what have you guys done to become more fuel efficient

Best advice I've heard all day

 

Any chance you'll dust it off and head to the ice roads in Alaska and Upper Canada?

What kind of mpg's did you get before you changed careers?

 

1st, understand I'm a company driver, so all I get is a fuel bonus. That said, this is what I do..

1) if van or refer, close up the distance between trailer and truck (move 5th wheel). If I'm deadheading more than 50 miles, I take a second to move all the way forward. If loaded, I adjust them to either state max or tire max whichever comes 1st.

2) Lower rpm shifting, no more than 3/4 fuel pedal unless heavy or climbing hill. Each engine/tranny combo is a little different, but for me 1000 rpms on 1-5, 1450 on 6-10.

3) Tire inflation. My last company had automatic tire inflation on the trailers and my rig had a system to monitor tractor tire pressure (company was checking it out). The monitoring system was made by Meritor. It wouldn't auto inflate the tractor tires but would sound an alarm if low. Worked great ( I know, lazy driver should stick them daily... yada yada).

4) Of course, avoid idling.

Todays Mileage: Dunnigan, CA to Minden, NV (deadhead) then Minden, NV to Weed, CA (over the mountains on US 395 and 2 lanes) loaded with 45,800 lbs in box. 7.0 MPG, Speed avg 52 mph.

 

I have learned that anytime a person that is giving out advice that starts with MY TRAINER TOLD ME .....that the rest of the conversation is not going to be worth my time to listen to.

That being said I do get a kick out of the stupid stuff that people will take to heart and never try to learn for themselves it is really the way that their trainer told them it was !

A fine example here in this fine exchange of vast months of experience that is being shared one would believe that you will earn your fuel bonus just by kicking your truck into Georgia overdrive every time you come down a hill or mountain.

Or in the same learning situation you would believe that it is illegal to float your gears as you shift your truck.
Once again one would think that after the vast amount of months of experience that one would have taken time to double check the facts before sharing the fact that he was trained by a very ignorant and at times dangerous individual .

I can only hope that one will take time to actually learn that the ignorance that taught to him as fact is not only wrong but dangerous and make one look as ignorant as the trainer himself obviously is .

Just another example of why you need good trainers to have good drivers not just meat in the seat that has not killed someone in his 6 months of driving .

 

Tell it to millions of drivers bub. Start handing out fliers.

 

I fully agree.
Anybody still making Marmons ?

 

Wonder how long it will be before "fuel bonuses" become a larger and larger percentage of the company driver's pay .... Since they are the experts ...

 

I have found the best way to save on fuel cost, It is the most efficient way that cant be beat! hold on to your shorts! this will blow you away!, Are you ready? I sold my truck and started driving someone else's truck , my fuel cost is $.0 every month

 

Fuel bonuses are limited because there is only so much you can expect even in a perfect trip. A driver is a large part of overall MPG in the long term, but carriers may or may not give drivers more and more money as fuel goes higher and higher.

It's not unreasonable to think a driver's technique can REASONABLY mean the difference of perhaps 8 cents mile in fuel costs (6.0 MPG @ 4.00 vs 6.8 MPG as an example) . A carrier is only going to bonus probably half that and pocket the rest. So there's 4 cents mile bonus potential assuming all things are fixed and equal. That's fine so long as they don't cut mileage pay FIRST by 4 cents then expect the driver to "earn it back". But too much depends on how they establish the base-line if it's reasonably obtainable or not.

Now, if fuel goes to $6, is the carrier going to adjust the formula accordingly? If they would seriously consider a formula that accounts for fuel price as they fluctuate and pay back half or 70% of the savings above the fleet moving baseline over a given period, that might be worthwhile over the long term. (paid according to what percentile of the fleet they operated in and what the period's average fuel costs per gallon were)