Frustrating Idle Cutoff

Document your concerns, and send them to the head of your safety department. Invoke and stress the 'uninterrupted 10 hour break', and 'restful sleep' concerns. Give them 24 hours to reply with a solution, and then re-send the email, with a cc: to the company CEO. cc: your FM on both emails so he's in the loop as well. If the escalation does not yield a satisfactory solution, then send a reply, cc: all parties, and mention FMCSA.

You will either be terminated, or be given a solution that meets your objectives. Use this advice at your own risk, YMMV.

 

Its getting intelligent in here..

 

The shut down override button is to give you a temporary override to the emergency shutdown in the event it detects a critical engine fault. TS designed to give you time to get off the road. It generally doesn't stop the idle shutdown. Hell, it only stops the emergency shutdown for a short time and can only be used once. You guys should really read up on your trucks.

 

When I drove a Columbia, the over ride gave me 15 seconds each time I pushed it. Had to use it on two occasions each with multiple pushes. It had nothing to do with over riding the Idle shutdown.

 

Highflight, it's controlled by the shop. When they hook the laptop up, one of the options is idle shutdown. They can configure it anyway they want.

It sounds like they have it set on 5 minutes with no override. Maybe bring it to the shops attention next time you are in and see if they won't change it for you.

It might be intentional or has been over looked since new.

Here's another thread... Post 6 explains whats in the owners manual.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...ers/149126-how-can-i-overide-engine-shut.html

 

I see you are a "student"............You still have alot to learn about this industry!...............Companies don't care about you, they only care about fuel costs!..........................

 

Arrogance like that is why nobody speaks up to make a difference. You would rather train someone to assume there's nothing they can do.

 

That's what I was saying. People said to use it for his idle #### down. I was correcting them. The ability to use it multiple times though must be a cascadia thing. My old Columbia was a one time thing. You had to shut down and restart to reset it.

 

They care about costs, period. Exactly why I suggested playing the safety card. If their insurance company gets wind of the fact that they're not committed to safety because they make it impossible for drivers to get rest while they're on the road, there will be some high level meetings to discuss insurance premium rate increases. The safety director and CEO fear this more than most anything.

Meh, I didn't take offense. But people need to realize that being a 'student' doesn't mean being under 18 and inexperienced regarding corporate and employer / employee matters. While there are some unique facets of business where trucking is concerned, business is still business.