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Had a dispatcher argue with me about idle time on a Cummins ISX last Thursday
Guy kept insisting I was wasting fuel letting a 2015 ISX warm up for 5 minutes before rolling. I asked him if he'd ever replaced a VGT actuator on one of these. Told him I'd rather burn a gallon of diesel than replace a $900 turbo because he's in a hurry. Anyone else deal with dispatch critics who don't turn wrenches?
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the_oliver5d ago
That bit about "wasting fuel" got me. My cousin used to drive for Swift back in the day and he had a dispatcher give him grief about idling too. He was in North Dakota in January, like 20 below zero, and this guy in some warm office is telling him to shut it down. My cousin told him to come out and crawl under the truck to check the fuel gelling himself. Dispatcher went quiet real quick. Its always the ones who never touched a wrench that have the most to say about how you run your truck.
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carr.abby5d ago
Yeah I gotta push back on this one a bit @the_oliver. I get the frustration with clueless dispatchers for sure, but idling a semi for hours is legit a huge waste and it adds up fast across a whole fleet. Your cousin had a point in extreme cold but most of the time drivers idle just for comfort not necessity. Companies are watching fuel costs like hawks these days and they should be. Still totally agree that dispatchers need to actually understand the job before they talk down to drivers about it.
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