Pat Hasler:
Different story over here I know, but I get better MPG than most here because I still find myself driving the European way, I also try to avoid running the engine 24/7 for the sake of heating or A/C, I use the load to push me along when I can.
On the car front it’s a different tale again, our 8 seat Honda Pilot only averages 19 MPG, our Jeep Wrangler does about 14 MPG if we drive it conservatively.
You’d be ■■■■■■ at £6 a gallon at those mpg figures lol
Pound foolish pennywise, probably save a lot more if planners weren’t such narrow minded squeaks
one of my first jobs there were 4 of us in 6 wheelers and they’d hit the roof about bad MPG
A few times a week i’d be running empty somewhere for a load and i’d pass a colleague going the opposite way (where i’d just came from) who was also empty running to get a different load 
Some companies/planners haven’t got a clue.
viking7000:
With so many companies offering incentives like fuel bonuses it is becoming the ‘trendy’ thing but how can it be fair? Driver 1 is doing lots of heavy loads on A roads and driver 2 is light or empty on the M1 night trunking. Who is getting the best fuel figures and who is making the company more money?
Driver 2 might be slightly better at fuel efficiency but is constantly screwing the tyres in yards.
There are too many variables to make it a fair system.
Then you might spend a month improving fuel figures only for some stuffed shirt in management or sales to blow it all on a meal and a hotel when he could have made it home.
Fact is we all have been saving our company money for years in the way of pay freezes or reductions because wages is one of the few areas they have control over.
Does anyone here think their company has a fair system they would like to share?
Like it or not, fuel is a huge cost - several thousand pounds every month even for one truck that’s only single-manned on modest hours. By comparison, the driver’s wages, tyre costs and the odd night in a hotel for management/sales staff are hardly significant.
Top tip.
If your company implements a fuel bonus scheme,
just stick a few gallon of red in every now and again
and enjoy your shopping vouchers.
Of course fuel is a huge cost but I am refering to the small savings that can be made from drivers who are already driving properly and economically.
Besides that, how much of that huge fuel bill is actualy TAX, duty and vat. Probably 60%. At least wages arent too dear eh?
Fuel is expensiv and in most States of Europe Drivers gets Bonuses for saving Fuel.
The more you safe the Higher the Bonus 
oatcake1967:
Top tip.If your company implements a fuel bonus scheme,
just stick a few gallon of red in every now and again
and enjoy your shopping vouchers.
You are at Court if a Tax Officers reads you “Top Tip” 
The only significant tax is VAT - Fuel Duty etc is simply part of the cost as far as the company is concerned as it cannot be deducted or reclaimed. Work it out for yourself - the cost of a gallon of diesel (excluding VAT) is roughly a fiver. A truck being driven for only 8 hours a day at an average 40mph will do 320 miles a day, or about 8000 miles a month (assuming six days’ running a week). Your average artic does about 8mpg, so will use 1000 gallons a month. That’s a cost to the company of £5,000 every month. In comparison, the driver’s wages are pretty insignificant.
Roymondo:
The only significant tax is VAT - Fuel Duty etc is simply part of the cost as far as the company is concerned as it cannot be deducted or reclaimed. Work it out for yourself - the cost of a gallon of diesel (excluding VAT) is roughly a fiver. A truck being driven for only 8 hours a day at an average 40mph will do 320 miles a day, or about 8000 miles a month (assuming six days’ running a week). Your average artic does about 8mpg, so will use 1000 gallons a month. That’s a cost to the company of £5,000 every month. In comparison, the driver’s wages are pretty insignificant.
Maybe I didnt explain myself properly.
If you have a driver who is driving economically already, how much more can he possibly save? Maybe 1 or 2%. Using your figures thats £50 to £100 p.m. at best. But how can you measure that fairly unless he has the same run, load, truck and trailer, weather and traffic?
Also, as a motorcyclist, it would be nice if some drivers didnt leave so much fuel on the ■■■■ road aswell.
viking7000:
Roymondo:
The only significant tax is VAT - Fuel Duty etc is simply part of the cost as far as the company is concerned as it cannot be deducted or reclaimed. Work it out for yourself - the cost of a gallon of diesel (excluding VAT) is roughly a fiver. A truck being driven for only 8 hours a day at an average 40mph will do 320 miles a day, or about 8000 miles a month (assuming six days’ running a week). Your average artic does about 8mpg, so will use 1000 gallons a month. That’s a cost to the company of £5,000 every month. In comparison, the driver’s wages are pretty insignificant.Maybe I didnt explain myself properly.
If you have a driver who is driving economically already, how much more can he possibly save? Maybe 1 or 2%. Using your figures thats £50 to £100 p.m. at best. But how can you measure that fairly unless he has the same run, load, truck and trailer, weather and traffic?
Also, as a motorcyclist, it would be nice if some drivers didnt leave so much fuel on the ■■■■ road aswell.
That’s why most of the big companies measure e.g. harsh braking, green band driving, idling etc rather than simple mpg - It levels the playing field.
They claim it costs the firm £50 p.h too have a truck stood doing nothing,the other day I had 2 hrs waiting for a load,then 3 hrs at shop waiting too get tipped,that’s according too them £250 lost in a shift as the trucks stood doing nothing ,all rang in and NO interest at all from planner,t.o,customer services etc.
