Inside a Real Fleet Tire Assessment: What the Data Revealed
🔧 Topics Covered:
Fleet tire data assessments enable significant cost savings through better tire selection and maintenance.
Technology-driven tire data collection removes bias and provides accurate, actionable insights.
Waste fleets offer ideal conditions for tire testing due to consistent routes and truck types.
Proper tire inflation and tread management can reduce tire wear and fuel consumption significantly.
Emergency Road Service (ERS) events, while costly, occur relatively infrequently but are still a focus for preventative maintenance.
Fuel economy is a critical but often misunderstood factor influenced by tire choice and maintenance.
The program is expanding geographically and across fleet types, including linehaul and regional trucking.
Show Notes:
Episode: Inside a Real Fleet Tire Assessment: What the Data Revealed
Host: Joseph and Rob Bulldock
Runtime: 31.5 minutes
Summary:
This podcast episode from “Around the Bead” provides an in-depth discussion on fleet tire management, data collection, and analysis in commercial trucking, waste, mining, and agriculture industries. Hosted by Joseph Pahanic, the episode features Rob Bulldock, a tire industry veteran, and Dustin Martin, a data technician at East Bay Tire. They explore the importance of tire data in optimizing fleet performance, budgeting, and maintenance, emphasizing how tire wear, inflation, and fuel economy directly impact operational costs.
The conversation highlights the evolving role of data technicians in the tire industry, the use of technology to capture accurate tire metrics, and the value of unbiased, brand-agnostic assessments to help fleets make informed decisions. Using a waste fleet example, they reveal substantial potential cost savings achieved by selecting better-performing tires and maintaining proper tire pressure.
The discussion also delves into challenges such as driver behavior, lack of standard tire pressure monitoring systems, and how different fleet types (waste, linehaul, regional) have unique tire and fuel management needs. The episode underscores the significance of preventative maintenance and data-driven strategies to reduce emergency road service (ERS) events, improve fuel efficiency, and ultimately lower the total cost of ownership for fleets. The conversation ends with a forward-looking view of expanding data collection and analytics to more fleets and regions.
What You'll Learn:
Data-Driven Fleet Management Yields Substantial Savings: The podcast highlights how detailed tire wear and inflation data can lead to tens of thousands of dollars in savings annually for fleets. For example, switching steer tires with only an 8% wear difference can save a fleet $10,000 per year, while a 14% difference on drive tires can save $40,000. These savings are critical for medium to large fleets and underscore the financial impact of tire management beyond initial purchase price.
The Emergence of Data Technicians is Transforming the Tire Industry: Dustin Martin’s role as a data technician illustrates a new industry trend where specialized personnel collect and analyze tire data in the field using advanced electronic tools. This specialization ensures unbiased, accurate data collection, moving away from traditional sales-driven metrics that could be subjective. This professionalization enhances trust and transparency within fleets.
Waste Fleets as a Model for Tire Performance Trials: The discussion reveals that waste fleets provide an optimal environment for tire testing due to their consistent tire sizes (315s, 11R225s), uniform truck types, and predictable routes. The frequent stop-and-go nature accelerates tire wear, allowing faster data collection and more reliable projections. This contrasts with linehaul fleets where trucks may be dispersed over long distances and harder to track.
Tire Inflation Directly Influences Fuel Economy and Tire Life: The data shared shows overinflation reduces tire life by 1% per 0.5 psi above the recommended pressure, while underinflation decreases life by 1% per 1 psi below. Furthermore, underinflation adversely affects fuel economy by around 0.2% per psi. This demonstrates the financial and environmental importance of maintaining proper tire pressure, a detail often overlooked or poorly managed in fleets.
Emergency Road Service Events Are Costly but Infrequent: ERS events, mostly tire-related, occur on average twice per Class A truck annually but some fleets experience them far less frequently. While the downtime and repair costs can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars per event, the podcast suggests that preventive tire maintenance has a more significant impact on overall fleet economics when compared to ERS costs alone.
