idleing?

Anyone seen some of the newest posts- companies are starting to charge drivers for idle time. They download the info from the truck's comm system, compare it with the monthly allowable average, and automatically deduct money from a driver's pay for it.

Sign of the times, I guess.

 

They would only do that to me once...

 

The dash display on my 07 Volvo indicates .3-.5 gph when I am idling.

 

I guess I'm lucky for having a boss that cares, last week I had to sleep in NY. we rarely ever go to no idle states, so I called the boss and said what should I do about the idling thing? He said F 'em leave it idle if they give you a ticket I'll pay it!

 

That's what mine always showed and my careful refueling also confirmed that sort of idling fuel flow, yet every Tom, Dick, and Harry keeps saying idle equals 1 gph. I trust that display and my measurements more than an estimate I've heard for 20 years.

 

On our KW we have a C-10 with the Cat computer, if you idle the truck up to about 1100 you can get it down to .1GPH, and then when the fan kicks in it goes to about .3GPH, so ours is .1-.3gph

 

The park smart system is GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!!! Our company has bought a bunch of 2011 cascadias with this system. EVERY ONE OF THEM has crapped out. They are all on recall. The circuit boards short out, the complete system locks up. We had 18K miles on the truck when ours fried. freightliner is so far behind because they are having to redo each and every unit out there. Also, the AC unit with the park STUPID is inefficient. it barely cools at moderate temps and doesn't get the job done at all out in the desert environment. Since it is a free standing electrical unit, running the engine is ineffective to try to boost power to the unit whereas a standard unit, you can bump the idle to boost AC performance over low idle. It also provides no air or heat to the cab area of the truck. Like most APU systems, it covers only the bunk. So, if you are a team op and are parked for whatever reason, the driver on duty either has no heat/air or has to go to the back, typically disturbing the driver that is supposed to be sleeping. Also, you are limited by the charge in the battery. A system designed to provide ac only for a duration of 8 hours can not effectively provide comfort to a driver on a mandatory 10 hour shut down. An APU is a much better system.

Example, your truck is parked for a couple of days while you are off. Your batteries go down because they are worn or you accidently left the lights on. An APU can recharge your truck batteries and you can start the truck right up. Park smart, no help. Your driving down the highway and your alternator goes out. Park smart is no help. An APU (at least the thermo king units) wil automatically come on and keep your batteries charged so that you can get to some place for repair. Park smart is crap. That is all there is to it.

As to the original question. if the truck does not have any of the "fuel saving" units installed, then we run the engines to keep the climate control going and to keep our batteries charged. many drivers have a lot of electronics etc in the truck. these use power from the batteries. Asking us to turn off the truck is the same as having you pull the main fuse from your breaker box and shutting off all power to the house.

 

Thats what I said.. I put in my 2 weeks as soon as they told me I'd be charged.

Though the idle charge wasn't much, it was like $50 for the entire month (works out to about $12/week). But it's the principle of the thing.

I should have played hardball and said "Sorry, can't deliver on time. It's too hot for me to sleep and moving while fatigued is a safety violation. Your rules won't let me idle the truck to cool it down"

 

I was curious if a built in system would work any better than an add on. When I dropped my truck off at Freightliner here in El Paso for service, I noticed that a local company here called Russell Transport had a delivery of a bunch of 2011 Cascadia condos with the Parksmart system installed. They run a lot of team freight for the automotive industry that comes out of Mexico so I guess their teams will be sweating it out.

 

After spending 12 days sidelined getting our parksmart repaired, here we go again. We left out on the 9th. It is now the 19th. Our AC compressor stopped working yesterday afternoon. I decided to go ahead and make our delivery this morning and from there, we will be going to Freightliner for repairs AGAIN!!! Last time, it was the circuit board. This time, I believe it is low freon (or at least I hope it is that simple). If you want a system that works, get yourself a Thermo King APU. Just make sure they run a set of ducts to the cab of the truck and not just the sleeper area. this is most important if you run teams and the on duty driver does not want to disturb the off duty driver when you have to do a short term shut down. What really torques my nuts is that 12V electrical AC systems have been around for a long time in use for motor homes, travel trailers and even on some of the super sleeper trucks. Why can Freightliner not get something so simple to work properly? If we decide to change companies after this go round, I will make dang sure I don't go to a company that uses Freightliner trucks.