Surprise paycheck hit: goverened at 62 MPH

You think you will deal with less people being an O/O? How so?

 

The thing about castrated trucks is usually there is a fuel manager behind the scenes justifying his job. He'll turn the truck upside down if it means 0.5 mpg.
When I ran produce, I would run every bit of 78mph between Pecos, TX and the CA line. I averaged 6.4mpg in that ISX. My last ISX castrated at 65mph averaged 7.0-7.2mpg. .05 mpg is big savings times 400 trucks.

 

You might want to read that and then engage your cranium. Less people?

Start with new applicant audit.
Any customer is going to have at least three people you will "deal" with and that is if you can find one without using a broker.
Your insurance guy is going to need to be on speed dial.
Got a good mechanic?
Belong to a drug test service?
Does your current Doctor do DOT physicals?
Pretty good at taxes? Not just the usual IRS and SET bs. IFTA and the states that will be sending you a bill for conducting your business there.









I deal with one person. He is the filter through wich my company and I interact. Now I can go talk to anybody in the comoany I wish but I only have to talk to John.




Life less complicated as an O/O

 

Yes, I'm pretty good with taxes, but then that's the local accountant in town does. I already deal with three company mechanics, the safety guy, the safety girl, the payroll girl, 4 dispatchers, every customer I go to, and some of the brokers. Yes, there's places all over that do dot testing. so yea, getting my own truck would take 10 bosses down to one boss, me. Less people.

 

Then add the BANK MANAGER , the ACCOUNTANT , guy from IRS if you get audited , throw in a few from DOT when they come for a visit , SERVICE manager whereever you get the truck fixed , then the accounts dept at all the places you buy stuff from

 

Deal with the bank anyway, I mentioned the accountant, the guy from the IRS visits whoever he wants whenever he wants whether you own a business or not, DOT is always around, and so are the mechanics/service managers.

Found out they're getting rid of these Kenworths. They would have already if the bottom hadn't fallen out of the market.

Lemme ask this, though: we have over 70 trucks and the mileage goal is 6.5mpg. They're all limited and I suspect underpowered. A total of 11 trucks in the fleet managed to hit or exceed the goal last month. So is it the trucks or the drivers?

 

Still more than 1 person to deal with regardless if your playing BOSS or not.

According to CUMMINS the driver can account for 30% of the fuel savings in a study they did.

1. 
   [*]Every 2% reduction in aerodynamic drag results in approximately 1% improvement in fuel economy.[FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings]
   [*] [/FONT][/FONT]Above 55 mph, each 1 mph increase in vehicle speed decreases fuel economy by 0.1 mpg. [FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings]
   [*] [/FONT][/FONT]Worn tires provide better fuel economy than new tires, up to 7% better fuel economy. [FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings]
   [*] [/FONT][/FONT]Used lug drive tires can get up to 0.4 mpg better than new lug tires. [FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings]
   [*] [/FONT][/FONT]Ribbed tires on the drive axles provide 2-4% better fuel economy than lugged tires. [FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings]
   [*] [/FONT][/FONT]Every 10 psi that a truck's tires are underinflated reduces fuel economy by 1%. [FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings]
   [*] [/FONT][/FONT]The break-in period for tires is between 35,000 and 50,000 miles. [FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings]
   [*] [/FONT][/FONT]Tires make biggest difference in mpg below around 50 mph; aerodynamics is the most important factor over around 50 mph. [FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings]
   [*] [/FONT][/FONT]The most efficient drivers get about 30% better fuel economy than the least efficient drivers. [FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings,Wingdings]
   [*] [/FONT][/FONT]Idle time is costly. Every hour of idle time in a long-haul operation can decrease fuel efficiency by 1%.
   

 

Dunno where you got one person, I said less people, so that still remains true.

They've got that cummins study, that's what they're going off of. Almost all the trucks have apu's so idle time is not a factor other than them counting it wrong. There's two idle percentages it measures. One is over 5 minutes, the other counts every single second that you're stopped. Stop lights, stop signs, pausing to back it in, the seconds after you stop and reach for the key, etc. They add those together for our idle time. Apu trucks are allowed 6%, no apu 45%. Mine's at 22% with 8% of that being those short stops in traffic.

Like I said, I got 7.5 in the same truck with a 425 capped at 70, mid 6's in a t800 with a 475 with the power turned all the way up capped at 80, and this one is sitting at 5.8 now with the power turned way down capped at 65. But it must be my driving, right? Nah, don't think so.

This is with van trailers with the mileage increasing side skirts, full super singles that have been broken in, and it's about as aerodynamic as a KW gets. Oh, and pulling lighter loads. Why am I getting under 6mpg with maybe 30k of plastic in the box on the highway nowhere near the mountains with the cruise at 64? Yeah, I'm not even touching the throttle!

 

Until you get EVERYTHING restored to factory specs with the exception of governed speed.......you won't know.


Lots of companies won't take the time to make sure that everything is
right with the engine and computer program before they want to hold
their drivers totally responsible for fuel economy.