Auto start and stop

Why do I get the feeling this so called piece of "idle reduction" technology is nothing but a waste of time?
Don't get me wrong. I love how much smoother this version is over Swift's clunky way of auto starting before they got rid of it. I also enjoy my APU, battery-powered as it is. But it seems to me that every time I hear the system start up and watch it rev the engine up to 1000 rpms to recharge the batteries that a couple times of this throughout the day eats up my hard-earned fuel economy almost as much as half a day of regular idling. What the heck is the point?

 

I don't miss Trans Am at all, but the trucks were dayuuuuuuum fine. I also miss the diesel fired APUs.
I'm now leasing for Celadon, making what I can of their cpm based truck payments and lower fixed cost. Their trucks just scream "fleet spec'd" but they also don't suck.
I always aim for 7 mpg, and last week a couple light loads plus a monster GA to CA run got me back to back 8s. I started this week off at 8.3 but the mountains of UT and CO dragged it down to now 7.5 it looks like, but I already made my fuel up, so that 8.3 is going to help me because it looks like this one crummy run will be the only one that might get scanned in for the week.

 

I usually enter CA by way of I-10 and then head back out. Crossing over from AZ is pretty cake.
I will never go north or south in CA.
EVER!

 

I've turned my A/C settings down because it's cooler now. It hasn't started since the late afternoon, but I'm using the built in inverter to power my laptop right now, so it shouldn't be too long before another battery recharge cycle. Earlier in the day when I had my A/C on full blast, it started about three times. I'm waiting out the day because the customer is closed on the weekends. :/ I watched it go from a respectable 7.9 down to 7.5 on the dash. And upon my fill up before I hit the mountains of UT, I was actually doing a great 8.3. Granted the dash display is always a little bit off, but my hand calculations usually either match exactly or are up to .5 mpg off. Usually I get the auto start in the morning when I wake up and turn on the lights and that one time will be it for the whole day. But I don't like how it's programmed to rev up to 1000 rpms and idle there. Seems to me that I've done the same amount of damage five or six hours of regular idling can do with just the couple times this auto start and stop kicked in.

 

Oh. It runs until it reads a full charge of 14 v and then shuts off until it gets a low battery signal of about 12 v. Usually takes about an hour. And then how long it stays shut off depends on how fast you're running your A/C or heater from the battery APU or how many gadgets are going at once. I guess it's better than Swift's POS, which was temperature related, not battery related, and when I was with them last, they got rid of it because of how harsh it started up the truck and how much damage it was doing to the starter. Celadon's auto start is nice and smooth and relatively quiet with the Maxxfarce engine.