Route-Choice: Do Truckers Care About Saving Time or Money?

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hi - I’m Rob from the University of Leeds. I have a quick question for truck drivers (I’m posting separately to the owner’s forum). I have the moderator’s permission to ask my research question. It’s about how you make route choices.

Given the option, do you care more about saving time or saving money (eg. operating costs)? You may say it’s 100% about saving time, or 75% time and 25% costs. Please tell me which is more important to you (and why).

If your answer is, ‘it depends’ - please tell me what it depends on. All answers treated anonymously and in strictest confidence.

If you want to reply to me off-list, my email is: R.S.Bain@leeds.ac.uk.

Many thanks,

Rob
engineering.leeds.ac.uk/staff/5 … obert_Bain

2

Not trying to be rude here mate, but you come across as being from another planet in my view.

The answers you seek could be found in the mind of a child. Not everything in life requires an in-depth research based analysis ffs :unamused:

(Although this kind of thing certainly feeds into another generation of waffle and bullshine which I am sure ultimately provides many with a good standard of living :imp: )

3

Brilliant topic. :smiley:
I`ll put summat up later.

(Hopefully you`ll get some useful info before we descend into calling each other steering wheel attendants, or SatNav slaves, or bosses pets, and get diverted on whether we should be paid by the hour, day, km, and whether fuel bonus payments are fair or not…)

4

Not really concerned about saving money…it’s just common sense.
E.g…don’t wanna be huffing and puffing over woody,when I can sit on the cruise via m1/m62.
When empty,it’s different.
I’ll choose the roads I most enjoy driving.

5

For myself I do consider costs to the operator as well as time taken. The company lets us choose our own routes, and doesnt make a fuss about use of fuel, or toll roads. We are treated as if we actually know what we are doing. I mostly work in the Eu, so toll roads are a notable cost as well as fuel use, wear and tear on the truck, and time. Being salaried, any time saved is of benefit to me, but I dont have that as my prime motivation in route choice. I try to balance off saving fuel on a peage, against more fuel used on a national road. Balance a hilly route against a longer but flatter route.
It will be viewed as “sad” or “anoraky” by some here, but I have worked out on some of the more regular routes we use, the time taken and fuel usage from the trip meters. Depending on available time*, I may choose to save a little time and fuel, but spend out more on peage. On one route I know I can save 15mins and 10 litres by paying 45eu on tolls.
Wear and tear on the truck used to be a factor, very difficult to quantify of course, but we now have full R&M so I dont care so much about that now. Doesnt sound very professional of me, but if that cost is no longer down to my employer, it shouldnt be such a factor as before. I wont spend my bosss money on a peage to save the garage money, he is paying them to take that risk. I also figure that long motorway trips are boring, so have no issues with actually driving along a road rather than dozing at the wheel on a motorway. But motorways are generally kept clearer in winter snow too. It all counts towards the choice made. At our company we dont have close analysis of vehicle mpg figures. The work we do is quite varied week to week. My own figures vary from 11.5mpg to 7.3mpg, on different weeks. Anyone trying to pick the bones out of the variety of loads and routes we use will have a headache.

  • We are considering delivery bookings, which are unusual for me, and ferry sailing times which are important. The boats don`t wait.
6

I time the job out all the time and take certain routes to save my boss money, and to do the job efficientlly. :sunglasses:

…, (honestly it’s got nothing to do with aiming for a decent parking place near a good pub for a meal and maybe to meet a mate.)

7

ChrisEnglish90:
I generally follow the sat nav with traffic updates as a new driver so I don’t sit in traffic and also because I don’t do the same trip I am unaware of the volume of traffic on roads. The money aspect isn’t my issue. Given that I’m on day rate, I want to get there and back ASAP. If sat nav says take back roads, that’s what I’m doing. I ignored the sat nav the other week when it told me to reroute and sat in traffic on the m6 :frowning: plus my right foot is somewhat heavier than any other part of my body it usually puts the truck in 11th [emoji849][emoji23] with full loads I’m either in a low gear in manual mode or kick down so fuel isnt on my mind [emoji849]

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Sat nav says take alternative route which can’t handle the resulting traffic volumes then the alternative route gets gridlocked.As anyone who was trying to use all the usual M25 rat run roads in the vicinity of Heathrow airport would have found out on Thursday afternoon/evening. :unamused:

Which in my case meant my usual avoidance of the M25 to get from the M40 to Surrey via M404/M4 and Colnbrook by pass.Ended up with the nuclear option of Colnbrook-Stanwell-Feltham-Hounslow-Isleworth-Brentford-Kew-Richmond-Kingston-Esher including loads of side road diversions and residential street rat running and massive queues of standing traffic at every junction point.At least until finally reaching Isleworth where as I’d hoped the sat navvers and their trusty gizmos obviously finally bottled out.Choosing instead to jam just about every road in a triangle between Heathrow and Hounslow to Sunbury.Good luck with trying that with a truck.Let alone as in my case not needing,or even knowing how to use,a sat nav if I had one.

