IIRC the official Volvo Trucks advice is to accelerate up to desired speed, then select cruise control.
I’ll accept that telematics has its uses, but the system is a management tool…not a manager. Some operators have fallen for the KPI nonsense hook, line and sinker, and that just leads to people ‘gaming the system’ as described.
There’s a documentary called The Lonely Robot which looks at where the obsession with KPIs leads
Lothian and Borders Police reclassified dozens of criminal offences as “suspicious occurrences” in order to keep them out of crime figures;
Some NHS hospital trusts created the unofficial post of “The Hello Nurse,” whose sole task it was to greet new arrivals in order to claim for statistical purposes that the patient had been “seen”, even though no treatment or examination took place during the encounter;
NHS managers took the wheels off trolleys and reclassified them as beds, while simultaneously reclassifying corridors as wards, in order to falsify Accident & Emergency waiting times statistics.
You can find it on You Tube.
I’v done some work on telematics and the bus industry. There was one instance where a bus driver ran over and killed an old lady because he’d been told to avoid ‘harsh braking’.
And a London Bus Co got obsessed with harsh braking…then installed a new telematics system with external cameras, and realised drivers were having to do ‘harsh braking’ all the time because of pedestrians with mobile phones stepping out in font of them.
We had a trial vehicle some years back that had the cruise control disabled to see if this conserved fuel, the theory being that the cruise control when used to reach a cruising speed used more fuel.
It is what it says it is a cruise control, when used to reach a desired speed the throttle is fully opened when not used and the driver reaches the desired speed without using full throttle fuel is saved.
Try only using it when cruising and using economy mode (if fitted) economy mode derates the engine power slightly when cruising and revertes back to full power when required hills for example or when the driver presses the accelerator.
I’ve done the brim to brim calculation a few times over the whole week and compared it to a reset obc. It’s pretty much bang on and confirms the telematics too.
Coincidentally the coarse I took was at Mercedes HQ tankersley about 5 years ago on exactly the same truck as mine iirc.
Juddian:
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 , monitoring this ■■■■■■■■
^^^
This
My place would never entertain it, nothing is saved whatsoever, just get on with it and use the fuel needed for the job. Pretty rough and ready is our transport office, pointy shoes and hair gel are banned…
Anyway, like I said we’ve put it down to worn injectors so roll on next month when I get the new motor with 16 proper gears. If I don’t get better better mpg than the same truck we’ve already got but with arsechronic 12 speed I’ll hang my hi-viz up and quit!
Juddian:
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 , monitoring this ■■■■■■■■
^^^
This
My place would never entertain it, nothing is saved whatsoever, just get on with it and use the fuel needed for the job. Pretty rough and ready is our transport office, pointy shoes and hair gel are banned…
Any TM that doesn’t show any interest in maximising mpg ain’t much of a TM. Whether you run one truck or one thousand saving cash on fuel should be a priority…,no?
Juddian:
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 , monitoring this ■■■■■■■■
^^^
This
My place would never entertain it, nothing is saved whatsoever, just get on with it and use the fuel needed for the job. Pretty rough and ready is our transport office, pointy shoes and hair gel are banned…
Any TM that doesn’t show any interest in maximising mpg ain’t much of a TM. Whether you run one truck or one thousand saving cash on fuel should be a priority…,no?
Agreed,
But as many of us have noted in this and previous threads, being a 5star telematics god does not necessarily mean that 5star is getting the best fuel consumption or covering the ground efficiently, not only is he using more fuel than 1star fred is he might well be going through brake linings and clutches at twice the rate too which the system isn’t measuring, he might be saving 50p a day on idling but is that translating into a £3k bill for early turbo failure plus down time plus tow in charges, or faster engine wear due to stone cold engines having to work too hard.
There’s a lot more involved than what the electronic spy is reporting, and how much are these systems costing anyway?
At one place i never got fuel bonus for some 2 or more years despite having the best fuel figures in the depot and one of the highest nationally, why? because the telematics didn’t like the way i drove, other using far more fuel got their bonus every quarter.
GasGas:
IIRC the official Volvo Trucks advice is to accelerate up to desired speed, then select cruise control.
I’ll accept that telematics has its uses, but the system is a management tool…not a manager. Some operators have fallen for the KPI nonsense hook, line and sinker, and that just leads to people ‘gaming the system’ as described.
There’s a documentary called The Lonely Robot which looks at where the obsession with KPIs leads
Lothian and Borders Police reclassified dozens of criminal offences as “suspicious occurrences” in order to keep them out of crime figures;
Some NHS hospital trusts created the unofficial post of “The Hello Nurse,” whose sole task it was to greet new arrivals in order to claim for statistical purposes that the patient had been “seen”, even though no treatment or examination took place during the encounter;
NHS managers took the wheels off trolleys and reclassified them as beds, while simultaneously reclassifying corridors as wards, in order to falsify Accident & Emergency waiting times statistics.
