Breaking News – Adios IdleAire…
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 - 11:04am by Marshall J. Gruskin in Trucking
I could have told them so. I’ve been writing for the longest time that it wasn’t going to work. Bad idea. Stupid. Waste of space. Dumb. Shame on T/A and all the other truck stops that erected this junk. Any trucker with an APU, cell phone, laptop or TV just didn’t need IdleAire. The better fleets wouldn’t pay for it. Arrow gave IdleAire to their drivers and now they’re gone and IdleAire is too. From their website: “IdleAire has closed operations effective 12 noon eastern time Friday, January 29. Truckers will not be able to use the service after today. Due to the economy, our customers had less freight to haul, resulting in reduced truck traffic and we have had extremely mild weather across the nation, reducing the demand for our climate control service. We continued to stay ahead of the financial issues and make adjustments as needed, but time and operating capital simply ran out.” That statement is absurd. This past summer was brutal and this winter is no better. The ice caps might be melting but we’re having as much snow and ice and frigid temps as ever. And I personally want to thank the suits at IdleAire for making my trucker life miserable when they made 25-100 spaces disappear in truck stops in their feeble attempt to make the planet greener.
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I would just like to put my two cents worth into this fray. I was a Senior Manager at the Monroe, Michigan TA facility. When IdleAire Technologies was officially taken over in September 2008, we were told to continue doing the good job we were doing and that minor changes would be instituted. Well, in October 2008, those changes were to let the Senior Management go at each site, my job included. April 1st-ish, 2010, I visited the TA here in Monroe to see what was going on in the back lot. I was SCHOCKED at what a pig sty that old IdleAire site had become; dirty, nasty, trucks parked every-which-way. When IdleAire was there, whether you liked the concept of IdleAire or not, the lots were clean, organized and protected due to our 24 hour, 365 day presence. Noone was “forced” to hook up to the service and those that did, to them, was worth the cost. I just can’t understand how anyone can say that anything that will save the enviroment anything poluting this earth is a bad thing. Maybe you had to park in the “back” and not up front, but that is not a reason to bad mouth a company (and “company” means a business which means making profilt which is not a bad thing) that worked for the better good. I HATE the fact that my job, along with 2500 other employees, was eliminated but even today I still believe we did good things for those that were interested in the service and the ecology.
apologies, there are two misspellings in my previous post that I am sure someone will pick up on.
Todd, you are a troll. Everything you insist Mark is wrong about can be rebutted with a simple Google search:
First, the CEO-or COO, as that’s the only officer that gets public exposure – is male. In fact, the last two are: Mike Crabtree and MR Lynn Young. You can check that here:
http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Crabtree_Mike_66713907.aspx and
http://www2.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story
Second, Mark likely mis-spoke when he said he was ‘in Charlotte’ – not unusual for a man who actually moves on the highways for a living. There were three Idle-Aire locations listed in North Carolina on I-85 alone: the Petro at Mebane, the TA at Greensboro and the KIngs Mountain Truck PLaza at Kings Mountain (I believe that is exit 5 . . before the South Carolina line and less than 30 miles from Charlotte – a minor distance for a trucker, a lifetime trip for a bicycle mafioso who lives in his mother’s basement). To a trucker, Charlotte is a ballpark figure . . .we truckers know that.
Third, and I’ll quote here, “In its annual report, the company noted that government grants – more than $55 million by the end of 2007 – have helped it fund its operations.” Sorry – that was MY tax dollars they wasted!
http://www.heavydutytrucking.com/2008/06/034g0806.asp
As for why they failed, they didn’t find out what their expected customers wanted or needed . . .the typical fail-scenario of the techie, reality-challenged movers and shakers of the under-the-stairs underworld who always kow whats best for everyone else. Yup – they should have asked a truck driver! So, with apologies for the misquote to your favorite expert – yourself, Please realize, you have a role in life and that is to crawl back under the stairs and not espouse your misguided and idiotic diatribes about things which you know nothing about. Sorry you lost your dream job sitting in that Idle-Aire trailer all day trying to convince truckers you knew what was best for them. Maybe if you used that bicycle to deliver papers instead of trolling boards where you’re over your depth, your mamma would let you move back upstairs and eat in the dining room with the rest of the family.
yes Linda, you are correct about Mike Crabtree, he was the CEO until two years before the company went out of business; from that point forward it was Susan Brown. Lynn Youngs, COO, also left the company at the same time as Mr. Crabtree and his position was never filled. For the last two years IdleAire was in business the “Face” of the company was female.
Greensboro (actually Whitsett) site is over two and a half hours away from Charlotte while the Mebane site was closer to RTP than anything. While the Kings Mountain location was a wireless only site and was never staffed and therefore would have never been visited by the CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, or CTO.
