I’m looking into employed drivers’ attitudes to fuel efficiency for CM and could do with your help. Please vote above, and feel free to add your thoughts below. Why do you or don’t you care? Would anything make you change your mind?
Please can we keep this just to employed drivers - we know owner drivers care because they have to pay for it, after all - and be aware that I may use what’s posted for publication.
Thankyou! 
I used to get paid a fuel bonus but it got scrapped. But to be really honest im a seriously competitive ■■■■■■■ and i like to see my name at the top or near the top of the rankings every monday morning. At my depot its frigin hard though id say 5-6 drivers really are top notch it all comes down to who gets the least heavy loads that week.
I hear people say is not me that pay for etc well if every driver in your fleet feels that way your company will soon go bust with an enormous fuel bill. Its all about the fuel, people need to look at the bigger picture.
Throttle-brake drivers make me laugh you may as-well just drill a hole in your fuel tank.
Yes I do, and always have done. I have never taken so much as a pint of fuel out of a vehicle I have been driving, syphoned a few others though 
But I have heard several drivers who say. I don’t care about fuel consumption, my boss has a Jag, Merc, Roller BMW etc
I care about fuel figures to a certain degree but my company always seems more interested in getting the job done as quickly as possible and getting more deliveries in…if i started driving at 52mph everywhere id have the traffic office on the phone asking what i was playing at
dogthehunter:
I care about fuel figures to a certain degree but my company always seems more interested in getting the job done as quickly as possible and getting more deliveries in…if i started driving at 52mph everywhere id have the traffic office on the phone asking what i was playing at
I doubt that very much, you would be surprised how much you get done, I have seen drivers come teararsing past me, only to be stopped at the next roundabout or traffic lights
My company’s t/m told me I had the worst fuel consumption for the whole fleet
My logistics manager told me to get the trailer back as quickly as possible as there is always early delivery’s on them
Can’t do both can we?
although its part of my job to get good mpg figures, it also keeps the boss off my back. when i get back to yard i just want to get home, not given a lecture on how to drive, so my view is, good mpg = less grief. 
Working on bulkers the fuel isnt the greatest some of our trucks are down in the low 6s we have a mixture of Volvos and Scanias and at the moment 2 Dafs
Im using a Scania 440 at the moment which is limit to 53mph and is returning 7.5 mpg running at full weight most of the time we have to other Scania 440s which run at 56 which are on the same work and are returning 6.8.But when i drive the other trucks i get 7.2 so yes i try to be as economical as i can better bonus for me lol
Any truck that gives me the figures, I try and do well on, just for my own piece of mind + I don’t like tear arsing around and it gives me an excuse to plod.
If the truck doesn’t give the figures, I just fly around, strange eh?
Wheel Nut:
dogthehunter:
I care about fuel figures to a certain degree but my company always seems more interested in getting the job done as quickly as possible and getting more deliveries in…if i started driving at 52mph everywhere id have the traffic office on the phone asking what i was playing atI doubt that very much, you would be surprised how much you get done, I have seen drivers come teararsing past me, only to be stopped at the next roundabout or traffic lights
Sometimes i can see it WN but sometimes it really makes the difference to me getting the job done
dogthehunter:
I care about fuel figures to a certain degree but my company always seems more interested in getting the job done as quickly as possible and getting more deliveries in…if i started driving at 52mph everywhere id have the traffic office on the phone asking what i was playing at
exactly the same on my firm the job has to be done, so the more you can do, the more the company earns so fuel don’t rank highly, they do know what each truck should average and will notice if it drops drasticly.
i try my best, but most of the time i am running at 44t, ok on the motorways…but i cant do much when i on the A76/A70/A68/A465 etc with a bulk load of wood chips! Don’ think my 440 is really upto the job!
I try to keep it in the “green” whenever I can, also use cc/eco roll where possible and even go as far as switching it off when I’m stuck in a large jam on the motorway where nobody moves for several minutes, also those pesky temporary traffice lights which are always on a long delay!
