Brooks Donald was concerned about idle time in his Camden, AL-based flatbed carrier. His fleet of about 25 trucks, a mix of Mack, Peterbilt and Freightliner sleeper models, spends up to a week at a time on the road delivering everything from lumber to steel and other flatbed goods throughout the southeast and as far as Chicago and Texas. But all that travel time brought with it a problem.
WilMar Trucking vehicles were idling 50% of the time, and that was too much for Donald. So he went looking for solutions, finally bringing the Idle Smart idle time reduction product to safety manager Josh Maness.
“With the flatbed business, there is a lot of waiting at mills, and you just can’t tell a driver to turn the truck off [if it’s too hot or cold outside],” Maness says.
Maness had the solution installed on a single truck and immediately saw a big benefit. The test vehicle, which ran with the unit for about a month, saw its idle time drop from 47 to 18%, a significant cut that led to an additional test vehicle.
“After that initial purchase, we bought one more unit. We started out at 52% idle time, and it dropped to about 25%,” Maness says. That led to yet another installation before the decision was made to install the Idle Smart solution fleet-wide.
The Idle Smart product automatically starts and stops a truck engine to reduce idle time and provide cab comfort. Drivers use a thermostat to set in-cab temperatures and the system monitors the temperature.
“The truck will shut off and when it [drops] to a certain temperature inside, Idle Smart will crank up the engine,” Maness explains.
The system also monitors the battery load; if it detects a battery drain for any reason, it will start the engine to charge the battery. This is helpful on weekends, Maness says, as the fleet doesn’t need to worry about a dead battery on a Monday morning because a driver accidently left on interior lights. In the case of cold weather, the Idle Smart unit will again monitor the battery and start the engine if the battery levels approach a point where the vehicle may not start.
The system also remembers a user’s settings, so there is no need to continually reset the cab temperature. It starts the engine when the cab temperature is outside (+/- 5 deg. F) the preset comfort range.
WilMar Trucking is installing one to two Idle Smart units per month, says Maness, as the budget allows.
“After seeing the benefits of the first one, 25% to 30% [idle reduction] was what we were expecting,” he adds. “Ultimately, what we were looking for was reduced idling.”
The Idle Smart system includes in-cab displays as well as the ProSmart harness for ECM communications, Idle Smart Fuel Optimization software, and installation components. The unit can be transferred between vehicles.
“I think we’ve passed the test phase, and it’s something we want in our arsenal,” Maness says.
