Swifts new Idle policy

I just left The Capital S----.This was one of the many reasons. Lies lies lies, I was sitting 3 days on 500mile runs..not by choice and with no layover. If your not driving you are stuck in the truck..if its 100 outside you have to run the truck.

 

Well, i work for a company with really ugly gold trucks,only run teams, and have a less than impressive record with drivers.
That said they dropped us from 30% to 15% over night! I told my dispatcher when they said to sleep in buttonwillow CA 104 egrees w/o air that they had to get a hotel they refuesed. I lay there till I had gotten a mild case of heat exhuastion. had co-driver call 911 so this is what the 60 dollars in fuel they saved cost them!

Ride in Ambulance 735$
ER 1239$
Overnight hospital 2391$
2 weeks work comp 873$
Truck setting 4 days 3658$
____________________________
Total cost $8896
minus savings of $60
__________________________
Grand total of loss -$8836


I was immediatly assigned a truck with a APU
My Idle time is now 0.xx% each week
They still complain but it well under 15%

OH BTW my FM ask weekly for our fleet to be under 10%

 

TRI-Pak I love it broke down 2 times in 1 month but both were same issue never fixed right first time!

 

HAH! That's awesome. I'm wondering though. If an APU is so ridiculously priced, why get one? Wouldn't a small diesel generator drawing off the tanks work just as well? You'd need an electric heating/cooling unit But it'd be worth it to save, what, $9500? Even at double the price you'd still be saving nine grand.

 

Where can I get one of these tempa starters?

 

You can get a tri-pak put out by Thermo king for 5500 used /rebuilt and installed not bad 8500 new SO I SAY WELL WORTH IT

 

Is there a way to hook up to a regular generator? Those APUs are sooo expensive right now. I might just wait until the Washington mandates push the price down.

 

There's always a way to rig something up. RV's have generators too. Bet they don't cost $10k. Come to think of it, that much money will get you a windmill large enough to power most of your house.

 

Thanks for the clarification.
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At Crete our idle time comes off the Qualcomm and includes time spent at stoplights and stop signs. When I first got this truck with an APU I was very obsessive about shutting it off as soon as I stopped, sometimes as I rolled into the space. I could only get my idle time down to 7%. To make matters worse the Qualcomm reads over idle % giving one the impression you are already over the allowed amount but that would only be if the goal was 0%, it is 30% by the way but that does include all of our idle time including anytime the truck is not moving.

 

My '07 Volvo I had, did not have Opti-Idle. I did have the Webasto heater though. What do you do when you are making a summer delivery in PHX? Pass out from heat stroke?