fuel is the key, save fuel , reduce costs. the margins are tight, be as competitive as possible, thats the key to being profitable. hey!! mmmm lets look at this a little closer. All wagons are now being fitted with a CANbus FMS interface to the isotrak, this means that not only do we know what your doing (unless your savvy) we also know when your burning to much fuel. So take the scania 420r auto the crapest auto gear box from hell, the main stay of the stobart fleet,…try keeping that in the green or our latest grave error of judjment the 400g ■■■■■■ thats a 4 wheel tug for fridges we still run the 380g thats got manual box 8 speed plus crawler you can keep that in the green with 3 pallets on board. any way this lead on yer isotrak even tells when your over idling 40 secs i think is your limit " well what if im at traffic lights" i said “just move forward and inch then it reset’s it’s self” he said. It’s a problem get there as fast as you can but save fuel, maybe we should talk to the irish?
Jonny e p the Canbus is not installed to monitor fuel use,its only there to monitor driver style the Trainers at Crick said they are not really interested in MPG as if they monitor driving style in turn improve MPG 
all for the princely sum of £3.50 a day if you score well 
dessy:
all for the princely sum of £3.50 a day if you score well
if i went to stobbies i wouldnt look at the £3.50 a day at all. i would drive how i like and forget about the bonus altogether.
Why Stobarts fuel costs?
Why not Mel Jones fuel costs?
Why not Wincanton fuel costs
Fuel costs everyone the same, the main part of a drivers job is to use as little as possible, yet you still get people saying they do not care about the price. Robbies Dad showed me his software using CANbus and he could slow a truck down in Germany from another country.
supatrak.com/case_studies/vi … _transport
If we all drive sensibly, the companies will not have the need to fit these systems. I was told many years ago that the fuel was the biggest expense followed by drivers wages, so if you wanted to be paid more money, do not waste the fuel 
I don’t share in the roundabout protests or the blockading of refineries but a lorry has always taken about one third of it’s revenue to run it.
jessicas dad:
dessy:
all for the princely sum of £3.50 a day if you score wellif i went to stobbies i wouldnt look at the £3.50 a day at all. i would drive how i like and forget about the bonus altogether.
exactly what i was thinking, the auto scania’s are poor and reving the ■■■ out of them is the only way to get anywere, i noticed all there new 10 platers are 400’s so more reving and less £3.50.
and b4 people start with the professional driver bull crap its all pants and i will drive tha same way as i always have whether that be good or bad i still get to my destination safely. and still would whether i had my cpc or not. for the owner drivers it makes sense to save fuel, but to say saving fuel is apart of a drivers job well am not sure…i get paid to deliver loads safely and almost on time.
dustylfc:
and b4 people start with the professional driver bull crap its all pants and i will drive tha same way as i always have whether that be good or bad i still get to my destination safely. and still would whether i had my cpc or not. for the owner drivers it makes sense to save fuel, but to say saving fuel is apart of a drivers job well am not sure…i get paid to deliver loads safely and almost on time.
Bullcrap you may think, but where else is any extra revenue going to come from to increase wages? certainly not the customer, they will dump a long standing reliable haulier for pennies, read Harry’s story about Supreme Concrete.
Many major contracts are won and lost over a few quid, so in my eyes, the only way your boss could ever afford to pay you an increase is either through a fuel bonus or a few more pence per hour.
whatever!
id have to disagree when you say less h.p means using more fuel, having used both the 380-g,s and the 420 r,s, the 380 g ■■■■■■ all over the 420 r,s on fuel , at least 2 m.p.g better, you never see them less than 10 m.p.g , more like 12/13 m.p.g , 420 r,s on the same work cant match them,get near them.
as for you have to rev them harder than the 420,s, no you dont, they go better than the 420 autos any day,the only time they struggle is up round top weight as they havent got a splitter, but thats no different to the 420 autos a they die a death at the slightest drag unless you drop them down manually.
id take a 380 g over a 420 any day,espcially if m.p.g was involved.
the strange one to me is the new 400 g seem as bad as the 420 r,s on fuel, granted there new but ive never seen 8 m.p.g on a 380 new or not[is it there no-ad blue] , no idea
i
Wheel Nut:
dustylfc:
and b4 people start with the professional driver bull crap its all pants and i will drive tha same way as i always have whether that be good or bad i still get to my destination safely. and still would whether i had my cpc or not. for the owner drivers it makes sense to save fuel, but to say saving fuel is apart of a drivers job well am not sure…i get paid to deliver loads safely and almost on time.Bullcrap you may think, but where else is any extra revenue going to come from to increase wages? certainly not the customer, they will dump a long standing reliable haulier for pennies, read Harry’s story about Supreme Concrete.
