IdleAire Failing
Posted on Apr 19, 2008 - 6:01pm by Wayne Weisser in Trucking
IdleAire not doing well these days? Tell me it’s not so! How can they not do well with all of the grants that were used instead of their own money? With fuel even higher then when IdleAire started, why isn’t everyone flocking to their brilliant solution?
IdleAire’s future in doubt
IdleAire is in financial trouble. It’s serious enough that the company is saying there is “substantial doubt” about its ability to keep operating.In paperwork submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Knoxville, TN-based company says it expects to show a net loss of $93 million for 2007.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the 8-year-old company has yet to have a profitable year in spite of receiving more than $55 million in government grants.
and the best part:
Meanwhile, WBIR-TV, the Knoxville NBC affiliate, reported that a former aide to Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale claims the mayor secretly invested $10,000 dollars of his own money in IdleAire while using his office to steer millions in government grants to the company.
How can these people be losing money? The grants (free money), the political corruption and the prices they were charging truckers, they’d have to be corrupt greedy bastards lining their own pockets from the hard earned money from trucking companies and drivers on top of conning the government into thinking they were some kind of “green” magic bullet. They could have ridden that gravy train for a long time. Some people are just greedy.
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You sure hit a sore spot with me! I’ve posted about it on my website too. It is an atrocity at best.
At first glance, I have to admit, I thought it was a good idea. Then after a few thoughts into it, I lost interest quick. Nose in parking? How do they make it fit right? Air intake right above the exhaust? $2 an hour for a little heat? Parking spaces gone? All sorts of questions popped up. Then I got my first door knocker. Then I got a call from my company telling me about a complaint because I backed into one of their spots. Then I got total agreement from most drivers about it. It was confirmed useless before I ever tried it.
On the CB radio, everyone complains about it. Very few realize that they’re paying for it whether they use it or not. Idleaire was doing a deal on a radio show for trucking companies that want a national platform to lie to drivers and they let it slip that their company’s seed money came from government grants. Government grants based on unproven science and legislated by the same people that invest in scams like Idleaire.
I was at a TA in South Carolina when I got the last space in the lot at about 3 pm. Here comes a special Idleaire door knocker, the CEO. He offered me a free trial of Idleaire and a free lifetime membership! Of course, free lifetime anything is always associated with a scam. He was shocked when I turned it down. I told him I knew the scam that they were pulling with the government funds and that they should all be thrown in jail and stripped of their assets for fraud. He told me a story about his Teamster Daddy and how he would have said the same thing I was saying because he was so backwards like most truckers. It really sucks to be 39 years old and already be considered just another whacky backwards old-timer. I told him his Daddy must have trucked to much and didn’t take enough time to beat him properly. That made him mad and he started screaming that I would regret not taking his membership because very soon, it would be required to be a member to park in the spaces and then I would have no choice.
So, that’s where things are going for them, or at least that’s the direction they want truckers to take. Look at their plan starting to succeed. Anti-idling laws are creeping up on the whole country, rest areas are being shut down, and many new truck stops have time limits and very few spaces if they do not have IdleAire. They have even succeeded in outlawing diesel APU’s in some areas. They’ve duped large customers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot into not allowing idling to ensure that nobody can rest their either.
The public is oblivious to all of it. The few that even know what IdleAire is think it is great new technology. There are articles all over the web from non-truckers that say nothing but good things about it. Now, the company is failing and you can bet that a few board members and insiders will take the money and run while others lose their investment. The taxpayers lose and we’re left with a bunch of useless rigging in the parking lot and laws based on false information and greed.
Am I crazy to think that all truck stops would have to offer is a pay-per-use electrical outlet to plug in a heater/air conditioning unit? We need to let the Electrician’s Union know about this need.
I happen to know about the IdleAire location you are referring to because I am the Manager at that particular location. I have been for the last 2 years. We have never offered anyone a “free lifetime membership”, and I seriously doubt that you ever talked to anyone that would be referred to as the “CEO”. Our aim is to provide the professional truck driver the best experience possible with a superior product. Truck drivers are historically reluctant to change. “Oh no, log books”. Yeah, that’s right. Gone are the days of driving 20 hours straight with no rest. What? Don’t think you won’t kill someone with zero sleep. IdleAire is a great service. Unless you have tried it, your opinion is irrelevant.
