I have been sent my microlise report for the last 2 weeks and some scores are good and some are dreadfull but i dont understand the headings in some case or in other cases i dont understand what i can do to improve
the 5 areas are accel > 95%, combined coasting, engine idle, harsh braking and overspeed. The areas i need to improve on are acceleration engine idle and harsh braking.
acceleration: what does this heading mean? I tend to use cruise control on the major roads / motorways and if i have to slow down or brake due to down hills etc i always use resume rather than accelerate up to speed then reset the cruise control. I do tend to use the throttle around urban areas. However, i remember reading on here not to use more than 50% of the throttles travel and try not to. I tend to set the cruise control to the maximum amount which in this case is 53 whilst on roads that allow this.
Engine idle: I have no clue how to improve this as i dont do anything different than i do in the other trucks and everyone else says my idle time is good. When picking up or dropping a trailor i always turn the engine off when not needed. the only time the engine is running once im in position is when i am either raising or lowering the unit susspention or moving back to pick up the pin once i have the airlines on / tug test. Only other time is building air pressure.
harsh braking: How is this calculated? Is it a factor of speed reduction over distance/ time. how do they differenciate between avoiding an accident and being careless? Does the abs sensor come into play here? If the abs sensor is a factor then i have an issue as its always causing me issues when i am reversing or spining round in the yard. If not i dont realy understand how i can improve as i try to use the (bloody usless) retarder when comeing up to a rounderbout etc from over 1/2 a mile out by the time im at the 300 yard mark i might of dropped 5-6 mph with the retarder on full and the tachometer well into the yellow ( the truck wont drop any more gears just beeps at me)
sorry for the long winded post but this is begining to get on my nerves as its obviously an issue with the company but cant get a sensible answer out of them.
Is it an issue the company are likely to take action about, ie get rid of you if you don’t perform like a clone.
I haven’t a clue what my scores would be and to be perfectly honest couldn’t give a tuppeny one what they’d be anyway.
Are you getting reasonable fuel figures, do you look after the vehicle and bring it back in one piece every day, is the load still intact and undisturbed when you discharge, are other drivers happy to be near you on the road, are the front wheels still clean after you’ve been driving for a day (ie not caked in brake dust)…there’s probably dozens of other things involved here but you get my drift.
If you’re answering positively to all of these things then personally i’d use that report to light your next barbie or wipe your arse with and carry on driving in the manner that feels right to you and keeps you making decent progress on the road whilst doing the job safely.
I’ll tell you how i drive, the truck idles as long as i deem necessary, it only gets to work hard once its warm and it gets to warm down after working hard before shutdown, i use the accelerator to accelerate usually at full throttle and the cruise control to cruise usually at 3 kph below limiter speed, drive in manual all the time keeping the revs lower than the half wit bloody gearbox would manage, straighten bends and roundabouts out when the its clear and safe to do so.
I use the retarder or exhaust brake as my primarly brake and curse myself when i get caught out and have to use the service brakes for anything other than bringing the vehicle to a final stop.
I was taught by my instructor way back the 70’s with the shouted command ‘‘clear the hazard’’ his Glaswegian polite was of saying once moving and safe from the last negotiated junction etc to get your bloody boot down and don’t hold everyone else up.
Never had a complaint about my driving and have no intention of changing any aspect.
The chances are, if its that useless, you dont have a retarder.
You may have an engine brake, or an exhaust brake.
Whatever it is, if you need to do hard braking on the service (foot) brake, do gentler braking from further out.
cooper1203:
its obviously an issue with the company but cant get a sensible answer out of them.
If they can`t actually point out what you are doing wrong? then how can you improve?
As a newer pass you don`t yet have the tools that old ■■■■■ like Juddian and I have: the magic ability to look down our noses at these tossers and tell them exactly where to go!
I had this issue at tesco as well. Never got a straight answer. In the end i just ignored the score and did what i thought best. However at the current posting i have been told that they will stop you driving thier trucks if you dont get your scores upto snuff
engine is running once im in position is when i am either raising or lowering the unit suspension
engine is not required for this, only ignition.
Although you will pay for it later when building up pressure. However, if you’re revving does that NOT count as engine idling?
cooper1203:
I had this issue at tesco as well. Never got a straight answer. In the end i just ignored the score and did what i thought best. However at the current posting i have been told that they will stop you driving thier trucks if you dont get your scores upto snuff
That’s what the company have told you, officially in writing? or is this hearsay from some spotlessly clean hivis alleged trainer warrior or simply driver waffle (■■■■■■■■ in other words).
