick with you.

3, 2, 1...

[Yes I came back and fixed the typos from the original, speedily-written article. 'Cause I'm a perfectionist like that.]

Yesterday, immediately after work, I made the long 12-hour trek by car from Ottawa, Ontario (my home) to just outside Saint John, New Brunswick (where my parents and siblings live.) My brother, Josh graduates from his Nursing program at UNBSJ tomorrow and I wouldn't miss the ceremony for the world. (Congratulations Josh!)

So four energy drinks, 1000+ calories worth of snacks and many, many text-Twitters after setting out, I arrived here at my parent's lovely home in scenic Quispamsis. (Don't act like you've never heard of it.)

First of all, I owe you an apology. I know my weakest best traffic day on this blog is Wordplay Wednesday, and yesterday, I truly let you all down. You probably sat there all day clicking Refresh over and over, wondering when you were going to get your pun-fix. But alas, I was on the road until 6am this morning and could not put a post together in time (unless you count this text-Tweeted entry to @rjleaman's little game where she asked fellow Twitterers to come up with a phrase to describe the horrible things most of us would like to do to Twitter because of its tempermentality of late...)

But the good news is that twelve hours was a very long time to be in a car by myself (well, except the small dog in my lap), and the radio station selection in rural northern Quebec is not the greatest, contrary to popular belief. So I had lots and lots of time to think. And as Sonia Simone advised us today in her regular Copyblogger article, thinking is what makes for good writing. (Well that and being a bit of a dork.)

The bottom line is this: I have some great topics that I have now thoroughly fleshed out in my head, and I am excited to publish them over the next 3-4 days. I am especially looking forward to annoucing a new Contest I am cooking up that will be launching this coming Monday - so watch this space for more than enough action to make up for yesterday's quietude!

[This article was cross-posted on my Tracking Construction Trends blog, which has since become the MarkeTrades Construction Trends blog.]

With the price of gas hovering between 1.20-1.30/litre, it's safe to say that everyone is feeling the oil crunch this year. But those of us in the construction industry, of course, are bent over the barrel (so to speak) even more than anyone else.

Because whether you're a renovator with a single truck or van on the road, or a GC with a fleet of decal-ed vehicles, two universal truths hold true of your predicament: 1) Ladders don't fit very well on SmartCars (though apparently in them?); and 2) Dodge Rams and Chevy Astros are gas guzzlers.

So as trade contractors and construction companies, what are you to do? Suck it up while the gas man sucks you dry?

Well, the way I see it, there are three main factors that affect your weekly gas spending: how much you pay per litre, how good your mileage is and how many kilometres you drive per day. In this article, I will address each of these in turn and present you with the Top 3 Ways to Beat the Pumps this summer.

NUMBER 1) Compare, Compare, Compare

Of the three factors listed above, the price per litre of gas is the one you have the least control over. But even if you can't make the evil petroleum companies give you a break, that doesn't mean you can't do anything to fill the tank for less. In fact, the best thing you can do in this department is to subscribe to the same philosophy your mother does when she's buying her monthly groceries: shop around!

For fellow Ottawans, a great site to plug into your browser and bookmark is www.ottawagasprices.com. The interface is far from pretty, but the name is easy to remember and it delivers the promised goods. There, you will find a quick and easy display of all the highest priced stations in the city to avoid, and the lowest priced stations to hit up. (And after a brief overview of yesterday's prices, a secondary piece of advice to save on gas might be "Move to Orleans or Carleton Place", but I digress.)

[For those of you not in Ottawa, just do a google search for "Compare gas prices MYCITY" and you will surely find a similar tool for your area on the first page of results.]

Checking this site first thing in the morning, before you head out, to see which station closest to where you're working has the cheapest gas might take you two minutes to do, but given the spreads I've seen on there, it could save you $6-$10 a tank when filling larger vehicles. Multiply that by the number of times you'll 'fill'er up' this summer, not to mention by the number of vehicles you have on the go (if more than one), and we're not talking chump change anymore.

