Idle Air

Idle air was working at the TA in Redding last night. I never use it but most people that park in the spots never use it either. That I have seen anyway at any T/S.

 

It just always seemed weird to me - Rig up some connection to your window to get "air" from some unidentified remote source - Worse than a night in a hotel with windows that don't open
I was approached by some over-friendly woman one time - "Hi, how are you doing today?" but she, of course, was just soliciting customers for Idle Aire. Thanks, but I'll be out back, nose-in to a quiet spot, with sleeper vents open and windows cracked, as long as it is between 15 and 75 degrees . . .

 

thats very odd, ive never been solicited by idle aire.

"air"? lol

how the heck you sleep at 15 degrees?

 

I've seen several IdleAire employees riding around in golf carts telling drivers their carrier has an IdleAir contract . I've used them quite a few times and several times the heating units were faulty .
Maybe that's 15 degrees Celcius but 75 would be pretty warm .

 

Yea I was up in Redding on thursday night, I took January off so I did not know they shut it all down. I connected to it, and when I swiped my card to log in (this is where I usaly see how much money I have left on my card). but it did not show the remaining balance like it usualy does. However it did start up when I pressed use this card for payment. So I went up to the shack to swipe my card there to see if it would tell me my remaining balance. However it was off, which I had never seen before. So I went back to my truck and called em up to see what they could tell me, when I got the recording that they are shut down.

So I dont know if it is working becouse I still have a balance on my card, or all you need todo is swipe your card and log in and its free till they flip the switch. Although I dont think the heater or AC works. the TV cable does not work, But the shore power works, which is the important part for me. And I keep a lil electric space heater in my truck for those occasions when I am at an agent where I can get shore power. So that works good now too.

As for them leaving, I hate to see them go. It was a good service. But they had a poor buisness practice. They put there units on the front row which was a mistake. There are too many lazy ### drivers who never intended to use the service, who would park there becouse they did not want to walk the xtra 500 feet into the store. They also placed to many units per site. And had to many personel onsite too (although towards the end they figured that part out and kept a smaller staff at each site). The price they had was not competative with idling either. A typical driver is going to choose the cheapest short term method. Which is iding. A typical truck (the type of truck a driver who would be idling uses) only uses .5 -.8 gallons per hour, depending on if he is using his AC, and how much is alternator is having to run. Although during the peak hot days when you had to kick your RPM's up to maintain a tolerable cool you could be using 1.1 gallons per hour. But if your not using the AC, its going tobe around .5. And with fuel at $2.74 an hour it would be costing you $1.37 an hour to idle. Up to $2.20 an hour during moderate heat. Which are both much cheaper then the $2.55 (gold member price including tax). Although Idle air choose to advertise you would use 1.0 gallons an hour idling making thier system seem much more enticing.

For me I still choose to use the Idleaire system becouse as on O/O bedbugger, I have allot of downtime. And with a bunk full of power demanding electronics to pass the time, I cant get more then two hours on inverter without decaying the batteries to quickly. So while I did ilde allot, anytime I was at a site that had Idleaire I choose that system, As I would love to get 2m milles out of my truck.

Well I guess I am going to have to scrap up the cash this summer to put in a genpack.

 

Idle Aire set up all their crap shortly after I started driving. It was a real stressful time for me, especially to find parking sometimes. I remember Idle Aire totally screwing-up the Jessup, Maryland TA when they were installing it. They roped off huge sections of parking to keep everyone out and messed up the driving patterns. They turned an already hectic truckstop into a nightmare experience for me! Same thing at the Petro in Hammond, LA and others.

Never forgave them. In fact, I would purposefully park in their spaces--never used Idle Aire. Glad to see them die.

 

So when a state shuts down a freeway for the night to get some work done, Or they detour you around a bridge becouse its being worked on, Or a truck stop repaves there lot and has it roped off for a day or more. Do you also shun these people for life, and refuse to use there services and piss on those who do?

 

You see, I put a curse on Idle Aire because they pissed all over me. It is a very elaborate, effective process.

What really pissed me off was at nite when parking was tight, there would be a few Idle Aire spots, and they'd put those STUPID CONES in the way--pissing on me to save a spot for someone that *might* show up. I'll take that spot, and no I don't want to pay for it! I wanted Idle Aire out of business, gone!

Hopefully they'll remove all that crap and get the parking spaces in line they way they should be--I'll tolerate them roping off parts of the lot temporarilly for that.

Glad to see Idle Aire die!

Wow I can't believe how much hatred I feel for Idle Aire. They way they'd sometimes try to make me feel for parking there, or even when I was in normal spots they'd come up to me to promote their crap. I remember one employee, after I said "No," she was like, "well go ahead and waste your money." I hate Idle Aire. How much government tax money did they waste, by the way?

Good ridens!

 

There was a lot of grant money wasted..

For me they were a pain in the back side.
I pull oversize loads and then they screw up a parking lot for parking.

When loaded I'm 130 ' long and need 2 straight parking spots. They put up barriers and made it for the short trks.

I will gladly help in tearing the crap out and make more room again..
I have an apu so I never did need their service.

Plus it really was cost prohitive if you were there for more than 5 hrs.

Heck you could get a hotel room for a few more dollars.

 

You hit the nail on the head right there passingthru...."I have an apu so I never did need their service". And that was a problem with their business model. It was a dead technology before it even got started. Same thing with Park n View. Who needs the local grid when you can be self-sufficient? Especially with APUs and satellite tv. And I agree with michelangelo. Good riddance. I wonder what they'll do with the overhead gantries? Will they leave them there or will they be scrapped out?