Drift:
How much do these systems cost?
Do they save money? I mean after purchasing the system and no doubt subscribing to the system and employing people to monitor the system it must cut into any fuel savings they are supposed to save?
I believe it takes a mechanic/auto electrician a full 8 hour day to install is on ONE unit. So for a company running say 100 units that’s a mechanics wage for 800 hours, plus 100 days of units being off the road and not making the company money, plus the cost of purchasing/subcribing to the system.
In the early days of telematics an now bankrupt telematics co installed their system on a new intake of Scanias at a now bankrupt haulier. The installers drilled the cabs to fit the antennas.
Three years later, the trucks go back to Scania…end of lease. Two days later, the invoice arrives from Scania for the ‘deliberate perforation damage to cab’ for the entire fleet.
DickyNick:
Mine is giving me a poor score for combined coasting at the moment, saying to improve you need to coast in gear more.
Problem with this is that in both scanias and mercs when the cruise control is on it puts it in N automatically when it’s coasting.
So for microlise they want the cruise control on as much as possible, Scania and merc have designed their own systems to go coast in neutral, yet microlise marks you down for this.
If you leave the cruise control “on” all the time you won’t get any score at all for “over-run” (i.e. coasting in gear) regardless of what make of lorry you drive…
The cruise control must have been on as it only puts it in neutral for you when it’s on.
That was my point…
You won’t get get any score at all for “over-run” (i.e. in-gear coasting) while the CC is active, regardless of what make of lorry (or how old it is), as Microlise simply does not register “over-run” while the CC is on. If you want to (or are being told to) maximise your “over-run” score, you must take every opportunity (i.e. every time you are going downhill) to switch the CC off and let the thing roll in gear.
DickyNick:
Mine is giving me a poor score for combined coasting at the moment, saying to improve you need to coast in gear more.
Problem with this is that in both scanias and mercs when the cruise control is on it puts it in N automatically when it’s coasting.
So for microlise they want the cruise control on as much as possible, Scania and merc have designed their own systems to go coast in neutral, yet microlise marks you down for this.
If you leave the cruise control “on” all the time you won’t get any score at all for “over-run” (i.e. coasting in gear) regardless of what make of lorry you drive…
The cruise control must have been on as it only puts it in neutral for you when it’s on.
That was my point…
You won’t get get any score at all for “over-run” (i.e. in-gear coasting) while the CC is active, regardless of what make of lorry (or how old it is), as Microlise simply does not register “over-run” while the CC is on. If you want to (or are being told to) maximise your “over-run” score, you must take every opportunity (i.e. every time you are going downhill) to switch the CC off and let the thing roll in gear.
Ah ok so are you saying that I need to override the manufacturers system and when it goes to N I need to touch the accelerator or brake to knock it straight back into gear?
DickyNick:
Ah ok so are you saying that I need to override the manufacturers system and when it goes to N I need to touch the accelerator or brake to knock it straight back into gear?
No, I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that if you want to maximise your over-run “score” you need to turn the CC off at the appropriate times - i.e. when you can see that the road is about to start on a downhill gradient, or you’ll be needing to slow down or stop up at some point ahead. I’ve not driven a recent (i.e. current decade) Scania so cannot advise how you would do this, but on every other lorry I’ve ever driven you do this by clicking a button or flipping a control stalk. As far as Microlise is concerned is doesn’t matter what tricks the clever transmission wants to play, what they are looking for is forward motion, cruise control “Off”, gear selector in Drive and no feet on either brakes or accelerator.
In response to your subsequent (now deleted) question; I have no idea - maybe your employer can answer it?
DickyNick:
Ah ok so are you saying that I need to override the manufacturers system and when it goes to N I need to touch the accelerator or brake to knock it straight back into gear?
No, I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that if you want to maximise your over-run “score” you need to turn the CC off at the appropriate times - i.e. when you can see that the road is about to start on a downhill gradient, or you’ll be needing to slow down or stop up at some point ahead. I’ve not driven a recent (i.e. current decade) Scania so cannot advise how you would do this, but on every other lorry I’ve ever driven you do this by clicking a button or flipping a control stalk. As far as Microlise is concerned is doesn’t matter what tricks the clever transmission wants to play, what they are looking for is forward motion, cruise control “Off”, gear selector in Drive and no feet on either brakes or accelerator.
In response to your subsequent (now deleted) question; I have no idea - maybe your employer can answer it?
So use momentum and plan ahead basically. Good practise whether your trying to get a good microlise score or not I guess.
Had them at a company i was night trunking for and i soon worked out that it wasn’t my driving which was at fault but it depended on which unit i drove that night as to how my score appeared on the board of shame in the traffic office. If you had a certain unit for an amount of time then you were near top of the table but if you had certain other units then you would appear at bottom end of table. It told me that it either wasn’t set up and calibrated properly or it is just a big load of bollox.
Had interview last month at a firm in Bradford and as soon as they mentioned their obsession with microlise, i knew i wouldn’t be working there.
So the big logistics companies state there is a driver shortage* yet at the same time ■■■■ off perfectly decent drivers forcing them to move on or leave the industry altogether.
Hmmm!
robroy:
Most of the comments just illustrate that the job today is ran by d/heads of the highest order, who know jack [zb] about the job in real terms, but instead live in a world of theory.
I went on assesment a while back. Guy who took me out said do not rev over the green indicator on rev counter. Ok i said no problemo.
Was driving around up and down gears without going outside fuel economy area.
Got to a hill in green as instructed just before it went over changed up a gear. The lorrys slowed and i stopped. He said why did you change up gear and not rev it up to get up hill.
I said to him because you stated i wasnt allowed out the fuel economy area on counter. He wasnt amused.
Safe to say i didnt pass so called assesment.
Not that i was arsed. Some amount of robots out there now.
We had some bods over from mercedes recenty givng the third degree about how to drive their vehicles,the correct way.I said to one of the bozos,“essentially,we’re expected to drive them like robots,!..is that what you’re really saying”?..silence…“the problem there old boy,other road users,…they don’t share that philosophy”…I also added,“by the way,when you guys gonna do something about that huge blind spot to my right,known as a mirror,and the other side one that acts as a hedge trimmer”…answer,came their non.