If the government was bothered about money being wasted on dodgy routing then it obviously wouldn’t have followed the university educated choice of building a motorway which dumped all the old North Circular and South Circular problems much further out.That’ll fix it what could possibly go wrong and how many miles does the increased distance of the larger circumference to be navigated add to the journey even on a good day.As opposed to having turned the old North and South circular routes into elevated motorway class roads.Oh wait just blame the driver’s choice of route given the choice of needless miles of standing going no where motorway or grid locked if not unsuitable alternative routes being used to avoid the predictable results. :unamused:

8

I never really concerned myself about saving time or mileage, where possible I used to try several different routes then stick to one I liked best.

9

Many thanks, Carryfast (and others). Carryfast makes interesting points. However my primary focus is on time-savings versus money-savings. Which (if either) is more important when choosing a route - and why? And if ‘it depends’, what does it depend on?

Kind regards,

Rob

Carryfast:

ChrisEnglish90:
I generally follow the sat nav with traffic updates as a new driver so I don’t sit in traffic and also because I don’t do the same trip I am unaware of the volume of traffic on roads. The money aspect isn’t my issue. Given that I’m on day rate, I want to get there and back ASAP. If sat nav says take back roads, that’s what I’m doing. I ignored the sat nav the other week when it told me to reroute and sat in traffic on the m6 :frowning: plus my right foot is somewhat heavier than any other part of my body it usually puts the truck in 11th [emoji849][emoji23] with full loads I’m either in a low gear in manual mode or kick down so fuel isnt on my mind [emoji849]

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Sat nav says take alternative route which can’t handle the resulting traffic volumes then the alternative route gets gridlocked.As anyone who was trying to use all the usual M25 rat run roads in the vicinity of Heathrow airport would have found out on Thursday afternoon/evening. :unamused:

Which in my case meant my usual avoidance of the M25 to get from the M40 to Surrey via M404/M4 and Colnbrook by pass.Ended up with the nuclear option of Colnbrook-Stanwell-Feltham-Hounslow-Isleworth-Brentford-Kew-Richmond-Kingston-Esher including loads of side road diversions and residential street rat running and massive queues of standing traffic at every junction point.At least until finally reaching Isleworth where as I’d hoped the sat navvers and their trusty gizmos obviously finally bottled out.Choosing instead to jam just about every road in a triangle between Heathrow and Hounslow to Sunbury.Good luck with trying that with a truck.Let alone as in my case not needing,or even knowing how to use,a sat nav if I had one.

If the government was bothered about money being wasted on dodgy routing then it obviously wouldn’t have followed the university educated choice of building a motorway which dumped all the old North Circular and South Circular problems much further out.That’ll fix it what could possibly go wrong and how many miles does the increased distance of the larger circumference to be navigated add to the journey even on a good day.As opposed to having turned the old North and South circular routes into elevated motorway class roads.Oh wait just blame the driver’s choice of route given the choice of needless miles of standing going no where motorway or grid locked if not unsuitable alternative routes being used to avoid the predictable results. :unamused:

10

Badly formulated question so I’ll give the standard bad answer: It depends…

Currently I’m on an “8 hrs guaranteed pay” and no fuel bonus so obviously I care for time saving + my own convenience (e.g. I’ll take a motorway over an A road with a dozen roundabouts even if the motorway adds 30km to my route, I’ll take it even if it will mean +10/15 mins. added to a 2 hrs trip). With that said I do try to drive in a way that doesn’t waste too much diesel. If my shift is likely to take 9+ hrs (incl. breaks) then I won’t care about saving time so much as anything over 8hrs worked means more money for me.

11

Most economic route is usually motorway or dual carriageway even if its a good bit longer in mileage, the choice of which route if a choice of several especially if heavily loaded is often knowledge of how hilly or prone to regular hold ups, but all choices are subject to change at a moments notice as and when delays crop up.

I think most of us in jobs we care about try to make the right choices here, there is also the personal pride issue of keeping your issued vehicle in good order for as long as possible, and generally the most economic route is also the easiest on the vehicle and if it takes no longer than a more direct poor road well it’s win win all round.

I’ve only worked at one place (on agency) who had specific routes, but they treated drivers like plant pots and the staff responded in kind with added interest.

12

commonrail:
Not really concerned about saving money…it’s just common sense.
E.g…don’t wanna be huffing and puffing over woody,when I can sit on the cruise via m1/m62.
When empty,it’s different.
I’ll choose the roads I most enjoy driving.

