Premium manufacturers are switching from tyres as a product to tyres as a service, while less-established brands are fighting to raise the quality of their offerings. Richard Simpson asks which is the right approach for your operations
The replacement tyre market for coach and bus fleets is undergoing a revolution. For many years, operators fell into two distinct categories: there were big fleets which used premium tyres, and small fleets which used whatever their local stockists could sell them at an affordable price.
Tyre supply to the very biggest bus fleets was dominated by one manufacturer: Michelin; and in many ways the bus industry was a pioneer for the rest of road transport (including the freight sector) because Michelin has routinely supplied bus tyres on a ‘pence per mile’ basis and had staff embedded in operator depots who managed the maintenance, repair and replacement of tyres without the operator’s direct involvement for many decades. This has started a trend now being driven by premium tyre manufacturers across the heavy vehicle industry of supplying tyres as a service priced on use, rather than a utilitarian consumable product.[wlm_nonmember][…]
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“We were 40 years ahead of the rest of the industry, we were offering bus operators contracts in the 1950s that weren’t offered to truck operators until the 1990s,” joked Kevin Lawton, Michelin’s Sales Manager for Coach and Bus.
“For operators, the relationship with Michelin starts when they specify our tyres on new vehicles. In many cases, we retain ownership of the tyre casings. We offer a service which gives assurance of legal and safety compliance together with a predictable cost for the operator. Our staff will work in the customer’s depot as an integrated part of their operation: albeit in Michelin uniforms and on the Michelin payroll.”
Keith emphasised the importance of using Michelin’s ‘four life’ programme in enabling operators to be able to afford premium tyres.
“Some operators will use our Remix tyres, others are not so keen. However, we always suggest regrooving. It gives 25% more miles per tyre and saves fuel through reduced rolling resistance. Tread wear indicators show when a tyre is ready for regrooving.”
Now many tyre suppliers routinely work in partnership with fleet operators to extract the maximum mileage from each tyre. It follows that it is in the interest of the supplier to get the most miles from each tyre casing rather than constantly supply replacements. This means (particularly in the case of buses) either rotating tyres or swapping wheel positions so one side of one tyre doesn’t take all the kerbing damage,
Maintaining correct pressures (which has the added advantage of improving fuel economy and roadholding as well as maximising tyre life), and managing the regrooving and retreading process to keep the casings in use.
This move has been driven by a number of factors, including technical advances which have to a certain extent automated the monitoring of tyre condition, and the increasing competition from tyres imported from outside Western Europe at budget and mid-price points.
However, even that is changing in the fast-developing tyre market. When Goodyear Dunlop’s Marc Preedy spoke to CBW at the Commercial Vehicle Show this spring, he reported that the price of the raw materials used to make tyres had increased by 25% in the previous six months. The importers of ‘budget’ tyres had passed all of this increase on: “It’s made our range of premium remoulds competitive again,” he said.
Like all its premium competitors, Goodyear offers different ranges of tyres for coach and bus applications. Is this just ‘marketing’ or are there substantive differences that will be advantageous to operators?
Marc emphasised that tyre performance is a complex issue: “Customers will be familiar with the EU tyre labelling scheme, which covers noise, wet grip and impact on fuel consumption. When we develop a new heavy vehicle tyre however, we assess 50 different criteria, including fairly subjective ones, such as driving feel and passenger comfort.
“For buses, durability is the key criterion. And we don’t mean tread wear in that context: we mean kerbing. Kerbing is an unavoidable part of bus operation. Noise may be a consideration also.
“Coaches are very different. Operators will be looking for an element of fuel benefit, and longevity, in terms of miles as hopefully coach tyres won’t be repeatedly kerbed, is also important. We also consider noise, vibration and harshness as it impacts on passengers, and the ‘feel’ for the driver.
“Our Marathon Coach tyre is an all-axles fitment, but for buses we offer specific tyres for drive and steer functions. Bus tyres have to be omnidirectional so they can be turned on the rim when scuffed. Indeed, the bulk of R&D effort on bus tyres is spent on the sidewalls: they have to take more wear than the tread!”
Michelin also offers dedicated tyres for coaches and buses; with just one tread pattern for drive and steer fitment on buses; but also pitches its ‘regional’ truck tyre range at coach operators engaged in longer-haul operations. At the CV Show it launched the replacement for its best-selling regional tyre range: the X MultiWay 3D was replaced by the X Multi, which is claimed to deliver between 15 and 20% more mileage than its predecessor, while being sold at the same cost. Its combination of new material technology and tread pattern offer a safe and consistent performance, with Michelin claiming that the tyre would retain its ‘B’ rating for wet grip even when worn down to a 3mm tread depth: at which point it could be regrooved.
Continental offers three distinct tyre families for the coach and bus market. There’s the Urban for city bus use, which is more robust and harder-wearing than an equivalent regional truck tyre, the CityPlus for mixed use including coaches used for commuter runs into cities and the Coach for vehicles engaged predominantly in longer runs on motorways and rural roads.
