december2021 - 9

[ BRAKES, TIRE & WHEEL ]
" E
veryone hates buying tires, right? " acknowledged
Jason Miller, Cooper Tire & Rubber's national fleet
channel sales manager to Fleet Maintenance. Miller
has been in the tire industry for 44 years, with
stints at Continental, Bridgestone, and Hankook
Tire, and his experience has led him to believe
fleets see buying tires as a " grudge purchase. "
The reason, he said, is because fleet managers
are responsible for many other areas that
affect uptime, such as the diesel particulate
filters, brakes, and axles, so tires can become
an afterthought.
" If you aren't having a tire crisis, it tends to fall
low on the priority list, until you look back over
the year, and you look where you spent all your
money, " Miller explained. " And tires are one of, if
not the single largest, maintenance expense for
a fleet. "
The COVID-19 pandemic has made this tightrope-walking
act even more precarious, with
supply chain disruptions making materials harder
to come by. Rubber production has been impeded
by COVID-related labor shortages at Asian rubber
tree farms, along with the outbreak of a fungal
leaf disease. The Singapore Commodity Exchange
found rubber prices rose 70% year-over-year from
May 2020 to May 2021.
" Tires are hard to come by right now; you've got
higher prices and lower supplies, " noted Kevin
Rohlwing, senior vice president of training for
the Tire Industry Association (TIA), this summer.
" We can't say it's a shortage, but in certain sizes
and certain styles, you're not going to be able to
get them. "
All the while, mileage has increased as consum»
Hunter Engineering's Quick Tread HeavyDuty's
camera system takes images every
time a vehicle-ranging from large pickups to
Class 8 tractor-trailers-passes through.
Hunter Engineering
er demand for goods has increased. These are
problems to keep an eye on, but with the right
planning, and some new automated technology to
help fleets monitor their tire status, it is possible
to make it to the other side.
The end goal is having tires that last an acceptable
interval, cost an acceptable amount, and have
an acceptable availability. Fortunately, there are
tools and techniques to turn this grudge purchase
into an opportunity to reduce overall maintenance
expenses while improving safety and uptime.
» " Customers looking for the lowest overall
driving cost should strongly consider a digital
TPMS, " said Tom Fanning of Continental Tire.
Continental Tire
Improving tire life cycles
How long a tire lasts usually lies with how efficiently
a fleet can manage its tire maintenance.
" Proper fleet maintenance, like any element of a
fleet's culture, must be cultivated and reinforced at
all levels of the organization, " said Tom Fanning,
head of truck tires for the U.S. market at
Continental Tire. " Running a properly
maintained fleet is a culture change;
it will not happen overnight, but it
can dramatically impact the fleet's
long-term success. "
Part of that culture change
should be centered around the
importance of inflation.
The primary variable to impact
life is inflation, indicated by the
tire psi level. As the U.S. Tire Manufacturers
Association points out, underinflated tires are not
only drags on steerability and fuel economy, but
the excess friction heat they generate can cause
irregular wear and internal damage, and make
them more likely to puncture or blow out.
According to 2018 Continental Tire data, 34%
of fleets were operating with underinflated tires.
These fleets are missing out on the benefits of a
properly inflated tire, which include 1% better fuel
economy, 15% longer tread life, and 20% longer
casing life, the company noted.
The bottom line is that underinflation dramatically
affects the fleet's bottom line.
" Some of these fleets are telling me that their
breakdowns represent 30, 40, 50% of their tire
budget, because of maintenance issues, " Miller said.
He said getting drivers to do proper inspections
is one way to mitigate risk and ensure proper inflation.
Tire pressure monitoring systems automatically
perform this task via sensors on the tire,
sending that data to fleet managers for general
awareness and affording them the chance to intervene
when needed.
" We can't say it's
a shortage, but in
certain sizes and
certain styles, you're
not going to be
able to get them. "
Kevin Rohlwing, SVP of training,
Tire Industry Association
" It's about being proactive and seeing the early
signs that could indicate a failure down the
line, " said Pierluigi Cumo, marketing director for
on-road at Michelin. " We have offers to address
the emergency aspect with ONCall (end-to-end
breakdown solution), but we also want to use that
data to see maybe there's specific spots that fleets
need to pay particular attention to. "
Data indicates that this solution does pay off.
" Customers looking for the lowest overall driving
cost should strongly consider a digital TPMS, "
said Fanning, citing the longer casing and tread
life related to proper inflation. " One customer has
told us they have reduced roadside service calls
to zero by implementing our ContiConnect Yard
solution. This type of service around the tire helps
our customers maximize their tire investment and
reduce downtime. "
Inspecting tread depth also is critical.
" If we can get drivers to just walk the fleet and
take a hand over the tread and measure it, we can
pull a lot of cost out, " Miller advised, though he
admitted that is easier said than done.
December 2021 | FleetMaintenance.com
9
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december2021

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