APU's, Idle and the Law--- what's the truth ?

That sounds like when vehicles did not have air conditioning. When I started driving we had all the luxuries except we were in cabovers with no cruise control.

 

Drivers should be aware of a companies idle policy BEFORE they start...I have yet to see a driver chained to the inside of a hot truck.

 

The day or night that I can't idle my truck when necessary. ..I will quit and find a company that has APUs....this one isn't bad if you like "All" of driver comforts and features....hollandent.com...I've considered them myself.

 

We like your brave talk but wonder why it took you 2 years to respond to the thread?

 

No APU is not slandered equipment and if you enter a state that has anti idling laws they usually will have a sign posted with the ordnance number on it in places like rest areas. Look up the ordnance number and look at the exemption list to see if you qualify for one.

Example. California anti idle ordnance has an exemption that if you have the California clean air sticker on your truck you meet there gases standard and can idle as long as your not within 100 ft of a residential neighborhood, hospital, or school.

Honestly I idle when I need to no matter where I am or what my companies policy is.

 

In our day we idled. Even in places marked shut engine off.

Literally who is going to stand there 24/7 and enforce the idle laws? Who and what army?

One of the reasons we are happy to leave the industry is because of these increasingly stupid laws saying do not idle. Do not park, do not sit down and eat, do not do paperwork in our booth, you need to leave etc. Whatever. These kinds of places and peoples just add themselves to a growing list of Businesses that will not be visited again in the future. Ever.

APU's and Generators capable of furnishing hot and cold air to the cab and sleeper, sometimes big enough to even heat and pump water or perhaps maintain the engine blocks of both the tractor and reefer when sitting still, keeping them warm with the coolant inside of them routed through the APU to keep that cooled. Are considered luxury expense and luxury added weight. Margins in trucking don't always allow companies to book light weight freight because they have some extra tare hanging on the frame.

Fast forward to now. If your truck does not have a APU or Gennie capable of above paragraph, we see no point in running with you. The Industry must evolve and acquire whatever equiptment that will maintain the cab and sleeper environment for Humans to keep healthy cold or hot and perhaps offer an oppertunity for other things like house power without the need to invert battery power.

The next evolution will be some sort of body waste removal module that goes into one corner of the sleeper. That should cut down on the pee bottles.

Never mind the idle laws if there is nothing there to enforce same. Things have gotten very bad in terms of laws against Truckers and trucking in general. Some of these we brought on ourselves, idling is not one of them.

What will be a problem is that companies insist on failing to equipt the trucker with the proper APU, Gennie etc etc etc trying to hold on to that small amount of money. If the company is that cheap because they are that poor, then maybe they are in the wrong industry.

 

I just came upon it today, sorta a spin off from something else I was looking up...have a safe one driver...driver comments just above are interesting also

 

After a while they won't have a choice because many companies are installing not only APUs but other driver comforts in their trucks. Another words eventually they will either come around and get smart similar to what you have shared or just lose drivers to those companies that are installing driver comforts. Another words get on board or be left in the dust!