Hi
I’m asking for feed-back regarding fuel consumption particularly for container trucks.
Near enough is good enough for my research purposes.
If you are a busy driver of a container truck, please let me know the following:
What milage would you cover in a typical week ?
What quantity of fuel would you burn in the course of that week?
Of the miles covered, how many are with load, how many are without?
What is the MPG for loaded or unloaded if known.
How many days a week do you drive?
I would be grateful for any information that you would be kind enough to let me have.
I wouldn’t have thought consumption pulling a container is any different from pulling any other kind of load. Still anywhere up to a max weight of 44 tons, same mileage, same units pulling them.
I’ll get about 9.2mpg to 10mpg average over a week depending on how many heavy or light loads I pull. That’s in a 63 plate Scania R Series.
Probably use about 600-700 litres of diesel per week.
DickyNick
Thanks for the reply, it helps.
There has to be a difference if the skeleton it’s empty . Rolling resistance and air drag will be much less than if freighted, so kbnowing the consumption rates would clearly identify the difference.
Ball park figures?
8mpg loaded? 12mpg empty? Very roughly, much depends, as Albion says on the driver, and the roads used but Id give that as a base for argument. And incidentally there is a scarcity of busy container drivers: most of em sit around doing nowt.
Grateful for the feed-back.
8mpg loaded to 12mpg empty is Very helpful even if just very rough ball-park…
Now the question is one of percentage of time running loaded compared to running empty.
Any offers ?
Any container drivers out there doing nowt ?
phone maritme asking about buying one of their o/d buy while you earn opperchancities.
that should give you a spot on figure to all things related to container hauling running costs.
The gap between the back of the unit and the front of the trailer makes a difference to aero drag as does the smoothness of the trailer sides. So ignoring height and the setting of the roof mounted air deflector, the larger gap and the ribbed sides will mean that a lorry pulling a container will have worse fuel consumption than for eg a fridge trailer of the same nominal dimensions and weight at the same speed.
Air resistance is a factor of frontal area and speed, modified by body shape which creates turbulance, and wind direction. Weight or Mass do not have any bearing upon it.
Fridgeraider:
DickyNick
Thanks for the reply, it helps.
There has to be a difference if the skeleton it’s empty . Rolling resistance and air drag will be much less than if freighted, so kbnowing the consumption rates would clearly identify the difference.
Thanks again !
Fridgeraider
Windy weather won’t do the mpg’s any favour too and as Albion said a good driver is a huge help.
Grateful for the feed-back.
8mpg loaded to 12mpg empty is Very helpful even if just very rough ball-park…
Now the question is one of percentage of time running loaded compared to running empty.
Any offers ?
Any container drivers out there doing nowt ?
Fridgeraider
i constantly search about being an owner operator, even though im a new driver its my main interest to become. here few rates given to me last year November for container work, numbers may changed now though;
Martello Transport; £1.50 per mile.
£2280 revenue (5 days)
14 day payment terms. Work week 1, invoice week 2, payment on Friday of week 3 and every week there after.
Would prefer you to use your own skelly and fuel card but can provide both if required.
Lots of weekend work available.
Transmode; -Average weekly mileage 1600
-Rates per loaded/empty miles average earning per week £2200 £2300
-Payment terms two week after weeks end
-Trailer hire rates / accept own skelly can hire one to you (£90 a week) but prefer you to have your own.
-Fuel card yes
-Shift work availability (2*12 hr shifts) no
-Weekend work availability yes
Port Express; Average weekly mileage 1700 -1800
-Rates per loaded/empty miles £1.35
-Payment terms Weekly after 3 weeks
-Trailer hire rates / accept own skelly £85.00 but accept sub contractors own skelly
-Fuel card Yes
-Shift work availability (2*12 hr shifts) No
-Weekend work availability Limited
Maritime was similar, paying 1.35 pm , avg.1500 miles a week
Conor:
Drive decently 10MPG, drive like a Tang, 8MPG in same truck with same load.
How quick do you want to get there?
Scania R440 tanker 26T. MPG 8ish with cruise set at 57.
12 ish Mpg with cruise set at 50.
These are the computer figures.
Fridgeraider:
yourhavingalarf
bald bloke
jbaz73
andrey1
Very grateful to you for the insights and information offered.
Andrey1 that was a great deal of info there. Thank you.
New question: If you carry 2x20 or a 40 container, How long is the rig overall ?
Is it less than the 16. 5m limit?
Thanks again
Fridgeraider
You’ve spotted the flaw in UK laws.
A 40’ is over length. That’s why the cops always sit outside dock gates, so they can write out tickets.
No such thing as a dumb question?
Oh yes there is!
Conor:
Drive decently 10MPG, drive like a Tang, 8MPG in same truck with same load.
How quick do you want to get there?
You don’t save that much time. I was on a job with TNT doing night trunks for Ideal Standard from Hull to London. Two of us did the same run in the same vehicles carrying the same loads setting off at the same time. He drove like a Tang, I drove economically. I arrived in London just as he was driving through the gates, he had just got on the pumps when I turned up on the return journey. He was using 40 litres of diesel a night more than I was to save maybe 5-10 minutes over 420 miles.
Saving fuel usually goes hand in hand with less wear on brakes and running gear tyres etc, because those who use less fuel are usually making the most use of terrain, timing junctions to keep moving, and they tend to be gentle on the vehicle overall.
The difference a good driver makes to fuel usage is much more than the difference in a vehicle’s performance/economy, ie a good driver in a vehicle known to be heavy on fuel will almost always use less fuel than a hard/poor driver in the most economical model.
As said in the normal cut and thrust of daily driving, journey time differences are minimal.
Heaven has a wall and strict immigration policies. Hell has open borders.
Brilliant!
Thanks again for the insights.
I’m still looking for overall rig length when carrying 40 box
Maybe big firms keep the data on types of boxes and frequency of runs, but They don’t share info !
Fridgeraider
