Truck was a steady 6mpg truck when I drove it. I always ran 60-65 mph on the freeway, and would go out with 80k and back empty. I would do a fill up once a week, maybe twice but never more on a full work week.

New driver has been in the truck for about 8-10 days now. Truck is getting 4.45mpg now and he fills up daily, at least 60 gals a day. Truck is hauling the same material in the same pattern as I was doing.

What the heck could he be doing to kill my mileage like that??!!?! He says the plants over load him, but really if thats the case the max my boxes could hold would be about 4k worth of material over the other guys, so I don't see how that could kill 2mpg off the truck. He drives with the jakes on (god I wish he wouldn't, I plan to get them shut off) and downshifts to slow down (I pulled it out of gear and coasted with use of brakes when I drove).

Other than get a new driver, which I will do if it does not improve this week, what could be causing my mpg to go south?

I'm used to a $300 a week fuel bill, my bill for a week with him driving was $1000. Something is not right here at all. Thanks in advance

 

He's probably going faster too, and idling the truck.

 

Does he take the truck home with him, and siphon the fuel into his home heating furnace tank??? lol.

I'd be questioning this too if the fuel bill more than tripled on the same run from one week to the next.

I've never been a"fuel saving" driver, but when I had my trucks, the difference between the driver with the best MPG and my MPG was never more than about a half MPG.

 

floored,

From reading your other thread on this subject, it seems that your driver has no respect for you and is deliberately out to cause you harm. I would get him out of the truck, without giving him any notice, so that he would not have any opportunity to further damage the truck or sell your fuel, if that is what is happening. Park the truck before the situation gets worse.

 

:roll: :roll:

 

i can tell you something i never expected. one day i decided to do an experiment. to ruduce my speed & to take off very gradually. turns out i saved 203.00 a week. that is based on the exact same load & reload 2000 miles total. my only point here is fuel makes a difference. but let me tell you something else. ive heard it is not good at all taking truck out of gear while rolling to coast. i used to do it too. this may or may not be true. i read this on eaton websight . maybe you could go with him one time to see how he drives. as far as the jakes... if you tell him not to drive with them on he shouldnt period. dump trucks roll by my house all day long. some put jakes on just to attract attn & sound cool.

 

The proper way to slow down is to work your way down thru the gears using the engine (and jake) to help slow it down.

I always put my right foot half on the throttle and half on the brake, and I can work the throttle for smooth downshifting while at the same time applying the brakes.

It's never a good practice to throw a truck out of gear and coast to a stop using only the brakes to slow down.

 

hey splitshifter.. i though i wa the only one who did that.. right heel on go pedal & top of foot on brake.

 

I agree,explain what is bad about jakes? and what is good about "kicking"it out of gear coming to a stop?

 

How do you pay for fuel? A buddy of mine had a truck and the driver was selling fuel and blaming it on poor fuel mileage.