Birmingham, AL. A new method for tracking a fleet’s tires is on the way from maintenance software provider Squarerigger Inc. of Silverdale, WA. The system was demonstrated this week here at McLeod Software’s 15th annual user conference.
A small bar code scanner-equipped pocket PC uses a graphical display to illustrate every tire on a truck, from 10 tires on a twin-axle tractor down to six tires if the tractor uses wide-base tires on its rear axles or four tires on a medium-duty truck. The system allows maintenance personnel to update tire pressure, tread depth, and tire condition just by tapping the pocket PC’s screen, said Squarerigger.
“Tracking tires is one of the most labor-intensive and time-consuming tasks a fleet maintenance shop can perform,” Ed Cooper, Squarerigger’s CEO, told FleetOwner. “We spent the last nine months developing this system and it’s about to go into Beta testing – we hope to have it available by the end of the year.”
The system relies on a Vulcanized rubber barcode developed by Tire Tracker LLC that allows the pocket PC to identify the tire quickly and keep track of it as it gets rotated around the vehicle, sent out for retreading, scrapped, etc.
“The whole issue is that tires are among the top three costs of any fleet – right after labor and fuel – yet tracking tires requires a carrier to dedicate enormous time and resources to do it properly,” Cooper added.
“Using this simple touch-screen method allows the tire data to be entered into the system once, without the need for manual downloading, and can be done quickly by any available personnel,” he said. “Our whole paradigm is to increase ‘wrench time’ for maintenance workers by reducing time wasted on manual data entry. That in turn reduces shop time for truck repairs, making equipment available for revenue-producing work.”
