Companies like SAF-Holland have been working to make tire monitoring and management more streamlined with the introduction of products to help with continuous tire status monitoring and automatic tire inflation systems. SAF-Holland’s Bill Hicks shares details on the importance of this practice, and what fleets can expect in the future.
Transcription of interview:
Erica Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: Hello and welcome to VSP News: Uptime Update. I am your host, Erica Schueller, Editor-in-Chief of Fleet Maintenance magazine, covering all maintenance, all vehicle classes, all management, all the time.
According to a recent report from TMC’s Tire & Wheel Study Group on tire maintenance, fleet tires are the second largest investment for a fleet. Because of this, it is critical to fleets that tires are properly managed and maintained.
Companies like SAF-Holland have been working to make tire monitoring and management more streamlined with the introduction of products to help with continuous tire monitoring and automatic tire inflation systems.
Bill Hicks, product manager of the Americas for SAF-Holland, talks about the importance of monitoring a fleet's tires, and how tire pressure systems can provide a means to more closely monitor the performance and status of tires on fleet vehicles.
We talk first about the challenges fleets face when handling improperly inflated tires.
Bill Hicks, SAF-Holland: Improperly inflated tires consume extra fuel, which of course, hurts the overall fuel efficiency.
Additionally, an improperly inflated tire, especially underinflation, adds heat to the tires which will reduce their overall service life. Since tires are the second most expensive fleet maintenance item, this is critical for fleet efficiency.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: Let’s talk about the current products available today. There are some options available to fleets for monitoring tires. Hicks shares more on the different product categories available.
Hicks, SAF-Holland: Since tire inflation is key to maintaining and optimizing tire life, a fleet has several options.
One is tire monitoring, which will tell you the tire pressure. However, it does not add air. It requires the driver and/or fleet to do something about it.
Secondarily, a more proactive approach would be tire maintenance systems. It’s an automatic system, when sensing a low tire pressure, will add pressure to the tire, therefore maintaining the tire pressure at its set requirement and optimizing the overall tire life.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: SAF-Holland recently introduced its tire pressure management product, the Tire Pilot Plus. Hicks explains some of the benefits to spec'ing this type of system to help reduce maintenance costs and increase vehicle uptime.
Hicks, SAF-Holland: By having a system where you maintain the constant pressure in a tire, you’re going to increase fuel economy, but you’re also going to reduce tire related service issues, which can be very expensive in the service field.
The Tire Pilot Plus also has some unique features, requiring very low maintenance, a very robust system, whether the rotary union is on the inside of the axle. Those types of things, to make it less susceptible to impacts and road debris, that type of thing. That helps the fleet to reduce overall maintenance with their tires.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: Technology advances just keep coming, and fleet tire monitoring is no exception. Hicks talks about some of the upcoming trends we can expect in the near future.
Hicks, SAF-Holland: I think what you’ll see in the future is added electronics, smart-type intelligence built into the system. You may see things that sense the tire temperature or possibly the load on the tire, and make adjustments to the pressure.
These are things that have to be proven out yet. But, what is the value to the fleet? They’re out there, and the intelligence being built into trucks and trailers now is going to push the overall tire maintenance systems design, and add added value for fleets.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: To learn more about tire pressure monitoring and maintenance systems that can monitor and automatically inflate tires, check out the link below.
That’s it for this week’s episode. Thank you for tuning in to VSP News: Uptime Update, I’m your host Erica Schueller.
Until our next broadcast, keep up with this, and other industry topics, by visiting us online at VehicleServicePros.com.
Learn more about tire pressure monitoring and maintenance systems.
