Goodyear’s Tire Trac: Helping fleets lower costs

According to Jose Martinez, business solutions manager for Goodyear Commercial Tire Systems, a trucking operation’s third-largest capital expense, on average, is tires.

“Regardless of a fleet’s vocation, tires represent a tremendous investment,” he said. “That’s why it’s important for fleets to track the performance of their tires, so they can get the most out of these mission-critical products.”

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company says its Tire Trac online tire management tool, which is offered through the Goodyear-FleetHQ suite of business solutions, helps fleets monitor tire installations, the performance of tires on the road or in the field, reasons why tires were removed from service, and other key metrics. It also helps fleets identify tire maintenance opportunities.

“In addition, Tire Trac can be used to help fleets ensure they are using the best tire for their application by comparing performance data with similar fleets and competitive tires,” said Martinez.

Tire Trac data is gathered through fleet surveys that are conducted by trained tire technicians from authorized Goodyear commercial tire dealerships or Goodyear Commercial Tire & Service Centers.

Technicians perform on-site tire inspections, measuring tire inflation levels, tread depth and other aspects of a tire’s condition.  The captured information is used to create customized reports that show how a fleet’s tires are performing.

“Tire Trac lets you zero in on a specific tire or look at all of the tires in your fleet in order to provide a holistic picture of how your tires are performing and how their performance is impacting your cost,” noted Martinez.

“You can compare cost-per-mile from location to location and also identify systemic trends within your operation.”

For a tire management system to be effective, it has to track more than just tire installations and performance, he explained.

“A truly effective tire management system should have the ability to identify tire maintenance opportunities, as well. In some cases, if identified early enough, maintenance issues can be addressed and corrected, which will keep tires in operation.

“For instance, we’ve seen strong improvement in tire inflation level maintenance among fleets that have used Tire Trac,” said Martinez. “By monitoring inflation levels over time, Tire Trac has enabled certain fleets to reduce the number of tires they’ve had to remove because of inflation-related problems.”