Boring post about telematics

Out of curiosity really I ask this but my cruise control score is always bad so to improve it I’ve had a thought. If I set the cruise control speed very low, say 15mph (if it’ll set at that?) but then drive as normal using the throttle will that help the score?
Where I work we do a lot of non motorway driving so they don’t take a lot of notice of that particular item so I’m asking out of curiosity really.
Thanks.

Depends on what telematics is used and how the scoring is done. Assuming it may be Microlise then use of cc without accelerator is what we are scored on. So no setting it low and using the pedal will make your score worse, with other systems I have no idea off hand.

The only way to improve the score for cc usage is by using cruise control as much as possible in every journey. Using it in slow moving traffic as well as fast moving traffic. Personally I don’t like using it on roads less than 40 mph regardless of how slow you may be moving, I slower traffic I like to be fully in control of the accelerator.

Obviously this relates to microlise specifically but I imagine all telematics score cc usage pretty much the same.

Try it?
Can’t do any harm.
Obviously it doesn’t matter a ■■■■ to anything except your telematics score, which signifies nothing in the real world, so play with it.

Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk

When I was on for Stobarts some years ago there was a similar system for a £5 day bonus. I set off and used cruise control at 20 mph. then used accelerator as normal. Got the bonus every day, funnily enough it was a driver trainer who told me how to do it :stuck_out_tongue:

They should also take account of your score being low if your hardly ever on motorways or dual carriageways or on stop start journeys all the time.

Just drive it like you stole it, then tell the pointy shoe beardy hipster, office you’ff who will give you a right telling off, “why don’t you show me then” O “I forgot you don’t have a license”

Yes we have all that crap, but boss doesn’t pay a lot of attention to all the techy stuff, as long as the jobs done on-time, and customer are happy.

biggriffin:
Just drive it like you stole it

boss doesn’t pay a lot of attention to all the techy stuff, as long as the jobs done on-time, and customer are happy.

Same…far more profitable keeping customers happy by getting there on time. Pay per load means telematics is a dirty word at our place… :stuck_out_tongue:

They do take into account we’re not your ‘bog standard’ RDC visiting motorway mile muncher [emoji39] so there’s no metaphorical ■■■ kicking going on. In fact they don’t read too much into any of it, it’s more a ner ner nee ner ner thing between us 4 drivers. Improving on the F score would improve the overall score you see.

Idle musings that’s all [emoji6]

nomiS36:
They do take into account we’re not your ‘bog standard’ RDC visiting motorway mile muncher [emoji39] so there’s no metaphorical ■■■ kicking going on. In fact they don’t read too much into any of it, it’s more a ner ner nee ner ner thing between us 4 drivers. Improving on the F score would improve the overall score you see.

Idle musings that’s all [emoji6]

.

Well in that case, just keep it lit drive.

Interesting that telematics want acceleration whilst in CC.

I wonder how that works out when leaving a slippery roundabout/bend and ‘resume’ gives immediate full throttle acceleration, instead of a gentle applying of throttle a driver would apply whilst feeling for whats happening at the wheels (you know, what drivers have been doing for decades before this twaddle was dreamed up), you know that full throttle is the right way lads :unamused: , what could possibly go wrong :laughing:

One other thing, do those who score highest on the electronic box ticking board get the best fuel figures on the same journeys and work?
My experience is that the two do not necessarily go hand in hand.

On the other hand, having these systems gives another pointless pointy shoe gelled hair shiny arsed suit yet another non job in admin, maybe even a manager’s title :unamused: , monitoring this ■■■■■■■■ :smiling_imp:

When I was at stobart, I had a driver show me how he used to get the top driver every time by setting his cruise control to 53mph and use it most of the time, on a decent descent he used his retarder for the duration of the descent which adds to your score. He was number 1 on the score all of the time by driving this way.

Juddian:
Interesting that telematics want acceleration whilst in CC.

