Magazine for the professional tire industry
Issue link: https://mtd.epubxp.com/i/328077
MTD June 2014 By Jim Park T he S.2 Tire and Wheel Study Group of the American Trucking Associations' Technology and Maintenance Council (TMC) recently conducted a tire management survey, which produced some eye-opening statistics. Four feets presented overviews of their tire management experiences at TMC's recent annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn., in a session called Benchmarking the Success of your Tire Program. While these four diverse feets were not necessarily part of the survey results, this inside look will prove valuable to help your feet customers get the most out of their tire purchases. FedEx Ground, Pitsburgh, Penn. • Fleet: 33,240 single-axle trailers, 10,032 tandem trailers, 9,000 single axle converter dollies for a total of 256,000 wheel positions. • FedEx Ground retreads all casings up to six years of age then downgrades them to switcher tractors, geting an average of two retreads per trailer tire and one per yard tractor. • All new and retreaded tires are SmartWay-verifed, low-profle 22.5 duals. Tey tried wide-base singles but are now moving away from them. All tire work is subcontracted. TMC show The average number of service calls for the reporting feets was one per tractor for every 74,000 miles or about 1.5 service calls per year per tractor. Tire survey quick facts from the Technology and Maintenance Council The S.2 Tire and Wheel Study Group of the American Trucking Associations' Technology and Maintenance Council (TMC) surveyed 435 feets. Of the 21 respondents, 50% were line haul operations, 41% regional and 29% reported some pickup and delivery. The average number of trailers in the respond- ing feets was 2,093, indicating some large feets responded. Here's a quick look at some of the results. Uptake of fuel-efficient, low-rolling- resistance tires: Steer position: 94% Drive position: 88% Trailer position: 81% Wide-base single tires: Eight of the 21 feets reported using at a drive position, 11 on trailers Frequency of tire pressure checks: Daily: 4% Weekly: 33% Monthly: 19% Only at PM interval: 29% Uptake on tire maintenance technology: Automatic tire infation system on trailer: 62% Tire pressure monitoring: 29% – 50/50 tractor and trailer Average tire mileage to take-off by po- sition: Steer position: 117,000 Drive position: 236,000 Trailer position: 123,000 Average frequency of tire-related road- side service calls: Average across the 21-feet sample was 93 service calls per month. Average monthly mileage for the 21 fleets was 6.9 million, for an average of one service call every 74,000 miles, or about 1.5 service calls per year per tractor. The average for trailers is higher than that. The top two reasons for tire service calls are road hazards/impact breaks and under-infation due to a puncture. Fleets doing scrap tire pile analysis: 88% Fleets using an add-on aftermarket tire sealant: 14% (two feets reported using sealants on drive tires; one feet used sealant on trailer tires) Fleets actively benchmarking against competition: 25% Benchmarking tires An inside look at how feets manage their tires 46