How many drivers are required to maximise cruise control use through out the day/week/month To minimise fuel consumption? if so is there a cut off percentage point before something is said, sometimes when your in driver receptions they put driver performance lists up showing current fuel usage, do you get bonuses if you hit all the targets?
Using cruise control isn’t realy practical on urban distribution work so they tend just to monitor our overall driving performance. Harsh braking, harsh acceleration, speeding and excessive engine idling etc.
the NISA depot in livingston expect you to use it at all times at 20MPH+ regardless of the environment or road conditions along with other rubbish like switching the engine off at traffic lights. needless to say i rarely got near the top of the league table as i used common sense and refused to use it for a minute or so or through urban areas. only the bottom 4 drivers got a talking to and that only happened once when they gave me a rigid and a fife run (all country lanes)
i only use it on motorways it takes mpg up to 4mpg from 2mpg
I set it at about 50kmph then use throttle normally
…
We’re just expected to average 8.5mpg, im always over that on the trip computer so never had any problems but from what im told they’d just ask you if everything was ok and if needed someone would go out with you to give a couple of pointers.
I would love to know where the people that come up with these ideas get them from 
Cruise control, or the improper use of, is probably the worst thing you can do when you’re trying to get maximum mpg from a lorry 
Cruise control is stupid, it cannot see, what it does is get the vehicle to maintain the set speed, it doesn’t do this by any other means than by throwing fuel at it, so how on earth is using it all the time going to save fuel
The only time cruise control should be used is on flat ground, as soon as you get into the hills you should turn it off and drive the lorry on the pedal. This way you can save fuel by not accelerating over the brow of a hill, but lifting off just before you reach it and allowing the momentum to take you over the top and let gravity get you back up to speed down the other side, just taking that step alone will bring significant fuel savings in the course of a week 
Then you have the scenario, especially with an autoshift transmission, where you hit resume as you come out of a roundabout, what this then does is accelerate flat out to the set speed, whereas to get the best mpg you would take a far gentler appproach and use less fuel, you may be a few seconds slower reaching your set speed, but a few seconds ain’t going to hurt anyone and again, you’ll see a significant fuel saving
Companies would be better spending their money on getting the driver trainers in from the manufacturers than paying the wages of people who have no idea what they’re talking about
The training teams from the manufacturers will show the drivers how to get the very best from the lorries, not only in mpg, but also in performance, driven properly a modern lorry will be much quicker and get its best fuel economy at the same time, it’s also far more relaxing to drive this way, so everyone wins
i tried to enlighten the trainer/assessor but all i got was ‘you can argue with me when you have done the courses that i have done’
the difference being the courses i did were practical and his were theory. flawed theories at that
cruise control is for one purpose and that is driver comfort 
But bosses know best!
They had this sort of crap on the buses when I worked for First. Drive Green it was called, used to have three lights, red amber and green, somewhere on the dash and if you took a corner too quick, up flashed a red. Trouble was, didn’t take long for the technology to go ■■■■ up and too many reds saw you in the tm’s office for “tea & biscuits” 
Just another bloody excuse to make drivers lives harder. How many need a bloody machine to tell them how to drive?
scanny77:
the NISA depot in livingston expect you to use it at all times at 20MPH+ regardless of the environment or road conditions along with other rubbish like switching the engine off at traffic lights. needless to say i rarely got near the top of the league table as i used common sense and refused to use it for a minute or so or through urban areas. only the bottom 4 drivers got a talking to and that only happened once when they gave me a rigid and a fife run (all country lanes)
yeah this aswell…
I don’t buy into the “driver style” or mpg competitions whatsoever, i’m always at the bottom of the table… if anyone says anything it goes in one ear and out the other. I driver with safety in mind, not worrying that I might get a harsh brake or idle time ‘ping’…
looking forward to the day they try and take it any furthur 
speed limiter on single carriageway
cruise on M ways and DCs
Limiter in roadworks
Rat67:
They had this sort of crap on the buses when I worked for First. Drive Green it was called, used to have three lights, red amber and green, somewhere on the dash and if you took a corner too quick, up flashed a red. Trouble was, didn’t take long for the technology to go ■■■■ up and too many reds saw you in the tm’s office for “tea & biscuits”
Agreed, I was driving buses in rural cornwall (single track country roads)
There was no way to win, it got to the stage where drivers had the choice of
Brake hard to avoid that car that comes at you with no attempt to slow down on a single track lane = bollocking for drivegreen score
don’t brake, and hit said car = bollocking for accident
drive to suit the roads, ie slow down = bollocking for running late
all 3 could lead to sacking.
and for those that say, “get another job” Yeah right, not in Cornwall. thats why I moved north
I find I’m more alert using the pedal than cruise control, not saying I don’t use it but as Newmercman said “it’s for driver comfort.”
I prefer the speed limit function as someone else posted.
hitch:
speed limiter on single carriageway
cruise on M ways and DCsLimiter in roadworks
^^ This. But only when cruising knock it off before cresting long climbs etc. Just common sense really imho.
I use it everywhere I can, love it.
If your company has 8 trucks, averaging 8mpg, driving 9hrs/day 5 days/wk, it would take an increase of 0.4mpg per truck to pay the £30k salary of some office bod who monitors your performance.
I’m sure £30k would pay for a lot of fuel saving training for 8 drivers. Ho hum.
It’s a nonsense we have isotrack monitors everything in my work I have one of the longest night runs
They give me the less fuel efficient older trucks not the shiny new actros for you my boy !
They’re for the transport office pets I had one for a week instead of my Axor the difference in fuel was huge explained this to Transport
We’ll look into it still waiting but mind you don’t idle too much
Also got pulled up for pulling too hard after hooking up the trailer absolute nonsense
Use it most of the time unless going up at steep hill then knock it off and use the peddles. I don’t drive a truck designed for great MPG hate to see the fuel bill lol