NACFE updates Tire Pressure Systems Confidence Report

The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) has just completed a revision of its Tire Pressure Systems Confidence Report. The original report was published in 2013, but developments in truck tire pressure monitoring and inflation led NACFE to revise the report.

The report noted that fleets will see increased productivity when tires are properly inflated. Yet, statistics show that only 46% of all tractor tires and 38% of all trailer tires inspected are within ±5 psi of their target inflation pressure.

“Anything we can do to help protect the most abused piece of equipment in the industry, the trailers, is a significant gain,” said Jerry Mastin, director of fleet maintenance at Carter Express. “It makes the drivers more efficient if we can take the trailer tire pressure maintenance responsibility off their hands.”

The report identified five types of tire pressure systems: tire pressure monitoring systems, dual tire pressure equalizers, automatic tire inflation systems, central tire inflation systems and passive pressure containment approaches.

“The future of commercial fleet tire management is a comprehensive platform. Tractor Automatic Tire Inflation Systems (ATIS) allows fleets to standardize tire inflation pressure across all tire assets — unlocking the cost savings well-known to trailer ATIS adopters,” said Judith Monte, vice president of marketing and customer service at Aperia Technologies. “When coupled with predictive tire analytics, it allows fleets to standardize a wholly new tire management operating model that’s predictive, proactive, proportionate, portfolio-wide, and low-overhead. The benefits will be significant — realized as better decisions, time savings, and unlocked capacity from vehicles reallocated to revenue miles and manager time redirected toward higher-value work.”

Since the original report was released tire pressure monitoring systems — which monitor pressure and in some cases temperature for each individual tire — have become the enabler of tire management systems.

Tire pressure monitoring systems and automated tire inflation systems are recognized efficiency options in the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Model (GEM) of the Greenhouse Gas Phase 2 regulations.

Today, most truck manufactures have some type of tire pressure system that can be spec’d on a new vehicle.

“With approximately 70% of new trailers being equipped with ATIS, it is likely the most specified option on trailers today because of the validated ROI,” said Jim Sharkey, vice president of global sales and marketing for Pressure Systems International. “This is due in no small part to the work that NACFE has done in evaluating the technology and providing an independent resource for fleets considering the investment.”

The revision of the Tire Pressure Systems Confidence Report is part of NACFE’s effort to update all existing Confidence Reports. The reports on idle reduction technologies and 6x2 axles were updated in 2019, but the balance will be updated as well.

“For much of last year we focused our efforts on emerging technologies and published Guidance Reports on commercial battery electric vehicles, but we also recognize the importance of keeping the industry up to date on developments in existing fuel savings technologies,” said Mike Roeth, executive director of NACFE. “Throughout this year we will continue to review and refresh each of the Confidence Reports on existing technology while continuing our work on emerging technologies."