No APU, 5 minute idle, 90+ degrees - is this legal?

As always your character shines through

 

You've got to realize that there's a big difference between a soldier in peak physical condition and a normal civilian. Those soldiers can handle adverse conditions because the military spent a good deal of money training them to. And I'm pretty sure they don't lock them up in little boxes to sleep.

 

Your condition creates alot of your problem in this as well.

HOWEVER, once a person has had a heat episode they are more susceptible to it.

 

They lock you in your truck Man I would find a new company

 

If you had not woke up and caught the guy and died as the result.
Company would have simply stated that you had violated company safety issues by having your windows open and allowing this to happen.

 

This is an observation from a driver that has never had an APU:

I know that quite often while I am fueling, an APU-equipped truck will pull into an adjacent island. Within just a moment of shutting the engine down, the APU will start up.

Is there an option for this arrangement, that is, to start the APU automatically upon shutting down the engine? If so, is it really necessary to have it set to "on" all the time?

Now, I realize that on the whole, this will not add a great deal of time to the clock. But those extended times when the APU is not needed and kicks on anyway (say, during a meal break or perhaps even a comfortable night) would add chunks of time that could come into play if the standard is 50 hours a week (which also seems absurd to me).

 

That standard was one company not like an industry thing.


But yeah it is one of the features available to auto start, and auto shut off. It can be avoided by shutting off the unit on the main control. But you are right in your thoughts. One of the things we have tried to get people to do is shut the truck off immediately whenever possible, same should apply to an APU.

When I did have an APU my truck ran below a 1% idle time according to the ECM downloads when I quit.

 

Yes, with most APUs there's a "stand-by" mode, so when you start the truck, it shuts down, and when you shut the truck off, the APU restarts. Personally, as soon as I wake up in the morning, I shut the APU off - there's absolutely no reason for the APU to run while fueling or any other short stop... in fact, it's against Federal law to run the APU/engine while fueling... and while I've fueled with the truck's engine running many times, I won't with the APU, since the exhaust is right on the ground... near the fuel source.

 

Most apu's also have a setting where you can set it to start and stop as needed to keep the engine warm and batteries charged when you are not in it.

 

You hit the bulls-eye...running the APU while fueling. Gotta be a safety hazard. I would imagine the additional starting and stopping of the unit in addition to regular usage would accelerate wear and tear as well.