Idle Restrictions

Get a dog. That way when the cop tries to write a ticket, you have a legal right to prevent cruelty to animals. We humans can suffer, but God forbid an animal be exposed to excessive heat.

 

California, New York City and Pennsylvania are the most ardent in the enforcement of no idle policies. There are many more municipal laws that are enforced in varying degrees.
If you are a company driver, it should be the second question you ask of the recruiter, "What is your idle policy?".
"Do you have APU's or other driver comfort equipment?"
If they say "NO IDLING" and "NO APU", my next statement would be "GOODBYE".
And getting a pet will get you nowhere with the enforcement. Their stance is " you shouldn't be in the truck when it is this hot, so take your pet with you when you go to the motel."

 

I read in the news about a couple of police dogs which died in hot cop cars--so sad and preventable. One police dog was in the car for 40 hours and found dead. The officer was straight up fired.

The other dog died on a hot day-- procedure was followed, the car was idling with A/C and had a remote alarm if the A/C malfunctioned however the remote alarm malfunctioned and they found the dog dead in the idling car.

 

Perhaps they will learn if everybody just stopped delivering cold produce and see how everyone copes with no milk, cheese and icecream to name a few, its like everyone saying we want cars but don't want the pollution to go with it, you can't have one without the other, i hauled reefers all the time never had any issues perhaps they should have designated parking areas for reefers cutting fuel lines certainly is not the answer.Or someone really clever could invent a silent fridge motor.

 

If there's any way to fit it in the budget, my next truck will definitely have an APU. Not sure where you got your figures from, but there's no way a TriPac burns 1 gal/hr, especially not if it's on auto and not continuous. One of my friends has one and says if it burns a gallon and a half in 10 hours it was either REALLY hot out or REALLY cold out. But other than that, I can say with 100% certainty that if the weather is such that I can get a good night's sleep without running my truck, I don't run my truck. That's dollars and sense.

 

Law makers,companies should go with a trk driver for a week to see what its really like on the road before making any decisions what to do.Its easy for them to control the drivers but yet they have no clue what its really like.