Redefining the Tire Market

Related Stories Task force says tire debris not going away. (April 7) Automated systems make sure tires stay pumped up. (April 7) (Note: To return to this story, click the "Back" button on your browser.)

Faced with intense worldwide competition and a narrowing quality gap, tire makers are beginning to look beyond selling tires to distinguish themselves in the truck market.

Michelin North America of Greenville, S.C., began offering retreading to broaden its product line. Last year, 60% of all replacement tires bought in the United States were retreads.

The company announced last week plans to buy Tire Centers Inc. of Akron, Ohio, one of the largest independent tire dealers in the country and a major user of Michelin’s mold cure retread technology.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. of Akron, Ohio, has offered retreading, tire management and emergency road service to fleets for years. It is now providing software to track costs as well as tire and vehicle performance.

In February, Bandag Inc., the nation’s biggest retreader based in Muscatine, Iowa, signed an exclusive tire management contract with Roadway Express, a nationwide general freight carrier with headquarters in Akron, Ohio.

Under the arrangement, a Bandag subsidiary, Tire Management Solutions, and some 70 Bandag dealers will assume responsibility for the acquisition, maintenance and repair of tires and wheels in Roadway’s fleet of 10,000 tractors and 33,400 trailers. Roadway will pay an undisclosed per-mile fee for the service.

Outsourcing is expected to grow rapidly, and most tire makers are positioning themselves to provide “cradle-to-grave” tire management services, according to Peggy J. Fisher, an independent tire management consultant based in Rochester Hills, Mich., and a former executive in charge of tire maintenance at Roadway.

“Tire companies want to tie up the fleet customer,” she said. “They want all the business that relates to tires — the maintenance, the service. That’s the trend now.”

Tire failure — its impact on service and the cost of emergency repairs — is the biggest issue for most trucking companies, Fisher said. Fleets are also concerned about durability, cost per mile and fuel economy.

According to her analysis, about 4% of a fleet’s over-the-road equipment experiences some kind of breakdown due to tire failure each year.

The best way to prevent tire failure is an inspection of tires and air pressures before each trip.

“If you keep proper inflation, most problems go away,” Fisher said. “Most fleets have good scheduled maintenance, but in between, they have problems. Fleets fail to pick out tires that have been cut, punctured or have other problems that will fail tires on-route and result in an emergency road call.”

For the full story, see the April 5 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.