Recently I’ve been out in a few new (less than a year old) trucks, and I think the idea of fuel economy on these new automatic trucks is starting to border on the dangerous, I came up to a busy roundabout just off a dual carridgeway and had to stop, when I went to pull away there was a good second of lag, then as it started to move it decided I needed to be in a higher gear, this nearly brought it to a stop, I threw it in to manual and ruined any chance of good fuel economy 
obviously there was now lots of traffic just about stopping because I hadn’t pulled away in a timely fashion. This happened at just about every stop, when I was empty the problem wasn’t as bad, but it still wasn’t great. Has it got to the point that truck manufacturers have decided that a stationary truck offers the best fuel economy? The older automatic trucks I’ve driven, are sometimes slow on the uptake, but nowhere as near this bad. Am I imagining it or is this a common issue?
Was it a Daf perchance, if so it’s in ECO which is the worse of the three modes you can select, however on Daf’s even if select normal A or M after about a minute the box will revert to ECO unless that has been reprogrammed out and the chances are your boss wouldn’t have a bloody clue what you were on about if you mentioned it, cos too many of them have never done the job at the lorry wheel for more than 5 minutes if at all.
If it was a Merc it’s running perfectly 
Of the rest, it wasn’t a Volvo because their programming is spot on, if it was a Scania or one of the non Daf makes fitted with Traxon, then it still pays to learn the box and change the gears yourself to make safe progress…and by the way a good driver can beat the machine on not only fuel consumption but smooth progress too.
Course having the right engine for the job you do helps, smaller and less powerful engines you’ll have to thrash more to make safe progress, something else not always considered when specifying vehicles.
Dont get me started…
Out of boredom I occasionally turn on the telematics on the dash, to see ‘how my driving is’…
The problem is as you point out. The pointy shoes reason that an engine that is not pulling, is the most economic (which, in a totally irrelevant way, is of course true… ), so every rev is punished. A typical drive on a ring road or such, will see you pulling away from a roundabout/traffic lights, building up some speed, and slowing down for the next roundabout/lights. The computer will then tell you that " coasting earlier saves fuel"… 
no ■■■■ sherlock. Or pulling uphill towards lights/junction… “coasting earlier saves…” I asked our driver trainer how I should coast uphill. 
Standard for an Iveco aswell. I’m getting quite used to stopping traffic at roundabouts as it tried to figure out what to do! If it’s dangerous then manual switch up/down to get going.
This issue is something that was clearly overlooked with the eco stuff. Mind you, I guess an Iveco isn’t a proper truck anyway so I should probably keep quiet
Never found it an issue on DAFs, never had a second of lag, never had one decide it wanted to be in a higher gear just after setting off. Only time I turn ECO off is when joining the motorway to get up to speed a bit quicker, especially if its on an uphill.
There isn’t an auto made that can replace the combination of the human eye and brain.While the approach to any hazard is all about downshifting to the right gear creating an engine over run situation with a trailing accelerator input and engine braking.Which by definition means an idle fuel setting making the fuel consumption issue moot and already thereby being in the right gear to accelerate away in.
As opposed to a cheap and nasty blind electronic brain therefore being unable to plan an approach,or thereby be in the correct gear to optimise engine braking,let alone accelerate in,when it needs to be ‘before’ it reaches the hazard.As opposed to it trying to work out which gear it needs when or even after it gets there based on a few simple limited senses.That’s all bad enough in the case of a car let alone a loaded truck.
Well give me the good old Eaton 12 speed twin splitter manuel box, We ran two 3 axle units running at 40Tonne gross and they performed very well on MPG, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Well give me the good old Eaton 12 speed twin splitter manuel box, We ran two 3 axle units running at 40Tonne gross and they performed very well on MPG, Regards Larry.
Well said that man , how we ever managed before we had automatics I’ll never know perhaps it was because we had real!!!drivers .
All this is why I asked (and got) a manual [emoji2]
Maybe “real” drivers would learn how to get the best out of their auto boxes, just as they did with a stick and clutch. First I ever drove was an Actroos (remember them?) - they were prone to dropping into neutral in the middle of a roundabout and then having to be restarted to get the gears back. One day, I got a brand new one and there was a tape in the glove box with hints and tips - I never had the problem again.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Well give me the good old Eaton 12 speed twin splitter manuel box, We ran two 3 axle units running at 40Tonne gross and they performed very well on MPG, Regards Larry.
Eaton twin split was the first box I ever really liked. I was impressed by how quickly I could rattle up and down it without a crunch to be heard. Was kind of tricky in the first unit I encountered it in, an old sed atki strato as it was a cable linkage and they’d stretched just enough to make it awkward. Once I learned to be positive about slapping the stick around it was plain sai!
Santa:
Maybe “real” drivers would learn how to get the best out of their auto boxes, just as they did with a stick and clutch. First I ever drove was an Actroos (remember them?) - they were prone to dropping into neutral in the middle of a roundabout and then having to be restarted to get the gears back. One day, I got a brand new one and there was a tape in the glove box with hints and tips - I never had the problem again.
They most definitely should. But where’s the chance to bang on about the good old days if they do?
Santa:
Maybe “real” drivers would learn how to get the best out of their auto boxes, just as they did with a stick and clutch. First I ever drove was an Actroos (remember them?) - they were prone to dropping into neutral in the middle of a roundabout and then having to be restarted to get the gears back. One day, I got a brand new one and there was a tape in the glove box with hints and tips - I never had the problem again.
The irony.It’s an auto box but being blind let alone not having eyes connected directly to the gearshift it predictably can’t do its job properly on the approach so it’s the driver’s fault.Let me guess it still got a box full of neutrals when pulling away but the instructions showed how to then get a gear manually when it’s all too late without having to stop and restart the motor.
dexxy57:
Santa:
Maybe “real” drivers would learn how to get the best out of their auto boxes, just as they did with a stick and clutch. First I ever drove was an Actroos (remember them?) - they were prone to dropping into neutral in the middle of a roundabout and then having to be restarted to get the gears back. One day, I got a brand new one and there was a tape in the glove box with hints and tips - I never had the problem again.They most definitely should. But where’s the chance to bang on about the good old days if they do?
I really liked the Eaton twin split, but that may be because the first time I drove one, someone showed me how to handle it. Over the next few years, I came across many old-timers who hated them; some to the extent that they would lose a day’s pay rather than drive one.
i spent good hour or so trying to teach a geezer how to use one, had to give up in the end ,i sent him away as he was agency and i had to put the job off .
mind i had to go to b’ham and sort out a 9 speed on an ERF that was continually being defected for clutch and gear problems , turned out to be one of the best eaton 9 speeds i’d used , it was the humans being the problem
tony