NUMBER 2) Drive in Hypermile Style

You may think that your kmpg (or mpg if you prefer the American term) rating is set in stone from the moment you drive your vehicle off the lot, and in some ways you're right. But aside from purchasing the most fuel-efficient vehicles possible for your business, there are other things you can do to squeeze more juice out of each tank.

Believe it or not, there is a whole movement around eeking as many miles out of your wheels as possible: it's called hypermiling and no, it has nothing to do with providing your drivers with cases of Red Bull. What it does concern is driving in a way that minimizes all unnecessary fuel use.

The basic premise can be summed up in five points:

• Brake as little as possible: Let off the gas and roll to a stop as often as possible because frequent braking wastes fuel.
  
  


• Always accelerate slowly and smoothly: Nothing burns unnecessary gas faster than revving the engine to get off the mark at an intersection. It's a green light, folks, not a checkered flag.
  
  


• As often as possible, turn the AC off. Fresh air is good for you, anyway.
  
  


• Don't speed. In fact, the range of 80-90 kmph (50-55 mph) is a sweetspot that you should strive to hit for maximum fuel economy.
  
  


• Keep your tire pressure proper, your wheels aligned and your engine tuned: Your car is only as efficient as the sum of its parts, so take care of them, would you?

Now these tips may be easier said than done, and I am by no means implying that I abide by the above rules on regular basis. (Au contraire, I can turn into quite the Andretti when extreme circumstances require... where "extreme circumstances" usually means "I'm extremely hungry.") But hey, you're the one who wanted to save gas, right?

NUMBER 3) Make Every Kilometre Count

The final piece of the puzzle is the one you have the most direct control over: limiting how many kilometres your vehicles travel every day. And the biggest single piece of advice that I can offer in this regard is to plan ahead, and teach your crew leaders and supervisors and anyone else who drives your company vehicles to plan ahead, too.

What do i mean by this? I mean scheduling site visits and sales calls and meetings in a way that minimizes cross-city treks. Not only will this make your crews more efficient by freeing up lost travel-time, but it should cut down on the number of daily kilometres your vehicles are putting in, too.

I still remember when I had this epiphany myself. I was running my painting company at the time, and on this particular day I was managing four poorly-scheduled jobs, two in Ottawa proper (one downtown, one in South Keys), one in Manotick and one in Greely. Between delivering products to the four disparate sites, putting out fires and attending to sales calls in between, I literally went through almost an entire tank of gas (not to mention my entire reservoir of patience) in that one day. At that point, I made up my mind never again to let my poor planning make the gas companies rich.

Sitting down by yourself (if you're a one-man operation) or with your primary decision-makers (if yours is a larger company) for a few minutes, either at the end of the day, or in the morning before the day begins, and roughly planning out your travel can make all the difference in the world. I think you would truly be surprised how much unnecessary to-and-fro-ing your vehicles are doing every day if you stopped to take a closer look; I know I was.

No, you can't predict every trip you'll need to take tomorrow, but the bulk of your activity can and should be planned the day before to make every kilometre count.

BONUS TIP: To save even more on gas, consider doing business with suppliers who offer free site delivery for their orders. This may sound like a no-brainer to some of you, but I am positive many (especially smaller companies) are still spending hours every day picking up materials and supplies and delivering them to job sites. Find supply stores who will deliver (like Alpine Construction Supplies, who we recently featured in these pages, for example) and save yourself the time and the mileage.

High fuel prices are here to stay, and they show no signs of going anywhere but up. But while you might not be able to control their devilish ascent, at least armed with these tips and tricks you should be able to put a sizable dent in your company's gas expenditures this summer just the same.

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Editor's Note: The preceding aticle was my monthly Publisher's Viewpoint Column, which will appear in the June edition of the Ottawa Construction News.