• Mniot@programming.dev
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    24 hours ago

    There’s a lot of externalizing of costs going on. The trucks are idling because the drivers are operating at the slimmest possible margin under the assumption that idling doesn’t cost anything.

    What we actually would want to get to is that idling does have a cost (environmental, health, pleasantness of the area, etc). And that cost ought to be passed up the chain so that the various goods being shipped are more expensive.

    But without a more centrally-managed economy, the implementation is to put all the pressure on the truck drivers and leave them responsible for passing that pressure to the next step up the chain. It doesn’t work out very well in practice because the drivers need to make a bunch of capital expenses for something like adding a cab AC and adding a batter-powered lift, but they’ve been operating at low margins so they’re not in a position to do it.

    • Headofthebored @lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      I think I seen some calculation where it said that an engine uses the same amount of fuel to start as it does to idle five minutes. I don’t know if that was average, a specific engine, or if it referred to gas or diesel though.

    • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Local deliveries should be happening in electric vehicles. And 90% of long range trucks should have been a train. Go back in time a few decades and get the godless MBA having fucks out of the railroad industry.

      Boom! Y’all should elect me king of everything, just solving problems left and right!

      • Mesophar@pawb.social
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        5 hours ago

        You’ll have my vote for king as soon as you provide the time machine to enact your plan

        • ViatorOmnium@piefed.social
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          1 hour ago

          Local deliveries can be fixed in a few years with proper regulations, and that’s giving a generous time span for businesses to adapt.

      • grue@lemmy.worldM
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        21 hours ago

        Local deliveries should be happening in electric vehicles.

        Including cargo bikes, not only electric box trucks.