Surprise paycheck hit: goverened at 62 MPH

Sounds like a union job. Do you get to bust some heads when I strike?

 

I disagree.
Fuel is the company's #1 cost item. More than capital outlay, more than labor, more than anything else.
Today, the small company has to compete with the large operators who have the advantage of savings in mass. i.e., cost of equipment is less due to buying a hundred or more units at a time.
No matter what ancillary comments made by individuals, fuel usage is tied largely to the physics of speed. The more effort to accelerate, the greater amount of energy needed. With speed comes increased fuel consumption.
On the average, for every mile per hour you reduce your speed between 60 and 70, you save 1/10th mpg.
Look at the savings for a small company of 20 trucks if they can reduce their fleet average by 1/2mpg. Average 7mpg instead of 6.5. Based on 100,000 miles per year per truck, that amounts to about 22,000 gals of fuel saved per year. About $90,000.
And that money is the difference between being in business next year and this year.
Now for all you naw sayers out there, I submit these numbers based on having owned a fleet of 14 trucks for more than 10 years.
And guess what? The savings made running slower was more than 100 grand per year for us.
As for compensation for running slower? How about having a job?
Do the math. If you're off work for ONE WEEK due to job change, how many weeks will it take you to make up that loss? Not to mention the headache it involves.
Get use to it folks. The big boys aren't slowing trucks down to piss off drivers. They've done the math. They're here to make money.

 

Well apparently the math comes out to buying new rear ends for 72 trucks. They've decided to change the gearing in every single truck so they'll supposedly get better mileage at 65. This is including the Kenworths that they refuse to do the overheads on because they're going to trade them off. Someday.

Oh, and if I switch jobs, I'll be making 2.5 times what I make here. So no, not long.

 

And that was a rumor. Talked to dispatch and the fuel manager. They turned mine back up to 67. I couldn't manage to explain to him that the speedometer is off more and more as the tires wear down without turning it into an argument, so I left that. He's going to watch my mileage for two weeks and if I can get it up over 6, which I'm 0.2 short of, he'll leave it up. Course setting it at 67 with worn tires makes it run 65.5.

On the up side, it's going to Kenworth to get the overhead done on Friday. I found out they don't have the software to access the ECM and change anything here. He doesn't think the power has been turned down. So I'm going to have KW check it and if it's down, have them turn it back up. Cause it must have been set down accidentally, right? I didn't tell him that last part, heh.

 

Have them change the tire rotation parameter to get the speedometer right again too!

 

If you could make 2.5 times, why are you still there? I'd be already at orientation for the new job. Just sayin'

 

Not sure I really want to pull a fuel tanker. And I haven't made it down to the dmv to get my hazmat, if I even can since that letter never reached me. So no point making a decision that I can't quite make yet. I'd have to move too and I just did that.

Yeah, I'll have them install new muffler bearings and top off the blinker fluid while they're at it. Helps with the aerodynamics.

 

If you had to do 55, you would be lucky to have enough money for a Happy Meal.

 

My truck is governed at 62, once in a while I get to pass blue haired old ladies driving in 25 year old Buicks but that's it!