Many major contracts are won and lost over a few quid, so in my eyes, the only way your boss could ever afford to pay you an increase is either through a fuel bonus or a few more pence per hour.
whatever!
i under stand where your comming from wheel nut,as i do dusty
BUT there making a big thing of fuel and the driver, but dont seem bothered about trucks running 160 miles empty four times a day,640 miles per day empty on just 1 run, there sending you 50 miles from base empty to pick up a load to deliver, there sending a truck across country ,30 miles to collect a load when at least 3 trucks pass that collection empty,there parking trucks up at 8 a.m for 3 pm collections, how much money extra could you earn by getting that truck to tip another load in the 7 hrs its parked up 
.
maybe when iso-trac starts theyll see whats really costing them 
.
in saying that why a driver needs to leave a truck ticking over for 15 mins when hes waiting for the diesel pumps, rev the ■■■■■■■■ off it to build the air up when it hasnt got a air leak i dont know, think these are the things there more getting at.
but if all this gets sorted , do i think ill get any extra in my pay packet ,no,but i suspect the shareholders might get a extra -divi.
Wheel Nut:
Why Stobarts fuel costs?
Why not Mel Jones fuel costs?
Why not Wincanton fuel costsFuel costs everyone the same, the main part of a drivers job is to use as little as possible, yet you still get people saying they do not care about the price. Robbies Dad showed me his software using CANbus and he could slow a truck down in Germany from another country.
supatrak.com/case_studies/vi … _transport
If we all drive sensibly, the companies will not have the need to fit these systems. I was told many years ago that the fuel was the biggest expense followed by drivers wages, so if you wanted to be paid more money, do not waste the fuel
I don’t share in the roundabout protests or the blockading of refineries but a lorry has always taken about one third of it’s revenue to run it.
You make it sound a black and white fact that lower fuel costs equal more profit and provide a nice graph, and infact that isn’t the case by far.In a text book scenario some one who does a journey each day and can improve his mpg that can only lead to savings as long as the time taken to do the journey doesn’t outweigh the savings on fuel. In reality both come into play, time V’s fuel usage. Jonnyenglishpants says
It’s a problem get there as fast as you can but save fuel, maybe we should talk to the irish?
Thats the same problem for most of us . Interestingly its come into play for Stobarts a lot later then for other hauliers, at least any sort of public show of it.
When he says ‘maybe we should talk to the Irish’ and i’m not trying to stereotype anyone at all ,its no good doing 10 mpg at 50 mph when you’ll miss the ferry home and cost the truck a lost days work. 9 mpg at 56 mph maybe more cost effective.
In the mean time everyones doing SAFED courses,running teardrop trailers, and limiting trucks speed and still wanting you to be there yesterday, nothing new there. All you’ve got to do is as they ask 
Mike-C:
You make it sound a black and white fact that lower fuel costs equal more profit and provide a nice graph, and infact that isn’t the case by far.
Fuel costs and profit aren’t linked at all IMO. If fuel halved in price overnight then the rates would plummet and you would have the same people who are undercutting and running at a loss now doing just the same with the lower costs and very quickly everyone would be pretty much back exactly where they were before.
Paul
am sure only concentrating on fuel to save a company is actually bad management not progress as ady said alot of money is wasted on bad planning, and my comment was this professional driving is pants i drive a lorry its that simple and i drive to get up to speed to get to my next delivery am not worrying about whether am in the green am more worried about the road ahead, if the industry was so worried about fuel there would be protests. i also understand that smaller companies do have to deal a tighter budget but there probably not using isotrak and are more worried about the next job. i shall have a read of that thread wheelnut you mentioned.
but back to this thread about stobart, in my opinion the drivers should not concern there daily worries whether there gonna reach there £3.50 bonus, by being monitored.
the next bright spark will suggest hgv’s only operate at night, why complicate a job that we chose to enjoy instead of making it into a nightmare for jobs worths to fall for the illusion of believing that stressing out there daily lives with stats and figures that this will improve there job. come on guys n girls has this world gone totally mad?
repton:
Mike-C:
You make it sound a black and white fact that lower fuel costs equal more profit and provide a nice graph, and infact that isn’t the case by far.Fuel costs and profit aren’t linked at all IMO. If fuel halved in price overnight then the rates would plummet and you would have the same people who are undercutting and running at a loss now doing just the same with the lower costs and very quickly everyone would be pretty much back exactly where they were before.
Paul
I know that and you know that, but it still doesn’t stop Commercial Motor reporting that hauliers who have gone bust have put it down to ‘rising fuel costs’ !!!