Brand-Agnostic, Data-Backed Recommendations Build Fleet Trust: Rob Bulldock emphasizes that the goal is not to push specific tire brands but to provide unbiased advice based on data. This approach benefits both the fleet and tire suppliers by encouraging price adjustments or brand changes when performance metrics dictate. This level of transparency helps fleets optimize budgets and avoid unnecessary expenses.
Challenges in Tire Pressure Monitoring and Driver Behavior Remain: Unlike passenger cars, the commercial trucking industry lacks widely adopted, non-proprietary tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS). This limits real-time tire pressure data and puts pressure on maintenance teams and drivers to manually check tires. Additionally, driver cooperation is a barrier since many drivers may neglect tire checks due to time constraints or lack of incentive, underscoring the need for better technology and education.
Scalability and Expansion of Tire Data Programs: The program described is already operating in multiple states and even Hawaii, extending beyond waste fleets to include over-the-road and regional trucking operations. This scalability underscores the potential for broader adoption across industries, leveraging data analytics to improve fleet efficiency nationwide.
Regional Fleets Can Leverage Consistent Routes for Better Analytics: Regional fleets with predictable routes, such as beverage or grocery delivery, can gain more precise insights from tire and fuel data due to the consistency in mileage and driving patterns. This contrasts with linehaul fleets where route variability makes data tracking more complex but where fuel economy improvements may have a larger impact.
Real-Time Reporting Enhances Fleet Maintenance Decisions: Dustin’s ability to provide immediate, printed air pressure and tread depth reports to fleet maintenance managers helps translate raw data into actionable maintenance plans. This hands-on approach supports timely adjustments, ultimately improving tire performance and safety.
Fuel and Tire Wear Expenses Outweigh ERS Costs in Fleet Budgets: The podcast suggests that while ERS events are costly, the ongoing expenses of fuel and tire replacement dominate the fleet’s P&L. Thus, targeted maintenance and tire selection aimed at reducing fuel consumption and extending tire life can generate more significant financial benefits.
Future of Tire Data Relies on Integration of Technology and Education: The conversation hints at future advancements such as universal TPMS systems, better telematics integration, and driver training to improve tire maintenance compliance. These innovations will be critical to maximizing the benefits of tire data analytics and achieving fleet-wide improvements.
Transcript (Excerpt):
00:00:01 - 00:01:29
[Music] Around the bead podcast, tire talk for trucking, mining, agriculture, and more. Your home for fleet solutions. Aiming to inform, pioneer, and entertain the tire world in connected industries. Sponsored by East Bay Tire, keeping essential industries moving forward. Good day and welcome back to Around the Bead podcast. I am your host, Joseph Pahanic. And as part of our fleet series, I am joined by Rob Bulldock and Dustin Martin, data technician at East Bay Tire and strategic account manager.
00:00:49 - 00:02:01
Gents, are you ready to kick the tires? Let's do it. Let's roll. So yesterday you showed me something that I had never seen before, which was really a graphic of your fleet assessment of this latest uh fleet that you guys trial. Um tell me a little bit about the fleet, not obviously the proprietary details, but how big a fleet, when did it start, what was the goal? Um so so the fleet was it's a it's a waste fleet, you know, garbage refuge collection. um started gosh almost a year ago in track and
00:01:25 - 00:02:19
tires. It was it was a fleet we didn't have. We wanted to to teach the the fleet manager about uh budgeting and what tire is going to be best for his fleet and rather than him just doing what he's always done, right? So, the goal was really to bring awareness to his spend and why he's spending it. I Is that a typical time frame for you guys? Like when you guys start that process with a fleet, hey, we're going to give you an assessment. We want to work with your budget, see where we can find some
00:01:52 - 00:02:51
gains in performance or find some savings, is a full year about the timeline it takes before you can provide, hey, this is where your savings are. No, I mean, typically we can do it a little faster with projections, right? Because after, and it depends on how much the fleet runs, right? if they're if they're really pushing and wearing the tires out in a rapid pace, then we can get that uh rate of wear a lot quicker and turn that into a projection of a timeline of how long that tire will
