Anti Idle Advice

My worst night ever? Try a bivouac near the summit of Mt. Rainier in February: no sleeping bag, no tent, and no stove. I thought I'd broken a rib from shivering but it turned out to only be pulled muscles. Temperatures dropped to zero that night.

Not gonna say this ain't so....but it does seem to sorta , kinda , maybe push the realm of believability...with-out any heat source , cover , or shelter....well I'm glad you survived. Kind of along the lines of walking to school in the snow for 5 miles...up-hill both ways , and with no shoes...and glad to go.....

 

See i learned something intetesting with my scan gauge my old truck uses only .5 gallons an hour when idlig but if its way too hot and i stuck for 20 hrs plus its time for a cheap room if its too hot or too cold i idle....never have been bothered but i,m goo till 90. With fans and about 15 with a beanie and sleaping bag

 

When driver's decide to control their own situation, thing's will improve. If you ask the question's when appyling for the job, then you won't have to complain after you get accepted.
If enough driver's say, "No Thanks", after asking the questions at the interview, then maybe the trucking companies will start to spec their truck more driver friendly. An driverless truck makes a company no money.

 

colder weather I can deal with, with having blankets, sleeping bag, and other thing, but when its to hot, I cant sleep, so, I will idle, the company I drive for has bunk heaters and those little sticker for clean air idle, As they do prefer drivers don't idle to much, but if its to hot, they understand

 

Had to sleep on the ground at camp Pendleton in a mummy bag over countless tarantula holes....and I have aracniphobia

Longest nite of my life lol

 

I carry blankets and warm clothes for the winter and fans for the summer, I'll warm up or cool off the truck right before I go to sleep and about the time I need to get up, it will get too cold or warm inside the truck.

I'm in Missouri right now, it's 52 degrees and the truck beside me has been idling most of the time I've been here.


Drivers complain about wages, yet they idle all the time, and when a fleet has, say 1000 trucks , at 1 gallon of fuel per hour X 10 hours at $4 a gallon, that's $40,000 a night, and say for example that each truck is idled 300 days a year, that's $12 MILLION in fuel alone.

 

My boss ownes 20, 000 trucks...a couple of sports teams...private jets...has a vested interest in pilot and flying j....has a big mansion on the hill ....and pays me .32 a mile......so I idle that big thirsty ##### all nite long

 

I was at the TA in Willington, CT. I got up around 4am to turn on the truck to warm up and charge the batteries. Later when I pulled back the curtains, i saw a CT state trooper with a JB Hunt truck across from me. JB was idling last night so I'm pretty sure Mr. Super Trooper was in there writing idling tickets. Since I was probably next, I quickly updated my logs and beat a hasty retreat.

 

And creating unnecessary cost for the company has nothing to do with your wages?

edit to add: fyi, Wal-Mart, fed ex, and ups are the largest truck operators in the nation, none of them operate 20 thousand power units.

 

This comment can be flipped to see the other side of the coin:

"Let me get this straight...

... "You want to burn up to $20,000 fuel per year so you can live in a cocoon of comfort within a very narrow range of temperature no matter what the outside temperature...

.... You don't want to be on the road for long periods of time...

.... AND you feel that you deserve to be paid large sums of money...

.... without regard for your company's profit?"

Do I have that about right?