If I passed the same Prime truck 3 times....

Man I get passed all the time 3,4,5 times a day by the lazy folks that cant the door shut. Every time it happens I just gotta laugh at how lazy some people can be got a 72mph truck barely able to keep pace with 58mph truck. Thats a pretty sorry work ethic right there.Most of the time its the O/O's doing it they pay for their own fuel so how they want to run their business is their business. However some rough rules of thumb 1mph=1/10mpg and 1/10mpg=$1000 fuel savings per year. So 72mph -58mph=14mph and 14mph=$14,000/yr in blown fuel so a lazy guy can stop at every truck stop and spend more money inside. If I were to blow $14,000/yr in missed opportunity due to my own poor work ethic I couldnt look in the mirror. If that were the case Id have to into visit every lunch counter I could and force my "you cant any money out here anymore" story on everyone just to make myself feel better.

 

Thank you driver you can't use regular math to calculate miles per hour times hours moving unless you in and airplane. That's why things like geometry,calculus and trigonometry are used and needed. Because however slow you go someone will always be going slower and yes even you get held up. These boys who claim to driver 660 miles per tour going 60 MPH don't realize how ignorant they sound. Not to mention the numbers of large metro areas you must travel through in these 11 hour runs. My truck must also be idled to run the pump needed to off load. If diesel were so inefficient why doesn't my company set up or require we be provided some type of electric service to power electric pumps?, I mean we go to the same places every day...LOL...And easier to brainwash the gullible into thinking fuel is gold...........No problem idling if you got your puppy with you doesn't that tell you something??????????...LOL

 

What's the other side of the equation?
$14,000 - lost revenue = net fuel savings
This whole debate is not apples to apples. Does 72mph cause more wear? Factor that in? I'm not claiming to know the answers. I just don't belive there are any absolute values to this math.

 

Well, lets talk about that. Guys on mileage contracts and most company drivers make their money by running miles. Lots of 'em. That means fast, and long hours. I understand that, and I understand why running into traffic gives you grief.

We're paid a chunk of money to run the load, and all of our costs come out of that... what's left over goes in your pocket. The 800-pound gorilla on my profit/loss sheet is the fuel bill. Everything else is peanuts compared to it, and the biggest contribution I can get in cost-containment is from fuel. So minimizing the fuel bill is the fastest way to sneak more $$$ across the bottom line into my pocket. If I go fast, the fuel bill goes up. If I make crappy decisions on where to buy fuel, the fuel bill goes up. Short, high-revenue loads is where the money is at, and running less miles at higher fuel economy gets more $$$ into my pocket. Slowing down puts less wear and tear on the truck (lower maintenance bills,) and decreases tire wear.

I get loads that have to be run as fast as I can get my ol' Prime truck goin'... and in fact, I spent Thursday and Friday running at 65 just to make the appointments. I've run weeks at 65, managed to get an extra load in, and have ended up with more revenue and a higher fuel bill. That pretty much makes it a wash. My settlements are much healthier when I'm running slower. So understand it's not in my interest to be fast, and all the whining you fast guys do won't change that.

If I'm in your way on a 2-lane just come up on channel 19... I'll get you around me as quickly as we can make it happen.

 

Ok I understand that Ironpony. Don't blame you for wanting to make as much as you can. What I'm asking is this; over a one year period how many more "chunks of money" could you collect if you ran 65 all the time? Again I don't think it's apples to apples. What works for you may not work for the next driver. Right now I am paid elog line 3+4 x hourly rate. But it won't always be that way. So I want all the info I can get.

 

Don't know what happened on last post. Suppose to be 2 paragraphs. Saved it 3 times. Always crunched it back together.

 

The way it works is you have only a certain number of trips in any week, of which almost every one will be controlled by fixed pickup and delivery appointments. Reefer freight by nature is not by and large drop 'n hook. Since your schedule is determined by fixed appointments, there is little you can gain by "running fast" in order to get there sooner. Sometimes, yes, you can unload early, but by-and-large the little time you gain will not result in a material increase in your gross revenue. That means you just spend a lot more in fuel with little to show for it on the revenue side.

 

Yep Ironpony is right on this try delivering early to the places our reefers usually go say a grocery warehouse, or a walmart dc, or a cold storage, and all your gonna get is a dirty look from the guard along with directions on where to make a u turn, and how to get to the nearest truck stop. Some people do run fast because thats the way their company works wants them to. However most not all just most otr drivers that run fast do so in an effort to do less work not more they just want to get there asap and then sit for a day while waiting to deliver. Thats why I refer to it as lazyness because it is. The arguement they will always use to justify their own lazyness will always be that they do it generate more revenue. They will never talk about how much more they spend in fuel and other cost to "generate more revenue " (or get there early then sit till delivery time). If they do mention fuel savings while stating their point they will always forget to mention the cost of replacing a tractor. For example lets say I buy a new truck and plan on running it until 800,000 miles before replacing it. I run slow so Ill put 125,000 miles on per year another driver who runs fast may get 150,000/miles/yr . My truck will have 800k miles in 6.4 years the driver who runs fast will have 800,000 miles in 5.33 years that give me an extra year with out a truck payment on the other driver. Say me and the other driver both finance our new trucks, we put a decent down payment down and get the truck payment down to $800/wk. Ive now given myself an extra year of workin w/o a truck payment vs the faster driver so $800/wk for one year =$41,600 in my pocket vs the fast driver. Say the fast driver gets 6.75 driving faster he will use 22,222/gallons/year i drive slow and get 8mpg i will use 15625/gallons/year if we say the average fuel price is $3.85/gallon i will use $25,398/per year less in fuel yep the fast driver will gross more than i but will still net less every time. You never hear the full scope of this arguement from drivers that run faster. But then again if I was dumb with money I wouldnt wanna talk about it either.

 

Thats a fine comparison their young man but it only shines light on the poultry type wages built into todays rates.With 25K being somewhere around the average annual wage for truckers, your saying companies have used fuel saving to pay for the operation of said vehicle? Instead of bickering over cents per mile or idling for comfort, why not attack the real thieves of trucking,,,,,THE BROKER.....
There are many scenarios in trucking that justify your type running but there are many many others that require a more aggressive tour which mine included includes average day runs of over 600 miles. Slow trucking is best utilized where the average haul is under 500 miles per day.
And your math examples are no doubt intended to prop up your argument but in the real world is by far in the minority.

 

the speed limits post on the road are the maximum for that road, however most have a minimum of 40-45mph. So if us Prime drives are following the law and working within the min and max for that highway then what is the problem? I normally run around 57-58mph and even at that speed I still at times pass other trucks but in turn I get passed by a lot also and yes even passed by other Prime drivers who choose to run a higher speed. In the event that I do pass a slower truck yes I will hang behind that truck until I feel I have a big enough gap in the left lane so I do not hold up any faster trucks while I am making my pass. I will also bump up my speed to 62 to help make the pass quicker and I get back to the right lane as soon as it is safe.

With prime being a training company the slow speed helps in that if a newbie can't control the truck at 57mph then they as heck are not going to be able to handle one at 65-70mph.