Author: Tom Quimby, CCJ senior editor
Go to Source
Though fuel prices have reached historic levels, are some fleets still missing the mark on tire pressure management and thus paying even more at the pump?
“Yes,” said Michelin North America Product Manager Jim Garrett. “Especially with today’s high fuel prices, they are losing more cash out of their pocket. Various studies have found that around 10% of fleets are running underinflated with about 5% of tires more than 20 psi under. This is similar to what we see when we monitor fleets.”
Goodyear also sees fleet fuel bills adding up because of overlooked tire pressure losses.
“Absolutely,” said Austin Crayne, business development manager for Goodyear. “When you consider the hundreds of miles truck drivers log per week, tire pressure can be a major factor in fuel economy, and it’s often the easiest to correct.
“A TMC [Technology & Maintenance Council] report on tire pressure monitoring and inflation maintenance says that a tire underinflated by as little as 10 psi reduces fuel economy by about 1%,” Crayne continued. “Stack that up for a truck and a fleet, and that could lead to a serious increase in fuel spend. Especially as fleets experience surges in fuel costs, frequent tire pressure checks are a simple way to save money at the pump over time.”
Continental’s U.S. vice president of truck tire sales and marketing, Tom Fanning, also believes fleets are sacrificing fuel economy with improperly inflated tires and pointed to a multi-year study that shows some surprising results.
“The Continental team in the U.S. and Canada have inspected over 1.1 million tires with air pressure measurements,” Fanning said. “Our 10-year database with 2 million data points shows that about 39% of steers, 34% of drives and 33% of trailer tires are considered underinflated.”
Related Posts: