idle percentage

Loving the APU. Not including PTO run time I am at 5% idle time.

 

It's nice that you love it.

However, an APU costs around 8-10 grand.
Figure that into the cost of the fuel savings over time, when newer trucks only use .5-.7 GPH when on long idle.
An APU uses at least half that much.
Add to that the maintenance costs and down time for repairs.
I figured it would take at least 350,000 miles to recoup just the initial cost.

Many companies that only keep trucks for around 500k miles have found that it is simply not cost effective, because it takes nearly that to pay for that APU.
The most cost effective method is to simply hound and threaten drivers about idle time, and suck up the rest.

It's really the same with IdleAir. Two bucks an hour, when fuel is around 4 per gallon, and the truck engine doesn't use much more than that.
You might save a few bucks a night, but then you have to get signed up for it and hook and unhook the system in the meantime. Time wasted, I think.
And if fuel went to 6 bucks a gallon, you can be sure that IdleAir would increase to $3.
Why? Because they have to supply that energy to you at a small profit. They have to pay for what they provide, and they don't get it for free. They have generators running off the same fuel.

 

You say it much better than I do.

 

I guess thats why a lot of true O/O's that I see in places let their trucks idle. Because they dont have a clue on the cost of it. The difference I could see is that O/O actually does know the cost of operation , and not what his lease maintenance account says. Since you are talking about operating costs.

My point was , its like seeing the glass half full or half empty . Either way you are spending the same amount of money if not more , and why do you pay for showers ? You get a shower credit with every 50 gallons of fuel.

 

So true.

If idling were such an expense why are there SO many O/O's idling all night, even in nice weather?

I'm a company driver, and I idle when I need to.
I am not idling right now, even though it is a bit humid. I know, I have great restraint.
But I have trucks on both sides of me idling. The one on the right is at a high idle - what give's with that? Why idle at a constant 1,000?

 

It's why when you wander around in the O/O section all the "true" O/Os will tell you that the real operating cost of a truck is around a $1.30 to a $1.40 a mile ... well yeah, when you idle all night and run 70mph all the time ... every day I'll have at least one or two independents that will pass me multiple times during the day.

But if you want to be a real trucker, you have to make the big bucks so you can do it right and idle all night running your chicken lights.

Me? I just have to use my fuel to haul freight, instead of idling at night and endure the shame of not being a real trucker.

 

If you can get around idling time, more power to you.

Me, I can't stand the heat when I'm trying to sleep. And sometimes the humidity does me in.

I don't think there is shame for either of us. We just do what we need to, to survive in our own way.

 

I was told our idle should be under 25% but when they sent out the idle percentages for drivers under my DM I was #1. Not going to say what my % was but I was much higher that your's. I'm working on getting it lower...

 

Is that how much fuel a newer truck uses while idling overnight? I thought I read a while back that we use something like 4 gallons an hour idling.

 

My MPG gauge shows gal/hr while idling. It generally hovers around 0.7, occasionally heading up around 1.2. I'm not sure why. So, in my truck, a 10 hour idle would use 8-10 gallons of fuel.

The typical APU uses about 0.1 gal/hr, so a 10 hour shutdown would use about 1 gallon of fuel.

Looks like the APU would save me about $30/night.