RTA NEWS YOU CAN USE
August 5, 2016

The following article is presented for your reading interest and is used with permission from Fleet Equipment magazine. It contains valuable information that can save both time and money for both owner operators and trucking fleet managers. We hope you enjoy it.

Pressure points: Relieving the pain of inflated tire costs

By Jason Morgan
Fleet Equipment Magazine

There's no getting around tire costs—this is where the rubber meets the road, literally. It's a constant. However, keeping your tires properly inflated is one of the most important operational efficiencies that you can monitor and control to keep your tires rolling as cost-effectively as possible to get the most out of your tires and saving fuel.

Proper inflation is all about reducing the amount of rolling resistance generated by the tire. Rolling resistance is the energy a tire consumes while rolling under load. Heat is generated by the tire's sidewalls and tread as the tire flexes when rolling. However, the minimum resistance between the tire and the road surface cannot be achieved unless the tire is maintained at the optimal, manufacturer-specified PSI for each model of tire. This is also true for tires that are designed for optimized fuel efficiency.

"Generally speaking, PSI below the recommended pressure degrades rolling resistance performance and adversely affects tire wear near the edge of the tread," explained Charles Timmerman, director of service marketing for Michelin Americas Truck Tires, "whereas PSI above recommended pressure can improve rolling resistance performance slightly, but degrades tread wear on the center of the tire."

"Running tires underinflated adversely affects vehicle fuel economy; tire rolling resistance increases because the tire footprint becomes longer when underinflated," said Kevin Hennig, vice president of product development for Pressure Systems International (P.S.I.), manufacturer of the P.S.I. automatic tire inflation system (ATIS) for trailers. "There is 18% more rubber on the road for a 295/75R22.5 tire when running at 70 PSI vs. a standard 100 PSI. The longer footprint in combination with the higher heat associated with the flexing of the sidewalls when underinflated leads directly to higher rolling resistance and lower fuel economy: 10% underinflation is a more than 1% loss in fuel economy, and 20% underinflation will cost a fleet about 2.5% in fuel economy."

Improper inflation can also adversely impact your tire casing, minimizing its value.

"Low tire pressure creates a tire that is overloaded," said Aaron Murphy, TBC Corp.'s vice president of commercial tire sales. "An overloaded tire generates more and more heat. As heat builds up, it contributes to casing failure by affecting the internal components of the tire. Not only may this lead to a failure and downtime of the vehicle, it can render a casing useless for retreading—another lost asset."

There are two solutions for maintaining proper tire inflation—tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) and ATIS. The most obvious different between TPMS Solutions and ATIS is that TPMS units are technology-based systems designed to monitor tire performance indicators and measurements and report those readings in-cab and/or remotely to a fleet maintenance manager, while ATIS units are mechanically-based systems that are designed to fill a tire when it drops below a certain level of pressure. Both are designed with the same goal of helping fleets maintain optimal tire pressures, resulting in significant savings and substantial safety benefits reaped through extended tire life, improved fuel economy, decreased downtime, reduced maintenance, improved handling and breaking.

Taking into consideration the costs of service, downtime, and a new tire and/or rim, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems estimates that preventing just one on-road tire failure will offset the cost of a TPMS system.

"For fleet managers, it's always best to use your own data to reach this ROI. That way fleets can create their own additional savings benchmarks by running some trucks with TPMS and comparing things like fuel economy, tire wear and tire-related downtime over a six- to 12-month period against trucks without the system," said Jon Intagliata, product manager of tire pressure monitoring systems for Bendix. "It's also important to remember that weather, driving habits and road conditions are among the variables to consider in such a scenario."

Creating an ROI profile for TPMS is clearly not a simple calculation, but ensuring that your tires are being maintained and driven in the optimal conditions is the best return for a fleet. "By doing so, the fleet is ensuring that their tire performance is being maximized in all criteria, such as fuel efficiency, mileage, retreadability, etc.," said Terry Smouter, business development manager for Continental Commercial Vehicle Tires. "All of these factors are main cost drivers for the fleet and optimizing these factors will more than make up for the investment in TPMS. These are also not just optimizing tire performance in the first life, but giving optimal performance through all lives of the tire. In the end, calculating ROI is a difficult task, but clearly ensuring that the fleet's tire performance is optimized will more than pay for itself for the fleet."

There is no shortcut for creating an ROI baseline—it requires a large amount of data to generate a valid baseline metric from which sound conclusions can be drawn. Michelin's Timmerman recommended the following simple model to help fleets get started in establishing a baseline:

• Start by assessing the fleet's tire pressure maintenance program to determine if it is truly effective at maintaining optimal tire pressure;
• Calculate the cost of each hour of downtime when a vehicle is out of service;
• Chart what you are spending on fuel and the miles driven by the fleet in a given period (e.g. monthly, annually);
• As accurately as possible, calculate the average life of each tire per wheel position; and
• Finally, capture the cost of emergency roadside events related to tire failure.

"Armed with this information, it should be relatively easy to calculate a cost per mile baseline and the costs associated with poorly maintained tires," Timmerman said. "There are several publicly available industry studies correlating the effect of severe under-inflation with fuel consumption and tire life. Many vendors have customizable ROI calculators posted on their websites."

Talking tractor tire inflation options

When it comes to TPMS, tire inflation monitoring offerings are fairly straightforward on tractor tire positions. ATIS, however, is a different story. ATIS is widely available for trailer tire position, but tractor tire position options are limited.

"In a tractor application, the presence of the drive train significantly limits the real estate for routing the airlines out to the wheel end," said Josh Carter, chief executive officer of Aperia, maker of Halo, a stand-alone ATIS system which can be installed on the wheel hub of any tire position. "While the industry has rightfully given much attention to the trailer ATI systems over the last two decades, there is a common misconception about the ROI opportunity for a tractor ATI solution. We hear all the time, 'My trailer tires are the ones that get neglected,' and 'I see my tractors much more than my trailers, so I need inflation more on my trailers.' In an absolute sense, that common perspective is not wrong. But, the question of 'What under-inflation is costing you more money?' is answered by combining average under-inflation with average mileage—highlighting the major opportunity among tractors, which do three-times the distance trailers do."

"Manufacturers of tractor ATIS solutions need to overcome additional costs associated with additional components or complexities that come with designing the proper solution," explained John Bennett, general manager of global product strategy for Meritor. "Another challenge is overcoming the customer's expectation on cost. The initial sticker shock for a customer can be challenging, because the customer is used to paying a lower price for trailer tire inflation systems while tractor tire inflation system have more complexity and ultimately result in a higher price."

While several companies such as Dana and Meritor are developing ATIS for tractors, Aperia's Halo is currently the only ATIS solution that works on tractor tire positions. Halo is also available from Michelin as Michelin Auto Inflate, thanks to a partnership between the two companies announced earlier this year.

Data-driven tire inflation

Fleets increasingly are integrating the TPMS information into their telematics to provide back office management of tire issues instead of placing this responsibility only on the driver, Bendix's Intagliata reported.

"The back office reporting allows the fleet's management to decide if and where to send the driver to address the issue," he said. "It also allows the accumulation of the tire pressure data for further analytics related to both driver behaviors, fuel economy and tire cost per mile."

Fleets are also interested in collecting tire pressure, temperature and tread depth/wear for trend analysis and possibly some elementary predictive analytics.

"Some fleet asset management systems have tire modules included which provide basic features for tracking tire life cycle data, but true analytics requires systems that are far more robust," Michelin's Timmerman said. He went on to explain that Michelin has one such initiative as part of its digitalization effort to deliver predictive and prescriptive solutions for fleets.

"Every tire tells a story—especially the old ones," said Matt Loos, director of TBR marketing for Bridgestone Commercial Group. "Close analysis of every tire removed from service can help you accomplish several things: One, it can answer important questions about alignment, operating conditions, tire age and fleet specifications; and two, it can help identify opportunities to reduce expense. In the end, you'll have a reliable data set that can reduce costs and improve profitability by giving you insight about products and equipment."

Bridgestone's BASys Fleet Analyzer 2.0 mobile and web-based tire inspection tool offers detailed reports on the performance and condition of your tires after an inspection is performed. Fleets get detailed information about including inflation, tread depth and potential.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"If you don't have time to do it right,
when will you have time to do it over?"
~ John Wooden