Covers it really, when I have a trailer from Bristol to Holyhead im going to suffer M5/M6 /M56 but if im doing it in a solo tractor unit I will go Newport/ Abergavenny on the A470 all the way up through Wales as its takes nearly the same time and we all know a crash in the ‘right’ place in the motorway roadworks and you grind to a halt which doesn’t happen rallying through Snowdonia.

13

As I’m paid for a full shift regardless of how soon I finish, I’m always going to take the fastest route.
However, I cannot always do that due to a combination of weight and access.
I collect milk from farms in Cornwall, some farms have very steep lanes to climb when loaded, so have to go there first, and leave with the least weight on possible. Which often means having to double back. Also, access can be very very tight, there can be some junctions in villages which can only be taken from one direction, meaning having to go the longer way to get there.
So really, cost isn’t even considered

14

Juddian:
Most economic route is usually motorway or dual carriageway even if its a good bit longer in mileage, but all choices are subject to change at a moments notice as and when delays crop up.

The problem with motorways being what happens when the inevitable ‘incident’ ,or congestion caused by ‘road works’,happens at some point ahead on your route.Rarely leaving no possible ‘moments notice’ between it happening and getting the required information if any information at all.In which case motorways provide the worst possible combination of no way to exit the motorway when caught between junctions.Or when you do reach an exit it’s jammed by the inevitable roundabout and/or traffic signals at the end of the exit slip road.Together with everyone else also trying to use the,as a result, hopelessly over loaded chosen escape route.With the lose lose situation that at best the motorway limit is only 6 mph quicker than single carriageway A roads or even sometimes less especially for cars in the case of ‘smart motorway limits’ v 60 mph.On that note I made a journey from Surrey up to Preston a while ago and as usual avoided the M25 and just used the M40 from Wycombe and then the A roads from Kidderminster to Liverpool-Preston rather than use the M6 and saw plenty of trucks doing similar.

15

Basically in a straight line, or if i have time then its the scenic route where i can, or where i need to rest for my 11 hours…i dont worry about fuel, as its not my truck or problem, but usually its not so far off route to make a difference.

16

Time over money. Saving time gets me home and out of the cab quicker and its a rare type of person who would rather be in their truck than being home.

In fact saving time does save the company money as it saves on the wage bill. It is very rare that saving money on their biggest bill, fuel, doesn’t also result in saving time with the only exception to that being sat in rush hour traffic not moving. Apart from that all other scenarios involve saving the company on running costs as well if your objective is about saving time.

So you’re asking about route choices, is this the main focus of your research because if it is then you’ve asked the wrong question. The routes I choose when going somewhere new and looking at a map are based on decisions made in the following order:

  1. Does this look like a good route to take a lorry down, i.e is it a more of a main road or a twisty crappy back road?
  2. Is there a faster route taking into account my knowledge of usual traffic conditions en route? (Usually the answer to 1 will indicate this)
  3. (focussing on the “last mile”) With knowledge of any issues at the delivery location will this route have me coming in the way I need to so I’m pointing the right way to be able to get in? Many of the places I go to are tight to get in and you have to reverse in so you want to be ideally approaching them so they’re on your right side.

Then once I’ve done that:
4) Can I legally go down those roads?
5) Are there are height, weight or width restrictions that prevent me going down those routes?

If I’m faced with a choice of two routes that are pretty much the same then I’ll tend to go down the one I enjoy driving the most. For example I’d rather come up from London up the A1 than the M1 because to me it is a much more pleasant less mind numbing drive. If the A66 is closed and I have two alternatives on my Scotland trunk from East Yorks run that both take the same amount of time I’d rather choose A1/A69 than M62/M61/M6 because that’s ultra boring, the M6 is just a drag and often there’s a crash on the M62 that closes it.

17

Carryfast:

ChrisEnglish90:
I generally follow the sat nav with traffic updates as a new driver so I don’t sit in traffic and also because I don’t do the same trip I am unaware of the volume of traffic on roads. The money aspect isn’t my issue. Given that I’m on day rate, I want to get there and back ASAP. If sat nav says take back roads, that’s what I’m doing. I ignored the sat nav the other week when it told me to reroute and sat in traffic on the m6 :frowning: plus my right foot is somewhat heavier than any other part of my body it usually puts the truck in 11th [emoji849][emoji23] with full loads I’m either in a low gear in manual mode or kick down so fuel isnt on my mind [emoji849]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sat nav says take alternative route which can’t handle the resulting traffic volumes then the alternative route gets gridlocked.As anyone who was trying to use all the usual M25 rat run roads in the vicinity of Heathrow airport would have found out on Thursday afternoon/evening. :unamused:

Which in my case meant my usual avoidance of the M25 to get from the M40 to Surrey via M404/M4 and Colnbrook by pass.Ended up with the nuclear option of Colnbrook-Stanwell-Feltham-Hounslow-Isleworth-Brentford-Kew-Richmond-Kingston-Esher including loads of side road diversions and residential street rat running and massive queues of standing traffic at every junction point.At least until finally reaching Isleworth where as I’d hoped the sat navvers and their trusty gizmos obviously finally bottled out.Choosing instead to jam just about every road in a triangle between Heathrow and Hounslow to Sunbury.Good luck with trying that with a truck.Let alone as in my case not needing,or even knowing how to use,a sat nav if I had one.

