Letters to the Editor: Idling, Govt. and Fuel, Owner-Operators, Time for Protest
These letters appear in the May 5 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Idling
Your front-page article April 7 about auxiliary power units possibly saving on fuel quoted an APU maker’s spokesman who stated (like many others I have seen) that idling truck engines use up to 1.8 gallons of fuel an hour. That number was used to calculate many of the cost estimates for idling.
I believe the 1.8-gallon number is based on the engine’s idling being raised to 1,200-plus revolutions per minute, which is what the engine manufacturer recommends. However, many truck drivers are idling at much lower rpm. The alternator, air conditioner and heater often will work at a much lower rpm.
At the base idling rates of 600 to 700 rpm, most engines will use less than a half-gallon of fuel per hour. Will drivers/owners who idle at low rpm be disappointed when a new APU does not lower their fuel use?
Russ Cayse
Fleet Manager
St. Louis
Government and Fuel
It’s interesting that in the TT-News.com online story March 28 about American Trucking Associations and the fuel crisis, you indicate we in the transportation industry are doing our part to conserve fuel but need federal help. But as the emission regulations tighten up, the fuel mileage of our trucks goes downhill.
My truck with the best fuel mile-age is a 1996 Series 60. Second best is a 1999 Caterpillar C-12. The worst are my 2005-2006 C-13s — and the C-13s are about a mile per gallon worse.
David Guglielmetti
Guglielmetti Trucking
Redding, Calif.
On Feb. 11, you ran an article that illustrated the administration’s efforts to help Big Oil maintain its shocking profit level, largely by shoving about 70,000 barrels a day into the Strategic Petroleum Re-serve. In that case, the administration actually wanted to enlarge the SPR, and to hell with how that action is costing American independent truckers about $10,000 a month in diesel costs. Added to that, loads are paying less and less. But mostly, it’s all about what the president is doing to keep oil off the market by shoving it into the SPR.
Since then, you haven’t reported on how this policy goes a long way toward keeping the price of oil by the barrel at these unsustainable levels. In effect, the president single-handedly has almost doubled the price of a barrel of oil from what it was this time last year — about $59 a barrel. I’d say that he’s responsible for the upsurge in diesel and gasoline prices at the pump.
If anything, the administration’s efforts to make diesel unsustainable and kill our industry by making its lifeblood, diesel, unaffordable could be part of his apparent “hire Mexican truckers only” initiative. I’d like to see you do another such story, touching on the points that I’ve just mentioned. For instance, how are those bills going — especially the one proposed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) that is supposed to halt these fills entirely for the time being?
John Fitzgerald
Retired Owner-Operator
Grand Prairie, Texas
Owner-Operators
This is just a note to express my concerns regarding owner-operator companies: My husband and I have owned and operated four Mack tri-axle dump trucks for more than 20 years. Our trucks get hired by various contractors, builders and developers to move dirt from site to site or bring in stone or asphalt to the sites. The trucks get an hourly rate — period — no fuel surcharge. If we ask for more money, they just say “no” and hire the next owner-operator who is willing to work at their rate or sometimes less.
No one will stick together to get an increase in the rate.
For your information, the best rate we can get right now is $65 per hour. For eight hours, that comes to $520. Today, to fill up the fuel tank is $4.09 per gallon.
As you can probably guess, I won’t be in business too much longer. Thanks for letting me vent.
M. Steck
Owner-Operator
New Jersey
My wife and I are leased to TRIMAC with our 2007 Western Star, which is not an aerodynamic truck, and we drive between 57 miles per hour and 59 mph for fuel mileage. We consistently average more than 6.5 miles per gallon; each time we fill up, we check our fuel mileage.
I don’t want the government to step in and add more regulations to an industry that already has been plagued by rules that stifle efficiency, such as the hours-of-service regulations and the U.S./Mexico border pilot program.
If companies want to do something about their fuel bills, watch what their drivers are doing — idling, speed, etc. Sometimes, you have to look in the mirror in the morning and ask, “Am I doing my job to manage my fleet?” instead of saying, “It’s the government’s fault for not fixing my problem.”
Who is the manager here?
Bill Taylor
Owner-Operator
Taylor Transport
Enfield, Conn.
Time for Protest
Here is food for thought: The top financial gurus in the United States said a truckers’ strike won’t help. What the truckers should do is pick a fuel company, such as Flying J, which has been the most sympathetic to truckers, patronize that company and boycott the rest. The gurus said that, within two weeks, the other companies will drastically lower their prices. Does this sound like it might have some effect?
V. Rowe
Owner-Operator
Big Sky Voyager
Stephenville, Texas
