A lot of truckers leave their trucks running for extended periods of time because it reduces wear and tear on the mechanicals of an engine..(which I would assume also reduces the amount of parts showing up in our landfills, etc).

The worst thing you can do to an engine is start it... All of the oil is in the crank case, hardly any of the oil is on the working parts.... Pretty sure I have read that most(like 80%) of the bad emissions come during the starting of an engine, while the catalytic converters etc warm up(catalytic converters are designed to work only at certain temperatures)....... Ever seen a diesel motor start up on a cold morning.. all that soot and nastiness spewing....

anyways, there is more reason than just so the drivers can be warm/cool and snuggly....

The service also includes a hookup to an engine oil heater. And no, modern diesels do not suffer so much from startup if the oil is pumpable.

John is correct.

I posted about this on WorldChanging about a year ago. One of the big motivations for adopting this is the spread of noise abatement laws prohibiting extended idling.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/000751.html

My father is a farmer and ex-truck driver. I asked him about this a while back, and the reasoning is that diesels last quite a bit longer when left idling. That results in reduced maintenance and operating costs over the long-term, particularly for the owners of the truck or trucking company. What's been stated is correct...the majority of emissions are released during startup.

As for the comment about modern diesels and pumpable oil, I don't think too many truckers are running these newish motors. Many are quite old (but not dinosaurs) as diesels have double or triple the service life of a gasoline engine.

BTW, maybe you amend the original post to say "fuel" or "diesel" costs versus gasoline. It's a major difference. You could also link this to the biodiesel articles and Bio-Willie Nelson's site. Lots of truckers are interested in biodiesel, the cost is just prohibitive.

Main reason to do this is emission reduction. EPA has program to assist OTR truckers to participate in air quality limited places like LA and Houston.

Truckers like to keep engines on because they need to keep the cargo chiller running, and cabin HV/AV plus TV and radios on. The Truck Stop services ovecome this problem and help reduce emissions signficantly.

Diesels built after the late 1980's have electronic injectors and better compression rataions making cold starts far easier. ALthough it is possible to rebuild diesels and make them last for 800,000 miles, those old ones need to go due to the particulate emission; and by 2007 the will be forced to upgrade by rebuilding to meet the new emission standards.

Severl companies are testing prototype use of on-board fuel cells that will keep engine oil warm and power all onboard electronics while diesel is shut down. Those will be offered commercially soon.

I recall riding ones in an ancient fishing tug that had a single cylinderr head about 3 feet in diameter. It was filthy and leaking every where but with its short stroke would outlast the boat, a necessity once put in below deck. This is the opposite of a modern diesel OTR carrier engine with tight tolerance, high compression, fuel injection, computer feed controls, etc. A lot of the trucker knowledge comes from the good old days of diesel. The world has changed but the truckstop stories reflect 40 year old truths.

I would also think that the truck stops that offer these services could include some kind of pollution controls of their own. Slip a hose over the exhaust pipe and every new start of the engine gets sucked up and taken care of (however that happens, I'm not a chemist or pollution control expert...) That would be of the most use for all the engines that are not of the latest technology. I would also like to see this done for the train engines that sit idle near our home for days at a time.

These services kind of sound like an almost RV station in a way, and that makes a lot of sense, too. I think the Travel Channel recently had a show on the ten best truck stops in the world. The top one was in Germany I think and it was practically a spa in ammenities for the truckers as well as for their trucks. We really need to copy that mindset in the US.

I have been a trucker, mostly as an Owner/Operator for 26 years. Also a darn good mechanic.

The comments made by anyone who says a trucks lasts longer when you don't turn the engine off are sorely ignorant.

My current engine (1998 Series 60 Detroit 430) had an inframe overhaul at 1,121,000 miles. It's gonna go another million. I very seldom idle,. maybe 5%.

What a shameful waste of fuel (860,000,000 gals/yr according to one study) and a noise nuisance. Especially the drivers who idle at high RPM's. Sound like a jet ready to leave the runway. Try sleeping next to that.

The real issue is the 'insecurity' of those 'Last American Cowboys' who feel inadequit just sitting there in silence. It's like their horse has died and left them alone in the desert or something. Wimps . . . !

Some have told me they have to idle because they have a 12V 'fridge plugged in and have to keep their batteries charged. Yeah, for a 6 pack of pop and a jar of mayonaise they waste more than a gallon of diesel per hour. No PHD there!

I myself have a Jeep Grande Cherokee in my driveway paid for by saving that fuel.

Beats their program anyday.

Look, Idleaire is a stupid idea first of all. It costs more in fuel then it does to idle the truck for starters. Secondly this doesn't stop the idling that occurs and shippers and recievers Aux Power units do alot better jump along with a simple shore power design for the truck that should have been pushed on truck makers a long time ago. To force a driver to pay out of his pocket for something his company won't pay for or freeze is cruel and wroug and you wouldn't allow it in any other industry. I am sitting in New York right now it's 27 degrees outside and I have to get up and idle my truck for 5 minutes only and then lay back down(I've done this 4 times in the last 3 hours It was 48 degrees inside the truck before I started it up this time. You wouldn't want a homeless person exposed to these types of conditions. but yet someone who drives something the size of a mobile home down your roads it's ok for. People need to stop beating up on the truck driver. Pressure the companies to do something like require all trucks have APUs. APUS burn .3 gallons an hour the idling burns many gallons a hour. that coupled with forcing the truck makers to put shore power aval. on the trucks would go a long way to solving this problem. Idleaire is a very dumb idea. It costs more then the fuel so companie s won't pay for it and it takes up space in truck stops. Go to a truck stop about 10pm at night and see if you were a trucker if you'd have a place to park. Idleaire is a half baked idea at best.

I don't mind the idleaire but my company does not defer any of the cost so it I want the use it I pay. On a average eight hour night my optimized idle in the truck runs for about an hour. Not even a gallon of fuel. I am sorry but for $20.00 a night, I would spend $120.00 to $140.00 dollars a week. Money I would never see again. I know we have to do "our part." But I hate to say money to me is a necessary evil.
Big business is got to do its share to. I know company like Wal-Mart are start to use Hybrid Diesels. So I can see using the Idleaire. I have sweated out a lot of nights but I am not going to use it for heat in the winter when it is cheaper to run the truck, cost me nothing.