I agree I look for IA when out on the road, sad that it’s closed, all you drivers who talk all that…. no parking…. wait till the police knock on your door and give you that fat idle ticket
Then you freeze your ass off at night, then you’ll wish you could hook up.
Look up on the Idle-Aire infrastructure the next time you get close to one(hard to avioid that)-it says “Eaton”. Another big company sucking money out of the tax-payers pocket!
You had to know it wouldnt work-common sense tells ya this whole thing was dreamed up by someone who wouldnt know a truck-or a truckers’ true costs-if it bit him. They’re actually using Idle-Aire to support the idle laws as they actually think we all park at the truck stop every night.
I read somewhere that the reason government loves this technology is beause it’s ‘trackable’. Idle-Aire tells them for every space they put into operation, that’s one truck not idling. We all know what a joke that is. And the damned expensive thing doesnt even work worth a crap-try getting a little cool air into the sleeper in Florida at mid-day, even with reflectors on all the windows. The whole idling situation could be solved if they just mandated shore power wiring into the trucks when built and put in electrical outlets at truck stops and rest areas, then grandfathered trucks in based on age.. Even PNV with all it’s short-comings was better designed than this monstrosity. This money could have been better spent on different technology-but then, big companies like Eaton wouldnt have been able to get their share of the tax-payers’ dollar.
What a bunch of idiots!
I think that I could get to like the idea of shore power. If nothing else it would possible give the “lawn mower men” (trucks with loud APU’s) an option to NOT run the noisy things.
Did anyone ever notice that Flat Bedders attract Reefers? (and now noisy APU’s) Ever notice a lonely ole flat bed all by himself in the back lot? Sitting there with his windows down sleeping. Next morning he’s surrouned by reefers. What a racket.
I’ve always wondered why the reefers end up next to me when I have a flatbed. I figured they don’t want to bother those hard-working freight haulers.
Nothing is more annoying to me than the sound of a reefer. I only hauled them for 3 months. What a miserable job and no rest with the reefer.
I hate to be a whiner, but exhaust from some of the diesel APU’s goes right up in to the sleepers. That can’t be good. I’ve seen guys working on the things alot too. I like the idea of the battery powered APU’s.
Dam you guys, sometimes you just hit it right on the head, it scares me every now and then that I agree with ya!
However I agree with you about the scam part about IA, I find I use it a lot I average about $100.00 every 7-10 days, I shun to think of the hours of idle and fuel burn without it.
I’m a long hauler who used to get home every weekend a 5 day work week, now I get home maybe every 4-5 weeks, I work 7 day work weeks now and make less than a year ago crazy shit huh..
The point is, yes this system is big bulky, miss managed, needs many improvements, it worth it to me, I hate TA/ Petro TS they to are in the shit too, but I plan my trips around IA, It use to be a guy could plan a round trip from point A-B, UNLOAD N RELOAD N GO, that doesn’t work as well these days of cheap freight. I find myself having to wait a day or so to find a good paying load to go again, thus my time off has become waiting to work, thus no time to go home to enjoy the good life, this is a thing of the past for me, like so may other things my AMERICAN DREAMS have become NIGHT MARES, I tell my family that the sacrifices will pay in the long run I hope I don’t eat my words…
But yes there are better ways, cheaper too, just give me access to a 110 outlet I’d be happy. I talked to a guy the other day that had a solar panel that he uses to charge his PC I gotta check this out…
Something I’ve always wondered why don’t they figure out a system for the reefer guys to utilize the power unit to supply the truck like a apu..
Hmmmmm hell if they put a 110 outlet that I could access I wouldn’t mind having one as my neighbor, I’d pay too, just negotiate the price and when ya leaving, don’t wake me just unplug me haha….HEY MICK, get some ear plugs the soft ones, they work great……
Can you split off that shore power with an extension cord and split the cost with your neighbor?
Traitor! How could you use that contraption.
Just kidding. I see how a guy could get used to IdleAire in your situation, but you’re current situation is one I try to avoid. I hope it gets better for you soon.
