Prime INC Pittston, PA

Any lease op doing over 60 will not be helping his bottom line any.Most lease ops are well aware of how speed hurts fuel mileage,Thus,we have slow moving Trucks every where by choice.My check would not have been nearly as good if I chose to max out my speed all week.I never do above 58,and most times I'm at 55.I prefer to put my money in my pocket instead of into the Oil companies and middle eastern kings pockets.And how do you know we work for a pittance?Did you here it on the C.B.or did you hear it from some Bubba that had a Cousin,who had a Nephew,who had a Brother that worked for Prime 9 years ago?Both reliable sources I'm sure.

 

A little off? A whole lot off.

You're talking out of your #####.

 

Although I said that Jack can cruise at 65 mph, I didn't mean to imply that he does it routinely. He doesn't unless traffic or time demands it... but he does prefer running 60/62 over 55/58 mph. He has a Freightliner Century Class, 2008 (I believe), and he seems to get fuel mileage if he runs a bit over 60 as opposed to 5 under. Maybe it has to do with the fact that he more-so-than-not has loads over 40K? I don't know, but we found it an interesting quirk of the beast.

 

Trucks are all a little different. My Cascadia gets better mileage in the 57 - 60 range, but its going to depend on whether its flat/hilly, road surface, wind, temperature, load weight. All of those things will get me to run a little differently.

 

Hills and headwinds seem to be his worst enemy.

Has anyone every heard of Prime cleaning the DPF in these trucks? He had his truck in the shop in January(?) and mentioned that he's been struggling with fuel mileage recently and the regen system doesn't seem to be functioning properly. The shop guy said he needs to get the truck to Springfield to have the DPF cleaned... but despite mentioning it several times, no one seems concerned with getting him there to have it done.

About a week ago, though, the truck gave a hearty cough and expelled a bunch of black crap from the stack. It's running a lot better now... so maybe it fixed itself?

 

Yup. Sure have. What I heard is when the system needs to be actively regen'd "frequently" - then its time to get the filter core cleaned. The definition of "frequently" and what mileage that might occur at has been left open, since there hasn't been enough experience with this sort of system to have that defined.

If it were me, I'd keep a log of when I had to stop for an active regen, and figure some sort of cost for that to take to my FM and maintenance.

 

What's an "active regen"? His truck goes through a regen while driving at least once a day. He's only manually regen'd a few times as that function doesn't seem to cooperate all the time. Sometimes it kicks in; sometimes it doesn't.

 

Active regen = manual regen - mea culpa - couldn't come up with the correct term. Been a long day - started around 0330. If its doing the passive regen on a regular basis, then the filter is starting to get clogged. Mine is new, and I might see it happen once every week or two.

Once he's getting into the parked manual regens on a regular basis, its time to get the filter cleaned.

 

Thanks, IP, for all the information. I will pass it on and suggest he start keeping track of it. From what I have been reading here on the boards, once a day seemed excessive, but as long as he was over 7 mpg with 40K in the reefer, he was okay with it. But when it started dropping below, the questions began.

I appreciate your advice!

 

It could certainly be affecting his mileage now - but on the other hand - with the variations in weather cold/hot, winds, snow/ice on the road and winter fuel blends, he could certainly be seeing quite a swing in his mileage. I'd keep track of his mileage and see if it returns to the same levels it was at last year when the weather gets better.