Cut Fleet Costs With Our Tyres, Says Continental

Although 2009 promises to be a challenging time for UK truck fleet operators, Continental is convinced that possibilities remain for fleets to counteract rising financial pressures. The company comments that the selection of the right tyres from the outset. for instance, has been proven to have a considerable influence on operator running costs.

“Our new HTR 2 trailer tyre or HTL 1 Ecoplus make an important contribution to reducing costs in the transport sector,” states Geert Roik, senior vice president Research & Development, OE Truck Tyres at Continental in Hanover, Germany. The economy achieved by vehicles and fleets is influenced heavily by tyre rolling resistance, but as each fleet operator knows from experience it is difficult to determine the influence of tyres on fuel consumption – many external factors, such as the weather, driving styles and different loads play a part.

However, Mr Roik continues: “Rolling resistance is the decisive factor, even more than the mileage. It accounts for eight percent of the total running costs.” In view of this, a tyre’s mileage is increasingly taking second place in the assessment criteria. Continental notes it has played a leading role in the optimisation of rolling resistance for many years. Its work towards reducing tyre weight has led to a direct improvement in rolling resistance, and by applying new technology the manufacturer believes it has achieved further quantum leaps in the new generation of products that is heralded by the HTR 2.

A new belt design has given this tyre five per cent less rolling resistance compared with its predecessor despite a larger tread volume. This is supported by an intelligent tread design that optimises the movement of the tyre in such a way that the rolling resistance can also be further reduced in this area. Roik emphasises that the engineers working on the HTR 2 have created a trailer tyre that takes the leading position among the competition in terms of mileage and rolling resistance.

In daily use, tyre pressure plays a major role. If a tyre’s pressure decreases, rolling resistance will increase. “Rolling resistance rises by four per cent for every bar below the correct pressure,” explains Roik. Tyres that are over-inflated also do not roll properly, tyre wear is increased and vehicle safety is affected. Continental comments that its patented Air-Keep technology is employed in its new products. A special mixture in the inner layer has allowed the permeability to air to be reduced by 50 per cent. The diffusion losses between the maintenance intervals are thus minimised considerably. Positive side effects are an improvement in the wear pattern as this is considerably more even at the ideal inflation pressure than at low pressure.

The weight of a tyre is also decisive when it comes to reducing costs – the lighter a tyre, the more load the truck can carry. For Bernd Stern, manager of carrier Kerpen & Kerpen based in Ochtendung, Germany, this was a convincing sales argument. “We can load around 100 kilograms more on each vehicle with the Continental tyres,” he says. He reckons that this allows an additional income of around 100,000 euros for 220 working days and 135 trucks. “Our silo trucks always drive fully loaded, therefore each additional kilo that we can carry is money in the bank.”

For many years, Continental has focused on the continued improvement of the remoulding capability of its truck tyres. The latest generation of tyres, like the HTR 2 trailer tyre, use an optimised triangular belt and a steel cord bead in addition to the usual metallic cord carcass. Furthermore, tyre developers at Conti’s headquarters in Hanover are constantly developing the flow pattern of the tyre. While in former times extended field tests in close cooperation with large fleets were required to demonstrate what a tyre was capable of, nowadays high-performance simulations can provide clear results within just a few hours or days. As a result, today’s customers purchase tyres that wear so evenly that, at end of the tyre’s first life, there is hardly any extra material left on the carcass.

This then also allows operators to save money with remoulded tyres. “This is definitely another way of counteracting the cost pressure in the industry for small and medium-sized companies,” concludes Roik.