If the government was bothered about money being wasted on dodgy routing then it obviously wouldn’t have followed the university educated choice of building a motorway which dumped all the old North Circular and South Circular problems much further out.That’ll fix it what could possibly go wrong and how many miles does the increased distance of the larger circumference to be navigated add to the journey even on a good day.As opposed to having turned the old North and South circular routes into elevated motorway class roads.Oh wait just blame the driver’s choice of route given the choice of needless miles of standing going no where motorway or grid locked if not unsuitable alternative routes being used to avoid the predictable results. :unamused:

I turned off the traffic feature on my sat nav, imo you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. It used to take me on some really wild diversions just to save 30 seconds. I’d rather just go off common sense and past experience, oh and an AA road map when the sat nav cannot offer up a suitable alternative [emoji106]

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18

Do I care about saving time or money? The first consideration would be whose time & money and the consequences of doing so.

I’m salaried so get paid £■■,■■■ pounds to do as my employer requires for XXXX number of hours in a given year. One point of view would be tear it up and get done early, another is I have an obligation on me to do the job in a safe manner, in a timely manner, in a way that does not put my employer in a bad light. The vehicles I drive are liveried in the clients colours so there is the 3rd party interest.

The vehicles I drive will mostly be over 16 feet high so that is a consideration, some stores have time restrictions on when deliveries can be made, some are in areas that I want to get in and out of as quick as possible. I tend to get particular routes due to my start time and that will often mean the same bit of road on a regular basis but I do get some leeway should I take an alternative to break the monotony. We have risk assessments & advised routes but I plan my routes to bring breaks into my thinking as I have some places I like stopping because of the drive time (2-2 1/2 hours at a stretch) but will be mindful about delivery windows. Some routes need a bit of thought for the first time but once done a few times alternatives tend to be pretty obvious. Early diversions to avoid accidents/road closures/works usually avoid the jams of official diversions

I don’t kick the guts out of the sweet runs, I don’t take the mickey out of the duff runs. I stay legal, I’m not pushed to do otherwise & I get in the top quartile of the telematics data.

I short I want, and pretty much get, a quite no frills, no trauma work life because the lessons my younger self learnt are as relevant now as they ever were.

19

RobBain:
Hi - I’m Rob from the University of Leeds. I have a quick question for truck drivers (I’m posting separately to the owner’s forum). I have the moderator’s permission to ask my research question. It’s about how you make route choices.

Given the option, do you care more about saving time or saving money (eg. operating costs)? You may say it’s 100% about saving time, or 75% time and 25% costs. Please tell me which is more important to you (and why).

If your answer is, ‘it depends’ - please tell me what it depends on. All answers treated anonymously and in strictest confidence.

If you want to reply to me off-list, my email is: R.S.Bain@leeds.ac.uk.

Many thanks,

Rob
engineering.leeds.ac.uk/staff/5 … obert_Bain

I’m not sure I’ve ever explicitly considered “cost” in the choice of route.

The general principle is to first consider the shortest feasible route, which is usually also the fastest.

What then are the alternatives? To take a faster, longer route? Or even a slower, longer route?

It’s possible I would consider a faster, longer route if the time savings are significant against the extra mileage - what is significant would be a matter of impression in all the circumstances, rather than any clear rule.

I might also consider a somewhat slower, longer route if the direct route is generally unsuitable or requires overwhelming mental effort to navigate.

If there are multiple routes that are available and there isn’t much between them (and very frequently there is no clear single choice), the choice might depend on mood and alertness, how hard the day has been so far, even the weather, or just habit. There are days when the direct but twisty route through the countryside is nice, and others when you want to sit on the motorway and sail along even if it means an extra couple of miles and an extra couple of minutes.

20

It depends!

And I will explain that, it depends on the boss whether he wants to save 13 litres of fuel a week and spend that money on brake linings and mirrors.

It depends on the load, some routes are available normally that you cannot access if you are carrying chemicals.

One company will tell you to use motorways and toll roads, whilst another will forbid anyone to use the toll roads. They are all looking at running costs.

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