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Can I Distinguish Between Idle in Traffic and Other Idle Events?
My city route drivers tend to have higher Idle percentages than my rural route drivers. Can I distinguish idle in traffic from other idle events?
We do not have a direct way to separate between idle in traffic and other idle events. Idle is measured whenever the vehicle meets the criteria of: One, Engine is on; two, No Speed is detected; and three, RPM is in normal idle range. Idle only gets reported as part of a CyntrX qualifying event (i.e., Watch Stop, Watch Moving, etc.). So, a driver can accumulate some minutes while in traffic, but there are bigger opportunities to focus on. A standard idle detail report will show the number of times the ECM reported idle time. Those will range from 3 minutes up to 30 minutes or more. Most often it is the minimum amount reported through the ECM. When we provide the detailed report, we try to focus on eliminating EVERYTHING above six or nine minutes.
The best way to drive change is to focus on the high idle time events. We can pull idle detail for a unit to show where high idle events are occurring. Once this is identified, drivers tend to have a better understanding and can focus on eliminating those events. As drivers start to improve upon those idle habits, the other habits such as anticipating traffic lights tend to improve along with them.
