Is there a push to save fuel?

mattwtrs · 06-09-2008, 07:35 PM

I was outside working in the yard today and whoever was delivering on my street was hardly on the throttle at all. You can usually hear the P700 or P1000 coming from 2 blocks away. Is this the flavor of the week or month?

CFLBrown · 06-09-2008, 07:41 PM

Any kids in the area?

toonertoo · 06-09-2008, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattwtrs

I was outside working in the yard today and whoever was delivering on my street was hardly on the throttle at all. You can usually hear the P700 or P1000 coming from 2 blocks away. Is this the flavor of the week or month?

I havent heard it, although I never gun it anyway.
Seriously tho, are they going to say slow down but get that production up?

Big Babooba · 06-09-2008, 07:42 PM

A push to save fuel? If you get enough people pushing, you'll save a lot of fuel.

mittam · 06-09-2008, 07:48 PM

we have not been told as full-timers that we need to conserve but the air drivers have been told 1 attempt on saturdays no reattempting because of excess fuel use

Cementups · 06-09-2008, 07:49 PM

There is a big banner in our center now stating how many gallons will be saved if every drive cuts a mile off his/her trip. The dumb thing is they cut a trip and work to every other trip and claim they are saving miles by doing this when in turn they are just relocating those miles to other trips.

06-09-2008, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattwtrs

I was outside working in the yard today and whoever was delivering on my street was hardly on the throttle at all. You can usually hear the P700 or P1000 coming from 2 blocks away. Is this the flavor of the week or month?

They are busting out all the split rtes in our center and leaving guys out til 8:30 to keep from sending out extra cars. I guess the overtime is cheaper than putting another car on the road.

Dirty Savage · 06-09-2008, 08:12 PM

I was wondering when UPS was gonna make an issue out of this. With gas at $5.40 a gallon here I don't imagine too many centres are as profitable as before. Alternative fuels are looking REAL good right about now. Too bad UPS dragged their collective ass on that.

DS · 06-09-2008, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirty Savage

I was wondering when UPS was gonna make an issue out of this. With gas at $5.40 a gallon here I don't imagine too many centres are as profitable as before. Alternative fuels are looking REAL good right about now. Too bad UPS dragged their collective ass on that.

About 10 years ago they converted every p800 in our fleet to propane,mine included ,with almost 700,000 km on it.Theres a little guage by the tank that is very accurate.I often have to refill it myself if they forget.All the new trucks are diesels,maybe we should go propane .
All I know is that it costs almost $60 to fill up my nissan sentra when it used to be closer to $45.I wonder how much it costs to take an F-18 jet out for an hour...or a 1970 hemi-cuda for that matter

Baba gounj · 06-09-2008, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mittam

we have not been told as full-timers that we need to conserve but the air drivers have been told 1 attempt on saturdays no reattempting because of excess fuel use

As an airdriver who works saturdays I wished that were true around here, I do on avg of 100 miles city driving each saturday. Also about the same tues-friday shuttling misloads between drivers.
There is no talk of saving fuel, only about making deliveries.

Bubblehead · 06-09-2008, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baba gounj

As an airdriver who works saturdays I wished that were true around here, I do on avg of 100 miles city driving each saturday. Also about the same tues-friday shuttling misloads between drivers.
There is no talk of saving fuel, only about making deliveries.

Contractually air drivers are not allowed to "shuttle misloads" back and forth to drivers. When they do I get free money through the grievance process.

959Nanook · 06-09-2008, 11:02 PM

As often as I double and triple trip because of a late plane... they ain't worried about conserving fuel at our center. I double tripped today for the late air and then I triple tripped for one package to freaking residence that came in on a plane at 1500 or 1600 so it would not be a miss. I couldn't believe how much money they wasted in my wages and gas money for one package to resi.

