Easier said than done
Technology can help fleets manage idling, but knowing who, what, when and where isn’t always enough to prevent it – so consider why drivers do it.
By Aaron Huff
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To minimize the cost of idling without sacrificing driver comfort, West Liberty, Iowa-based Florilli Transportation is installing auxiliary power units (APUs) on all new equipment, says Murry Fitzer, chief executive officer. |
As fuel skyrockets, trucking managers and executives will focus more closely on driver behaviors that impact fuel costs – especially idling. According to industry estimates, idling can burn up to one gallon per hour. With typical idle times of 70 hours a week, that can add up to a yearly cost of more than $2,500 – for each truck.
But especially in today’s tight labor market, fleet managers face a delicate tradeoff between pushing drivers to reduce idling and being sensitive to their comfort and safety needs.
Salt Lake City-based Central Refrigerated Service uses Qualcomm’s SensorTracs to capture and send engine data to the office wirelessly through the carrier’s OmniTracs system. The data reported to the office includes mpg, idle time, hard brakes, excessive speeds, stops and shifting patterns. Fleet managers see these reports on a biweekly basis, says Allen Lowry, director of cost analysis for the 1,200-truck fleet.
But despite having all this data on driver behavior, management at Central Refrigerated found it especially difficult to reduce idle times, which had stood consistently at 51 percent, Lowry says. To minimize personnel problems inherent in trying to reduce idling, the company decided to use systems offered by engine makers to minimize idling by connecting to the vehicle’s electrical and ignition system. The systems, which Central Refrigerated personnel refer to generically as “opti-idle,” track and maintains a truck’s battery voltage and cab temperature by shutting off or turning on the engine as appropriate. By using opti-idle, Central Refrigerated has reduced its idle time to 37 percent, even after it eliminated a penny-per-mile fuel bonus that wasn’t very effective anyway.
Florilli Transportation also has tried using cash incentives to get drivers to improve fuel economy by decreasing idling. “When we made efforts to do that, we felt the results were limited,” says Murry Fitzer, chief executive officer. So Florilli is installing auxiliary power units on all its new equipment.
But just because you give a driver an APU doesn’t mean he will use it instead of idling. Florilli Transportation uses its MobileMax system to determine, by measuring idle time, whether drivers are using their APUs. (For more on APUs and other idling solutions, see “Idling away profits,” page 28.) Fitzer isn’t certain that APUs are a long-term solution, but technology at least helps him ensure that drivers aren’t burning fuel in the APU as well as the engine – at the same time.
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