As part of the wider Continental Group, Continental’s tyre division has access to cutting-edge vehicle information technology. Operators can choose between a fitted telematics tyre pressure monitoring system which can communicate individual tyre temperature and pressure information either direct to the driver, or to the home depot, or a drive-over sensor which automatically checks pressures every time a vehicle returns to depot. The latter system is ideal for bus operators.
Competition for the big bus fleet business is stiff. Goodyear made a return to the fray a couple of years ago, and takes a slightly different approach to Michelin: rather than permanently stationing its staff at bus garages all day, instead it sends mobile fitters along to depots at times when the fleet is ‘at home’ with their vans laden with new tyres already fitted to loose wheels.
That service is now just part of an offering from the manufacturer. Aljosa Sitar, Goodyear’s EMEA Sales Manager for Goodyear Proactive Solutions explained how the company was in the midst of launching a new business across Europe that would not only improve the performance of tyres, but also of the vehicles that they were fitted to.
“We can fit tyre pressure monitoring systems to individual vehicles, and also have them in the yard as a drive-over device. They enable us to have control over tyre temperatures and pressures, and also, in the case of the yard-based solution, the tread depth.
“Between 85 and 89% of tyre breakdowns are preventable. Where we have a fast leakage: meaning a tyre is losing more than one bar of pressure a day, then the system will post a critical action alert to the operator within a couple of days. A leakage of this magnitude will damage a tyre if not corrected quickly. Where there is a slow leak, it will just be mentioned in a regular report.”
The offering can be extended from Proactive Tyre, as outlined above, to Proactive Fleet, which also includes the monitoring of driver behaviour and a vehicle track and trace facility.
“We have been in the UK market for over a year with this,” Aljosa Sitar told CBW. “However, we are initially focusing Proactive Fleet on the freight market. First truck, then van, before we look at the UK passenger sector.”
“Tyre pressure monitoring has been well-received in the UK market. Our Truckforce dealer network sees it as an integral part of their future business. Those parts of Truckforce which are equity businesses are very big on pressure sensor installation, and the independents see it as a good opportunity for sell-on.”
Independent supplier Wheelright offers a drive-over device which can measure tyre pressure, axle weight and vehicle gross weight in a single pass, and upload the data to the cloud, with an ANPR camera identifying the vehicle in question via its registration mark. Reports indicate whether a tyre is ‘green,’ ‘amber’ or ‘red’– and the presence of a ‘red’ tyre automatically generates a workshop job request, with the suspect tyre being identified.
While the major tyre brands are all increasingly selling tyres as a service, rather than a product, a completely different approach is taken by the newest entrant to the UK heavy-vehicle tyre market: Apollo.
Apollo Tyres is a new name to the UK market, but it has been active in its home country of India for 40 years and is now capitalised at $2 billion. In 2009, it acquired Vredestein, a long-established Dutch manufacturer specialising in bicycle, agricultural and winter car tyres, and this year it opened a new production facility in Hungary.
Rather than having dedicated networks such as ATS or Truckforce, Apollo is instead to follow the business model set out by online multibrand consumer tyre retailer Openeo and ship tyres ordered from its webshop direct to the end-user or independent tyre dealer from a central warehouse in Europe.
Its European heavy-vehicle tyres were jointly developed in Holland and India. Almost 2,500 tyres covered over 250 million km on fleet tests in Europe: and Apollo claims mileages achieved were between 90 and 110% of those reached by current ‘best in class’ brands. Out of the 50 fleets that tried the tyres, 45 said they would recommend them. Apollo doesn’t yet offer a bus-specific tyre, but claims its Endu Race RD all-position regional tyre is ideal for coach fitments. The tyre is said to be suitable for regrooving and multiple remoulding too, with a five-year warranty and guaranteed casing buyback.
South Korean manufacturer Hankook has been around for the last 20 years or so, and in that time has, as technical services manager Chris Baxter said, “moved from being an imitator to an innovator.”
Hankook is a big player in the UK replacement truck tyre market, but is now looking to make similar inroads into coaches and buses. It offers a differentiated range for passenger-carrying vehicles.
“We are now positioned as a premium brand: the biggest seller in the truck replacement tyre market, and now looking hard at the bus and coach industry. The AL22 Smart Touring is our dedicated tyre for the long-distance coach market,” Chris told CBW at the Commercial Vehicle Show.
“It’s most definitely not an urban tyre. Comfort and handling plus endurance were the priorities in its development. We’ve got it in the 295 size at the moment, with more to follow. ‘A’ stands for all-axle and ‘L’ for long haul service: there is a drive-axle specific DL version, but it’s not yet available in the UK.
“Our city bus tyre is the AU02: ‘A’ for all axles again, and U for Urban. It has a wider shoulder and stiffer construction to reduce bodyroll. The raised ribs on the tyre sidewall defend against kerb scuffing. It’s a regroovable and remouldable tyre.”