00:02:21 - 00:03:23
run, right? Um if they're a little slower wear rate, it may take longer. Right? If you're looking at a large uh trucking fleet doing over the road miles uh where they can uh get extra excess of a couple hundred thousand miles on a set of drive tires or over 100,000 on a set of steers, it could take the full year to get a little more data. You might not see those vehicles as often. I I would think as a generality waste garbage would be uh an easier fleet to test. I mean, there's a lot of consistency in
00:02:51 - 00:04:03
the sizes. It's 315s, 11R225s. Um there's less tires that really less brands and retreads that participate in that market, right? There's a lot of existing data out there. They run a lot of the same trucks. Um you find that to be true or is it more complex than meets the eye? You know, part of it, yes, is is true on that because the number of the number of true players aren't as many, right, as far as the tire brands and models. Um, and yes, it's easier because all those units are usually housed in one
00:03:28 - 00:04:31
location, right? And they come back every night, so you can see them every day if you want to. Um, and, uh, they're going to wear the tire. They're going to scrub it quicker, so you can accumulate data faster, right? So, yeah, absolutely. And yes, the tire sizes are pretty pretty standard across the board. 315s, 11RS. We've got some four and a quarters mixed in and then 255s or 275s on tag axles, but pretty simple. Nice. So, Dustin, you've been a data technician for a little under a year.
00:04:00 - 00:04:50
You're probably one of the only guys in the industry that does it. Certainly one of the only few that I know. Uh, what's it like coming into the tire industry brand new? So, yeah, brand new. which all I thought about with tires is, you know, they're black and they're round and that's all I knew. But there's so much information about like just tread and anything they wear. I I've never knew anything like that. It's it's kind of crazy just to see all these tires and
00:04:25 - 00:05:14
like get the information out. I didn't know 11R225 was. I've never seen that or anything like that. So, yeah, it's pretty pretty cool. And uh certainly a big change. I I want to thank you for your service. Uh you were in the Marines for four years. Is that right? Yes. Yes. And did you get that mustache in the Marines or did you just get that for uh for the truck tire business? I think for the truck tire business make me a little a little more more grunt grunt. But uh I did have it in the Marine Corps. It was
00:04:49 - 00:05:47
a little bit more uh trimmed up on the on the lips. Uhhuh. Once I got out cuz you know they're pretty pretty strict on the grooming regulations in the Marine Corps, but uh I grew it out and I wanted to get a little more more crazy with it. Do you have to register that when you go into a bar as a weapon? You know, the the bouncer whenever I go to the bar, they're like, "All right, man. I don't know. I don't know. Stand down." Yeah. No. No. So, uh, Dustin, uh, tell us what a data
00:05:18 - 00:06:08
technician does. I mean, when we when we think about it, uh, those that have been in the industry for a while, sales people used to do that. They'd go they go to their fleet, they they check tread that, they write it on a pen and paper, they bring it to the maintenance manager, say, "Hey, we we might want to change tires here. You might want to change your inflation here, but somebody has to physically collect the data, has to do the hard work. Yeah. Uh that's what you do. What's a day in the life
00:05:43 - 00:06:36
for Dustin the data man? So I'll give you like let's say one of the companies we go uh there's a place out in Wheeland. It's a big landfill. Yeah. I'll go out there. I I meet the manager. I'm like, "Hey, my name's Dustin. I'm with East Bay Tire. I heard Check Tires." They're okay. Yeah. Check in. Um I find their fleet. A lot of them are loaders. Yeah. Uh scris scrapers and grers like that. Um I go out there, I find the first loader I see. I go on on
00:06:10 - 00:07:18
my iPad. Uh we have a website that we use and uh I go from there, check the loader. Um, click on it, grab all my stuff, go up to the tire, check all the information sidewall, make sure it's all correct, go up inside the loader, check the hours, check, make sure the the code on there is correct, come down and just start checking all the tires, air pressure, tread depth, and make sure the tires are all good and set to go. So, you you do earth mover and and Yeah. Okay. And, uh, as as far as do you guys
