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Tractor Trailer Cost Savings through Proper Tire Management
Tractor trailer tire maintenance is a major unavoidable cost, however with proper proactive trailer tire management there are many ways to save on tire costs, not only on your owned trailers, but on your rental trailer fleet as well. Proper tire inflation, tire matching, tire inventory, and the use of retread tires can greatly benefit any trailer fleet whether it is comprised of owned new semi trailers, rental trailers, or recently purchased used trailers.

Proper tire inflation is essential in maximizing fuel economy on any tractor trailer combination. Under-inflated tires increase rolling resistance due to increased deflection and flexing of tire sidewalls on your trailer fleet. Proper inflation may only get you an extra fraction of a mile per gallon, but consider a large fleet of owned semi trailers or rental semi trailers collectively running hundreds of thousands of miles per month. Fleet Equipment (May, 2006) reports that managers of a trailer fleet with less than 50 tractors typically have almost 20% of their tractor trailers under-inflated by 20 psi or more, while managers of larger tractor trailer fleets (over 3,000) do a better job insuring that the tractors and owned or rented trailers they pull have proper semi-trailer tire pressures with only 2% of the fleet under-inflated. Some fleet managers are turning to automatic tire inflation system on both owned and rented tractor trailers to help insure proper inflation. A simpler and less costly way to reduce semi trailer tire expense is to train drivers on proper semi-trailer pre-trip methods and emphasize the importance of proper inflation whether the tractor is pulling an owned, leased, or rented semi-trailer.

Semi trailer tire matching can easily be overlooked in emergency situations. When your loaded semi-trailer or rental trailer has a blown-out tire, the initial reaction is to just replace the blown tire on that used trailer. By not checking to match up tires by tread depth and tire profile on your company or rental trailer you may be setting yourself up for another bad tire on your semi-trailer in the near future. Variance in tread depth and tire profile can cause your semi-trailer tires to wear unevenly. The used trailer tire with higher tread depth or profile will have more pressure put on it causing it to be vulnerable to blowout, while the used trailer tire with the lower tread depth or profile will not make solid consistent contact with the ground causing it to quickly wear unevenly, which also occurs in unevenly inflated tires. Used semi trailers or rental trailers with high mileage can fall into a cycle of constantly replacing unmatched tires if tread depth and tire profile matching is not considered whether the trailers are owned or rented.

A well designed tire inventory process can be a major cost saver in a variety of ways. The process can insure that correct semi-trailer tire casings are returned to you, that you utilize your run-out tires, and that tires are running the amount of miles suggested by the semi-trailer manufacturer. Keep an inventory of the semi-trailer tires that are on and have come off your rental trailer or your own used trailer fleet units. Once a flat tire or bald tire is replaced you shouldn�t necessarily junk it as it may be valuable for retreading purposes.

For example, a semi-trailer in the fleet goes down due to a bald tire. An uninformed manager may pay a tire vendor to put a new tire on this used trailer and junk the bald semi-trailer tire. In this case you lose the value of the off tire casing and cause a potential risk mismatching tires on your used semi-trailer fleet. An informed manager would consider putting two tires on this semi-trailer to prevent any potential tire mismatching across your used trailer fleet. Next they would inventory the bald tire with the possibility of retreading the casing as long as the casing isn�t too old or damaged. Now you have a semi-trailer tire ready to be retreaded and put back into the used trailer fleet, as well as a used off tire that can be used as a run-out on another used trailer in the future. With a tire inventory process tool you can also monitor that your used trailer tires are running the proper miles set by the semi-trailer manufacturer. If there is a significant difference in mileage between semi-trailer manufacturer specifications and actual miles run on your trailer fleet you should consider looking into tire warranty and tire maintenance in an effort to be as efficient as possible with the life of each semi-trailer tire.

Trailer fleet tire retreading technology has caused retreaded semi-trailer tires (�caps�) to be a viable option. Consider the cost difference between replacing eight tires on your used semi-trailer with new and retreaded semi-trailer tires. Retreading the current tires will be a fraction of the cost of new tires and will be nearly as reliable due to the current semi-trailer tire technology. Tire casings can even be retreaded multiple times yielding this option as a great cost saver on your used trailers or rental trailers. The key to a good cap is starting with a good original casing, one that is less than 5 years old and one that is not damaged in any way.

Proper trailer fleet tire management can yield cost saving benefits for any size semi-trailer fleet. Whether you are running a fleet of ten semi-trailers or five hundred rental trailers, utilizing tire management will cut costs and help maintain overall trailer fleet reliability.

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