21 year old in need help finding a GOOD company to drive for

You may have an anal boss, but that aside, you owe it to him and yourself to sit down and talk with him about your concerns before jumping ship. Maybe these things can be worked out.

 

More than likely, he's blowing smoke in an effort to get you to drive as economically as possible. 1.5 mpg is quite a spread from what you're getting as opposed to the other drivers. Yet another talking point when you meet with him.

 

I would love to hear his reason for only using the APU 10 hours a week. I thought the point of it was to save wear and tear on the motor, keep you comfy and cost less to operate. Why bother having it if you can't use it?

 

I don't know what type of truck you are driving, type of freight or where you are driving, but 5.5 does sound low for a flat bed. I am getting over 6 on my trucks. On one, I am getting almost 7 mpg and that is without an apu. Unless you are using the cruise control, it could have something to do with the way you are driving that keeps your fuel mileage low. You need to use your accelerator as though you have an egg under it. If you are mostly running the western states your fuel mileage may not be as high with the wind and mountains. It is difficult to say. If you are driving a Peterbilt or KW with a hood, you should be doing better than 5.5 unless there is something going on with the truck.

I would sit down with your employer and see if you can work things out. Ask him if he has any pointers as to how you can improve your fuel economy. There will be personality conflicts or things that you don't like about any job. It is much easier to try to work things out where you are than move to another carrier. I would explain to your boss that you enjoy the job, but are having difficulty getting the fuel mileage he wants. I would imagine that you can get something worked out. Perhaps you could get him in the truck and take a road test and see if he can see something about your driving that you could change to get better fuel mileage.

 

Take that truck back and urinate on it, then go to an Ltl carrier and do whatever until you build seniority. By the time you are 30, you will be making $90 grand a year and home everyday with 3 weeks paid vacation, All weekeds off, 7 paid holidays, 2-7 paid sick (personal days) cheap benefits. You'll even get paid when your broke down waiting for someone to get you going again. No more qwalecoms or puters to mess with.

 

Not all LTL companies are like that. In fact my worse job ever was with an LTL company out of Las Vegas NV.

 

I would take G/Man advice here and work it out. If you go to the boss with an attitude that you really want to do what he's asking I guarantee you life will change at that company. Why give up a good job when an easy solution is at hand.

You've said you've tried different types of shifting has progressive shifting been one of them? I've always found that I can get the best fuel milage when I get the truck in the highest gear as fast as possible. I don't mean to run it up against the peg, in fact stay away from the governor and just keep your RPM's a couple hundred below the max. What I mean is slowly progress your RPM's up as you go through the gears. Nice easy relaxed shifting and let the truck work for you and not the other way around. You should only need full power when you're either loaded real heavy or pulling a grade. Anyway, I think you best bet here is get with the boss and maybe the other drivers and see what they are doing. Remember we all can learn something new everyday no matter how many years we have driving.

 

G/MAN and GasHauler have given you the best advice available. Keep in mind driving habits can make as much as a MPG difference in mileage.

Here's a little story. Years ago when fuel mileage wasn't as important as it is now, My x-wife and I both drove our truck. It was a mechanical Cat with the fuel cranked up. We always ran in excess of 100,000 pounds eastbound. We were both inexperienced, dumb and green. We never even considered fuel mileage. Based on our driving styles she consistantly got nearly a MPG better mileage than I did.