{"id":10840,"date":"2021-04-26T14:00:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/?p=10840"},"modified":"2021-04-26T14:00:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T12:00:19","slug":"tires-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2021\/04\/26\/tires-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Truck tires and service are essential assets"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the tire sales and service industry, it\u2019s business as \u201cunusual.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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At some point in the (hopefully) near\u00a0future, we will refer\u00a0to\u00a0life as\u00a0after COVID-19. Everything is going to change when some of us emerge from our self-imposed isolation at home and others will just continue going to work each day to provide the essential services\u00a0that\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0needed\u00a0to survive.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I write this entering my fourth week of shelter in place, I\u2019m eternally grateful for the\u00a0first responders and\u00a0men\/women working in our healthcare system as well as everyone else who keeps our civilization moving. While I hardly consider myself essential, I do support the tire service people who are essential, so my day job hasn\u2019t changed much\u00a0from that perspective.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the tire sales and service industry, it\u2019s business as unusual. No has ever seen an economic shutdown like this so no one was really prepared\u00a0for almost everything to just stop. Some companies have been able to adapt better than others, but most are keeping the doors open and taking whatever\u00a0business\u00a0they can get.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the retail side, the people who work in essential services still need vehicle service and maintenance so they are riding it out\u00a0if they can. Most commercial dealers and retreaders have enough essential service business to carry them through times like this so they can weather the storm\u00a0like they have in the past. Eventually, COVID-19 will mercifully cease to exist and\u00a0life\u00a0will return to\u00a0what will be an\u00a0unpredictable new normal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tire manufacturers have reacted by shutting down plants, which means every new tire production forecast for 2020 is\u00a0now\u00a0obsolete or\u00a0at best,\u00a0uncertain. Millions of vehicles are not being driven,\u00a0which means even more millions of tires are not wearing out. I see it in the traffic reports every morning. Normally brutal traffic in the Baltimore and Washington DC areas\u00a0has been\u00a0a breeze during rush hour. That never happens during the week. A lot of tires are not going to be replaced this year and based on the current level of demand with virtually no original equipment sales, the tire companies must be confident they\u00a0have enough inventory to\u00a0resume normal production after COVID-19 without any major interruptions in supply.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a lot of trucks sitting idle right now while others are running at normal or above normal levels. In both cases, fleets cannot ignore the\u00a0basic\u00a0facts.\u00a0First, they need tires. Second, tires have value and third, they require regular maintenance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With plants being shuttered, the current supply of truck tires is going to dwindle down over time.\u00a0Right now, the primary need for tires is confined to the segments of the trucking industry that never stop. Popular sizes and tread designs\u00a0should\u00a0be easy to replenish when the economy starts back up, but some of the less common sizes and tires might be harder to come by\u00a0in coming months. Fleets with limited options may have tire sourcing issues down the road if the pandemic keeps tire plants idle for an extended time.\u00a0It\u2019s worth a conversation with your supplier in either case.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tires should be treated like assets because they have value. If maintenance personnel are looking for things to\u00a0do\u00a0when most of the trucks are sitting, it\u2019s a great\u00a0opportunity\u00a0to get a closer look at\u00a0the tires on\u00a0each individual truck, tractor or trailer.\u00a0There may be situations where tires can be moved around to get the most out of the casings.\u00a0Fleets that are operating at or above normal levels need to really focus on asset\u00a0management\u00a0to\u00a0avoid any inventory disruptions and\u00a0keep cost per mile as low as possible.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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If you\u2019ve read this column for any length of time, then you know I\u2019m\u00a0not\u00a0going to\u00a0pass up a chance to\u00a0mention\u00a0inflation pressure. Nothing changes for the equipment on the road other than rising ambient temperatures,\u00a0which means gator season is around the corner.\u00a0The margin for error on underinflation is only going to get smaller over the summer.\u00a0Again, this is the perfect time for maintenance personnel to\u00a0make sure every tire has\u00a0the\u00a0proper\u00a0inflation pressure, preferably first thing in the morning when temperatures are the coolest and pressures are the lowest. If tire maintenance is outsourced, then the cost of having a vendor verify the correct pressure in every tire will still be less than the cost of an emergency road service call because the driver used the boot-o-meter during the\u00a0first\u00a0pre-trip inspection\u00a0after the vehicle has been\u00a0sitting\u00a0for weeks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The world is getting an important lesson on what is essential and what is non-essential.\u00a0Hopefully, more people will appreciate the importance of the trucking industry and the critical role it plays in the supply chain. Likewise, I am optimistic that the efforts of the tire technicians and retread plant personnel will be recognized as they continue to keep society moving despite the conditions or the increased risk to their own health and safety. At some point,\u00a0I\u2019m confident\u00a0we\u2019ll look back on COVID-19 and marvel at how\u00a0well we adapted and prepared for whatever comes next.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By Kevin Rohlwing<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.fleetowner.com\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

CUT COTS OF THE FLEET WITH OUR AUDIT PROGRAM<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The audit is a key tool to know the overall status and provide the analysis, the assessment, the advice, the suggestions and the actions to take in order to cut costs and increase the efficiency and efficacy of the fleet. We propose the following fleet management audit.<\/p>\n

FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the tire sales and service industry, it\u2019s business as \u201cunusual.\u201d At some point in the (hopefully) near\u00a0future, we will refer\u00a0to\u00a0life as\u00a0after COVID-19. Everything is going to change when some of us emerge from our self-imposed isolation at home and others will just continue going to work each day to provide the essential services\u00a0that\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0needed\u00a0to survive….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10842,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10840\/revisions\/10842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}