Something like shore power would be preferred, but since IdleAire scammed the government for the funds, they get the success. It’s just not right. Idleaire has movies and Interent, but I don’t need that with a laptop in the truck.
My employer spent $7000 on an electric APU! Some are more than that. What an investment to put in a truck. It seems that a bank would add this to a current truck loan just to help you stay afloat, but they probably would rather steer you towards an additional higher interest loan.
I was taught to stay out of truck stops as much as you can if you want to make money and keep your equipment safe. They’re money pits. If I can keep moving and sleeping anyplace besides a truckstop I’m happy and I have money in my pocket. If my employer decided to put us on IdleAire instead of APU’s I would be forced into the truckstop.
Mark
If you don’t stop at truckstops where DO you stop? Rest Areas? Kinda dangerous ?
I’m lucky and many times I’m going to places I’ve been to before. If I haven’t been there before, it’s usually on a route I know well and I’ve learned where the good places are. I really like the old truck stops that have huge parking without much traffic, but they are disappearing fast.
If I can sleep at a customer’s gate, that’s perfect. Sometimes, I can tell from Google’s mapping if there is room to park, occasionally you can even get a street level view. Sometimes I know of shippers close to the shipper I need to be at with lots that are so huge, they don’t even notice you’re there, but not working with them that day.
Any extra work to get some rest and not wake up with a Swift trailer in your fender at Pilot is worth it. If I go into a Flying J while I am tired, it’s not impossible for my trailer to end up where it shouldn’t in their insane parking arrangements.
I try to avoid rest areas, but not because of safety issues. How many times have you seen the DOT in them? That’s not a good thing to wake up to either. The few times I’ve ran into signs of trouble, the cell phone works almost as well as a gun. Keep it handy, bad guys don’t know who you’re talking to.
Oh now I know, your one of those old smelly drivers that’s why you hate IA, sleep at customers gates, drive all night, that’s why dot has gone after us. your killing us drivers get off the road cry baby.
We offer a system that runs using the power of the reefer.
The system is called the Reefer Link System.
We are Idle Free Systems
http://www.idlefreesystems.com
I’ve done Idelaire a few times. I’ve noticed that sometimes, at certain truck stops the electric (shore power) is free. The outside outlets on the underside of the unit. Not the ones on the inside. There were times when I would pay, then my card would run out, but I’d still have electric. No air or TV but the electric would still work.
Now when I pull up, I’ll check the electric if it’s working before I spend money on it. Which is hardly ever nowadays. And now my shorepower doesn’t work so, I won’t be doing that anymore until I get it fixed.
But I would put the unit in my window with the plugin going to the shore power outlet in the truck. In the winter, one would go to the engine block heater.
I used to work for a company that paid for idleair. I loved it, but didn’t like the morons that would park in idleair spots and run their trucks in defiance. How stupid, I don’t know what these retards were trying to prove. Anyway, I enjoyed not idling all the time to stay comfy. The only reason people whine about it is because they can’t park their trucks straight in any parking spaces, this is also why you cannot park at night. Park in the lines and you will be amazed how many more spots their are. I am a local driver now, never to sleep in a truck again, thank god.
I agree.
The whole idea of Idleaire sounds great but they have put themselves in a position where it does not even benefit drivers anymore. For example the price of IdleAire is around 2.45 + tax as a gold member which is around the same price of fuel this is not including the 10 dollars you have to pay just to be a gold member. If your just a regular silver member you pay 2.89 + tax which is more than what you pay for a gallon of fuel. Also when drivers want a parking space and another truck that is not using it is in a parking space they cant move them out of the spaces. Also whenever you use a module they are always filthy full of crud and dirt and smell like cigarette smoke. This is one of things that has totally discouraged me from using idleaire. They promote themselves as providing clean filtered heat and air but this is not the case.
I think Idle-Aire should have looked at their clientele…..the truckers….and see what side the revenue is on…..then have the bankers pay for this service….then we’d all hook up….LOL Get cozy with each other….**grin**
Its amazing you can go from platinum to bronze…real damn quick in trucking…damn….thats a problem….hehehe…
GO TRUCKERS…YOUR LOVED!!