I think I can comment on this because when I started with Watkins Shepard they would give you a Fuel solution, but did not care really where you fueled. Today (starting in November) you get 1 CPM for complying with the fuel solution and not complying means a violation against your safety bonus.

At W&S The Qualcom provides the fuel solution software program information based on your empty and available macro. There is not the specific fuel solution macro given a trip number. Now W&S does not use the Pre-plan software module at all -- so a problem happens when you get a load assignment before you send your Empty and available macro.

You can see years of running under one set of circumstances and making a change causes some disruption in the routine.

Admittedly before November I planned my fuel stops so I would wake up in the morning and combine the Pre-trip with the fuel stop saving 15 minutes. Now because of 50 gallons here and 50 gallons there I have a greater percentage of time spent "below the line." (W&S requires at least 15 minutes for each fuel stop no matter the gallons ingested) Some weeks it is an extra hour or two that I needed to complete the end of week load. It would have been sure nice to have that wasted time back .... :sad:

One other very frustrating problem is that we now have a fuel contract with Pilot. Before I would just find myself a Flying 'J'. Now there are problem Flying "J's" out there but far fewer in my experience than problem Pilots. What do I mean by Problem? Entrance and Exit horror stories ... trucks backed up to the street waiting to fuel .. trucks parked every which way blocking the fuel island -- even during the day. So you now have to deal with this rather than just pass the stop by looking for a better place to fuel. Since November I have dealt with 3 such situations costing better than an hour when I just needed to keep the truck moving to make an appointment.

The other thing I liked about Flying J's was the room to sit waiting for a shower vs. Pilot's with zero places to sit besides the fast food restaurant. Now my shower coupons are Pilots and ... Pilots with low fuel prices ..

Anyway .. I am getting an extra 120 bucks per month complying ...

 

evertruckerr - thanks for the response. This makes me feel a little better about being told what I HAVE to do for routing and fueling. Awhile back on one of the boards (CAD?) a Crete driver mentioned having to go 50 miles (one-way) out of route to get fuel. I didn't know if that was fairly common or unusual. My long-haul experience is back when fuel was about $1/gallon. While companies were concerned about the cost of fuel it didn't seem as big a deal as it is now. My jobs since then have been "local" with only one location for fueling. Guess I need to learn to come out of the dark ages into modern times. :lol: :shock: :roll:

Clay51 - yikes! With any luck I won't run into this. If I do, hopefully it will be only on rare occasions.

Crackaces - I know what you mean about some truck stops being hard to get into. When I was long-haul my company's main terminal was across the street from the J in Indy. Wow! That could be a mess. There were times all I wanted to do was get to my terminal but had to wait in all the traffic lined up on the street waiting to get fuel at the J. I had heard there were times the traffic would be backed up onto 465. :shock:

Thanks everyone for the responses. Even though I can now better understand the reasoning being "fuel solutions" I still think it is a pain in the *&*(#. :roll: