Tire Care 101: Extending Tread Life and Improving Fuel Economy

No aspect of maintenance in fleet management solutions returns as much value as a focused approach to tire management. Tyres represent a substantial cost for your fleet and influence every other metric, including fuel consumption, safety, and vehicle life. Kooner FMS knows that good truck management has to start from the foundation - literally.

The Costs of Poor Tire Management On Your Truck Fleet

The evidence speaks for itself; the American Trucking Association estimates that proper tyre management can increase fuel economy on your truck by as much as 7%. One long-haul truck can quickly rack up yearly savings in the thousands of dollars by simply taking appropriate steps to maintain tires. And when you apply those savings to a fleet, the overall impact is quite significant.

Additionally, the U.S. Department of Energy reports that keeping tires properly inflated can improve gas mileage by an average of 0.6% to 3%, potentially saving up to $0.12 per gallon of fuel based on national averages.

Keeping tires in good shape isn't just about saving money on gas – bad tires also contribute to about 6% of truck accidents, as per the FMCSA. That's a recipe for safety issues, lost time, delays, and potentially hefty legal bills.

Essential Tire Maintenance Practices

If you don't keep up with essential tire maintenance practices, you could end up spending more, dealing with accidents, and having to stop work unexpectedly. Taking care of your tires properly is super important for a bunch of reasons. It helps your tires last longer, saves you money on gas, and keeps your fleet safe. Making tire care a big part of how you manage your fleet is worth it.

1. Maintain Proper Inflation Pressure

One of the most basic, yet important, aspects of tire maintenance is correct tire inflation. An under-inflated tire flexes more, creating more heat and premature wear, and lowering fuel mileage. A tire over-inflated, develops an uneven wear pattern, and has less traction.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates 660 crashes each year from under-inflated tires resulting from a tire blow-out/blow-up. Overall, pressure checks can be a cause for safety concern.

For fleet maintenance and repair professionals, utilizing a schedule to check tire pressure is very important. Digital tire pressure monitoring systems have the ability to notify you in real time of the small issues that may lead to big problems and emergency roadside truck assistance.

2. Regular Alignment and Rotation

Tire misalignment causes tires to scrub across the road surface, resulting in rapid tread wear, and having professional alignment done should guarantee that all tires are properly contacting the road surface, providing a substantial usable tire life.

Tire rotation helps the tires wear evenly, and more importantly, for drive axles with torque forces applied to them evenly. Most Fleet management companies will recommend a rotation distance of between 6,000-8,000 miles for best results on the life of the tires.

3. Tread Depth Monitoring

Tread depth is not only a legal measure, but also a serious safety measure. Monitoring the depth regularly can assist with knowing when they will be due for replacement, among other things. Proven reference in all fleet vehicle maintenance and repair programs, would include guidelines for tread depth checks and tire replacement frequency.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) states that trucks with worn tires are 3 times more likely to get into an accident when involved in inclement weather.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) states that tires on commercial vehicles with tread depth less than 4/32 of an inch are at risk for hydroplaning, which is a contributing factor to approximately 2,400 crashes per year. Having the appropriate tread monitoring measures in place is not only good for business; it's also responsible fleet management.

When Problems Arise: The Value of Professional Assistance

Even with great preventative maintenance, there are times when a tire problem requires heavy-duty roadside assistance. When drivers have issues on the road, there is a huge difference between having reliable truck roadside assistance and not, and more times than I can count, I have seen minor delays turn into major supply chain disruptions.

Kooner FMS offers full-service emergency roadside truck assistance with custom tire service expertise. Our network spans the major trucking routes, so your drivers will not be stranded when tire issues arise.

The Technology Advantage

Today's fleet management innovators are employing data prowess through sophisticated tire monitoring technologies that track inflation, temperature, and wear patterns with comprehensive software integration for the entire fleet, to provide meaningful data for maintenance teams to manage tires and expected life.

• Real-time intelligence on your tires: Today's smart sensors don't just read pressure; your tires become a living part of your comprehensive fleet management system, allowing your tires to become connected to a fleet management system to share key data continuously.

• See it before it happens: Advanced analytics can reveal developing issues days or weeks before a human eye could see anything. Temperature patterns also tell visual stories that can save road calls and effort wasted on unrecoverable breakdowns.

• Technology returns investment: According to different Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) studies, fleets that adopt these types of monitoring systems return between 20% and 30% fewer tire-related roadside emergencies than fleets that don't, and that means real savings to your bottom line.

• From hoping to knowing: Stop replacing tires on arbitrary schedules! Real-time data can tell you exactly when you need maintenance; there is no competition to maximize every mile for your tread.

With these technologies, fleet managers can move from a reactive maintenance approach to a last-mile maintenance model, catching small issues before they lead to costly failure events that become roadside emergencies.

Conclusion

Proper tire maintenance is one of the most powerful elements of a truly comprehensive fleet management solution. When a fleet operator implements sound maintenance policies, leverages technology, and gets professional truck roadside assistance, it can save fleets a considerable amount of money on operating costs while improving safety and reliability.

At Kooner FMS, we realize the importance of tires in your operations. Our integrated fleet maintenance and repair solutions include a specialized tire care program that is designed to optimize performance and keep trucks rolling to limit downtime. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us and learn more about how our fleet management solutions can keep you moving mile after mile.

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