00:06:44 - 00:07:41
use any special tools to do this? I mean it seems very detail oriented. Yeah, it is very detail oriented. So for commercial we have something we use from a different company. It's all electronic on your uh phone. You can it's app um I see. Yeah, you can see that's a tread depth. So you just punch this in the center. Punch it in and it automatically pops up on your on your phone. So what's what's beautiful about this technology, Joe, is you know, you mentioned in the past salesman doing this kind of work
00:07:12 - 00:08:14
and, you know, there used to be this this theory almost that a salesman uh had two different tread depth gauges, right? They had their uh I'm I'm testing my tire or I'm testing a competitor's tire, right? And how do I want this to look? Do I want the tire to appear to last longer or wear out faster, right? Um, with this new technology, he can't move forward on a tire until he checks three different spots on the tire. It beeps and shows him. Um, you're almost focused on that and the noise it makes
00:07:43 - 00:08:44
versus it giving you the readings on your phone. It It kind of takes away the ability to really have that other focus on like, oh, what tire am I looking at this time? What do what do I want this to say? Right? So, it gives you true, honest readings, which is really cool. But you know that we didn't intend to talk about that today, but isn't that what we should be doing? I mean, isn't isn't that really what the fleet needs from us is to be a brand agnostic, unbiased third party to go, hey, this is
00:08:14 - 00:09:18
help helping run your fleet, not we're trying to sell one brand versus another brand. I mean, brand performance changes, applications change, models get updated, you know, as fast as marketing can possibly pump it out. Isn't that what we're here to do? Yeah, absolutely. Our our job is to provide the fleet with information, right? And to I don't like the term consultant, but to to consult them. Freaking hate it. I fre I said it on a previous podcast and I already hate myself for saying it. We really want to
00:08:45 - 00:09:45
advise and help them understand what the tires are doing in their particular fleet, right? And at the end of the day, we're helping them make decisions. So my job isn't to push a brand. My job is to help that fleet achieve the best budget they can. Yeah. So by doing that, let's say my brand doesn't doesn't cost out or wear as good as the competitive brand. It's my job to go back to the brand that I'm representing and ask them to they've got to look at their price. They didn't
00:09:16 - 00:10:18
they didn't hold up or I'm going to advise that that fleet to go with the other brand at the end of the day. E either way the in acquiring the information can lead to an action item, can lead to a decision, can lead to some sort of savings for the fleet. Yeah. Yeah. So I I brought some data with me today. You know, I'm a data guy. Um uh we built some standards by collecting data from major manufacturers uh from fleets and these are not something that uh are true in every single application
00:09:46 - 00:11:27
but more of an average. Uh overinflation reduces tire life by 1% per half pound of pressure. Underinflation decreases tire life by 1% per one pound of pressure. Dual mismatch can cost between 5 and 20% worth of wear. And underinflation affects miles per gallon by 2/10en of a percent for every one psi on that truck. um we often don't see the results of those numbers, right? That's what I would challenge us as an industry and fleets out there to help come together on, right? But as you collect this data
00:10:36 - 00:11:43
for them to make decisions, those gains are going to be seen on the fuel statement. They're going to be seen on the ERS statement. If you've got maintenance, which the anybody estimates uh an ERS event to cost between $350 and $2,500 depending on how they calculate downtime, but these are huge dollars, far bigger than what what tire spend is. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And it's something I see a lot of major fleets looking at now. They're looking at their average ERS uh event cost, right, across
00:11:09 - 00:12:10
the country. Is it $450? Is it $2,500? what can they do to affect that? Um, and and I usually pitch back with preventative maintenance, right? What's your air pressures running out? What's your tire wear looking like? And it's all those things you just said. How many% you see a lot of tires running at, you said one uh one degree under inflated, right? What if it's 10? What if it's at 90 instead of 100 pounds? So, ERS gets a lot of attention and and I I I mean, it's a service-based issue,
