Companies that monitor your idle time and want you to keep switching it off. Surely at some point someone is going to realise that the cost of all the new start motors is costing more than the money in fuel saved? Plus missed delivery slots because the truck is being recovered somewhere. Keep hearing about them needing replacing at the minute.
Starter motors are replaced under warranty on new trucks…
^^^^ this. It’s their train set so I’ll drive it however they pay me to. We get through batteries like nobodies business as we can start and stop the engine at least 8 times before we even leave the yard, but that’s how they want it so that’s how they get it.
Rowley010:
Companies that monitor your idle time and want you to keep switching it off. Surely at some point someone is going to realise that the cost of all the new start motors is costing more than the money in fuel saved? Plus missed delivery slots because the truck is being recovered somewhere. Keep hearing about them needing replacing at the minute.
Does anyone keep a lorry long enough to wear out a starter motor these days ?
Suggested fuel saving through reduced idle time versus mechanical failure cost
Companies and Transport Managers don’t look at the cost of repair as vehicles are usually leased and come with warranties that cover possible repair.
Idle time in their eyes contributes greatly to the running costs of a job due to increased fuel consumption.
An ongoing argument
The distances between reloads is a bigger contribution of wasted fuel than idling sometimes!
Frankly I don’t care. I stop start mine about 50 times a day, double that if I’m in London. If it won’t start again and I’m blocking a road I’m still getting paid and I’ve kept my idle time down, so not my headache.
I just thought maybe the cost you actually save for a couple of minutes idling doesn’t pay for all the starter motors that seem to keep going. Will a warranty cover excessive stop starting if an entire fleets starts keep failing sooner than they should?
Rowley010:
Frankly I don’t care. I stop start mine about 50 times a day, double that if I’m in London. If it won’t start again and I’m blocking a road I’m still getting paid and I’ve kept my idle time down, so not my headache.I just thought maybe the cost you actually save for a couple of minutes idling doesn’t pay for all the starter motors that seem to keep going. Will a warranty cover excessive stop starting if an entire fleets starts keep failing sooner than they should?
[/quote]Yes. The starter they fit will have a warranty as well, so you may never pay for one…
It’s all priced in…
So there are companies who make the starters who have designed them for normal amounts of turning on or off and they keep having to replace them under warranty to the haulage firms who want the drivers to be constantly switching off to prevent idle time. There is only one loser there then and it’s not the haulage company 
Rowley010:
So there are companies who make the starters who have designed them for normal amounts of turning on or off and they keep having to replace them under warranty to the haulage firms who want the drivers to be constantly switching off to prevent idle time. There is only one loser there then and it’s not the haulage company
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
thats why that kind of firm force the drivers to keep turning the engine off.
And all the buses in my area have this system.it seems weird to get on a bus without the engine running, for the engine cuts off as soon as the bus stops …even in traffic.
AGM batteries ( absorbant glass mat) are being fitted now for stop start vehicles along with heavy duty starter motors. A lot of trucks will already have these fitted anyway so in the main stop/start shouldnt really be an issue. Having said that though, any supposed fuel saving is negligible as the alternator will kick in as soon as the engine is started to put the current drain back into the batteries which loads the engine using more fuel anyway…easier and better imo just to keep the engine idling if its for short periods…
Breakdown mayhem, repair time, inconvenience, lost deliveries and the real kicker, disappointed customers.
Just a few of the uncounted benefits of failing starters and batteries which seem of little or no importance, it doesn’t matter if having them under warranty sees you getting 5 new starters over 5 years, all of the above will far outweigh that £137.50 in idling fuel the vehicle used over that 5 year period.
This box ticking idling obsession is the mainly with logistics providers, ironic how similar logistics mobs are to our political parties (themselves both cheeks of the same arse), it doesn’t matter which name is on the contract lorry carrying your goods, identikit interchangeable logistics providers, umpteen layers of cloned management (politicians) supervisory (civil servants) and box tickers (petty officials and what was once the reliable and dependable police force), not a ■■■ paper between them, if the current logistics provider (party) doesn’t give two hoots about your customers (voters) never fear the next one you give the contract (vote) to won’t either.
^^
Exactly. Give that man a banana.
Turn the cruise on while idling,
It don’t then register on “Fleetboard”/“Dynafleet” etc!!![emoji6][emoji41]
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Any truck idles unnecessary easy over 1 hour in a 10 hour day .
The average truck uses 3-4 litres per hour when idling.
If the truck get used 250 days a year (most get used many more days and hours and idle a lot more)
That would be in this example and a fuel price of £ 1.20 per litre is £900,- / £1200.- per year.
Just have a look on your on-board vehicle computer to find out how many hours you idle and you would be surprised how much it is in a day / week.
Did a little trail with it in the past and only making the drivers aware dropped the idling time by 20-30%, without any problems in their work.
We replaced the starter motor and alternator every 2 year as a matter of maintenance and had very rarely start problems.
If you have a fleet of 100 trucks £ 1200 saving per truck per year adds quickly up.
And if you buy your starters and alternators in bulk with exchange you talk peanuts.
Fuel and staff are the biggest cost in haulage.
My car has start/stop and it seems strange driving anything that doesn’t have it fitted. I had a Volvo FM that had automatic stop on it, it seems like the way forward
There is a driver at our place who blew his engine up stopping and starting it 40+ times on the quay, queuing to get out.
It’s not just the cost of a new starter, if at all, it should be the fact that each time you start the engine it uses a large amount of fuel compared to running the engine for 10 minutes.