Always on guard
“We have a very mature and very robust totaltire-management program in place for our highly diverse fleet,” relates Scott Perry, vice president of supply management for Ryder’s Fleet Management Solutions unit, which leases and rents vehicles and provides managed-maintenance services.
“Tire care,” he continues, “is never a one-time event, as it’s driven by the type of vehicle and its duty cycle. We may be talking about a rental tractor purchased new for urban service that may later move to regional or end up leased to a high-mileage operation. One truck’s tire needs may change over time.”
Perry says that keeping tire expenditures in line requires constant review of all associated costs. “We want to know, for example, if there’s a higher rate of tire failure over a given period in such and such an application so we can address any issue directly.”
Getting the maximum cost per mile from tires is all about “practicing the basic blocking and tackling,” Perry suggests.
A successful game plan, he asserts, has to start with inflation: “There’s no such thing as checking air pressure too often.”
Running interference, though, can be crucial. “Ryder is responsible for some 160,000 commercial vehicles in North America, most of which are operated by lease and rental customers,” Perry points out. “And that means we have 1.25 million ‘tire positions’ on the ground at any point in time.
“That’s why we do a lot of education of drivers on tires and air and work to make sure they have the proper tool to check inflation pressure and understand when a tire needs a maintenance inspection. A thumper is not a tool,” he continues. “A calibrated tire gauge is. We educate them on how tire pressure can be too low or too high at any given time and that, for example, any time pressure is down 10 psi or more, the tire must be properly inspected to avoid a failure or an unsafe driving condition.
Alignment is what carries the ball yet further. Perry stresses that “alignment—both total vehicle alignment and axle alignment—cannot be ignored,” noting that having the correct toe-in set on steers is especially critical to avoid irregular tire wear.
Also helping blitz tire costs is retreading. “We rely very heavily on retreading for replacement use,” reports Perry, “and we expect to soon start to retread as well the new lower rolling-resistance tires spec’d for fuel efficiency.
“On the whole,” he notes, “tire inflation is the primary factor affecting retreadability, but [rubber] oxidation [incurred over time] also degrades casings.
Lastly, Perry advises that Ryder regards “around a penny a mile” as an optimal tire cost. “Never will a one-time decision net the lowest tire cost per mile,” he stresses. “Getting there requires a lot of attention all the time.”
