Page 20 - issue-78

Road test
MAN says ‘undulating’ is the best terrain for Ef cientCruise 2 because it can roll over smaller hills and use the speed and weight of the vehicle to retain momentum. Overall on this section it achieved an 11.4% improved fuel result.
As Ef cientCruise 2 can read the
road ahead we noticed on the M56 the transmission will hold higher gears for longer whereas on the same sections cruise control it was quick to change down the box then change back up shortly afterwards with
THE RESULTS
no bene t. Ef cientCruise
2 also con rmed using a +9km/h overrun
and -9km/h underrun is
that the trucks’ speed varied signi cantly. Rather than run with the crowd progress is more ‘to you to
me to you’.
For example, following another truck we
fell back at certain points where the road reached an apex followed by a descent. On the downhill the truck built up speed, caught the truck ahead and passed it before slowing down, at which point the truck that had been passed duly overtook us. On the M56 using Ef cientCruise 2 it became clear that you have to read the road and judge the speed of the surrounding traf c.
In cruise control the truck retained a more
consistent speed lacking the highs and lows of Ef cientCruise 2. Up and over the summit of a hill the truck kept going until its speed took the truck past 85km/h before at 89km/h the engine brake was deployed. This was repeated throughout the trip.
Results from the M6 were
more interesting. This wasn’t a terrain where Ef cientCruise 2
was expected to do well. It’s only undulating part is northbound from J39, the turning for Shap, where the motorway divides.
The climb up towards Shap levels out at the top so there is no descent for Ef cientCruise 2 to latch onto
as it approaches the top to employ Ef cientRoll. That said it still achieved a 7.7% improvement on fuel. The return leg was into a strong breeze and any gains Ef cientCruise
2 might have achieved were lost as it matched cruise control for fuel economy.
If there any doubts about Ef cientCruise 2s conservative nature, as the truck prepared
to climb the nal hill sharp hill towards J37 south of Tebay, the truck changed down a gear early and went for it. This was the one section that Ef cientCruise 2 produced a quicker time, a full minute to be precise.
On a wider note for PCCs, perhaps the nal piece of the jigsaw for the road transport industry to consider is training. Drivers avoid the unknown when it comes to technology. One-to-one training for drivers is time consuming and not cheap, however if you are going to spend the best part of £2,000 on Ef cientCruise 2 to get the bene ts the drivers needs to know how to use it. If you do the pay back on investment on a vehicle travelling doing 120,000km annual mileage should be within 12 months.
The argument that technology de-skills the professional driver is redundant because using predictive cruise control allows
the driver to concentrate on the things
that matter most; steering, braking and observation. ■
M6 J40-37
Ef cientCruise 2
Cruise Control
Results
Mileage
MPG
Time (mins)
MPG
Time (mins)
MPG
Time
M6 J37-40
24.0
11.1
27
10.3
27
7.7%
0.0%
24.0
6.90
27
6.90
28
0.0%
-3.5%
M56 J3A-J14
25.5
11.1
29
9.60
29
15.6%
0.0%
M56 J14-J3A
25.5
10.50
29
9.80
29
7.1%
0.0%
Overall
99
9.90
112
9.15
113
8.2%
0.9%
20 CVDriver September 2018