It does idle continuously when the temp is below 50 or above 70, no icon, has inverters just like all our other trucks
That sounds alright. But that still burns allot of fuel. I bet they'll have to turn it back some degrees. I still think the APU's would be cheaper to operate. Maybe they are just trying a few out to see how it goes.
APUs are good to save fuel, but they must be maintained. I'm assuming USA still sucks in the maintenance department and probably don't have the time to keep up on maintenance on all the APUs. Also not all their mechanics have the knowledge to troubleshoot/repair the units. When I worked there I had one mechanic in Vandalia install the coolant lines backwards causing the APU to overheat. If the stats are still the same as they were year back: Idling = 1 gallon per hour APU = 1 gallon per 10 hours Another reason for this is, maybe they haven't ordered any new or manufactured APUs yet since they install the APU in house. They may be testing it out and if it doesn't work out they may or maynot install APUs in the new trucks.
I was talking with one of their R/S guys a few weeks ago, he basically said that USA lost their ###es with the APUs. The units installed are over 10K each and after 1 year become less and less reliable (due to their most excellent maintenance). So, after 1 year you have a unit that isn't reliable, have paid premium $ for, and then you have hundreds of trucks each week down at terminals waiting for APU repairs by mechanics who have limited knowledge on how to properly maintain/repair them. Top that off with improper installs on many of the trucks (since most were installed in-house). It was always a lose-lose situation with USA and APUs, USA doesn't keep the trucks long enough to recoup their investment even if they were capable of maintaining them. I guess Mr Beckhams spreadsheets didn't tell him that when deciding to go with APUs.
that's what they told me too when they issued this truck to me also,just don't like the phone calls about idle time percentage when the truck is only being idled at the temps they set it to idle too lol So far I am only averaging 6mpg in this truck also has 9000 miles on it hopefully improves soon
The APU maintenance issue is pretty simple to fix. At Averitt we have APU's on our trucks. Most of our service centers have one guy who knows the basics of how to maintain and repair them. If he can't fix it they run us through our Nashville service center and they have a shop that knows them very well and gets them fixed. When we start to idle all night because the APU is down we get routed to Nashville pronto. The savings are so worth it and the driver comfort they provide along with the Inverter for creature comforts would do much for USA's driver retention in my opinion. Talked to a USA driver on Friday who was planning on parking his truck in Atlanta and telling Van Buren where to find it. Said he'd been trying to get home to Tampa for over four weeks and they kept routing him away from Florida. He was fed up. Said he was gonna catch a bus home. I tried to talk him out of abandoning the truck but he had his mind made up.
I agree. It means so much to me to sleep comfortably. They don't know how to monitor the APU's. It took them about 6 months to replace the alternator on mine. They need to do that. Just one location to service and repair the APU's. I've worked these Schneider trucks. They don't want to go that route. They will end up turning the idle sensor way down. Schneider has there's set at 20 and 70. It's not going to work.
A lot of the maintenance falls down to driver negligence. I heard that from Thermoking dealer in Conley, GA. Most of the drivers when doing their pretrip (haha right) completely overlook the APU. It actually has things that are supposed to be inspected during the pretrip. Belts, fluids, hoses, etc. The belts fray and snap just like on the tractor motor. Vibrations from the unit itself will eventually work bolts loose on components like the starter. Once it gets loose enough, it gets out of tolerance and starts chipping teeth or won't mesh and it won't start. Oil leaks or coolant leaks can cause corrosion or bad contacts on the electrical components. Loose belts can cause the pulley shafts to bend. These are all things that should be noticed by the driver and reported before a problem begins. Now we can go on and on about how good or bad USA's mechanics are but I'm just repeating what the TK guys said. A properly maintained unit should last 3-5 years before needing an overhaul.
