As an industry we have a culture of leaving machines to idle instead of keying off. This might seem like an insignificant issue but the cost on idle time to your business could be running into the tens of thousands…
Through JDLink telematics you can get access to utilisation information. This will give you utilisation duration percentages for working, transport and idle time. On average we see most machines spending 30-40% of their life idling. To put this in monetary review value we have put together a graph of a John Deere 6155R with an extended warranty of 5000hr as an example below
| PowerGard per hr | £2.40 |
| Maintenance costs per hr | £2.20 |
| Fuel @ 60p per ltr | £1.92 |
| Deprecation @ £12 per hr | £12 |
| Total Cost per hour at idle | £18 |
| Cost of 30% idle time (1666 hours) | £29,988 |
You can’t manage what you can’t measure; but with JDLink telematics as standard on all 5R, 6R, 7R, 8R and 9 series tractors and all agricultural self-propelled machines you can gain access to this data free of charge.
The Tuckwells Technology department has been working with customers to help manage idle time. When we work together with our customers we are consistently seeing results of reducing this idle time figure down into the low teens. There are multiple strategies to reduce this figure from incentivising the lowest idle time on farm to a banded bonus structure in line with machine idle hours. The best results we see is when we the operator take ownership of one machine and the worst offended being machines with multiple drivers
With our help, the top performers are running at around 10-12% idle. Contact your local Tuckwells Technology Consultant to find out how we can help you reduce your costs or click here to find out the basics on how to get connected.