I wonder how that works out when leaving a slippery roundabout/bend and ‘resume’ gives immediate full throttle acceleration, instead of a gentle applying of throttle a driver would apply whilst feeling for whats happening at the wheels (you know, what drivers have been doing for decades before this twaddle was dreamed up), you know that full throttle is the right way lads :unamused: , what could possibly go wrong :laughing:

One other thing, do those who score highest on the electronic box ticking board get the best fuel figures on the same journeys and work?
My experience is that the two do not necessarily go hand in hand.

On the other hand, having these systems gives another pointless pointy shoe gelled hair shiny arsed suit yet another non job in admin, maybe even a manager’s title :unamused: , monitoring this ■■■■■■■■ :smiling_imp:

My point precisely.

I can only compare myself with the other artic which is identical bar 1 letter on the plate. His telematics are worse than mine especially his idling and yet his mpg is 1mpg better than mine regularly. They used to be similar at 8.5 then all of a sudden mine dropped to 7.5 and it’s more or less stayed there ever since. I can’t explain it and we even had all the filters replaced before they were due.

nomiS36:
Out of curiosity really I ask this but my cruise control score is always bad so to improve it I’ve had a thought. If I set the cruise control speed very low, say 15mph (if it’ll set at that?) but then drive as normal using the throttle will that help the score?
Where I work we do a lot of non motorway driving so they don’t take a lot of notice of that particular item so I’m asking out of curiosity really.
Thanks.

Try doing what you mentioned so when you pull away at a junction, lights or roundabout etc knock the cc on at its minimum setting let’s say 15 mph for example then accelerate up to your desired speed say 50 then reset the cc for 50 that should work but try doing it all the time for 1 week then check your scores, this used to work with me in my previous job on our microlise system .

Personally, what the op is asking isn’t impossible.
Telematics seems to look at the time cruise is on, not if you’re actually using it.
It’s possible, with Mercs, to activate cruise, then override it and use the pedal all day, and achieve 90+% cruise control usage.
For a better fuel economy figure, accelerate gently, and cruise at 50ish on a motorway/ where possible.
And don’t use resume.

nomiS36:
I can only compare myself with the other artic which is identical bar 1 letter on the plate. His telematics are worse than mine especially his idling and yet his mpg is 1mpg better than mine regularly. They used to be similar at 8.5 then all of a sudden mine dropped to 7.5 and it’s more or less stayed there ever since. I can’t explain it and we even had all the filters replaced before they were due.

Maybe he’s better at utilising eco roll or accelerates smoother.

Also as mentioned a couple of times above don’t use resume as it tries to get back up to the original set speed too quickly.

On the Actros I drive I drive in manual whilst “doing stuff” such as slow moving traffic, towns, country roads etc and only use auto on free flowing m/ways etc in order to utilise eco roll. When in manual once I set off I immediately hit resume BUT I have the retarder set to max. This means that the retarder only engages when I release the loud pedal but more importantly for the bloody telematics it registers cruise for nearly 100% of the time.

I agree that it’s a crock of ■■■■, but as I explained when I had that Scania demo once you’ve learned how to “fool” the computer you keep the pointy shoe wearers happy.

These aftermarket systems can’t see how drivers conserve fuel, they do so by being off the throttle far longer than others.

Junction half a mile ahead?

driver A is off the throttle letting it slow gradually then uses auxilliary brake to slow…but only just enough to hopefully not actually come to a halt, maintaining progress by timing the approach to not actually stop, if a roundabout and no one can possibly be baulked he straightens it out meaning he can take it 10/15mph faster than keeping in lane, do this early morning especially on dual carriageways with numerous roundabouts and the savings are significant.

driver B steams on till the last minute, then its brakes combined with auxilliary (i’ve known some switch the exhauster off :unamused: ) to quickly knock the speed off, then has to come to a complete halt because approach is ill timed, then due to very low speed more than likely has to stay in lane around the island.

billy big ■■■■■■■■ specialises in overtaking other lorries on roundabouts, meaning that both have to follow the lanes precisely and both negotiate the roundabout slower than otherwise, bbb is a plant pot.

