Fuel costs, beer and pool
by Simon - 23:45 on 24 August 2008
Being out on the road for days or weeks at a time there are 2 things that a trucker thinks about more often than he probably should, the other is beer!
Loading in Calgary Wed morning for a 11.30pm delivery Thursday didn't, as Shania Twain would say, impress me much. As it means at least an 8hr wait in Winnipeg or a very slow 800miles I opted for the latter. Arrived at the Home Depot, rolled up my tarps and was actually unloaded by 11.30.
You might have noticed that fuel prices have shot up quite a lot since a certain Mr Bush came to power, but much more so in the last year. All of a sudden the Yanks and Canadians have noticed that fuel aint that bloomin cheap and their 14litre v8 engines are quite expensive to run, what a revelation! They pay a buck 30 per litre and there's uproar. I can't remember paying 65p a litre at the pump, it was so long ago which is roughly a buck 30!
Since the price of diesel is so expensive management have decided they need to save money on fuel, how do they do this you, ask do they replace their fleet of uneconomical flat roof trucks with more aerodynamic fuel efficient trucks? Do they reduce the gap between the unit and the trailer? Do they open up the truck so we get the full 430hp of the truck instead of what its been reduced to? Do they put air kits on the truck so when we are pulling loads at just under 13'6" which we do frequently there is less wind resistance? Do they install equipment that can run air conditioning units, night and engine heaters and power your microwave tv etc without draining the battery and the need for the truck to idle, reducing the time the truck needs to run while not in motion not only saving a gallon and a half of fuel every hour but increasing the engine life as well? Eh no, they do none of the above instead they cut our speed from 63mph to 60mph (making the driver work longer hours for the same pay) and make us do a fuel efficiency course, unpaid of course.
Luckily, Eric who did the course made it as interesting as would be possible to do, not an easy task, he made it interesting. Considering we drive Automatic trucks that are years behind their European counterparts in technology, they have been reduced to a speed they are not set up for, the majority of the time they are in Automatic, really the driver has very little control over gear selection etc. Basically it took 3 hours to say, use cruise control and switch the truck off when you stop. Those of us who get our fuel bonus every month do this, there is not much else we can do if management want to save fuel, phone a haulage company in Britain take the advice given, be prepared to spend money and buy a fleet of european trucks preferable 144 scanias chiped with twin stacks!
95% of the time spent in the class room my mind was on yes that's right and beer. A group of us headed to a fine scottish restaurant in Steinbach the Sawney Beans for a meal which is always excellent and they have beer! St Annes, a small place just a few miles from the depot has a small pub which we went too for more beer and a few games of pool to get rid of the shock of having to sit through a lecture, luckily no test at the end of it!
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