Surprise paycheck hit: goverened at 62 MPH

He's right, I'm known for giving bad advise and of course, most of you are mindless and will blindly follow my advise.

Sorry.....I'll try harder.

 

One hour driving 70mph # .32cpm = $22.40/hr

One hour driving 62mph # .32cpm = $19.84/hr

That's a pay cut of $2.56 an hour! Not exactly chump change. Would drivers accept a corresponding cut in the cpm? Not likely... Let's look at what the cpm would be if the company were to cut the drivers rate instead:

$19.84 / 70mph = .28cpm (approx)

& when sitting at a shipper or receiver all day because they dont have their crap together Priceless.

 

My company has their trucks set around 65. Thing is, they limited the cruise to 65 at some point, and of course that changes as the tires wear down so now the cruise runs 62-63, but the truck runs 67 so nobody uses the cruise. I run with my foot on the floor which makes my foot and half my butt go numb. Not happy about that.

Furthermore, they have a 475 cat in the truck that they not only limited but turned the power down on as soon as they got it. Now it can't pull an empty trailer up a highway hill without having to downshift. This while getting 5.5mpg.

Now I had the exact same model truck at another company that was 2 years older. That one had a 425 cat that hadn't been messed with with the same tranny. It got 7.5 mpg at 70mph pulling heavier loads, 9.5 pulling an empty trailer, over 10 bobtail, and had more power. Now that annoys me all day long driving this thing.

Even further, my last OTR job I was in an 07 T-800 with the same 475 cat only they bought it, took it to the mechanic, and had it turned all the way up. It was capped at 80mph and got around 6.5mpg pulling heavier loads. Sooo....wtf?

 

But....according to them......they're saving money by turning them down.

They won't believe you even when you show them that it's costing them more money.

The first one they want to point the finger at is the driver.

I've even been accused of selling fuel in the wake of an unsuccessful
engine speed and horsepower limiting program at one of my previous
employers.........fuel mileage dropped 3 mpg from 7 to 4.

 

Well they were considering turning the trucks up to 68. They are the kind of people who will listen, it's a smaller company. My interview was interesting. In the office with 6 of them at once talking about all kinds of things. I think if I put together a good enough presentation, I could get them to at least start experimenting with, say, 4 of the trucks over span of a couple months to see solid results.

I mean, their goal is 6.5mpg, it's not that hard to hit with a 2010 prostar. I'm in a t600 with over half a million miles on it but I know I could get it tuned to run better. It only gets 6.5 bobtail. That's just sad.

 

perhaps if what used to take you 10 hours now takes you 22 plus hours, since after the 1st 11 ends you gotta take 10 off, your company might take notice.

The one aspect of this speed limiter nonsense I have NEVER heard talked about from a trucking company is what an hour of a driver's time is worth. If you want to drive 120,000 miles in a calendar year, and have a truck that can do 70 to average 65, then that is 1846 hours of driving. Cut the truck back 5 mph to average 60mph and it is now 2000 hours of driving, more than 2 full weeks of 70 hours.

Looking at it another way, in a factory if you want more production, you ad another shift or work overtime. Truck drivers don't have this luxury, the only way that they can maximize production/revenue is to run the legal speed limit. Does it use more fuel? Of course, but it is no where near as costly as time and a half for overtime.

 

No.
Into gunrunning.
Apply at Laredo crossing.
Have sample with you. LOL LOL

 

Well, you've just described why more companys are doing lease and teams. Lease eats the losses and teams never need to "go home" (truck co view).

 

Why not approach the company and offer to manage the fuel cost yourself?. Example, the company expects 6.5MPG and lets say fuel is $4.50 per, that comes to .69 cents per mile. Tell the company to remove the limiter from your truck and give you an extra .69 cents per mile and you will pay for the fuel. The amount can be adjusted weekly to allow for price fluctuations. Now it will be your call as to how you drive. If you can squeeze 7 mpg out then you pocket the savings. OTOH, if you choose to high ball it and end up getting 5.5 mpg well, that's your call (and your cost) as well. Of course, should you choose the latter, the company will still be on the hook for the added tire expense since tire wear accelerates exponentially as speed increases beyond 65mph.