Quote:
Originally posted by Supple Cow
Wow, I never knew trucks idled with their engines running. IdleAire is pretty cool.
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Just to make sure that we're on the same page, a running engine that is not being used to 'move' the vehicle is idling. It just means leaving the engine running.
The idea that an diesel engine wears from starting and stopping may have been true 30 years ago. Today, you're going to see idling as a primary cause of premature engine wear.
I see it all the time, truckers who park their rig, get out, and go eat dinner, leaving the engine idle all the time. This practice is nothing more than waste, pure and simple. Laziness...
Many trucking companies have even installed bi-directional GPS like devices that can even let HQ know that the rig is parked and idling, the driver can be reprimanded for being a habitual offender. Idling causes hundreds of thousands of pound of Co2, Co, Nitric Oxides and such every year, merely from allowing the engine to run. Think of the amount of fossil fuels (foreign based) that we could save???
3-5 gallons of diesel may seem small, but when you multiply that by 100,000's of thousands of trucks, PER DAY, you start to see how big of an issue this really is.
...also, many truckers that have live-in cabs will have high efficiency generators that power heaters and appliances. These generators use a fraction of the fuel that the 'rig' would, while at the same time, producing less toxic emissions.
If anyone is interested in a related topic, many school districts are starting to mandate that busses stop their idling practice and conserve fuel, just Google it!
-SF