Maintaining your tires is one of the most critical parts of taking care of your truck. Choosing the tires suited to your specific purpose, avoiding both over or under inflation, and correctly aligning your axels are all part of the process. Apart of all this is the reality that tires rank in the top three for most expensive line item, costing drivers 4 to 5 cents every mile. However, there’s technology that can help reduce the cost of this vital piece of your truck, as reported by Truckinginfo.com.
B2B’s mobility solutions senior marketing manager, Justin Cocchiola, sees the advantage of such technology. The data-collecting equipment, which can be built into the maintenance system, exist as sensors, or as tire inflation and temperature monitoring systems, allow trucking companies the ability to use collected data to “proactively address tire issues and increase technician productivity,” he said.
The technology, which can also be stand-alone tire monitoring systems that specialize in reducing cost per mile, collects the necessary data to make tire maintenance easier. It also helps to avoid disastrous repairs as it works ahead to track and stop big problems before they happen. Most of the management systems use data collected from several sources to ascertain a detailed log of the tires’ performance.
Dave Walters, Trimble Transportation’s senior solutions engineer, has worked with technology that “allows fleets to create tire configurations for each vehicle type,” he said. This is important when considering the differing number of axels and tires which is dependent on the truck type.
It’s commonplace for drivers to regularly notate air pressure and tread depth, giving the tire management system lifelong measurements for each tire’s tread, getting as specific as miles per 1/32 of wear. This attention to detail helps trucking companies “forecast future tire replacements and … validate tire specifications,” Walter said.
This provides companies with knowledge on which tires are best suited to their purposes, as well as information on tread, retreading, and serviceability. All of this information helps trucking companies in “(maximizing) their investments in tires.” And for a driver, it gives a sense of peace of mind.
Whip Around is a tire maintenance system that comes equipped with personalized inspection forms, able to collect data on inflation, damage, and tread depth. Lauren Yeoman, Whip Around’s product marketing manager, explained that the app can collect this information and then, if needed, quickly connect a driver to a repair shop.
Being in the trucking industry means being cognizant of tire maintenance. Incorporating advanced systems than can track tire health and provide solutions when repair is required increases both the safety and satisfaction of drivers, the most important cargo.