Chris does not see Hankook following the lead of the European manufacturers into tyre management (and, by extension, vehicle management) services.
“We are product-led,” he asserts.
Bridgestone recently grabbed a lot of headlines by doing a deal that transcended even national boundaries with bus operator FirstGroup.
Billed as the biggest deal in the Japanese tyre-maker’s history, the US$110 million five-year contract sees Bridgestone supply tyres to all of First’s UK-based buses, together with about 80% of its North American fleet, which includes the iconic Greyhound brand together with the First Student yellow school buses.
Bridgestone’s UAP-001 tyre forms the mainstay of the contract. This dedicated urban ‘U’ bus tyre is suitable for all axle positions ‘AP’ although it features different tread patterns to suit local conditions in the North American and European markets.
Introduced in 2014, the UAP-001 replaced the R192, and is claimed to offer a 20% increase in tyre life, and an increased load capacity to cope with the heavier weights imposed by Euro 6 buses. It carries 3PMSF and M+S markings, making it suitable for use in winter conditions, and has been designed for multiple lives through Bridgestone’s Bandag in-house retreading programme.
Bridgestone has been working with FirstGroup since 2004, when it started to supply tyres to First’s Leicester depot.
Greg Ward, Bridgestone’s Commercial Sales Director, said: “This is a hugely significant announcement for the whole team at Bridgestone and a partnership that we’re extremely proud of. To win the contract, we needed to demonstrate our value and ability to deliver on a global level in order to stave off stiff competition from a rival premium tyre manufacturer.
“We had a strong goal to become the number one supplier to FirstGroup and, as such, we demonstrated an ability to act as a global company with a ‘one team’ philosophy, meaning that the geographical distance between our US and UK teams was never an issue.”
The competence of staff engaged in frontline tyre maintenance is also crucial. Careful husbandry of tyres can enable operators to make big savings without compromising safety.
For example, tyre rolling resistance diminishes as the tread wears, which saves fuel. But tyres need to be carefully monitored: if the tread is too badly worn then regrooving may not be possible and the potential to not only extend the life of the tyre, but also extend the most economical phase of its life, will be lost. Bear in mind that, while the legal minimum tread depth for coach and bus tyres is only 1mm, the minimum depth required for tread regrooving without risking damage to the underlying tyre structure is likely to be as much as 4mm.
There’s also the risk that the tyre carcase may be irredeemably damaged, making it unsuitable for retreading.
The uncontested returns which are possible from investing in premium tyres are only realised if care is taken monitoring them throughout their life. Operators which do not have the resources to do this and are not prepared to enter into an arrangement with a provider to do this for them could do better to buy budget tyres and replace them as needed.
Premium tyre manufacturers are well aware of this, and seek to impose verifiable standards on their personnel. For example, Bridgestone recently became the first tyre manufacturer to sign up to the Society of Operational Engineers’ Commercial Tyre Technicians Licence which covers wheel and tyre removal and replacement, regrooving and puncture repair, and operates its own REACT roadside tyre technician course.
Michelin’s independently-owned Service Pro centres are audited annually, and all technicians have to attend the City & Guilds-endorsed Licence to Fit course.
A good technician can tell quite a lot about a vehicle from the state of its tyres: particularly wheel alignment and tracking. Excessive wear on one side of a tyre is a sure indication of an axle misalignment. With a newish tyre it is difficult for the untrained eye to pick this up until the damage is done: but a tyre tread gauge will reveal the problem. Continental incorporates groups of sipes of varying depths on the outer ribs of some of its tyres. If the sipes disappear faster on one side than they do the other after the tyre is fitted, then the chances are that the vehicle’s axles need realignment.
One way of picking up the problem fast is to use a hand-held laser scanner of the type offered by Sigmavision. This is simply run across the full width of the tyre, and produces a 3D image of the tread profile, with discrepancies highlighted in red which can be accessed via a tablet, smartphone or PC.
Correctly aligned axles will not only prevent unnecessary tyre wear, they also save fuel and make driving less fatiguing. Care should be taken that rectification is done correctly: ‘tracking’ only correctly aligns the front wheels to each other, while axle alignment ensures not only that the front wheels are set correctly in relation to one another, but also that the vehicle’s drive axle is aligned too. At the CV Show this year, Pro-Align launched what it said was the first and only heavy vehicle alignment system capable of producing live readings on three axles simultaneously. Alignment can be checked in as little as three minutes using the Hunter system, compared to half an hour or more using conventional equipment on multi-axle vehicles.
Operators then have never had such a wide choice of tyre brands and types at different price points. Granted, the very cheapest tyres have now disappeared from the marketplace, but, as more than one industry professional has remarked: “There’s a good reason for that.”
The key decision is whether it is more suitable for the company’s circumstances to have tyre provision as a service or regard them as a commodity to be purchased and then managed internally.[/wlm_ismember]
