I finally looked up how much fuel we burn idling in one shift

I was sitting in the cab last Tuesday waiting for a barge to clear and started wondering what the idle time was costing us. So I checked the engine manual and did the math on our Cat C7 at 3.5 gallons per hour idling. Has anyone else ever calculated what their daily idle time actually adds up to on fuel?

3 comments

3 Comments

richard_young8011d ago

Did you ever stop to think how much time we just throw away sitting around waiting for stuff? I did the same math on my Freightliner with a Detroit and it was like a kick in the gut seeing those numbers add up. It's not just the fuel either, it's the wear and tear on the engine and the extra oil changes you gotta do sooner. The whole system is just built on waiting, waiting for a load, waiting for a dock, waiting for paperwork, and nobody ever counts that cost until you actually sit down and add it up. It's like those little subscriptions you forget about on your card, they just eat away at your money without you noticing until you look at the total.

olivia_lopez9810d ago

Hold on, are people really this worked up about idling? I get that fuel adds up but it's not like you're gonna shut the truck off every five minutes at a dock or in traffic. That's just part of the job, same as waiting in line at the grocery store. It feels like one of those things where you do the math and go "oh no" but then you realize you're still getting paid by the hour or the mile anyway. Plus I bet half the time people aren't even idling that long, they're just guessing at it.

ruby65910d ago

Oh man, "like a kick in the gut" is exactly how @richard_young80 put it, and I have to say I used to be in your camp, Olivia. I'd sit there with the engine running thinking "whatever, it's just a few minutes" but then I actually tracked it for a week and holy cow it added up way faster than I thought. Like waiting for a dock door to open for 20 minutes, times three or four times a day, that's real fuel money gone. It's the same way I used to ignore my electric bill because it was just a few bucks here and there until I saw the total. I'm still not gonna shut it off in heavy traffic though, that's just asking for trouble.