00:11:41 - 00:12:55
right? you've got freight that you need to move to a customer and you're down, it's a pain point. But the the data says that there is maybe two ERS events per class A truck annually. Um, and a lot of people feel that it's more like two events uh every four years. So, it's only every other year that there's a true ERS event. And 80%ish are tire incidents. But at that number, um, it's it's a sizable number in downtime. But at the end of the day, when you look at fuel, that fuel bill, and you look at
00:12:18 - 00:13:37
the tire wear, those are huge expenditures for a 50 truck fleet, let alone a 5,000 truck fleet that I want to say I would love to find out over the next couple years with you guys whether or not fuel and tireware trumps costs because I think it does. Yeah. Well, and fuel and tire wear, uh, I mean, so the ERS, two events per year, per unit, right, was the number you said. Yeah. Right. And they can affect that with some preventative maintenance. They can also affect the fuel and tire wear with preventative maintenance, but those
00:12:58 - 00:13:54
those costs are going to be there regardless. You still have a fuel bill no matter how much preventative maintenance you do, and you still have to replace tires no matter how much preventative maintenance you do. Right. Yeah. So yeah, they are they should absolutely trump the ERS cost because if you can affect you can affect a 500 truck fuel bill by 5% over the course of a year, that's significant money. Yeah, that's huge. And I'd like to do a whole episode just on ERS events. Um I don't
00:13:25 - 00:14:26
want to detract from this episode, but I mean there's a lot of factors to consider. I mean I just think of mismatch duels alone, let's say you've got up to 20%. You have no there's no way the fleet or the truck is going to know what their wear is on their drive tires or their trailer tires at that time. So they blow one, they put a brand new tire on, they put a brand new tire on. At what expense that's going to wear 20% faster? Mhm. Yeah. So Dustin, you've come into the industry. You're one of the few and
00:13:55 - 00:15:08
maybe potentially only in a handful that are data technicians in the field. Uh, one of the questions we ask all of our guests is, "What's your BDE? Your big dog energy?" Uh, do you even have it yet? I mean, Joe, I got it. I got it. All right. So, that your BDE is when you felt like, hey, man, I am I am at a point where this is the industry that I want to chase. Yeah%. Um, where were you with that mustache when that moment happened? Oh. Uh, I think it was a couple months before I got hired. I was I was I don't
00:14:32 - 00:15:31
know. I was trying to think of a job to get. I was like, man, I don't know. I don't know what to do. And, uh, I heard about East Bay Tire. I looked up the company and I was like, familyowned, been around for a long time. I was like, that's kind of interesting. I've never been some of my buddies have been like mechanics and like in the tires and I was like, why don't I try it out? And I I I did a couple little uh like events with uh the other data tech guy, Jesse. Yeah. And I was like, "This is kind of
00:15:01 - 00:15:53
cool." Yeah. And we we did it with this uh with this uh system and I was like, "It's automatic." Like boom boom. You just bang it out. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I think I think I'm going to try it. Let's Let's try it out. I'm I'm going to do it. Yeah. Let's try it out. Well, I think as you go along, you'll you'll find more of those moments. Certainly one for me was when you guys presented uh the data yesterday on this fleet as it comes full
00:15:27 - 00:16:40
circle. You're out in the field, you're pulling all this data. Where does it all go? What's your purpose? What's your impact? Um but yesterday you guys presented the same fleet, two different types of new steer tires on the on the garbage fleet, two different types of retreads, and you guys found what? So, in diving into it, we found about an 8% difference in the steer tires. So, one wearing better than the other and a 14% difference in the drive tires. Now, I remember somebody in the room saying 8%
00:16:03 - 00:17:13
that's not a lot. Yeah. Um, and my thought was, hey, I mean, a 315 new steer tire, I don't know what that's on a national account program, but I mean, it's probably going to float between5 and $700 um for an ultra premium out there. 8 8% is nearly 50 bucks a tire. Yeah. Yes. So, when you when I I kind of broke it down and I I after we talked about that, I I tried to dive into it a little bit. So, and I looked at, let's say the waist fleet's got 60 trucks in it, two tires a piece. Um, and there's $700 a
