[slowmover]

Three months later and passed the 26,000-mile odometer mark yesterday. Average mpg is a bit higher, though not much. The job is constrained as to how much one can improve mpg: one needs about as much speed as possible while traveling (limited to 68-mph), the truck is never turned off during the workday (driver efficiency and safety compromised by high heat [110F+ on occasion, high humidity almost always]); idling is percentage of engine-on time that has to do with the particular job at hand (and the "days" are quite long . . one is "on-call" 24-6 with two days off), so the quest for improvement really has come down to knowing all the roads in an air radius of just under 200-miles, particularly along an East-West axis of a state highway (TX-72) where most drilling is occurring.

The traffic is such that if I haven't travelled one stretch for even three-four days the road surface is different (degraded), traffic has increased (or traffic type), and/or road construction is underway. Thus trip planning can be a significant aid to time/distance and FE when used well. Latest intel a major difference. We are paid on a percentage of the load (freight or waybill), not hourly or by the mile. Helps us significantly to shorten the times involved, thus miles can be played with a bit. I might "lose" ten minutes by taking a different route, but the roads chosen may have shoulders, fewer stops, etc. This leaves me less tired or stressed so that the return trip -- or the trip to get the next load -- is more easily accomplished.

I noted in another thread ("highway strategy") that energy lost is not ever regained that day and this is fundamental, not accessory, to best average mph and mpg. A clear map of the routes, the known problems, tends to afford some elbow room when the problems of that day, on that stretch of road, present themselves.

Still getting a Check Engine light on a regular basis, with no remediation by the shop or the dealer, but am told the dealer has a new service manager who may be able to straighten things out. DPF and Fuel Pressure Actuator are what come up. I then have degraded power. Have driven another truck when mine is in shop and it's a rocket in comparison (for big truck differences). Getting on the Interstate at the end of the ramp at 35-mph is one thing . . being able to wind it out to 1,900-rpm to get it back in at 1,400-rpm to really accelerate when at 74k is quite different than mine that won't pull past 1,800 and drops me like a stone down to 1,200 [peak torque]. Takes miles to get up to 60-mph in this condition. Luckily all else is excellent about driving this truck. New is great, PACCAR is better! (Except the windshield washer system). One might not consider that big trucks have handling differences . . but they do. And this one is great to drive for that reason alone. The ice cold A/C that can keep up is the other.

One of the rules on most rigs is that rig hands drink 26 bottles of water per each twelve hour shift. No more than [1] "gatorade" per three water. No energy drinks, period. And a 10-minute break in refrigerated air every hour (not just cool, but cold). I find this works well, too, on the days I am at a rig for a number of hours, and outside most of it. As well, the intelligent choice of FRC's and work shoes. I have found both to meet certification, but with hot weather pluses (I don't need boots, thus wear "steel toed tennis shoes" for when at rig. Sandals otherwise to drive. Suspenders versus belts. Inseam hem not touching shoes -- great airflow at top & bottom of trousers. Shirt tail outside trousers). Being a native Texan is one thing . . working in the heat quite another. A cool to cold truck cab is central to this.

While there might be an APU that could keep up with the interior temps, the cost/reliability/ruggedness would be another issue. I travel roads that sometimes are axle deep in water/mud . . looks like something out of a National Geographic African expedition. And no time to stop or be broken down. Drivers being felled by lack of cold (not just cool) cab air is part & parcel of being out here. I recently came across a young guy who, felled by heat exhaustion/dehydration had a temp of 102.7. Docs told him that another hour and he'd have been a goner. Heat kills not all at once, but over time. And heat deaths are greater than all other weather causes combined. I didn't have the heart to tell that young man that his natural resistance is forever changed (and it is), but it's something I'm on guard against. I already consider lack of cold cab air a deal breaker on a job (reason to quit or not hire on), and I do so even more, now.

To pick up an earlier post, I am not yet able to correlate miles and gallons so easily as I do my pickup, but the number of "trips" according to one old hand is the easiest. Daily fueling is possible, but not likely. But being "forced" to fuel by declining tankage is a constant trip plan exercise. One does not know until an hour or more into the trip (being loaded) what the destination will be. The gauge has been accurate (I'm usually within ten gallons by estimate) so the game comes down to fuel stop location. I can't fill up just anywhere, so that mental map of not only where the fuel stop is located, but how busy it will be at that time of day is crucial to a smooth day.

Load securement, gettin' gears and all the other problem solving (real time, real consequences . . this is a real job) makes truck driving fun. Yes, you office beaners, it beats cubicle land. You just won't live as long, make as much long term or have "benefits" worth the effort involved. But if you quit cubicle-land it sure beats being an hourly employee at a chain store box as the hold-over job. I've done many other things and will probably do others in the future. But for now (oil boom) it's a fair way to make the days pass and let the paychecks pile up (sooner or later I have to get to the bank to deposit the ones piling up).

As a way of becoming a better driver, there is no substitute. Race car training may be fun, but it doesn't hold a candle to controlling 35-40 tons down a highway with brain-dead commuter mommy's and impatient teenagers. It will confront one with every personal shortcoming hitherto unexplored behind the wheel.

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