MPGs

I said something about an apu to one of my dsrs. He seemed cool to the idea since if it breaks down you can't idle the truck to get the air conditioner. He seemed to prefer letting the truck idle. Hometime has two dsrs and in my case I have one that almost has a brain and another that can only parrott the company line. When I pointed out that their routing put me on a restricted route for ninety miles and had me running through the Ozark Mountains on two lane road all he could do was pass the buck.

 

Hey guys,
I was just told by my dsr / fleet manager / dispatcher that we are going to have a talk about my mpg tomorrow. I'm running an international with the 9spd, and I guess I only averaged 6.1 last month, and she said the monthly goal is going up to 6.8 this month. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can say to her in the morning? I've been following all the shifting / driving techniques they tought us in training, but running the East coast with 77k lbs loads is what's killing me, but I'm pretty sure the 9spd trans doesn't help. I just don't want my old truck, to cause me to loose my job.

 

Be be very polite and courteous. Remember not to get frustrated when they say things that make no sense to you. Most of them have no clue as to what is involved in driving a truck. You can boost your mpgs by simply driving slower, if time permits of course, and if you have a dsr that books everything so tight you cant even stop to p$ss, your just screwed. Also, Im sure you have heard it before, but its crucial that you use that progressive shifting crap. You want to shift at as low as an rpm as you can....you want to accelerate very very slowly, Yes, everyone behind you will hate you, but, this is how you do it. Also, do the above and buy yourself time and start looking for another company. One more warning after this and they will terminate most likely.

 

I know alot of drivers complain about where companies want you to fuel, but they
do have good reasons.

When the company wants you to fuel in PA instead of NY and the price at the pump
is cheaper in NY you may wonder why they would do that. The reason has
everything to do with TAXES.

Say the price at the pump in PA is 2.50 and in NY it is 2.40. Looking at it like this
it seems that NY would be the place to get fuel, right? Wrong.

NY has a fuel tax rate of say .10 cents and PA fuel tax is .30 cents. These are just
examples. You subtract the fuel tax from the price at the pump to get the base
fuel price. So with that said PA would be $2.20 and NY would be $2.30 so actually
PA would be the cheaper place to fuel.

 

Yeah, they've been pushing this fuel mileage thing for awhile. I slowed to 55 and that brought me up from about 5.8 to about 6.5. I'm not slowing down to 50, even if that's what it takes to reach Roehl's MPG goal.

My freight has picked up lately and they've booked me on a bunch of 600 mile days, so there went that whole plan. I just let off more when going uphill. It helps a little. I get about 6.0 doing that.

 

Was this posted by a robot? A human being would've noticed that this thread is about Roehl's MPG crusade. Fuel routing is another, far less problematic, issue.

 

No I'm not a robot as you have suggested and the reason I made the
post is because a couple people brought up certain things. And since
company drivers don't pay for fuel and don't worry about IFTA taxes
I thought I would shed some light on why companies do some of the
things they do.


And another thing, you say that fuel routing is a less problematic issue.
I can assure you that fuel routing is just as imporantant as MPG. But
you would not know anything about that since you do not pay for fuel
and do not worry about IFTA taxes.

 

The reason your post offended me, I suppose wasn't stated clearly enough the first time around.

I don't take kindly to being told I'm not smart enough to figure out why businesses try to reduce expenses as much as they can, which essentially is what you said, unprovoked, to the whole company in your first post here and then directly to me in your second. Every driver in here knows what IFTA is and understands that fuel costs money. Our concern is fuel mileage, because Roehl tells us they are concerned about fuel mileage. But you would not know anything about that because you have never pulled a Roehl trailer.

 

Ok, ok, take it easy guys ;P

Well after I made that post, I got a call from my DSR that my truck has so many things wrong with it, it's going to be 4 to 5 days before it gets done. So for now they put me in a loaner. When I had my talk with my dsr I told her, I don't want that truck back, it's a POS, and I didn't want to be punished for having a crappy truck. She said lets see what my mpg is in the loaner, and we'll go from there. Then my next load, 40k lbs arrgh. Well like it was suggested above, I'm keeping the rpms low, and going slow. According to the qualcom I got 6.6 on this trip. If this computer is anything like the one in my old truck, thats actually about 5.6....hopefully this one is a little more accurate.

I was very poilite when I spoke with her, but it did feel good to point out when she told me to slow down, that it's impossible to slow down when you tell me to cover 500 miles in 6 hours, she agreed some times are tight, and that she'll work on extending some of my times. I guess I will just wait and see.

Thanks guys, till next time.....