You travel one long dual carriageway and see the fuel difference between the two techniques, between which there is barely any time difference.

The big user of fuel is getting a stationary fully loaded artic up to 55mph, try it for an experiment for yourself, set your trip meter to zero and accelerate to 55mph, unless its downhill the amount of fuel you use is staggering, think about 2.5 litres and you won’t be far out.

If driver A spends his day keeping the vehicle moving, and driver B is constantly heavy braking and having to get moving from stationary continually due to bad planning, then the difference will be a hell of a lot more than 1mpg.

This is only one scenario, there are dozens all day every day, how one driver deals with hills for example, does he use the hills to advantage or brake all the way down then have to go under power at the bottom where another driver might have approached the previous peak slower, let the down hill do the accelerating and if he times it right just lets it slip high enough over 55 for a few seconds to not gain an infringement but is several hundred yards further along before having to resume power.
Some lorries it might make better progress, avoiding a gearchange half way up the hill, if the driver selects one gear lower just before going back under power, doing so might mean a hill can be climbed in 11th where not doing so might mean a further gearchange and 5 mph less speed at the summit, again telematics can’t see why.

Timing of traffic lights, how many times have you been approaching lights on a dual or motorway junction on a trailing throttle in order to reach them at green, about 400 yards before the lights billy big ■■■■■■■■ comes hurtling by still on the limiter then stands on the brakes, has to harsh brake, and is thrashing the living daylights out of the lorry to pull away again…helpfully holding the brakes on full on red hot discs in order to transfer some friction material onto them, which is so good for the discs :unamused: , meanwhile our steady approach driver is still off the throttle and coasts past billy.

All the above, none of the aftermarket systems will take into account because it can’t see the road and developing traffic like the driver can.
The driver who idles the vehicle warm has an efficient engine (that might well last a lot longer than one worked hard from cold) and he might well be idling to help the turbo(s) last indefinately, telematics can’t compute these reasons either.

Not suggesting you are driver B Nomi, far from it, this is just general observations.
Sometimes these differences in fuel can’t be explained.

Many years ago i worked with one of the most professional lorry drivers i’ve ever known, he taught me a hell of a lot, mostly forgotten :blush: , oddly enough i see his son, another driver, a couple of times a week, a chip off the old block there.
Anyway, i, being younger was a hot headed flyer, i had a 320 ■■■■■■■ same as him, my cruising speed was typically 70 where his was 60, yet i used to get 1 mpg more than him almost consistently, no telematics involved at that time (how did we manage :wink: ), this was the boss but without the pointy shoes and gelled hair putting the figures up on the wall worked out the old way.
No one could understand it.

By the way, i like upsetting pointy shoe wearers :sunglasses:

Yeah I’ve done the fuel efficient driving coarse so do know how to do it but my truck dropped 1mpg all of a sudden over a monthly average and has never regained it. The trucks are 5 year old actros’s so the fitters where they go for service says it’s probably worn injectors but as I’m having a new truck soon and this’ll probably get sold they don’t wanna spend a lot on it obviously. I do every trick in the book to get the average up but just won’t have it. The one thing I can think of is the other driver tends to do the south west more than me and I do up north as far as Edinburgh more than him. The SW run tends to be better for mpg because it’s a longer run back empty whereas I drag a full load up to scotch then still have half of it left for teeside on the way back to doncaster so I’m only empty for an hour and a half. SW is usually 5+ hours empty running.

Ah, i thought you were on the same running, you arn’t ever going to get the same as your oppo doing the SW and coming home empty, its an apples and pears comparison.
Driven well that empty run back could well be @ 15mpg average.
Interesting that your lorry has taken a sudden dive, is this being worked out via brim to brim calcs or using OBC?

I’ve never had a proper driving course as such, (except for me HGV driving course/test), but i have it on good authority that one make’s trainers want you to drive on the buttons with as little foot pedal use as possible, there’s going to be an interesting discussion about that if my turn comes around with ‘no’ featuring often.