as with everything there are trade off.
Idleaire, the newest service of anti idle is a government subsidized publicly traded company their rates are about 3.00 per hour.
there is a point where they are cheaper on the surface than idling in a cost per gallon per hour of diesel.
my C-15 Cat engine uses about 1.5 gallons per hour to idle so at current prices its a $6 vs. $3 per hour choice.
also there is the consideration of the emissions and the wear and tear of idling an engine that is $16,000.00 to rebuild.
the most noteworthy offset is that to setup the system you lose about 1/3rd of the parking, there's currently a 20,000 parking space deficiency now with restrictions tightening every day.
I use and APU mounted on my trucks so I have 5KW of 110 voltage, a/c, heating, battery monitoring and can use it for one pint of fuel .50 an hour
I'm not a trucker, but almost took a job with them in Knoxville a few years ago. You seem to be giving investment advice or the Con of a system owner vs the consumer.
Does it benefit the driver in the long run?
I had no idea it was subsidized. I thought it was all private. I understand your post now.