Carriers Cut Costs With Specialized Tires
By Mindy Long, Special to Transport Topics
This story appears in the March 2 print edition of Transport Topics.
As the needs of trucking companies become more specialized, so do the tires they are running. Over the past decade, available tire options have increased, meaning fleets can choose the tires best suited for their specific applications.
“Tires that are focused on specific vocations in the market are absolutely necessary for our customers to meet their objectives to reduce their cost per mile,” said Don Baldwin, product marketing manager for commercial truck tires for Michelin North America.
“Product lines are getting more complex, so there are more choices for customers,” said Chris Hoffman, manager of truck, bus and radial tire and retread product marketing for Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions. “The tire’s application looks at both tread design and compound.”
An executive with Con-way Truckload said that company focuses on five key points when deciding which tire to use:
• Price.
• Tread depth.
• Average miles.
• Fuel mileage.
• Retreadability.
Based on its needs, Con-way Truckload converted its entire fleet to wide-base drive tires in 2006.
“The wide tire, the lower weight per wheel end and lower rolling resistance contribute to the improved fuel mileage,” said Bruce Stockton, vice president of maintenance and asset management for Con-way Truckload.
Stockton said the carrier averaged 3% savings last year, adding up to millions of dollars.
Tires offering increased fuel efficiency have become especially popular in recent years.
“You’ve seen tire manufacturers increase their marketing efforts of fuel-efficient tires in 2008 in order to address the needs that have arisen with inflated fuel prices,” said Aaron Murphy, vice president of the China Manufacturers Alliance, which makes and markets Double Coin Tires.
Murphy advises fleets to pay as much attention to trailer tires as they do to steer and drive tires.
“Trailers tend to be a little bit overlooked at times, but it is a very important position. When it comes to fuel efficiency, trailer positions can have a significant effect,” Murphy said.
Steve McClellan, vice president of Goodyear Commercial Tire Systems, said, “Trailers usually are the least-maintained equipment in a fleet’s operation.”
Meanwhile, more bulk industry and tank operations also are moving to wide-base tires. While fuel efficiency gains are a bonus, the main purpose for the fleets’ switch is to lower the tires’ weight.
Tank and bulk carriers hit the standard 80,000-pound weight limit before filling up. Using wide-base tires on a truck can reduce weight anywhere from 600 to 1,000 pounds, allowing fleets to maximize their payload.
Praxair Inc., which operates tank trucks in 48 states, is using wide-base tires.
“On our equipment, we gross out before we cube out,” said Perry Krieger, fleet equipment specialist for Praxair. “For us, it is a benefit, but for someone with a box van hauling cookies, there are dual-wheel applications out there that offer you the fuel efficiency and other benefits you need.”
Michelin’s Baldwin said sales of the company’s X One wide-base tire have doubled each year since it was introduced in 2001.
Bridgestone’s Hoffman said tires designed to increase fuel efficiency have a relatively clean and smooth tread design and use a proprietary compound that reduces rolling resistance.
“For long-wear, over-the-road tires, the compound is different. If you are going off road and want more chip resistance, there is a third compound,” Hoffman said.
Con-way Truckload has 3,000 tractors and uses wide-base tires in 2,970 of them. The company has 30 tractors that operate in local pickup-and-delivery operations, so they need tires with higher scrub resistance — a tire surface’s ability to resist being worn away.
“The tires we spec wouldn’t work as well in a local pickup-and-delivery environment,” Stockton said.
Pat Martindale, vice president of field maintenance for Penske Truck Leasing Co.’s south-central region, said those in regional applications typically use tires with treads and compounds that allow them to have a higher scrub rate.
“Over the road, it will be a compound and tread design produced to give you the longest wear rate in a non-scrub environment,” he said.
Hoffman said less-than-truckload fleets tend to run single axles instead of double axles and want good traction.
“We primarily focus on an application-specific compound that makes up the tire that will always provide us longer tread life and has higher scrub resistance,” said Jim Miske, director of fleet maintenance for regional LTL carrier A. Duie Pyle, which runs throughout the Northeast.
Miske said his greatest concern on tread pattern is traction.
“If we were running across the country, we would definitely be running different tires than we can today,” he said.
Donn Kramer, Goodyear’s director of commercial tire marketing, said most regional fleet vehicles “do more turning, stopping, breaking and backing than longhaul” operations and have tire wear rates that are “much faster due to the constant scrubbing of the treads.”
Penske’s Martindale said the food-service industry also gravitates to tires with higher scrub resistance.
“They do a lot of turning and backing. We’ll try to engineer the right tire to have the right tread and compound,” Martindale said.
Auto haulers tend to be more concerned about the size of tires than those in other fleet categories because the trailer extends over the top of the truck and there is more weight on the steer tires than on other trucks.
“We make tires for the steer on the auto haulers that are shorter — that give them the clearance they need and carry a lot of load,” Michelin’s Baldwin said.
He explained the focus on vocation-specific tires began developing a decade ago, initially driven by severe-service tire markets such as refuse and oil-field work.
“There was a lot of effort to provide them with the best product,” Baldwin said.
Last year, Firestone introduced the FD835 tire, which is designed to provide superior traction both on and off the highway and is tailored for rugged applications. The deep tread that gives the tire traction means it isn’t as fuel efficient as other tires, but tends to last longer.
“We make a very specific tire for [the refuse] market called the ‘XZU S,’ ” Baldwin said. He said the tires offer wider tread and new compounds that improve traction on wet surfaces, and the design increases resistance to the high brake temperatures common in urban areas where service includes frequent stops and starts.
In addition to purchasing new tires, most fleets retread.
“Over-the-road fleets will put new tires on steers and retread on the drives before they move back to the trailer,” Hoffman said.
A. Duie Pyle is among the many fleets using retreads.
“If everything is working perfectly, the only brand-new tire we will purchase is a steer tire,” Miske said.
Con-way Truckload only retreads tires once, but is still interested in the number of times a casing can be reused because it will retain better value.
“There is still value out there in the market after we’re done with a tire because some fleets can take the casing and retread it two or three times and use it on the trailer,” Stockton explained.
While there are many new tire and retread options available, A. Duie Pyle limits the number it uses.
“We try to keep as few tires as possible, because then it becomes an expense to manage that many different tires,” Miske said.
New tires are constantly being introduced and progressive fleets run regular tests, Double Coin’s Murphy said.
“They find the right tire for their specific vocations but constantly test tires because manufacturers are trying to improve the products that are out there today,” he said.
Stockton confirmed that Con-way is always testing tires and monitoring fuel mileage.
“It is like a science project that never ends, because there are so many types of new tires coming out,” he said.
Stockton recommends that fleets test a tire until the end of its life.
“We found that is the only way to know what the total cost of ownership is. We’ve been through tests where the first 50% of it seemed like the tire company’s projection was right on, but then in the second half, the tread wore off twice as fast.”
Kevin Rohlwing, senior vice president of training for the Tire Industry Association, agreed that testing is important.
“Tires evolve. Tires that didn’t work a year or two ago might be a different tire today. Picking the right tire for the application is 90% of the battle.”
The fact that tires are among a fleet’s largest expenses makes picking the correct ones even more crucial.
“When tires are combined with maintenance costs in a fleet, tires can be as much as 30% of the total cost of maintaining a truck,” Stockton said.
Double Coin’s Murphy said that the time a fleet invests in finding and testing tires pays off.
“Having the right product for the right application helps performance and also helps protect and prolong their assets,” he said.