I get a chuckle when other drivers talk about whether or not to deliver ground with the air. We have no commit time for air and Alaska Airlines cargo is notoriously bad during the summer so we start delivering our ground stops before returning to the center for the late air plane about three days out of the week during the summer.

filthpig · 06-10-2008, 02:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirty Savage

I was wondering when UPS was gonna make an issue out of this. With gas at $5.40 a gallon here I don't imagine too many centres are as profitable as before. Alternative fuels are looking REAL good right about now. Too bad UPS dragged their collective ass on that.

UPS is the industry leader on using alternative fuels. That said, they also make some of the DUMBEST decisions ever when it comes to fuel economy. For example has anyone seen the new 1000's that have 454 V8s in them. I think someone said they get about 3 or 4 miles to the gallon.

UpstateNYUPSer · 06-10-2008, 03:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daviswilliam@fuse.net

Contractually air drivers are not allowed to "shuttle misloads" back and forth to drivers. When they do I get free money through the grievance process.

While I fully support your right to enforce the contract through the grievance process, would you prefer the alternative, which would be either breaking trace to go meet the other driver to get misloads for your area or going back to the bldg to do the same?

HEFFERNAN · 06-10-2008, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cementups

There is a big banner in our center now stating how many gallons will be saved if every drive cuts a mile off his/her trip. The dumb thing is they cut a trip and work to every other trip and claim they are saving miles by doing this when in turn they are just relocating those miles to other trips.

They would probably use the argument that they saved the fuel by eliminating a car to go from the building to the area and back. I hate how they do that myself.

brownmonster · 06-10-2008, 05:49 AM

He said he shuttles misloads on Saturdays between air drivers. Go ahead and go in Saturday and find out.

Baba gounj · 06-10-2008, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daviswilliam@fuse.net

Contractually air drivers are not allowed to "shuttle misloads" back and forth to drivers. When they do I get free money through the grievance process.

I am a combo. My second half is pm air driver; my first half is WAD.

IWorkAsDirected · 06-10-2008, 07:20 AM

I simply laugh at the idea. Our routes are so screwed up and so is edd, we are all driving over the top of each other, and I personally make 3 trips to each of two areas because they insist I run the route the way they want and don't want to hear about it. They obviously have more important things to do than save gas, like make numbers, and cover up problems.

over9five · 06-10-2008, 08:52 AM

In Feeders, our idle time (all time tractor is running but moving less than 7mph) is tracked and we see it the next day. We are told to shut it down when it's not moving (waiting for dock, etc).

BUT......
Have you ever watched the shifters? Sometimes they wait 20 minutes to get a move, and the tractors running the whole time!

Storm723 · 06-10-2008, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IWorkAsDirected

I simply laugh at the idea. Our routes are so screwed up and so is edd, we are all driving over the top of each other, and I personally make 3 trips to each of two areas because they insist I run the route the way they want and don't want to hear about it. They obviously have more important things to do than save gas, like make numbers, and cover up problems.

It came from above that all routes are to be dispatched automatically through the computer. So common sense has gone out the window. We have drivers that Have been driving the same routes for 15-20 years or longer and suddenly their entire route has changed. It goes along with the concept of NDA which are no longer coming down the lines as 10--, they are coming down the line and loaded in the load in all different sections. This causes the driver to have to search for their NDA's as well as not knowing when they leave the building if they even have them all.

trickpony1 · 06-10-2008, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by over9five

In Feeders, our idle time (all time tractor is running but moving less than 7mph) is tracked and we see it the next day. We are told to shut it down when it's not moving (waiting for dock, etc).

The manufacturer states the engine should be run for 3 minutes before shutting it off in order to cool the turbo. We are told to shut it off immediately to save fuel. If we are doing something simple like hooking/unhooking from a trailer we are still instructed to turn it off. This causes the turbo to get hot and unnecessary cycles on the $500 starter (this doesn't include labor costs and tractor down time) causes wear and tear and decreases the life of the starter and turbo.
I have talked to knowledgeable people who say that, at idle, a tractor burns .75 to1.00 gallon of fuel.
I would gladly pay my dispatcher $4 a day for 60 minutes of idle time to keep the turbo, starter and me (air conditioner) cool but then you have to consider who we are dealing with.