00:16:38 - 00:17:41
tire. An 8% difference is an extra 10 grand a year on your tire spend, right? For one fleet, and that's a like you said 50 truck, 60 trucks. Yeah. 50 60 trucks, right? So, which hey, 10 grand is 10 grand. Now, if you were to look at the drive tires being 14%, you're talking on that same 60 truck fleet, you're talking $40,000. So, just by switching a brand or using a different brand, you could save yourself $50,000 over the year on your tire spend alone or working with your existing partner to
00:17:10 - 00:18:16
go, "Hey, we need a a price concession because the performance isn't there right now." Exactly. Yep. 50 grand. I mean, that's uh heck, and you guys you guys could run hundreds of fleets at one time tracking all this data. Uh that's unbelievable savings. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if you I mean if you look at a a fleet that's got let's say they've got 10 locations and they're all 60 truck or more. Yeah. And you were to suggest a savings of 50 grand per location. I mean now you're talking
00:17:42 - 00:18:53
about something pretty significant to uh the upper management or that CFO of the company. That's huge. Yeah. Huge. Huge. And you guys are starting to have those conversations. I mean, this is the the beginning of a multi-year project. Where do you see this going next? I see getting even bigger. Yeah. Maybe going more in different different states or we're already in Hawaii now doing it, too. So, it's it's expanding even even more than I could even imagine. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I my goal is if if
00:18:18 - 00:19:13
we're if we're selling tires to a fleet or if they're in our market or or outside of our market for that matter, they should understand this data and we're happy to bring it to them and work with any fleet, right? So, um we're doing it in waste fleets now. We're doing it in over the road trucking fleets. We're doing it in regional trucking fleets. Um, heck, we're monitoring our our own fleet to to understand what tires are best for our regional pickup and delivery wholesale
00:18:45 - 00:19:45
trucks. Yeah. So, so, uh, we used the garbage fleet example and, uh, that came out phenomenal for the fleet. You guys are able to present that, maybe expand that to to different yards. Um, what about linehaul fleets? What about bottom dumps, end dumps? Um, is is it different when you're collecting that data? Is that a harder process, an easier process? Um, I wouldn't say it's harder. I feel like it's about the same. Yeah, it's not. They're It's all They're all just taking data. It's not not too
00:19:16 - 00:20:10
difficult. Mhm. No, the only real difference there is with a line hall fleet, let's say they're over the road, those trucks may be gone for two, three weeks at a time. They may be large enough where they have other yards where they drop trailers at. It's It's a little more difficult to track the trailers unless they're doicile to a local yard, right? Um, and same with the trucks. Um, and then the bottom dump, end dump, the conversation with some fleet managers is a little tougher
00:19:42 - 00:20:39
there, right? Because they're, oh, we we ruined tires. We can't track tires and so on and so forth, but we're doing our best. We have a couple fleets where we're we're starting to collect some data and some information. We haven't quite got to the analyzation phase of it yet, but we're well on our way with with them some of those guys. Well, one of my initial thoughts is on a linehaul fleet, fuel economy is going to play much larger role than in a waste fleet. U, that seems like a natural evolution of
00:20:11 - 00:21:21
what you guys are doing is projecting out the fuel savings. No, absolutely. Yeah. It became a a huge topic and don't don't quote me on the exact time frame, but I'm going to say 10 years ago when SmartWay tires verified and fuel efficient tires, you saw you saw manufacturers going from a a super deep tread design to shallower tread design to impact fuel economy. Yeah. So, a huge part of what we're doing with collecting this data is uh you know, you may have the the the lowest rolling resistant fuel efficient
00:20:46 - 00:21:43
tire on the market. Yeah. But if your maintenance practices aren't well and you're running that tire under inflated, as you've already noted, uh it can significantly impact the fuel economy you're getting out of that tire. So, we're essentially bringing awareness to what can affect their their budget at the end of the day. Rob, you you've been in the industry 20 plus years at this point. How many times has a fleet talked to you about fuel economy? Uh quite a few. Really? Right. Yeah. Absolutely.
