Idle times

[rushfan]

What do you hear about idle time in the feeder dept? We are told to idle under 23 minutes.

My objection is Mack has a sticker on the visor saying to idle the engine for 3 Min. before shutdown or turbo charger damage will occur.

Aren't we shooting ourselves in the foot by decreasing idle times to help the "environment" (IMHO UPS's new flavor of the week/year according to the calendars) and save fuel-yet at the same time we are paying $ to replace the turbo?

The other day, automotive supervisor and feeder dept supervisor were having a disagreement about this. One dept. benefits with low idle time, while the other gets stuck with the replacement cost.

It all boils down to at least I don't have to pay for the repair bill.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[chev]

We have argued the same but to no avail, so we just do as directed. It's not going to my fault if I blow up a turbo. Honestly, I have never blown a turbo in all the years I have been driving feeders, and I always shut in down the second the wheels stop rolling. CH Macks do have a turbo problem, but I think it was identified as a manufacturing flaw.
Are they really pushing you for 23 min? That's the lowest expected idle time I have heard yet. I don't generally have too much trouble with that though. I'm usually under 20 because of the time of night I work. I only do 1 cpu and don't have too many lights to deal with. We have guys in our dept. that are consistently over 45 every day.

 

[over9five]

I am generally under 30. I don't know what exactly they're aiming for here, other than "keep your idle time down". It could be that because I'm under 30, they don't talk to me about it.

I've heard the turbo charger argument before, but who cares? The cost of repairs ain't our decision! (Do they really change that many?)

Like Chev, when my tractor stops rolling, it's off. Just for fun a couple of times, I've gone out of my way to see how much I could affect it. Like when I see a red light up ahead, I'd slow immediately down to 10mph, and by the time I got to the light it would turn green. (Anything under 8mph is idling for anyone not in Feeders). I could shave about 7 minutes off my idle time doing this, but it is a pain in the neck to think about it and do it all day.

What's your average idle time, Rush?

 

[Covemastah]

depends on the job you have.I travel through downtown Boston and if the tractor is not going 5 mph it shows as idle time! So all those lights and traffic delays will increase it by 15 or 20 mins a day and I go to the airport and have to run it alot to give them air so they don't day much! On saturdays it is cut in half cuz there is no traffic!!

 

[trickpony1]

Ever notice how the sleeper teams never turn their engine off, even when fueling? I guess they are special.
I understand that if your RPM is kept at or above 1500 while stopped, it doesn't show as idle time. You might ask your mechanic.
I think the whiz kids in the Ivory Towers have figured it is cheaper to replace the turbo (including labor costs, tow charges and late/missed loads) than to pay the fuel costs which is curious because:

I have talked to persons with the knowledge and instruments to measure fuel flow at idle on a feeder tractor. They say, at idle, these engines use .75 to 1.00 gallons per hour. I have suggested to my boss that I pay $4 (price of a gallon of diesel) per day for an hour of idle time. It would keep the turbo cool, the driver cool/warm and minimize repair costs and down time.

NOPE!........can't do it.

Before any management people have a chance to post telling us that we are just ignorant feeder drivers and we should do as we are told, I have a question........how's your dividend check?

 

[cachsux]

Our target is 45 min,but as any one who has driven in Chicago knows that certain times of the day they should be happy it`s under 2 hours. We even had sups suggest shutting the motor off in heavy bumper to bumper traffic. Needless to say that was the funniest joke heard that day.

 

[Covemastah]

Before any management people have a chance to post telling us that we are just ignorant feeder drivers and we should do as we are told, I have a question........how's your dividend check?
or how is your nice warm office!!!!!

 

[Highwayman]

In my district they want under 30, not a problem for me. Blew three turbos on same truck in ten years. Got a new Sterling a few weeks ago seems like a good truck and very quiet too. When stuck on road in traffic I do not shut off engine. If sup complains I tell him take it out of the bank of minutes I didn't use on those good days. I complianed to a sup about the white trucks allways idling as well. He said "do you sleep in your truck?" I said if I could idle it for an hour at lunch I would!

