TMC20: Goodyear Wants Fleets To Proactively Manage Their Tires

Tires remain a significant cost for fleets, but few proactively manage those assets effectively. Goodyear Tire GT is taking a digital approach to tire management in the hopes that fleets can reduce tire costs, prevent roadside breakdowns, and get more out of their assets.

The company announced its new Tire Management service on Feb. 3 at its annual dealer event and is showing the new program this week at the Technology and Maintenance Council's annual meeting in Atlanta. The program features digital tools and real-time active management technology to help fleets get a better grasp on the cost of their tire assets.

Johnny McIntosh, director of integrated solutions and tire management, said the total package is about making it easy for fleets to manage their tire assets, but still providing a comprehensive solution.

"We tried to put together, in very simple terms, Goodyear's view of tire management," he told FreightWaves. That comes down to three keys:

• Monitoring of tires
• Collecting and analyzing data
• Providing actionable insights

To illustrate his point, McIntosh pointed to a tire inspection. Traditionally, that means someone measuring tread depth and pressure with tools, inputting that information into a report for someone to then analyze before action can be taken. In addition to the time it takes to complete these manual steps, it also opens up the opportunity to miss trends that might indicate a coming problem.

"Inspection of a tire is a point in time data capture [today]," McIntosh said. "So you are either inspecting the tire at a point in time, or you are actively monitoring the tire."

Goodyear Tire Management is attempting to move fleets to that active monitoring of tires.

Goodyear's Tire Optix is one tool in this toolbox. The digital inspection tool helps fleets quickly and accurately detect critical tire data, such as tire pressure, tread depth and tire wear conditions. It produces real-time alerts and detailed inspection reports.

Goodyear Tire Management also includes TPMS Plus, which is an active monitoring system that evaluates tire conditions in real time. The system can detect leaks, temperature and thermal events, GPS location and can be geofenced.

The geofencing technology, McIntosh explained, can alert a fleet when a vehicle with a pending tire problem arrives at a location so it can be properly repaired.

All of the data is uploaded through a cloud system and is historically checked for trends. A truck tire that measures 100 PSI and loses one PSI each day may not generate concern until it reaches 60 PSI for some fleets, but Tire Management may detect this slow leak problem so the fleet can proactively repair the tire before too much damage occurs.

"We're really trying to build an ecosystem for tires," McIntosh said of the approach.

The data can be viewed through the Goodyear Tire Management dashboard, on an app, or exported to fleet systems.

One of the new tools in the program is Checkpoint. Checkpoint is an inground system that trucks slowly drive over. The system conducts automated inspections of tire pressure and tread depth. Positioned at a fleet yard entrance, this device triggers alerts to fleet maintenance if there are any immediate tire concerns that require attention

Collecting all the data and analyzing it is part of the solution, the final part of the program is acting upon it.

"We're capturing the data, we're identifying what needs to be done, and we can service it," McIntosh said.

That service aspect is part of the TireReady program. A tire subscription program custom-designed to meet the specific needs of an individual fleet, the program manages and optimizes the entire lifecycle of a tire – from new tire choices to retreads, monitoring, service, analytics and more.

The service component is handled through Goodyear's FleetHQ nationwide network of providers.

What Goodyear has introduced is only the beginning, McIntosh said.

"When we think of Goodyear Tire Management, this is something we are going to build upon for a long time," he said.

Image by AutoPhotography from Pixabay