Special Report: Tires & Wheels
Smart Tires: Is The Future Now?
The technology is here, but will fleets pay the price?
STEVE STURGESS
SENIOR EDITOR
The "Smart Tire" has held out the promise of reduced expenditures for tire management the third biggest cost for a fleet owner for more than a decade. Tires with built-in chips have been the tire of the future since it became possible to put a sensor on a sliver of silicone and shrink it to a size that could be incorporated into a tire/wheel combination.
But smart tires always seemed destined to be the tires of the future. As Al Cohn, manager of Strategic Initiatives for Goodyear points out, fleets have been adamant they are not willing to pay much for the technology the figure oft bandied about is between $7 and $10 per tire. Even at this low threshold, the investment for any medium to large fleet is enormous when the number of tires is factored in. Continental's Andre Heijnen, director of truck tire technology, says when Conti was looking at similar technologies the target was just $4 per tire. But that proved very limiting and now the company is moving in a different direction.
Currently, there is considerable interest in Europe in the 40-series ultra-low profile tire for 4x2 tractors, like the Michelin X-One and Bridgestone Greatec. However, concerns about the tires' ability to stay on the rim in the case of a flat is dictating a run-flat capability. But running flat on a special interior bladder also demands that the driver be made aware of the condition via an in-cab display. That is the direction of Continental's research right now, said Heijnen.
Bridgestone also struggles with the value equation. Its comment: While it would be nice to offer this technology as a value-added feature, the reality is that the research and development costs are significant. Likewise, the payoff for the fleet must be significant as well.
Toyo says it simply has not seen demand from its customers.
In the United States, it seemed for a while that the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) Act would drag the trucking industry kicking and screaming into automated tire pressure monitoring. That is one of the many requirements embedded in the far-reaching legislation. However, the requirement for heavy trucks to be equipped with on-dash tire-pressure display systems has eliminated although that might prove a temporary stay. There is some indication that NHTSA is revisiting the issue of heavy-truck tire safety and roadside debris.
Trucking interests were critical of mandated pressure monitoring systems specified in TREAD. At the time the legislation was proposed, Peggy Fisher, president of Fleet Tire Consulting and a leading contributor to the Technology and Maintenance Council's (TMC) wheel and tire efforts, complained that the proposal was a one-size-fits-all and not what a lot of fleets wanted. Or could afford.
The TREAD Act definitely will require dash displays for passenger cars. And leading suppliers like Europeans Schraeder and Beru are poised to supply Beru already has a tire monitoring system on Volkswagen's new flagship, Phaeton.
Closer to home, Vancouver, BCbased Smartire has been shown on high-end cars like Aston Martin and has been essentially an aftermarket product. However, the company now has a marketing agreement with industry supplier Visteon that will likely give it a major presence in the U.S.
Like its European competitors, the Smartire system has transmitters down at the tire that communicate via RF with the display unit on the dash. It's a technology that demonstrably works, but at a price. In the case of Smartire, the cost is around $200 installed on a four wheeler.
The company is working on a high-pressure system for trucks and should be ready early in 2003, says Communications Manager Susan Mader. However, there's been no indication how much the system will cost for an 18-wheeler.
Already in place with a valve-stem-based pressure sensing system and due to go into a new generation is Tire Sentry. It has systems for all vehicles and has reached a data-book position with some of the high-end RV manufacturers, says Bill Shore, the company's customer-relations manager.
The Tire Sentry provides wheel-specific warnings and a standard 2-inch round gauge to fit into the dash with a graphic to quickly locate a defective tire. It is likely a good solution for a tire-conscious small fleet or owner-operator, though the suggested $965 for an 18-wheel set-up would make most fleet managers pale.
And as good as this system is, Peggy Fisher points out most fleet managers are looking for a system that integrates tire pressure information into a larger tire management system. The stand-alone, onboard display is fine for the individual, but while acknowledging that loss of pressure is the most important contributor to tire failure, fleets want to get their arms around a lot more.
Goodyear would likely be a good candidate for integrating real-time pressure sensing into its much larger TV Track tire/vehicle management system. This is a comprehensive program that resides at the fleet and is administered by fleets or Goodyear dealers. It is complemented by Goodyear's newer GTracs, which is an Internet-enabled retread management and information system. According to Cohn, something like 500 fleets are up on TVTrack and using it to manage not just Goodyear tires, but all brands in their operations. Though to date because of the price-sensitivity Cohn says tire pressure is still a manual operation.
Perhaps the scene is changing. Fisher chairs a task force at TMC on Tire Debris Prevention, and at the most recent meeting presented some interesting results from a survey of TMC members.
The survey only drew a 6% response. However, those who did respond 66 fleets from the truckload, less-than-truckload, lease and private fields covered a surprising 53,000 tractors, 147,000 trucks, 187,700 trailers and 44,000 dollies. That's equipment running on 2,415,000 tires.
The report still has to be fully cross-tabulated, yet there are some interesting gems to be found. For one, there is a wide diversity of needs identified and a broad spectrum of technologies that TMC members are looking at to meet their tire maintenance needs.
As well as the direct-reading pressure systems above, fleets are contemplating pressure equalizers for duals, tire inflation systems, in-tire pressure monitoring and in-wheel pressure and temperature sensors. Ranking the responses in the survey, these technologies are to provide information the fleets would use to improve safety and reduce accidents; improve tire life; improve tread life; enhance fuel efficiency; reduce downtime and road delays; and improve handling. Later questions also revealed that reducing driver frustrations with roadside delays was also a consideration.
But while this showed a very real understanding of the benefits of good tire pressure maintenance, the survey showed that tractor tire pressures were checked only once a month by 44% of the respondents. The next biggest group, 15% of the respondents checked every two months; 15% said they checked weekly; 12% twice a month; 3% twice a week.
For trailers, 29% checked monthly; 20% every 90 days; 17% weekly; 11% every 60 days; 8% checked twice a month.
Retreadability of tires was a recurrent theme, with many suggesting they would like in-tire temperature sensing to record the highest temperature ever seen by the casing through its life. In the survey, the biggest group 42% said they retreaded twice; 35% only once; 12% three times and 8% said they didn't retread at all.
In terms of the information they wanted to see, an overwhelming number said they wanted real-time pressure monitoring and they wanted to know what wheel position they were reading. This is very much in line with comments by Randy Clark, Michelin's truck tire marketing vice president, at the launch of eTire (see accompanying story).
He said fleets aren't prepared to pay for information that they have a low-pressure tire on a vehicle. But they are willing to pay for information that a specific tire is low. The implication here is that if a technician can go and air up just one bad tire, that's a much better use of his time than gauging all 18 to find the bad one.
One question in particular drew a surprising response. When asked, "How much would you be prepared to pay," most predictably responded they would pay less than $30 per wheel position. However, some respondents indicated that confidence in tire pressure was worth more than three figures to them.
Of course, these fleets are not necessarily representative of the general population. For one, they are members of the influential TMC and for another, they were only the most motivated 6% from a general mailing.
But it does show an awakening to the benefits of real-time pressure monitoring, whatever the technology deployed to achieve it.
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