Truck Stops all over the country ARE using the "hook ups". It is called Idle-Aire. Trucks can pull in and attach via their window a heating/cooling module that has a computer, stereo and other offerings. It's expensive, about the cost of idleing your truck.
90K: You have good point as well, HOWEVER.............I can't afford a new 129,000 dollar truck right now. Of course I could scrap it, just park it and go to work for one of those new modern superfleets you are describing. Of course that would just make them 1 unit bigger and the industry 1 unit less competitive but it would also move us 1 unit closer to a ONE WORLD ORDER wouldn't it? I mean, hell, who needs independant truckers operating with a pioneer spirit out there anyway!
The truck I drive is a 99 KW. It's in good condition and is hardly an UNSAFE rig just because it has trouble digesting the new non-lubricating ULSD fuel.
As for idleing. There are a list of new companies who are marketing self contained auxiliary power units now that heat and cool, provide 110 power and are efficient. They cost 6,000 to 10,000 dollars and I can't afford one of those yet either. They will however be the thing of the future and I like them.
The new engines are being equipped with aftertreatment technologies such as mentioned in the article Hawk pulled up. The Particulate matter from emisions is trapped in a cylindrical cermaic filter after reroute. It does reduce emisions considerably and is great technology, I like the idea but it is the sudden changes that caught me. All truck engine manufacturers of 2007 and later have to build their engines to accomodate this new technology and they must run on the new fuel. Fine! However the cost is extreme and small independants ( the few that are left / 1.4 of 100 trucks on the road) cannot afford these new trucks. Our engines while not ancient simply just won't run effienciently on the new fuel. As a matter of fact they run worse.
Oh yeah! The fuel cost more to refine! The new engines are heavier allowing less frieght to be carried. The filters have to be serviced by a dealer ONLY! It is expensive also. Bare in mind also that thenew engines don't burn Bio Diesel worth a damn! Talk about soot!
Look, we all want a liveable enviornment. America was founded on ideals of independence. Mom and Pop places are skeletons all over the nation, big companies have won the cost/overhead game until there will be no mom and pop. Where dores it stop? When there is ONE company? Basically, this will finish off alot of the die-hard truckers and they will accomodate your idea of giving up and going to work for one of the biggies. Will we really be winning when that happens?
The legislature has been wrong on trucking time and time again. Deregulation was good in theory but led to the breakdown of service to customers in trucking and whored the rates down so bad the small guy could not compete. Oh, but the know it alls kept going! They revised the hours of service laws for truckers. The new law is actually more dangerous than the old one. A trucker used to be able to take two four hour breaks during a driving session of ten hours. This time HAD to be spent in the sleeper. You could chop it up, a two hour and a six hour. Now you must have one continuous 8 hr sleeper shown each 24 hr day and another 2 hours off duty on top of that, let me tell you, that is dangerous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Example: A driver is 200 miles away from his destination and is sleepy at 2:00 in the morning. He has plenty of drive time he can log to get to destination but cannot stop because he must STAY stopped for 8 hours if he does. That will maqke him late!!!! Now if he could stop and take a 2 hour power nap, get back up and still make his 8:00 appt he would be more apt to pull over and do so. Instead he tredges on and is more apt to be an unsafe driver, fall asleep at the wheel or whatever. In their infinite wisdom, they didn't think of that! Imagine!
Hell, I don't know a damn soul that actually sleeps 8 hours a day unless they have no job, life etc,... much less 10 hours. I mean, I can't do it!
This in itself tells me that Lawmakers know very little about the trucking industry, it's requirements on truck fleets, the truck driver persay or trucks impact on the enviornment!
Oh yeah! Where will all that sooted material taken from the particulate filters go? Rivers? Ground Soil? Uh.... maybe we'll bottle it and shoot it at criminals huh! One thing is for sure, it will be solid waste! At least exhaust sent into the air has dissipation factors to consider and alot evaporates. A solid is a solid!
OK, lets recap!
Less mileage, less effieciency, more cost, not REALLY helping the enviornment, heavier engines, less lube factor for the older ones and more expensive trucks.
Bigger fleets, less independents, larger companies, big oil wins again and blah blah.
I don't get it!
