Do you have the power option or just economy?.
I too leave mine in auto for most of the time but there are times when you do need to use manual.
Last winter on some back roads covered in ice if you left it in auto it was a nightmare. Sticking it in manual meant you could make sure progress with no danger of wheelspin due to a sudden unexpected downshift.
Driving across the A66 fully loaded is another time when I will use M at a few points along the route as in auto the box just cannot react quickly enough to a sudden incline - Warcop springs to mind.
I get anywhere between 6 and 9mpg average out of our FM12’s. I run auto all the time, cc and eco-roll as much as is possible. We run 44t out and back empty. I rarely bother with manual or the power option as it seems to make no real difference in time when climbing the long hills.
The only time I will use manual is one left turn junction on a hill close to our works where the box often changes from 2nd to 4th too early and the wagon nearly stops and has to go back to 2nd immediately.
Every truck on our fleet is different and it takes a full m’way run to get mid 9’s, ie rugby to purfleet and back.
This thread fills me with horror 
Whatever happened to skilled drivers driving trucks 
I got all these mpg figure you mention fully freighted with manual boxes. I’ll have to ask some of my mates at my last firm down the road if the boss has castrated them. He’s bought loads of MAN autos since I left.
Salut, David.
Wonderful. I-shift, with no manual over-ride is like having an automatic with all the disadvantages of a manual, instead of the other way round. Next they’ll be forcing heavy vehicles to have intelligent speed limiters which know the speed limit for the road they’re on. How are new people going to be attracted to the job?
I’m with those peoples who have wondered why companies buy these new gearboxes but then they don’t train drivers how to use those. I think that equal save could be achieved by sending drivers to “HGV eco-driving courses” so that fuel saving would come from driver instead of gearbox. I understand there would be “problems” from agency drivers but I guess that company hiring them could insist that they have participated to similar course.
Kyrbo:
I’m with those peoples who have wondered why companies buy these new gearboxes but then they don’t train drivers how to use those. I think that equal save could be achieved by sending drivers to “HGV eco-driving courses” so that fuel saving would come from driver instead of gearbox. I understand there would be “problems” from agency drivers but I guess that company hiring them could insist that they have participated to similar course.
Agreed! it’s about training, all the manufacturers run bespoke training courses for their vehicles and it is short sighted of firms not to train their people properly, another example of down to price not up to a standard.
I still like to think I could return equal or better fuel economy from a manual by just applying reason and common sense (Tin Hat On).
Ive Also Completed the SAFED(Safe and Fuel Efficeint Driving) course. And was impressed by the difference in figures i returned after it tbh. But one major part of it is cutting down on the amount of gear changes… They run you round first and count your changes on a pre defined route. You do the training and they count again.
So this is what i was trying to do with the manual option in SOME cases, Just cut down on the little odd change that’s not needed. As per the title of the Thread iTs all about CHOICE…
I was in Volvo, Milton Keynes, today and mentioned this thread. First thing out of the mouths of the two Volvo people I was speaking to was, “Why didn’t they just train the drivers to use the box properly?”
I run with the box in Auto 99% of the time and I use the engine brake in the A setting most of the time to make use of the ECO Roll as much as possible. I also use cruise control as much as possible and I keep idling to a minimum. No running the engine for ages before setting off each day for example.
I returned the truck to Volvo today as the lease is up and using the methods above the figures at the end of the three years I have driven it are.
382609.7 Km covered using 95353.3 litres of diesel in the process, which works out to 4.01 Km/l or 11.41 mpg. The engine ran for 5327.7 hours and the idling content of that was just 320.6 hours, Those 320 hours includes when the truck is sitting in traffic or a lights etc, anytime when the engine is running and the wheels aren’t turning in fact.
I’ll still get to see the old girl every week as my mate is buying it and it will be interesting to see if there is any change in the figures, I just hope the new one will be as good.
CM:
I still like to think I could return equal or better fuel economy from a manual by just applying reason and common sense (Tin Hat On).
No tin hat needed from this direction, I’m sure I could 
, out of 50 odd drivers at Gauthiers’, I was always in the top 5 for consumption.
Salut, David.
jammymutt:
Do you have the power option or just economy?.
We don’t have Power on the newer ones, but my previous truck did. I could get better economy out of that (an ‘03’ 340bhp) than my current ‘05’ 420bhp g/t.
I don’t think we really need our entire fleet at 420bhp. I never found the 340 underpowered. A 420 is handy for when you do backhauls, with a fully freighted 44’. But the majority of our trailers are only 33’ tandem-axle!
I have the VEB set to ‘A’ all of the time, and use Eco-Roll as much as possible. Most of our drivers would have no idea what Eco-Roll is, and those that do think it’s dangerous!!!
Again - why is the education not as good as it should be. To spend millions on new kit, but then not bother investing properly in the people that have to use it seems crazy to me.
The firm has put about 250 new Volvo FM12s on the road in the last year. It has another 150 odd being built. It has more FM12s on the fleet than any other operator in Europe. So why isn’t the training good enough?