And lastly, you are correct in the fact that from 2000-2007 IdleAire received 55 MM USD in grant money; this would equate to roughly 8 MM USD per year. When one considers the fact that the company receieved, in three separate rounds of private financing, approximately 365 MM USD (10 MM USD, 35 MM USD, and 320 MM USD) I would say that IdleAire was no more government owned than any trucking company that receives tax credits for installing various “green” technologies on their fleet. Maybe I should be angry with every trucker/trucking company that receives those credits, which just for FY 2008 exceeded the total amount that IdleAire received during its entire existence. So to put it simply, during its existence IdleAire received (direct investment) 87% of its money from private investors and 13% of its money from variou grants. This total does not include revenue generated by the service.
One thing I will concede to you is that IdleAire could have and should have better listened to their customer base. Had IdleAire listened to its customers I doubt that would have changed the outcome though as the vast majority of the complaints heard were contradictory in nature and there would have been no satisfying those complaints. As for losing my job sitting there in the trailer, if that is what you think fine, so be it. I will say this however, in speaking to my father in law (an O/O for one of the biggest fleets out there), I drove as many or more miles than the average company driver in the performance of my duties (in excess of 180K during 2009). I have no problem with trucks, truck drivers, or their profession merely the minority (my error in the previous post was not specifying that I recognize that most professional truck drivers are no different than the average non truck truck driver) that is so loud and KNOWS everything. Linda, the difference between your post and mine is that I pointed out, correctly so, errors in Marks post and you made this personal. I do not pretend to be an expert on everything, merely that I do KNOW about fiance and business as that is what my formal education is in as well as 16 years of work experience. I would no more tell you how to drive a truck, do your logs, handle your experiences with the shop or your driver manager than you should lecture me on business matters or my personal life.
Todd, the first thing you did in your original post was call Mark a liar. I think that qualifies your post as a personal attack. Secondly, you have absolutely no idea when Mark may have spoken with the IdleAire CEO because Mark doesn’t, in his comment, specify a date; you’re making a factually unsupported assumption. Thirdly, while doing research on a book I authored I had occasion to speak with several individuals at IdleAire, all upper management, and I can personally attest to the fact that, at the very least, the CEO, COO and CIO (Mike Crabtree, Dave Everhart and Tom Badgett were the folks I talked with) did visit facilities not utilizing IdleAire services. Why would they do this? Hmmm…could it have something to do with expansion? Someone with your professed expertise should certainly have the acumen to envision that and other possibilities.
Nothing you wrote “pointed out, correctly so, errors in Marks post”; quite the contrary.
You have failed to support your assertion that Mark was a liar and, instead, have proven yourself, if not an idiot, most certainly a fool.
Phil:
You are correct on several points. First, Mark did not specify time and as such I CAN and WILL acknowledge my error on that. With that said it is possible thar he spoke with Mr. Crabtree or Mr. Youngs, but I will point out that neither one had a father in the trucking industry as Mark asserts. Secondly, yes the C level officers did visit locations thar did not have IA installed. So it could be inferred that this conversation occured at a non IA location. However, Mark said the conversation revolved around why he wasn’t hooked up leading to the conclusion that it was at a location that already had an IA installed.
As for personal attacks on Mark I said the post was so full of lies as to be laughable not that Mark was a liar. Again, I said in my previous post that my language may have been a bit harsh and I could and should have toned it down in an effort to make my point as I can see where rather than saying it was full of lies I should have said something along the lines of the information was not clear or was, regardless of the source, not 100% accurate.
I would like to know the name of the book you authored as I am always interested in learning more about subjects and you do seem to have put time and effort into knowing this subject. I will acknowledge that my view on this subject is biased and I am open to opposing points of view provided they are based in fact and actual research (like you appear to have performed) versus hearsay and google searches. As I said in my earlier post I should have made clear that I recognize that the vast majority of professional drivers are decent, hard working individuals and that it is a small but loud minority that paints the image that those of us outside the industry have of drivers. I would think that you would acknowledge that many privately held companies compete for and receive federal and/or state grants and that they are no more “Government run boondogles” than IA was. You are correct in that I did prove my self a fool in that I broke the cardinal rule of a debate/discussion I allowed emtional rwation to guide my comments and I spoke in absolutes.
And, you, Todd are a troll! Nothing you have said here has been true on this issue-and I can prove it with a simple Google search. For starters, The Idle-Aire COO has been male . . several of them, in fact. The last two, Mike Crabtree and MR Lynn Young obviously believe they’re male:
http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Crabtree_Mike_66713907.aspx
http://www2.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story.
