How long does a truck have to idle?

i drive a cemeny mixer and the company makes us turn off the trucks when we get back to the yard , if all we have is wash water in the drum. any leftovers are dumped and fins rinsed and then shut the truck off when you go into the office. we have no air conditioning in our mixers so its hot all summer

 

Oso,

Idling a truck is never necessary in order for it to function as a delivery unit. Most fleets here in Canada have anti idlers installed. They usually shut down after 5 minutes. In a typical day where a peddle driver makes 20 stops there is no reason he/she should need to keep the truck running at any of those stops whether it is a 10 minute stop or a 1 hour stop.

However if there truck is idling to keep the cab at a tolerable temperature for sleeping and living, then idling may be the best option. If this is what you are concerned about, where do you think your electricity comes from? Coal fired generator maybe.

If you think that you are going to change the word by getting some trucker to shut his truck off in order for him to sleep in relative comfort guess again. Why not focus on those fat lazy ash people who idle their giant SUV's in some coffee shop drive through for 20 minutes just for a single cup of joe.

 

Mr. EOTR: I believe we have (drum roll buildup......wait for it.......wait for it....) AGREEMENT!!!!!!

(Shhhh.....don't tell the others....I'd hate to ruin my reputation...)

 

I won't tell if you won't!

 

We don't have a.c. in ours either and it sucks I know. We stay busy most the day so we are only at the plant to get loaded and head back out, if not then we'll wash out and shut it off. An obviously you can't shut the mixer off when you're at a job site because the motor needs to run for the hydraulics to work.

 

I drive a day cab,so I 'm not discussing comfort while not in the driver's seat. When I'm not driving,I'm unloading,so I never idle.I've seen a few articles about the harm in idling for long periods of time.Acid builds up from the break down of oil and cuts down on the life of the engine.
I don't know anything about APU's but driver comfort is very important.Getting a good night sleep in a comfortable setting is a safety issue in my book.