00:21:15 - 00:22:25
Yeah. Um surprisingly, one of the one of the best fleets I've had a lot, let me rephrase, I've had a lot talk to me about fuel economy. Yeah. But rarely do any of them understand how they can actually affect it or suggest any way they can do anything about it other than buying a uh more fuel efficient tire. So, how do how do we bridge that gap though? I mean, I for me I it's been very rare that anybody's asked me about fuel economy. Yeah. Um and we don't see that P&L item, right? There's a CFO
00:21:50 - 00:22:48
we're gen is not sending it to their fleet maintenance managers and say hey you need to talk to your tire guy about your fuel spend right it comes on the driver end it comes on the emission end it comes with their with their truck dealer u but how do we bridge that gap to go let's see what we can do for your fuel economy through your tire program it's by using uh it's by using Dustin and using data and providing real world numbers on what's happening in their fleet and understanding those
00:22:19 - 00:23:29
percentages that can be affected by fuel. Um, it's it's it's it's collecting data. It's PowerPoint presentations. I had one fleet that was, believe it or not, it was a local regional fleet. Yeah. But the the director of maintenance was super anal about his fuel. Sure. Right. Um, making sure all the tires every day were within certain specs. He was controlling speeds of the trucks and monitoring via GPS drivers habits and who had the best fuel and then coaching drivers as to how that
00:22:54 - 00:24:17
driver drove and what they could do, right? So, it's really it's kind of crazy uh how some will a lot will mention it but not have a plan right to affect it. So, uh that I'll I'll take a little tangent here. Uh we think of regional as being um uh less focused on tire wear per se and fuel than a line hall fleet. Line hall fleets are generally larger. They have multiple layers um of uh of management, a lot of professionals. Um but I when I think of regional fleets, take beverage, take um
00:23:34 - 00:24:46
uh grocery, take uh produce, they run a lot of consistent routes. Um I remember a a milk and a dairy fleet that I used to service. They would run the same route two to the quarter of a mile every single day for years. So they go to the same doughnut shop, drop off the the small milk cartons, go to the same grocery store, drop off the big packages. Y So as data is getting better, as GPS is getting better, I would think these guys have a pretty tight-knit understanding of how their fleet is running, where it's running,
00:24:11 - 00:25:16
compared to a lineal who might take a load from here to here to here to here, and they're using telematics, right, to measure that and uh their fuel bill. But a maintenance manager for a regional fleet might have more understanding of, hey, my bill is off by by $150 this month with this one driver. Let me go talk to him. Yeah. What's going on? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Very interesting stuff, guy. Guys, Dustin, you're you're in the field. Um, you get any questions out there that uh that maybe Rob and I
00:24:44 - 00:25:28
don't get when we're we're sitting in front of fleets? I mean, what do what do people on the ground as you're testing their tires, tracking them, what do they ask you? So, I mean, I've been in the business not that long, so I don't have too not not a lot of people have asked me too many questions. Yeah. It's more like, are are you here to fix a tire? But, uh, I'm like, no, I'm the data guy. I'm going to get you the raw data so someone can Did you fix a tire if we if
00:25:06 - 00:26:01
we needed you to? I mean, I can do anything if you put my mind to it. That's that marine mindset. I don't know if I'm going to have you anything up, though. But not a lot of questions uh that I've really that have grasped me at all too much about that. So I've had a guy one time I'll just chime in. Back when I was doing my you know my own surveys. Yeah. I had a a yard goat driver um which is the truck for anybody who doesn't know that moves the trailers around inside
00:25:33 - 00:26:28
the yard. Uh hop out of the truck and say what are you doing? And well we're just we're just checking air pressures and tread depths and and getting some information on the fleet. Oh, you don't need to do that. I I bumped those 20 minutes ago. Their their air pressure is fine. Yeah. Right. So, the the consensus around the industry is like, "Yeah, I I I either kicked them or I I got my little hammer out and I tapped them or my baseball bat and that air pressure is great, right?" There's no way, man, that
00:26:00 - 00:27:14
somebody can tell the difference between 100 pounds and 95 pounds, which can affect their fuel economy by 5%. A huge number. Yeah. You know, pretty big number. I I sat down with um you know a seauite at the at one of the major manufacturers um and he said something really profound to me. He said Joe nothing is going to change on the pressure side until somebody comes out with a nonproprietary brand agnostic tire pressure solution like we see in cars today. Right? So when you your your car, you can tune it to set if your