Although my best efforts are thwarted when my motor is used on the night trunk pulling a high bluff fronted double decker and all the night driver wants to do is go to bed as early as possible! 
If it was my fleet I’d seriously consider winding the limiters back a few clicks 
I dont hammer it about and do try and be gentle but lot of that is because the loads often get stacked up high, theres not a huge emphises on fuel at our place, but think that is coming though. I do make a big effort to look after the brakes/tyres etc though, i use the exhaust brake as much as possible along with the gears to slow the lorry down.
I think ours are doing 6-8mpg (26t rigids) but hardly ever use motorways, mainly narrow and single track country roads so theres alot of stop and starting and the lorries go out heavy everyday.
Saaamon:
I dont hammer it about and do try and be gentle but lot of that is because the loads often get stacked up high, theres not a huge emphises on fuel at our place, but think that is coming though. I do make a big effort to look after the brakes/tyres etc though, i use the exhaust brake as much as possible along with the gears to slow the lorry down.I think ours are doing 6-8mpg (26t rigids) but hardly ever use motorways, mainly narrow and single track country roads so theres alot of stop and starting and the lorries go out heavy everyday.
That ■■■■■ arse, 44t container wagon, so 50% full, 50% time empty, various roads, average of 8.7 to th gallon on the wagon since new, and 9mpg since I took it over (still down on the 9.1mpg I averaged in Maritimes Merc Megaspace which was also a much nice drive and vehicle - keep tellin’ work to get me 1)
I have always cared about fuel consumption and monitored my weekly usage using the trucks computor but it seems my company say they do but don’t care about things like me running bob tail 230 miles to go home at the weekend, then bob tailing back 230 miles on the following monday with 140 miles each way on a toll road 
A good ‘For instance’ was yesterday.
I headed north thursday eveing for Methuen MA with a 06.00 friday trailer drop and hook. I had sugested this run on some fridays because the drop is just over the Green Mountains from my house and after changing can be home in about 2.5 hours, then run down to NYC on the monday (this is only when I have not bought a Ben & Jerry load home with me). I stopped for the night at Sturbridge MA and set out again at 04.00 and arrived at my drop off 15 mins early, I was then shocked to get a message saying they needed the trailer back in NYC for loading I instead headed for our Worcester MA terminal to try and negotiate some sort of sensibe deal with the area manager. I booked a 2 hour break chatted to him and explained how expensive it would be to run empty to NYC (200 miles) then bob tail to home (230 miles).
“Not as expensive as not picking up a load” he said, “talk to the dispatcher to see if he can do something better”
At 09.30 I called the dispatcher who said there was no way round it because he needed 9 lquid tankers there for preloading friday and would actually pay me the empty miles back to NYC then home
I took the deal and got home with 10 mins left on my elog.
Monday I head down to Albany for a minor repair.
Talk abut wassting money ?
I’ve never been bothered at all by fuel figures, I drive to the best of my ability 99 per cent of the time so the lorry does what it does. I’m not a fan of fuel charts on the wall either. One company I work at has the fuel figures for each week on the wall and the top lorry is a stralis limited to 50 mph and the one near the bottom is an xl globetrotter limited at 56 and that is fair. Also another point there isn’t that much different between em both and that’s a fleet of 100 trucks.
I know Lucy said employed drivers only but my view came from when I was employed.
That’s a good point that I failed to make on my post we do not run empty anywhere my boss will take on pretty much anything load wise that will pay diesel so everymile we do us paid for
jessicas dad:
.I know Lucy said employed drivers only but my view came from when I was employed.
Mine too, but I took that to mean drivers who get paid, rather than an owner driver who doesnt
Wheel Nut:
jessicas dad:
.I know Lucy said employed drivers only but my view came from when I was employed.
Mine too, but I took that to mean drivers who get paid, rather than an owner driver who doesnt
Correct. Freelancers are still, ultimately, employed to drive other people’s wagons, rather than running their own and therefore having to pay for what they use.