 

[unavoidable_accident]

My idle time is always <20 minutes. I can do 8 if I want to. Course, I have a 520 mile run through scenic vacationland.... Needless to say, I'm lucky I never get bothered with "the talk."

 

[sdf6hr2]

depends on the job you have.I travel through downtown Boston and if the tractor is not going 5 mph it shows as idle time! So all those lights and traffic delays will increase it by 15 or 20 mins a day ...

just curious, feeders is not my area, if "they" can tell you are going 5mph, can't they also tell (via the same gps tech. i assume) that are are on an expressway and not in control of the traffic around you? i can't imagine trying to argue about this with someone so out of touch.

 

[outta hours]

Our time is 25 min. They really don't ever say much about it. If the IVIS did not give me previous days idle time when I clock in I would never know what it was. They due tend to bring it up more during the hot Texas summer. We just say your office has a/c, so does ours.

 

[bluehdmc]

They told us 28 mins in feeder school, but it all depends on the job. I had one with 2 pickups that were same door swaps, unhook, hook, pull off door, unhook, hook, put on door, unhook, hookup to load and return to hub. Consistently had about 40 mins a day with that one. Never really heard too much about it. Used to have a dispatcher would put the list up with 23 min circled. I used to reply, "I was told 28 mins, for an 8 hr day, that's like 3.5 min per hour. So if I work 10 hrs don't I get an extra 7 mins?"
I haven't heard of anyone getting fired for idle time though.
The IVIS doesn't have a GPS in it. The sleepers have qualcomm, that has gps capabilities. The IVIS is much simpler, it rounds your hours to 15 min intervals, where the qualcomm is to the minute. I did a run and switched drivers where co-driver was in sleeper berth 9hrs and 59 min. After an hours driving time it started to say he was in violation. Rumor has it eventually the daycabs are going to get the qualcomm system. This way they can message you during the day.

 

[cachsux]

just curious, feeders is not my area, if "they" can tell you are going 5mph, can't they also tell (via the same gps tech. i assume) that are are on an expressway and not in control of the traffic around you? i can't imagine trying to argue about this with someone so out of touch.

It`s not GPS it`s IVIS. It will show your rpm and mph and odometer. It`ll also be the first thing they pull if you have an accident.

 

[broncobros1]

What do you hear about idle time in the feeder dept? We are told to idle under 23 minutes.

My objection is Mack has a sticker on the visor saying to idle the engine for 3 Min. before shutdown or turbo charger damage will occur.

Aren't we shooting ourselves in the foot by decreasing idle times to help the "environment" (IMHO UPS's new flavor of the week/year according to the calendars) and save fuel-yet at the same time we are paying $ to replace the turbo?

The other day, automotive supervisor and feeder dept supervisor were having a disagreement about this. One dept. benefits with low idle time, while the other gets stuck with the replacement cost.

It all boils down to at least I don't have to pay for the repair bill.

Just my 2 cents.

Biggest point being is that it is not your property, you are being paid, do what they want.

 

[chev]

bronco. Turn your rep off in settings. All that red is hurting my eyes.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

bronco. Turn your rep off in settings. All that red is hurting my eyes.

This is the best part of the ignore feature--I believe he was the very first member I put there.

 

[705red]

Biggest point being is that it is not your property, you are being paid, do what they want.

Blah! Blah! Blah! We are truck drivers not friend-ing magicians!

 

[cachsux]

Blah! Blah! Blah! We are truck drivers not friend-ing magicians!

For not being magicians (friend-ing or otherwise) you guys are doing a good job of making Broncos rep disappear.

 

[chev]

For not being magicians (friend-ing or otherwise) you guys are doing a good job of making Broncos rep disappear.

I think he needed to have a rep for it to disappear.

 

[Kevin211]

Our idle time is 30 min but our sup. is very good at knowing why our times may be up or down, depends on the runs we may have for the day. Truck is on it's 2nd starter since getting hired in June.