You can find it on You Tube.
I’v done some work on telematics and the bus industry. There was one instance where a bus driver ran over and killed an old lady because he’d been told to avoid ‘harsh braking’.
And a London Bus Co got obsessed with harsh braking…then installed a new telematics system with external cameras, and realised drivers were having to do ‘harsh braking’ all the time because of pedestrians with mobile phones stepping out in font of them.
Good post.
The DAF fitted SatNav has settings for route choice of Economy, Shortest(distance) or Quickest(time).
The economy setting seems to send you the main road route. That will probably give a good mpg figure but may take more time, be longer, PLUS involve extra peage. So the Economy settings can cost more!
MPG is not everything. The overall cost of a trip is more important.
For the OP it seems strange that the mpg figures changed suddenly.
New tyres? Tacho recalibration?
Different trailer?
As Juddian’s said you’re on different work to your opo. You can’t compare fairly. But if you swopped areas for a weekor more? Or swopped units then that may be interesting?
nomiS36:
Nothing changed. We never swap trailers, not dropped mine for about 6 my months!
That explains it, your fifth wheel is bone dry anything other than a straight line…
The unit and trailer go to the same place at the same time for s&i’s. I just dump the lot and they split them then reassemble and deliver back to our place when done [emoji41]
Good read.
Dunno about hus suggestion that older drivers, with less time to serve are more accepting of surveillance, whilst younger drivers are more savvy and suspicious?
Maybe the opposite is true and newbies see cameras as the norm rather than a new intrusion?
I’ve no evidence, but ain’t sure he’s correct on that little bit.
But a good piece, still.
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 , what could possibly go wrong
Must be summat wrong with the CC on your motor if it’s giving it immediate full throttle every time you press “Resume”…
Don’t sweat it to much .
We got the boxes in about a year ago and great things were promised . The boss was always at us to save fuel . So one night I rang him at 02.00 and the conversation went like this -
Hello
Whats wrong ? Why you ringing me at this time of the morning ?
Boss you have a choice to make
What do you mean ?
Do you want 10 mpg or the trailer on the boat ? You can’t have both so whats it going to be ?
Don’t let that trailer miss the boat . we could lose that contract if that happens .
nomiS36:
Any TM that doesn’t show any interest in maximising mpg ain’t much of a TM. Whether you run one truck or one thousand saving cash on fuel should be a priority…,no?
They run FH500’s/ 540’s and R620’s on pay per load (there is the option of being hourly paid but 90% of drivers take ppl as earnings are that much higher), they have little interest in fuel savings as the productivity from drivers far outweighs any plobbing along watching the fuel computer…swings and roundabouts…
First thing to do is to get your employer (or the “driver trainer” if you have such a thing) to explain, in detail, exactly what is being measured, and how. When our previous lot first introduced Telematics, my cruise control figures were way off target - until I discovered that cancelling CC by touching the brakes meant that the whole period of CC usage didn’t count - what they were looking for was for CC to be cancelled before the brakes were applied (even it was only a fraction of a second earlier).
Second thing is to fly in the face of accepted wisdom on here - CC is easily usable even in town and in moderate traffic. Many of our runs are into Central London (I was there today, going again tomorrow), and my CC figures are right up at the top of the table. The secret is to leave big gaps (which will also help on the “Over-run” score if that’s being monitored) and as soon as you have reached a reasonable speed (doesn’t matter if it’s only 20mph) click the CC on, then use the +/- controls to adjust. Same on the Motorway - CC on as soon as the speed is high enough to use it, then +/- to adjust to 85kph or thereabouts.
I never had to worry about such things but what I did notice with the cruise on my 61 plate MAN if you came through a peage gently without touching anything that dropped the cruise setting when resume was pressed I could out accelerate most trucks and much faster than with the accelerator pedal, ideal for roundabouts as well.
TBH i CBA with it, way too much push this button, pull that lever over ride this and don’t over ride that for my liking. I just wondered if I set the cc speed at its lowest setting whether I could get an A or B for a week or 2 so the other 3 wondered how the f#k I’d managed that [emoji23]
All this nonsense about over riding the ‘auto box’ in this or that situation just makes me more determined going back to proper manual transmissions is the right move, especially for those of us that don’t plod the motorways all day.
Can’t wait to get my cure for transmission Tourettes. F@#king stupid f@*#ing gearbox [emoji35] will be heard no more in my cab [emoji23]
, monitoring this ■■■■■■■■ 
