Title: Vice president-maintenance
Fleet: Maverick Transportation LLC, North Little Rock, AR
Operation: A 1,400-unit flatbed, dry van, and refrigeration carrier
Problem: When Maverick Transportation began contemplating a changeover to wide-base tires for the tandem axles on its tractors nearly a decade ago, Mike Jeffress, the carrier’s vice president of maintenance, polled some of the fleet’s senior drivers to get a sense of how such a tire switch would be viewed. Despite projected weight savings and fuel economy benefits, adopting wide-base tires worried more than a few of them when it came to vehicle safety.
“Driver feedback received early on was the concern of not having a sister dual tire in the event of a tire failure, thus creating unsafe conditions for the motoring public as well as our employees,” he explains.
So Jeffress and Maverick decided to examine a variety of tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) not only to make it easier and faster for drivers to ensure all tires checked out at the right pressure, but also to provide a heads-up in terms of rapid tire deflation.
“Some of the brands we looked at are mounted inside the tire, requiring disassembly of the tire, which can take up to an hour to repair,” he notes. “Today, with changes to hours-of-service regulations, time is even more of the essence. Therefore, ease of repair, if required, is essential.”
Solution: After canvassing the market, Maverick settled on IVTM technology from Wabco Holdings for its tractors. This is an integrated vehicle tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) that the company says can help increase tire life up to 20% and reduce fuel consumption by up to 2% simply by maintaining proper tire inflation levels. Wabco adds that its IVTM system also is designed to detect slow leaks, which contribute to heat buildup, increasing the chances of a tire failure. Another key attribute from a maintenance perspective, though, is that Wabco’s IVTM system uses external wheel-mounted sensors to measure tire pressure, transmitting that information wirelessly to an electronic control unit that alerts the driver to any tire inflation issues.
“The design features of the wheel end sensors are more robust, plus it allows inflation adjustments without any disassembling of the system,” Jeffress says. “Maintenance, if required to a wheel sensor, is as simple as removing two lug nuts and replacing them, which can be accomplished in a matter of minutes.” He also points out that Maverick made the decision to move to TPMS well before the implementation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program went into effect.
“One should consider TPMS if they are having issues with tire inflation, not necessarily from a CSA standpoint, but more so for improving cost per mile as well as reducing the amount of time the driver uses to perform their pre/post-trip inspections,” Jeffress advises. Maverick started installing its TPMS technology in 2004 via a retrofit process, and continues to remove the technology from existing equipment at trade time and reinstall it on the new power units. “Some of the systems we have are still of the original venue, 10 years later,” Jeffress says. “That in itself in our eyes defines the durability of the technology.”
He emphasizes that all new Maverick drivers go through an extensive orientation process that incorporates how to read the TPMS display and what one should do if a leak is detected. “The process is simple to follow, and the display is laid out in a fashion that allows for quick adoption,” Jeffress adds.
At the end of the day, he says, fleets can obtain a variety of benefits from using TPMS. Labor hours during preventive maintenance services are reduced and ensuring proper air inflation levels extend tire mileage. Driver satisfaction that air pressures are correct reduces stress levels in an already highly stressful environment, and most importantly fuel efficiencies are gained by running with properly inflated tires.
