Idiling...a Criminal Offence

An interesting series of threads this and I was discussing the same idea of some truckers boycotting those States that implement the "No idle laws".

This car hauler owner operator simply quipped "Yeh let 'em do that", Then I can get more business with my Pete and its on board APU". unquote.

Really though, it's a fact of life that you can't fight change, it's inevitable.

I have customers that swear by their APU's to save money. One owner operator I know from West Virginia with a leased Century class saves $1117 net per month with a self imposd no idle regimen. This he says pays his mortgage on the house where his wife and kids live in suburban harmony with nice schools.
Gotta like that
Actros
The APU HQ
Golden Colorado

 

I have a little trouble believing he's saving $1100 a month for not idling.
That would have to assume an idle time of about 390 hours a month @ $2.85 p/gal per hour.
This comes out to about 13 hrs a day over 30 days.

I would have an easier time believing saving half of that.

It was empirically shown here that at least one truck would idle at 0.5 gals per hour in
comparison to an assumed idle rate of 1 gal per hour.

This dramatically changes the numbers in terms of costs/savings.

If the savings is really more like $550 per/mo, it takes even longer to see a better than break even ROI in having the APU.

How does that look on paper?
If the average APU costs $10k to buy & install:
It would take a min of 18 mos to break even.
Given that no one is on the road that much, the ROI is stretched out even longer.

If your truck idles at a higher consumption then the ROI will be a bit sooner.

I did not include any tax breaks so the ROI will be a bit sooner..for the initial investment.
I'm not exactly sure what or how the tax break works for these.
Is it a one time break in the purchase yr or must you depreciate it over x number of years?

 

I can't help but bring notice to your statement, You shower once a week on Sunday................Dude, please take a shower more then that, and we wonder why truckers have a bad image. LOL

 

Your numbers are good
Its the wear and tear on the engine
I think its one mile for every 6 hours idling

 

Idle time is defiantly taken into consideration when trading in a truck, or selling it.

 

Does anyone know an industry formula for figuring how much the extra idling hurts the resale value?

 

Juggalo; I figured so I was just busting your chops, I figure you meant differently that is the reason for the LOL in there. Just having some fun with you to see what response I would get.

If you've read any of my post on this forum I enjoy life and like to have some fun, except when it comes down to American jobs and our saftey of our kids.

Just having some fun at you expense, see if you can catch me. LOL