Now Raymond’s,is saying its nothing up too what can be lost by a driver with bad fuel economy ,I don’t use anywhere near £250 worth of fuel in a shift,so the amount I loose by driving uneconomical ly must be a lot less than the money lost by being stood,empty running,run 100,s of miles too pick up loads that don’t exist,hour upon hour waiting for a truck etc,etc .
Just think how much they would save if they only paid the driver when the truck was moving, with a load, and all without using the throttle…ever. Meanwhile the customer gets free temporary warehousing because they cant organise a screw in a brothel.
I did a week for a bread company, they had this ISOtrak nonsense in all their trucks. Tracks your acceleration, braking, gear changes etc. First day I drove nice and steady, got 3 harsh accelerations, next day was running late so was a bit lead footed, got 6 harsh accelerations. How the hell does that work…
A lot more fuel would be saved by proper loading, so that every space on the back is packed full, and without being overweight on any axle.
Shame there’s no such move towards this - only packing stuff in so it’s overweight, or even sending out fresh air collections - and moaning to the driver when they end up taking some “off route” diversion!
Saving fuel can be done by not going on any “waste” journeys at all. You can’t beat £0.00p spent on something after all! 
Radar19:
I did a week for a bread company, they had this ISOtrak nonsense in all their trucks. Tracks your acceleration, braking, gear changes etc. First day I drove nice and steady, got 3 harsh accelerations, next day was running late so was a bit lead footed, got 6 harsh accelerations. How the hell does that work…
I consider myself a good driver, and I’ve come to the conclusion that fleetboard/isotrac etc. is crap - because it measures the wrong things.
Harsh acceleration? - Fail on the first busy roundabout…
Harsh Brake? - Fail when a cyclist falls off right in front of you… Are you REALLY gonna swerve into the oncoming traffic rather than just brake hard?
Over-Revving? - I was taught when driving a load up a hill, you foot your foot down. Higher revs in a lower gear gives better traction than rumbling away in too low a gear… 10 seconds just above the green gives you a “over rev” event though. 
Overspeed? - Too many seconds spent doing 57mph will give you this event… Shame the speed limit is likely to be 60 on the road you get the event on though! In my mind, “overspeed” should be for 61mph+ for 30 seconds instead.
Let’s face it - Isotrac and all the rest were only devised so the firm can catch you out having crafty ■■■■ in laybys, now that smoking is “illegal” (bullcrap non-law that!) in cabs… Encourages you to park up, and get out to have a smoke… Lowers productivity…
Winseer:
Over-Revving? - I was taught when driving a load up a hill, you foot your foot down. Higher revs in a lower gear gives better traction than rumbling away in too low a gear…
That is old thinking. You want maximum torque and the engine will only deliver that in the green area on the rev counter. Going above it is just turning diesel into smoke. You don’t gain anything.
viking7000:
With so many companies offering incentives like fuel bonuses it is becoming the ‘trendy’ thing but how can it be fair? Driver 1 is doing lots of heavy loads on A roads and driver 2 is light or empty on the M1 night trunking. Who is getting the best fuel figures and who is making the company more money?
But that’s not the problem. I do a run up to Lockerbie stuffed full of flatpack kitchens. I do a trailer swap with a Scottish driver and come back stuffed full of 27.6 tonnes of chipboard. The route involves going over the A66 in both directions yet I’m still averaging 9MPG and that’s in a well worn DAF XF with over a million km on the clock.
The problem is there are people loaded light or empty doing trunking down the M1 who aren’t getting 9MPG. I drove with one years ago. We both went from Hull down to London, same wagon, same load tipped and returned empty. He struggled to make 7MPG and used 50 litres of diesel a night more than I did because he was screaming the nuts off the engine up hills, coasting in neutral down hills, screaming up to roundabouts and traffic lights. Do you know how much time he saved? At London I’d arrive at the gate just as he was driving through it. When we got back to the yard I’d arrive at the pumps just as he was fuelling up. Over a week I used 250 litres of diesel a week less than he did.
Winseer:
I consider myself a good driver, and I’ve come to the conclusion that fleetboard/isotrac etc. is crap - because it measures the wrong things.Harsh acceleration? - Fail on the first busy roundabout…
Harsh Brake? - Fail when a cyclist falls off right in front of you… Are you REALLY gonna swerve into the oncoming traffic rather than just brake hard?
I don’t know about the systems you mention, as I have no experience of either of them. But neither of the scenarios you describe would affect how Microlise (which we use) scored your performance as far as harsh braking or acceleration are concerned.
With Microlise, a “harsh braking” incident is only logged as such if the vehicle reduces speed at a greater rate than prescribed for several seconds continuously - an emergency stop in town traffic wouldn’t register. “Harsh acceleration” is measured not as individual events but by the proportion of time spent with the the motor at (or near) full throttle. Two or three seconds of WOT to get into a traffic gap would barely register (contrast this with the driver who regularly uses full throttle pretty much every time he pulls away, all the way up to 40,50 or 56mph.
As I said, can’t comment on the Isotrak or Fleetboard way of doing things, but I would expect them to be much the same?