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poundage goes down 3 PSI, boom, have something there. That doesn't really exist in the truck world. Now there's or the a world or the earth mover world. Uh a lot of people are trying to have their own brand. Hey, you have to buy my tire in order to get this system. And that that's just not functional nationally, globally. Yeah. Um not to mention there's not enough support out there. you need basically every dealer in the country just like right to repair you have every retail shop able to fix and
00:27:07 - 00:28:10
replace a TPMS sensor um if that were to come to uh the commercial truck industry it have huge gains you know and then there's another side to that too um which we probably don't want to dive into here but you've got to have driver cooperation on it right I mean if you got 500 trucks in your fleet you might have a thousand drivers slip seat in those trucks or or what have you. And for them to to get an aware, you know, that their tire pressure is down 5 psi, I don't want to speak for a lot of
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drivers, but the bulk are going to continue on their route because they get paid for the run or they get paid per hour and get it done and get back and it's the next guy's deal, right? So, it's a great conversation to bring a fleet manager on, a fleet owner on and talk about it because we've heard it. Hey, my drivers aren't going to check it. Yeah. Right. um maybe a bump. I mean, we were seeing some pretty advanced DVIRs out there from some of the larger fleets, mostly from a liability standpoint. If there's
00:28:08 - 00:29:18
a tire blown, you know, they want to be able to say, "Hey, DVIR, uh we check tire pressure before before we left." But there is that kind of uh sentiment in the industry that hey, my driver is not going to check the tire, so somebody else has to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what where where I would love to hear in the comment section of course um from our listeners what fleets need from their tire guys. Um but do you guys see a next evolution? You see what the next uh uh next ask is of you guys? I mean the
00:28:43 - 00:29:35
first one that comes to mind for me is an air pressure report. You're doing an overall mileage report, but an air pressure report converted into into dollars. Um, I would love to know that if I'm a if I'm a fleet manager. Absolutely. And that's something we do right along with the air pressure report. He's check or with the tread depth report. Dustin's checking air pressures. Um, he's able to print and provide an immediate action report right when he's getting ready to leave the
00:29:10 - 00:30:00
fleet that's going to tell where their air pressures are at so they can make adjustments if need. Uh, he's got a mobile printer that he can print that right out and hand it to somebody. Mobile printer. Pretty cool. Oh god, that's got 1998 vibes all over. That's pretty cool, you know. That's pretty cool. Okay. Obviously with technology, he can he can also text or email the report, but sometimes you find the maintenance guys out in a shop do better with something, you know, physically in
00:29:34 - 00:30:42
front of their their face that they can take and walk around the fleet and look at. So, yeah. No, I get that. Yeah. But, um, we have another tool that we created internally that's a fle fleet assessment report, right? where we can apply these numbers and uh really come to a bottom line of what adding or subtracting some preventative maintenance would ultimately cost or save the fleet in the long run over the year, right? So, um you know, test tracking the tires out in a field air pressure and tread depth is
00:30:08 - 00:31:10
really step one to everything we're doing for them, right? There's so much more analytics and data that we take it and convert it on the backside to really bring true numbers to the fleet and help them make real world decisions. Yeah. Well, if if I got anything from the two of you guys and yesterday is that watching two of the largest major manufacturers have an 8% difference on the most consistent tracked type of fleet in the country. should tell us that there's huge gains to be made
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between all different types of brands of tires and other applications that are a lot more volatile. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. All right, guys. Uh we've hit our time limit. Uh listeners would love to hear from you guys. Dustin, thank you. ROI Rob, thank you. Gents, let's air this one up. Thanks, Joe. Sounds good. [Music] Around the bead podcast, tire talk for trucking, mining, agriculture, and more. Your home for fleet solutions. Aiming to inform, pioneer, and entertain the tire world in connected industries.
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