{"id":7498,"date":"2020-09-13T18:12:50","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T16:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/?p=7498"},"modified":"2020-09-13T18:12:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T16:12:50","slug":"tires-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2020\/09\/13\/tires-4\/","title":{"rendered":"What Drivers Need to Know About Taking Care of Truck Tires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drivers should perform weekly pressure checks on a truck they are familiar with. Daily checks should be done on any vehicle they don\u2019t drive every day.<\/strong> Photo: Michelin<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Round and black. Sometimes that\u2019s the extent of what drivers know \u2014 or want to know \u2014 about tires. Unfortunately, drivers need to know more about their tires, and they really need to be proactive when it comes to inspecting and maintaining them. But it\u2019s never easy convincing drivers to get up close and personal with those round black things.<\/span><\/p>\n

An 18-wheel pressure check can easily eat up half an hour; more if the tires need to be topped up. With mandatory electronic logs now putting even more pressure on their time, drivers are even less likely give up driving time to a probably unpaid task. It may help to remind them that investing 30 minutes once a week to closely inspect their tires could help prevent an on-road failure that could cost them several hours of downtime\u2026 but probably not.<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting a little cooperation from drivers might be achieved by providing a lesson in how tires work and some of the perils of poor maintenance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to tell a driver that if they do this or don\u2019t do that, something unpleasant might happen,\u201d says Joe Puff, vice president of truck technology and maintenance at Downers Grove, Illinois-based NationaLease. \u201cBut when they can understand the consequences of their actions, or inactions, they might be more predisposed to look after those assets. Or at least not intentionally do anything that might compromise tire life or safety.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, Puff says drivers should be taught the dangers of reinflating a tire that has been run 20% or more under-inflated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe remind them all the time to check their inflation pressure, but we send a possibly conflicting message to those that do it regularly if they aren\u2019t made aware of the dangers of under-inflated tires,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem here is the potential for a zipper rupture, caused by metal fatigue in the sidewall from excessive flexing while running under load. If the driver simply re-inflates a tire found in a low-pressure condition, he or she risks personal injury or a blowout on the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf a tire is run 20% low, casing degradation is a real risk,\u201d cautions Puff. \u201cIt\u2019s going to fail at some point. It should be pulled from service. In these cases, drivers really need to alert a supervisor to the problem rather than just topping up the pressure and moving on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Drivers<\/span>
\n

Drivers will often look closely at steer and wide-base single tires but not duals. Under-inflated is under-inflated, even when they think they can limp in on a flat.<\/strong>\u00a0Photo: Jim Park<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Teaching drivers about inflation<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n

Tire inflation pressure is a big issue, of course, and once again there are no easy solutions to getting drivers to check it. While it might be useful to know a tire isn\u2019t nearly completely flat, there\u2019s little use in encouraging them to thump or kick their tires on a walk-around. For several years now, the Tire Retread Information Bureau and the Tire Industry Association have sponsored a Guess the Pressure contest at various truck shows, and famously, no driver has ever guessed the pressure within 5 psi over or under the actual inflated pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike Elliott, safety and maintenance director at Nashville, Tennessee-based MS Logistics, makes a bit of a joke about checking inflation pressure during his orientation sessions. He presents the drivers with a tuning fork, saying it\u2019s a new way of checking oil level in the engine. He tells them they no longer need to pull the dipstick.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI tell them to strike the engine block with the tuning fork, and if it sounds right, the oil level is fine,\u201d he says. \u201cI get some odd looks, and then I announce it\u2019s just the same as when you hit your tires with a thumper \u2014 and just about as useful. If nothing else, it\u2019s a good way to open the discussion on tire inflation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Elliott runs a lot of retreads, and some drivers have strong opinions on retreads, many of them inaccurate. He tries to deal with all that up front, and then has regular meetings where the subject comes up repeatedly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI show them the DOT studies on tire debris and remind them that half the tires studied back then were not retreads,\u201d Elliott says. \u201cFrom there we get into a discussion on the importance of inflation pressure and its effect on tires, both new and retreads. Then I tell them that all I expect them to do is check the pressure regularly and top it up when necessary. I finish by reminding them that downtime hurts them, too. If they are stuck on the side of the road for several hours waiting for tire service because they didn\u2019t check their tires, they have nobody but themselves to blame in most cases.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin Tomlinson, director of maintenance at Milan, Ohio\u2019s South Shore Transportation, has added automatic tire inflation systems to his trailing equipment and tire pressure monitoring systems to some of his power units. But he still relies on drivers to visually inspect the tires whenever they get out of the truck.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, we hardly ever have problems with steer tires or wide-base tires,\u201d he says. \u201cNeedless to say, when we bring the trucks in for service we check all the tires and tread depth and inspect for issues. The best we can do is encourage the driver to keep an eye on their tires and hope it becomes a habit. Once they realize that vigilance will keep them on the road longer without problems, the better we\u2019ll all be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

by Jim Park<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.truckinginfo.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":"

Drivers should perform weekly pressure checks on a truck they are familiar with. Daily checks should be done on any vehicle they don\u2019t drive every day. Photo: Michelin Round and black. Sometimes that\u2019s the extent of what drivers know \u2014 or want to know \u2014 about tires. Unfortunately, drivers need to know more about their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7499,"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\/7498"}],"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=7498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7500,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498\/revisions\/7500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}