And if Mike mis-spoke himself on Charlotte, that’s understandable . . he’s a truck driver and goes many places every day, as opposed to sitting unemployed in his mother’s basement typing out crap responses to posts on issues he knows nothing about. There were three Idle-Aire locations on I-85 in NC:Kings Mountain Truck Plaza at Kings Mountain (I believe that is the exit 5 TS, for you highway-challenged like Todd), the TA at Greensboro and the Petro at Mebane.
And, Idle-Aire sucked down over $55 million in federal grants – thats tax dollars for people like Toad that dont have to pay as they produce nothing. Quote:
“In its annual report, the company noted that government grants – more than $55 million by the end of 2007 – have helped it fund its operations.”
http://www.heavydutytrucking.com/2008/06/034g0806.asp
$55 Mil and they STILL lost money! Of course, at $15,000 a parking space, how would they expect to turn a profit? Why?? Poor design and an overpriced product! They, like our Toad here, assumed the truck driver knew nothing and didn’t bother to do market studies with their prospective customers! They should have asked a truck driver or two.
So, Toad, I leave you with the illuminating advice of someone whose knowledge I’m sure you respect. “Please realize, you have a role in life and that is to
drive a truck and deliver goodslisten and learn from your betters not espouse your misguided and idiotic diatribes about things which you know nothing about”Well You know You can Invest a Million Dollars into something that will be the GREAT Thing for trucking.. The Idea could be way ahead of times and marvel the whole industry. But Someone will Top you, maybe not today maybe not this Year but they will. Lets hope you just recooped what you invested before the Do. And the Times have changed and IdleAire is just Passed buy the next biggest thing… Them Yellow Tubes sure where a Pain… Always waited for them to rip that Hood Mirror off.
Obviously Todd is the expert here and us truck drivers should only talk about trucking.
You hit the nail on the head Frank!!!
What is truly sad is that truck drivers seem to be an “expert” on everything. First of all, the comment by Mark is so full of lies as to be laughable. First example, “I spoke with the President of IdleAire and he said”…sorry sir, but the CEO of IdleAire was a woman. Secondly, this conversation took place at an IA facility in Charlotte; wrong again-the nearest IA facility was in Spartanburg, SC. Third, IA was government funded; again you couldn’t be more wrong as IA was primarily funded through a 320 MM USD private investment. The company did compete for ARRA, EPA, and CMAQ grants, but the key word is compete as they did against the likes of CabAir and ShurePower. Please realize, you have a role in life and that is to drive a truck and deliver goods not espouse your misguided and idiotic diatribes about things which you know nothing about;
I was really sad to see that the McGraws invested in Idle-aire…as could have told them not too and saved them the investment…as their truly is a false sense of intelligence in the air out here…and someone sold them out…and I love their music…….
Go truckers…Love ya!!
I agree with the shore power. That’s all most folks want or need.
I’m glad to see IdleAire go. Very glad. It was a government funded boondoggle from the start. It’s very visible waste of taxpayer dollars. The arguments between those who did and didn’t like it were mute. It’s a prime example of why companies need to be wholly funded by private entities. If IdleAire had any real merit to being profitable, private investors would have been all over it.
The excuses IdleAire gives are ridiculous. Their execs are sitting back on huge bucks from this while the rest of us are left with piles of junk throughout the truckstops.
I had a long talk with the President of IdleAir as he was walking through the Charlotte TA asking everyone not connected just what their problem was. I explained my disgust in him and his company for what they had done with our tax dollars. He was an arrogant SOB and told me about how his Father was a trucker and held the same bad attitude that I did. He told me to take his free lifetime membership as I would be needing it when the law forced me to use their service. Laughable now. If that membership was “lifetime”, that turns out to be one short and sad lifetime.
Lets not forget that IdleAire put good and innovative companies out of business. Since IdleAire received extra funding, the good companies could not reasonably compete. This is the real crime of it all. Will companies with truly good solutions invest their time and efforts only to risk being shot down again by another company who knows how to buddy-up for government freebies?
IdleAire’s damages should be the poster child used for everyone of these govt. funded “green” programs.
I predict that shortly the idleair structures will begin sustaining damage due to chicken truckers who either can’t park or can’t be bothered to park correctly.
Shortly after that the damaged idleaire structures will begin presenting hazards to anyone parking nearby.
Shortly after they we’ll here the participating truckstops begin to whine about needing government assistance to “clean up” the debris.
(sigh).
Will they never learn?
Idle Dream here….but I wish someone would acquire the remnants of idle aire and JUST provide shore power.
Electricity. That’s all I want. At a decent price. The infra structure is already there. Just need an operator. Hell, the individual TRUCKSTOPS could do it themselves.