A freight company’s fleet typically consists of a combination of various types of trucks. Factors that can affect this fleet composition include logistical strategy (like the types of routes covered and loads carried), the state of the commerce market, and even driver satisfaction. Depending on these considerations, freight companies use a mix of daycab and sleeper trucks to maximize efficiency.
Since dispatchers play a critical role in the business of trucking and transport, understanding what there is to know about the possible range of trucks within a fleet is helpful. Keep reading to get the lowdown on daycabs and sleepers, and find out about current trends in this area.
Sleeper Trucks Were Invented to Provide Drivers With Space to Rest
In order to understand why freight companies employ a mix of sleepers and daycabs in their fleets, it’s necessary to first know a little bit about each type of truck. To start with, sleepers are truck cabs that have sleeping compartments attached to them so drivers can catch some shuteye while on long haul trips.
Sleepers started making an appearance when truck manufacturers discovered that long-haul freight drivers were choosing to take their rest breaks within their trucks instead of paying for roadside lodging. What began as the integration of small sleeping spaces about 90 centimetres in width eventually evolved into luxurious spaces extending to nearly six metres—a bit like a small studio apartment on wheels. The majority of sleepers in fleets today don’t go to extravagant lengths, but they do include some basic amenities like a little fridge and shelving for clothes.
Daycabs Are Lighter Trucks That Provide Better Fuel Efficiency
As graduates of dispatcher training know, daycabs are trucks that are meant for much shorter trips, maybe even just across a city. Because of this, they don’t have sleeping compartments, are much smaller, weigh less, and have lower fuel consumption.
Freight companies of course want to be as fuel efficient as possible to keep their costs down and help minimize their carbon footprint. As such, they tend to use daycabs over sleepers when carrying out regional hauls.
Grads of Dispatch Courses Know the Perfect Fleet Mix Is Key to Freight Efficiency
Professionals who have completed a dispatch course know that running a fleet is essentially running a business, and so it has to be as efficient as possible. This is exactly what fleet owners and operators have in mind when choosing the composition of their fleets, as having the right mix of trucks improves a fleet’s overall efficiency.
Keeping the weight of the fleet down can help save on fuel costs, which is why daycabs can be beneficial. However, driver satisfaction also plays a pretty large role in the composition of a fleet. If drivers are unhappy with needing to take a daycab on a multi-day trip or if they find their sleepers to be too cramped, then freight companies could face high driver turnover as a result. As such, it’s wise for fleets to keep many different trucks.
New Trends Have Resulted in the Growing Popularity of Daycabs
In the past, the market was mostly dominated by sleeper trucks, but recently daycabs and smaller sleepers have been making a prominent appearance. This is because freight transport is shifting from the norm of multi-day dispatches to regional-based delivery as a result of changes in the distribution patterns of commerce. The primary drivers of this change are re-shored manufacturing and the quick delivery demands of e-commerce. Will daycabs eventually push out the more traditional sleepers? We’ll just have to wait and see!
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