I suppose its easier then being truthful and saying something along the lines of…when we started out there wasn;t to many hauliers about so we got into haulage, now it needs very close management in every aspect of the job and we don’t have the management capabilities for it… 
Oh, and the EU and the drivers CPC !!! All extra costs !!!
repton:
Mike-C:
You make it sound a black and white fact that lower fuel costs equal more profit and provide a nice graph, and infact that isn’t the case by far.Fuel costs and profit aren’t linked at all IMO. If fuel halved in price overnight then the rates would plummet and you would have the same people who are undercutting and running at a loss now doing just the same with the lower costs and very quickly everyone would be pretty much back exactly where they were before.
Paul
I have to agree with Wheelnut, fuelcost are the highest cost in trucking (30% from the turnover paid on fuel is nothing strange)
It’s also the cost which can be controlled and adjusted by the driver in an easy and little involving way
Paul, fuelcost and profit are defiantly linked together, and however many companies who have a fuel clause with their customers (this means as the price of fuel goes above a certain amount they get partialy compensated, if the price drops compensations drop aswel, mostly on a weekly or monthly base) waste doesn’t get payed by anybody.
The excuse is always “i have to be on time” and it cost time, it doesn’t, it ask the use of 1.5 braincell but that is about it.
I shall prove that it doesn’t take time, it actualy saves time, if you look forward in traffic and can keep your momentum, your average speed is much higher and you save substantial fuel.
If you switch your engine of, as soon as you stop, doesn’t slow you down but saves very much fuel.
In a couple of our trucks we measured the idle time, was up to 24% from all the time when the engine was running, we brought that easy togehter with the driver back to 9%, a saving of 13%, and the drivers tell me it doesn’t affect them in any way. in money is that assuming 10hours a day the engine on 24% = 144 minutes @ 3ltr per hour = 7.2ltr,
now they are doing 9% = 54 minutes @ 3ltr per hour = 2.7ltr or in GBP a saving of GBP 5.31 per day / per truck, we have around 700trucks = 3.717,- per day.
Good money where nobody needs to do a lot of work for.
If you realise that let say Stobart can save easy 1% on their yearly fuelbill, with a little effort of the drivers, than I think a driver who not want to see that is a very blunt instrument!
caledoniandream:
I have to agree with Wheelnut, fuelcost are the highest cost in trucking (30% from the turnover paid on fuel is nothing strange)
It’s also the cost which can be controlled and adjusted by the driver in an easy and little involving way
Paul, fuelcost and profit are defiantly linked together,
I can’t speak for Paul, but i’d assumed that drivers where not wasting nearly a quarter of their day idling. Now you know they’re not whats the best way to improve it further and maintain your delivery schedules of your 700 trucks without increasing man hours, and obtaining newer more efficient equiptment? And lets number crunch even further if you could take on more work by operating faster and reducing MPG would it pay you?
Mike-C you would be suprised how much a truck idles a day, if you read the Canbus out, you don’t believe your eyes.
That’s whatr we do at the moment, we read together with the driver the Canbus information out, and do that every 1-2 weeks after that, the driver can than see if there is any improvement with his action he has taken so far, if nessesary we will (re)train him with a fuel coach.
The results what we get out of this is quite spectacular, and most of the drivers see the reason behind it.
We do a couple of more things, like checking tyre pressure more regular, check if trucks need airdeflectors to improve, and monitor different gearboxes and engines, if for example a 420 Volvo (12ltr) uses more than a 400 Volvo (13ltr) we will replace them earlier.
We are not hunting behind the driver but we try together to make an improvement, every penny wasted on diesel doesn’t go in the employers pocket, and defiantly not in the employees pocket. There is an saying in Holland “if it rains at the Boss, it will drip at the worker” and I must say they always been fair with the drivers, decwent equipment and decent money, and a good year for the company, would be a goo year for the driver.
The myth that if you drive faster, more revs, brake at the last moment would give you morer loads a day, is absolutly rubbish, try to win 20 minutes on a day!
If I drive from Birmingham to Glasgow on a Friday evening in my car, and I pass a truck at Preston, and on Southwaite I make a short sanitary stop, I will pas theis truck again near Lockerbie, why because my average with all my racing and reving is only 62 MPH while his is 54MPH so he is all the way close to me.
Believe me (or not) we have that argument on a daily base, and when you show drivers to drive more relaxed, look further ahead and plan better, they are half as stressed, and lose hardly any time (if any)
Years ago before we had the limiter, where we earlier in Milan, no we weren’t it makes so little different, and I admit when ther limiter was coming we where telling our Bosses the the trip to Italy at least would be a day longer, turned out to be Bulls***, it wasn’t, your speed different must be really high to make the slightest difference.
Earlier this year one of the girls in the office called me about fuel consumption, saying mine was worse than the other drawbars that do the Cornwall runs, and going on about steady driving, keeping the revs in the ‘green zone’ etc. I pointed out that the other drawbars were newer (2007 to my 2005) with less than half the mileage and that they have better gearing, in top mine runs 54mph at 1400rpm while the newer trucks cruise along at 56 near on tickover (1100rpm) so of course there’s gonna be a difference in fuel consumption. She said she’d look into it and haven’t heard anything since.
