A heap o’savings

Safety and fuel economy–you can’t have one without the other. In fact, if you’re dissatisfied with your company’s safety program and need money for resources or training materials, just tell the financial folks that your safety plans will cut fuel costs. You’ll get your money.

Not convinced? Here’s a simple way to take one your fleet’s biggest costs-tires–and roll it into a bigger safety budget: keep your tires properly inflated.

I know. You’ve heard it before. But sometimes getting specific will reinforce the message.
Running underinflated by 10 psi will cut one-half of 1 per cent off your fuel mileage. So a truck that should be getting 6 mpg will achieve only 5.97. At 100,000 miles a year, you’re burning 84 gallons more fuel than you should be. What does 84 gallons of fuel cost you?

That’s just the start. According to the Technology and Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Associations, that 10 per cent underinflation will shorten a tire’s tread life by 9 to 16 per cent. On a $300 tire, you’d save more than $30 a pop by making sure your tires leave the yard at 100 psi instead of 90.

And I’m not including the significant money saved on downtime and road calls. One major U.S. roadside repair service says 53 per cent of the 27,000 commercial vehicle breakdowns it monitored in 2001 were caused by tire failure.

Casings suffer, too, when you run underinflated. The sidewall of a tire in highway service will flex about 500 times a minute at 60 miles an hour, or 500 times a mile. This flexing–called deflection–puts the steel cords of the tire under stress: the metal weakens, and as it flexes it generates heat that degrades the rubber around it. Now, instead of three retreads on a casing, you might be lucky to get two.

On most tires, air loss occurs gradually–roughly 2 psi a month. What can you do to prevent pressure loss?

First, check the tires when they’re cold, preferably in the morning after the vehicle has been sitting for several hours or longer. Second, give duals their due: if the tires don’t match in diameter, the smaller tire will be dragged along by the larger one, causing rapid and irregular wear on the smaller tire. And third, get serious about using the right tools to check your air pressure.

So it’s out with the work boot and/or the ball peen hammer for measuring air pressure and in with the calibrated air-pressure gauge.

There are two types of mechanical gauges–“stick” or “pencil” gauges and dial-type gauges. They’re calibrated at the factory and are accurate to +1 psi/-2 psi. That is, until they’re dropped, dented, or get dirty.

Most stick gauges are not repairable; some dial gauges can be re-calibrated, but the tiny mechanism inside is delicate. To check the accuracy of your tire gauge, visit a tire dealer. Most will have a tool just for checking the accuracy of a tire gauge. If the gauge’s reading is off by 5 psi or more, toss it.

Better yet, why not go a step further? TireStamp, an Ottawa-based data analytics company, is testing a system that uses tire-mounted sensors equipped with radio frequency identification–commonly known as RFID–to record casing-heat and air-pressure changes. The sensors send that information through a computer, which can display it to the driver.

One of the reasons underinflation goes unnoticed is because no driver wants to spend the first 20 minutes of a rainy, pre-dawn morning checking the pressure on 18 tires. A chip could make the job easier.

On a personal note,

Mr. Armand Moiny of Markel Insurance is retiring and I want to wish him well. Armand was manager of training, safety, and compliance at TNT Logistics North America for 23 years prior to joining Markel, where he was a training specialist. He also has been chairman on the Ontario Trucking Association’s Safety Council since I can’t remember.

Armand is a true fleet safety professional in my books, and I hold him in very high regard. Like all excellent safety professionals, I know he’ll become a very busy and successful consultant. Happy Bruce Trail hiking, Armand!