As a long haul driver, what is your opinion on replaceable battery packs?
Assume we had these stops every 500-400km (or miles..), and you could do 4-5 hours driving per pack, and the on-site replacement process takes like 2 minutes (excluding the detour and approach time, of course..)
Look at any ad for OTR jobs. Notice the emphasis on miles, the more the merrier. It's rare for an ad to specify less than 3k miles per week. High miles aren't only an incentive, but a requirement.
Now consider several things. Drivers are paid mostly by the mile. Federal regulations dictate 11 hours of driving time daily, with a mandatory 30 minute break after 8 hours ( or 6 not long ago). On duty hours are limited to 14. As things are now, pulling into a truckstop often takes about 30 minutes after waiting in the fuel line, fueling, etc. Weighing/scaling new loads also takes time and this is necessary often. Toward the end of a shift even with the assistance of apps, parking can take significant time to find too, especially on the east coast. If a driver follows regulations, a mid-trip stop will be made for a cursory vehicle inspection, especially of tires. Many companies govern speed between 62-65mph - and this causes myriad clusterfucks of ungoverned drivers trying to pass the governed drivers. Remember, miles are dollars, and many factors stand in the way. Driving through Atlanta, or any similar monstrosity is a regular one. Detention is another, and this is a really big one that has inspired me to quit on the spot.
I could bloviate about the all that sucks in the world of trucks, but I'm quite certain that the primary element that impells the 18 wheeled slave is money. Any thing that gets in the way of those miles is discouraging. The whole experience is discouraging for me.
Much improvement could come to the industry, but mostly in theory rather than practice. I suspect anything that makes it all even slightly worse won't be too warmly welcomed. Personally, I'd probably keep doing it if I could make a bit less and ruin myself a bit less in the process. I don't want to run 3700 miles every week, 4 weeks out and 3 days home. But when I start my day, I only stop for weigh stations, at 8 hours, and to hold my piss bottle still.
Time is money while driving. If I stop on the side of the highway to jump out and pee, I lose a GUARANTEED minimum of 15 minutes. (even if the piss-stop was under a minute) It is a bizarre phenomenon that I could never rectify, or articulate precisely HOW it happens.
When you are driving, you constantly are doing math.
Miles (or Kilometers) converted into minutes until the next turn, and also final destination. Then you try to fit that into how much time you have left in your day.
A 2 minute battery change will always take longer then 2 minutes off of your driving time. Filling up with diesel takes ~10-15 minutes. Pulling into the truck stop, grabbing more coffee or tea for your thermos, going to the bathroom, all combine make you lose 30-45 minutes. It's not the individual item times. It's the accumulation. Accelerating, decelerating, traffic, etc.
The job of Driving a truck is almost impossible to make a living at in Canada if you do it legally. Now with all trucks having an onboard electronic log-book, I'd never even try.
Assume we had these stops every 500-400km (or miles..), and you could do 4-5 hours driving per pack, and the on-site replacement process takes like 2 minutes (excluding the detour and approach time, of course..)