If that is seriously company policy and you know in your heart that you are driving safely and competently maintaining normal progress, then to be honest i’d already be scouting around for a job and get out of that hell hole.
Jesus wept you’ll be so busy ticking sodding boxes you’ll end up forgetting you’re actually in charge of the truck and more likely to have an accident.
Seriously you’d get none of this crap where i work, so long as you are reliable do your work decently look after the (expensive) kit look after the customer the product and the vehicle and avoid confrontations etc on the road, they leave you alone to get on with your work because it works like that, we get non of this ■■■■■■■■ either when we get periodically reassessed, our trainer’s more interested in seeing some good sympathetic vehicle handling and control and road safety/courtesy.
We have Microlise on our Actros…used to get horrendous idling figures, even on a short hop from Reading to Chepstow (all m/way)… cruise was set at 54 with a +2 -2 window….plenty of ecoroll….turned out it thght this was idling and hammered figures so I just use CC and turn of ecoroll
When I first started driving at co-op they had a massive interactive board with the top drivers based on the microlise score. I used to really care about this. Other drivers used to brag about it as well lol. Now, I do not give a crap.
Using the CC to accelerate is stupid. I do not like using the engine brake to slow down when I know I am coming to a stop I prefer the pedal brake lol.
I drive in a safe manner. Yet to be involved in a crash since I started driving. That is all I care about now is avoiding idiots on the road.
At my previous company I drove a Daf. Always getting acceleration issues on the stats. Driver trainer told me not to worry about it as it’s the Daf that is accelerating too quickly on CC
From what I understand, the harsh braking is in the typical sense, (because you know, you have to??). Secondly someone said something like if you ride the brakes for more than 3 seconds - it’s harsh braking. I do this often, just ease towards them lights gently on the brakes = harsh braking!
Engine idling - if engine idles for more than 2 minutes. Will ruin your score for the rest of the day.
I got pulled into the office the other day. All my scores were like G, G, G, E and C lol.
Not my fault the truck was down on power, I’m driving all over North Wales (480KM), I only have 11 hours duty time available, with 6 drops, one of them handball. You want these drops doing or not? TBF, driving in manual mode and revving the scrap out of the DAF will result in bad scores.
Just leave it in Auto, use engine retarder, take your time. Good scores and an attaboy pat on your back. Doesn’t matter if you bring your last 2/3 drops back with you. Kaz you know, you saved £5 in diesel.
Another thing on both my CBA and CGAF lists.
As long as I know that I am driving as safe as I can and to the best of my ability with a bit of economy chucked in,.I don’t need anybody in a created job, or some ■■■■ electronic ■■■■ gizmo to tell me I am,. or even if they think I aren’t…
Once you start taking notice of them, or getting concerned as much about it as some are on this thread , it only gives them credibility. and helps them justify their ‘‘job’’/existence to themselves.
That’s my take on it,.and I’m sticking to it.
If you are concerned enough about your scores to actually do anything about it then there are a couple of areas that Microlise can be “cheated” on ; if you must idle for whatever reason then simply use the CC to raise the revs to 800rpm, it then thinks that you are using a PTO for tipping equipment and disregards it. If you are scoring low on cruise control use then simply set it to it’s lowest speed (around 15kph usually) and then just drive on the throttle as normal. Be aware though that you’ll need to hit resume after every use of foot brake or exhaust brake.
Thank god I have never worked at a place that uses it.
If ever did I’d just drive as I ways do and ignore the scores etc.
I stand to be corrected here. But if you get a bad score you get a bad score.maybe called in for a chat about it.
But I doubt anyone has ever been sacked for getting bad scores…I would imagine the union or lawyers would probably take up a case for unfair dismissal.
But as say I stand to anyone be corrected but 99% certain they can’t sack you for it.
Or worst case if get a bad score go fine I want some training then to improve it see what there answer is.
More nonsense from those who have never done the job both from behind the wheel or in the office of properly run for profit operator, they have succeeded in dumbing the job down to point where it bears no resemblance to how proper transport should be done in fact an awful lot of money is spent (wasted) on these systems which I believe have no benefit whatsoever these systems cost a small fortune when installed on a large fleet the cost of which would in theory take years to recoup and probably never do.
The best thing to do with Microlise is to log in then place it face down on the bunk and ignore it completely for the entire shift.
SWEDISH BLUE:
When I was on DPD, via agency, I never turned it on. Nothing was said.
I was fairly reliably informed that not having the display on or not being logged in to the display makes no difference at all to the recorded information sent back.
The display is a feature that microlise provides as an option so the driver can see driving performance for the shift in real-time. As my source said, he could snip the wires to the display and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference to what is sent back about driver performance.