Apart from giving me a newer truck I can’t see how I could improve on my fuel consumption, although I have cut down on my idleing, not easy when you have a lorry mounted crane that’s powered by the trucks engine.
Grayham:
Earlier this year one of the girls in the office called me about fuel consumption, saying mine was worse than the other drawbars that do the Cornwall runs, and going on about steady driving, keeping the revs in the ‘green zone’ etc. I pointed out that the other drawbars were newer (2007 to my 2005) with less than half the mileage and that they have better gearing, in top mine runs 54mph at 1400rpm while the newer trucks cruise along at 56 near on tickover (1100rpm) so of course there’s gonna be a difference in fuel consumption. She said she’d look into it and haven’t heard anything since.Apart from giving me a newer truck I can’t see how I could improve on my fuel consumption, although I have cut down on my idleing, not easy when you have a lorry mounted crane that’s powered by the trucks engine.
I think Caledoniandream explained that scenario by saying that they monitored closely the fuel consumptions and if a 12litre Volvo was performing worse than a 13litre then it would be replaced early. Someone else picked up on the fact that the planning office could improve by cutting empty running, quite possibly but some vehicles are dedicated to one single product or the capacity dictates their next load, not an errant planner. Think of Repton with his new tipper trailer, he tips grain in Bristol and the only available load back is scrap car batteries to Hull. It will not pay because his next load is incompatible. There are also religious reasons, like kosher ingredients, that may affect the next load.
Ancillary equipment like cranes, winches, cherrypickers, tipping hoists and tank discharge compressors, blowers and pumps are an added cost in fuel, so much so that many companies have land based pumps or bulk air supplies, or as my last company had, an onboard electric motor to drive the vehicle hydraulics from a factory supply. This is also used inside factories for hygiene reasons.
caledoniandream:
I have to agree with Wheelnut, fuelcost are the highest cost in trucking (30% from the turnover paid on fuel is nothing strange)
If the fuel cost for my wagon was as low as 30% of turnover I would be delighted!
caledoniandream:
Paul, fuelcost and profit are defiantly linked together
In the short term and on a small scale, yes. If fuel dropped a couple of pence a litre then the jobs I do in my wagon this week will be more profitable for me. But if they stay a couple of pence a litre lower then the rates offered will soon adjust to compensate for that leaving me making the same profit I was before.
Conversley is they go up a couple of pence a litre I’ll make less money this week, but as all the other hauliers are in the same boat rates will (eventually) creep up to compensate for it again leaving me making near enough the same profit I was before.
Paul
Wheel Nut:
dustylfc:
and b4 people start with the professional driver bull crap its all pants and i will drive tha same way as i always have whether that be good or bad i still get to my destination safely. and still would whether i had my cpc or not. for the owner drivers it makes sense to save fuel, but to say saving fuel is apart of a drivers job well am not sure…i get paid to deliver loads safely and almost on time.Bullcrap you may think, but where else is any extra revenue going to come from to increase wages? certainly not the customer, they will dump a long standing reliable haulier for pennies, read Harry’s story about Supreme Concrete.
Many major contracts are won and lost over a few quid, so in my eyes, the only way your boss could ever afford to pay you an increase is either through a fuel bonus or a few more pence per hour.
whatever!
I have my own reasons for trying to keep it green Malc but why would the gaffers give you their fuel savings in your wage packet when they’re trying to cut costs?
after looking at the changes in the industry like this thread and many others posted, fuel, cpc, congestion, regs, laws, all seem to impose a negative effect on the industry so whats the solution? was the industry that broken it needed these changes? alot of driver like to moan but none have created a formula to fix the rising concerns or suggested a way to improve our job. it seems to me alot of ideas get implimented and these seem to be clutching at straws, i feel the goverment and the likes are masking the problem and we like every other road user are a sure thing on making revenue and because of the strangle hold on many operators and drivers it seems instead of fighting the goverment its resulted in trying to penny pinch and look at every avenue the 1st port of call is blame the driver, not the fact that sitting on a bay for 6 hours and paying your driver for the pleasure will lose income, a more relaxed driving style is probably the answer regarding fuel, but then on the other hand the phone would never stop,
what would be the outcome if you had driven all day in the green then you got stuck in traffic would you lose the bonus? or other situations that prevent you reaching your preferred stats and figures, as we all no the road conditions change constantly so i carnt see the recent graphs and percentages posted to be accurate and therefore no complete guide can be published, every truck would record a complete different read out and possibly the driver no matter how he had driven could have any control over it.