Personally I try get best fuel return because am competitive and PRIDE in the job ,
If your not intrested thats fine but I am, with the price of fuel the now is it not in our OWN intrests to maximise profit and keep costs down so all our jobs are safe?
And with a bit off luck a profitable company will share the wealth with either bonus’s or a pay rise!
Possibly even hiring more staff , all I know is I try my best sometimes it’s not up to what the standard they want and I miss bonus , but most times I get something . Better in my pocket .
Not got an option that fits me so have opted for the middle .
i try to keep fuel consumption down because it’s my own challenge i do for myself, i set the cruise to 89 kms & set it back to 88 & it will manage a noticeable improvement but i’m also do as much counrty lane work as i do motorway work.
I can usually keep the R420 i drive to around 8.2MPG which i dont think is too bad.
I don’t get fuel bonus & the TM doesnt put results up on the wall , apart from an outbased 8 wheeler , all the feed delivery trucks have 1 regular & 1 spare driver , it works out to 3 trucks =3 regulars & 1 relief, so most are driven differently that would give irregular results.
Most of our work is bulk blower so PTO is running for al least 3-4 hours of the day so fuel efficiency isn’t as much as an issue as some people would factor in for purchaseing a vehicle .
For all the savings the running fuel consumption could save would be wasted from the static PTO usage & this is also variable depending on the product we’re delivering & how far it has to be blown .
MolePower:
For all the savings the running fuel consumption could save would be wasted from the static PTO usage & this is also variable depending on the product we’re delivering & how far it has to be blown .
Erm, no, pretty sure, even if you do ■■■■ fuel consumption whilst driving, you’ll still use the same amount of fuel using the PTO, therefore, a fuel saving whilst driving is still a fuel saving.
nope my fuel mpg bearing in mind this is a 2010 transit is approx 10mpg-15mpg but that runs the onboard compressor and gets to sit about at idle for most of the day (got to keep warm) and it stays running when on laptop otherwise invertor drains battery quickly. fuel consuption never gets mentioned by anyone in the company only fuel theft is ever mentioned…
depends on the job. if its an 8 hour shift then i hammer it since i am not making any money out of it. if its a decent paying job i will take it easy and cost them a few more quid in wages instead of fuel. im quite happy to drag an extra half hour out of a shift by cruising a little below the limiter. assuming of course there is scope for this. some transport managers cant quite get their heads around the fact that limiting to 52 on a 4 - 4.5 hour trip at 56 means a second break is necessary because it takes longer 
I do care.
Just had my Safe And Efficient Driving part of myh DCPC today, we have an in house trainer and truck. The truck in an 18 tonner Scania P94 with opticruise. on my first drive the trainer told me to drive as i would normally so off i went, left it in auto, was over speed limits on occasions and other little bad habits, and was at 56mph on the section of dual carriageway on the test route, when we got back i was told my fuel usage was 3.5 km per litre, with 83 gearchanges and it took 48 minutes to do the route, my fuel score was amoungst the lowest at our depot and i was devestated if truth be told. Anyways, after he has shown me a different way of driving, which included using the gearbox as a manual we went out for my second drive. Kept at or under speed limits, and 50mph on dual carriageway, when i got back my fuel had gone up to 4.3 km per litre, with 38 gearchanges (me using it in manual mode) and the journey time down to 46 minutes!!! Unbelievable!!
Aaron
Rob K:
Lucy:
Harry Monk:
Well, honestly, I get fed up with these “faux polls” and with the idea that just because we are truck drivers, we are sheep who can be driven towards the answer which the poll setter had in mind for us, Lucy of all people should know better.It’s a completely fair point, and to be honest I wasn’t looking to drive the answer anywhere - if you’ve read much of my previous work I tend to err on the side of digging out what’s not expected rather than what is, so there’s certainly no agenda here. I pride myself on keeping the contacts I gain by never screwing them over, and people who give help on here are no different in that respect.
It’s too late to change it now, but I’ll happily ensure that your views are represented. After all, I’m looking to get to the truth, here, not anyone else’s idea of it, hence asking for comments.
Thanks.
Have you taken over from Rikki as community manager here now? Rikki has not been on this site for months and is also ignoring PMs. You creating all these pointless polls was what Rikki used to do to keep the RT ad mongers happy, so are you at the wheel now?
- Rik’s on this site most of the time, actually.
- No, this is my own poll created to aid my own freelance writing work, as I said in my OP.
- It’s not pointless at all, the poll and comments are/will be very useful indeed.
3 pages and now your making it a sticky seems like your using you admin powers to suit yourself.
so you dont get the answers you want or nobody interested so you make it a sticky.
to be honest being paid by the mile and by the load. im more concerned with my fastest lap time of the m25 
jessicas dad:
3 pages and now your making it a sticky seems like your using you admin powers to suit yourself.so you dont get the answers you want or nobody interested so you make it a sticky.
I didn’t sticky it and have no idea who did.
Ps. Don’t get the answers I want? And what would they be, Alex?
As a driver rep I am working with management to improve our current bonus scheme. Most of the drivers eligible for the current scheme do manage some saving but the scheme appears unfair so they don’t try very hard. Those who are not eligible don’t even appear to try. For the record I have always been a fairly good driver regarding fuel consumption but do try harder when I am getting up to £1000 per year bonus. It is not all about driving flat out on motorways etc. either, there are many ways to reduce fuel consumption and my traffic operators are used to me driving at the speed limits. Saves fuel and after 35 years driving I still have a clean licence.
I try and squeeze as much in as possible to get my ‘food for fuel’ vouchers for Costa Coffee 
Our firm is fairly keen on fuel returns and the like, posting a ‘drivers-league- table’ on the tea-room wall. I suspect that the difference between top and bottom can be measured by the thimblefull. It gets sillier, they plan transport in such a way that costs shed loads of diesel for a single truck for a single shift.
While I am not the top driver, I do make a fairly reasonable effort to keep the mpg as high as possible, and I don’t feel it is too great an effort to make.
I used to be very conscientious about the amount of fuel I would use, for example I could save £200 on a return run to Scotland, but after seeing so much money wasted at my company not just on fuel but other things as well im just left feeling, why bother?, so now circumstances allowing its usually pedal to the metal, when im driving my car at 70mph on the motorway and im being well over taken by 4x4’s it does make me think that maybe fuel is not being taxed enough,
AaronR:
Just had my Safe And Efficient Driving part of myh DCPC today, we have an in house trainer and truck. The truck in an 18 tonner Scania P94 with opticruise. on my first drive the trainer told me to drive as i would normally so off i went, left it in auto, was over speed limits on occasions and other little bad habits, and was at 56mph on the section of dual carriageway on the test route, when we got back i was told my fuel usage was 3.5 km per litre, with 83 gearchanges and it took 48 minutes to do the route, my fuel score was amoungst the lowest at our depot and i was devestated if truth be told. Anyways, after he has shown me a different way of driving, which included using the gearbox as a manual we went out for my second drive. Kept at or under speed limits, and 50mph on dual carriageway, when i got back my fuel had gone up to 4.3 km per litre, with 38 gearchanges (me using it in manual mode) and the journey time down to 46 minutes!!! Unbelievable!!Aaron
It also says quite a lot about the alleged efficiency of auto boxes!
Always try to drive with a light right foot and keep her “in the green” the majority of the time. 
redbob:
I try and squeeze as much in as possible to get my ‘food for fuel’ vouchers for Costa Coffee
yes, i try to get a decent mpg more for personall satisfaction then anything else.