Week 2 of being an O/O

Keep working at it. You will get better with experience, hopefully.

In my opinion, both your average revenue per mile and your fuel mileage leave a lot of room for improvement.

 

youll probably gain a MPG by running 60 everywhere. I averaged 7.4mpg in my columbia running at 60, and running at 65 i was getting 6.7mpg. I have a governed truck, 65 is most i can go. So i dont know your time schedules but if you were able to run slower and you should gain a good margin of MPG's.

 

I am fortunate in the fact that I have good money loads going outbound from a bad freight market(the deep south), from about October 1st until June 1st. Those loads go to a moderate freight market where I get good money back home on about 50% regular freight and decent money on about 50% broker freight. That keeps my rates fairly stable for most of the year.

I also run hoods with a mix of 48' spreads, 50' spreads, 53' spreads, and a couple 53' tandems. All of my pre egr/acert trucks get 5.75 or better. A couple of them get 6.5 plus. My two egr trucks are boat anchors and get 5.2-5.6. I'd almost give those two darn trucks away. There are many, many things you could do to improve mpg but the cheapest thing you could do is slow down 5-8 mph.

 

I figured that would be your response before I even typed mine. To each their own. I am in it to maximize my profits. I govern my trucks to 66 on the cruise and 68 on the floor. Most of my guys don't even drive that fast because they like the fuel mileage rewards that I give them.

 

That'd be the main reason I'd run at 60 or so if I owned my own truck, especially a hood.

I will say though, the OP said he had an older engine so it may not make a huge difference with it being 550hp lol.

I still believe in driving to make a profit from fuel mileage, I understand a lot of guys dont like running slower and impeding traffic, but I always run in the right lane, and I slow down when another trucker is passing me that way they get around me quicker. I could care less if 4-wheelers get mad cuz i go the speed limit or under.

I will say ive had two 4-wheelers follow right behind me, i slowed down and they refused to go around me. Maybe they were doing the whole mythbusters "drive close to an 18 wheeler to get better mpg" haha

 

Driving 70 to get where you're going is a company driver mentality, you're an O/O now, maximize your profits! Even getting an extra 1/2MPG is going to put thousands of dollars in your pocket.

 

When you say "old technology", is it a B model Cat(mechanical) or a newer electronic Cat? If it is an old 3406B then that 5.3 number isn't horrible.