Talk in pounds, not PSI appreciated – Goodyear reports positive FOS feedback

Recently Goodyear launched its FleetOnlineSolutions Mobile Technical Evaluation (FOS Mte) for OTR tyre into the Europe, Middle East and Africa region business area. The internet-based tyre management programme allows fleet inspection reports to be filed online at the time of each visit, quickly giving the customer information on the performance of each tyre in the fleet. It also provides relevant information in actual cost terms for greater transparency.

FOS is described by Goodyear as “a significant step forward in the OTR business for operators of earthmoving equipment and other heavy plant and equipment.” It enables each OTR representative to deliver a fleet inspection report direct from a customer’s site via an internet connection. These reports give full details to the customer, by tyre position and include:

•    Projection of performance
•    Measured pressures versus recommendation
•    Cost per hour
•    Hours realised per millimetre of rubber
•    Value at risk – For each tyre of a specific inspected vehicle, the deviation of pressure versus the recommendation is converted into value (in local currency), showing how much a wrongly inflated tyre will cost to the end-user if the concerned tyre continues to run at the wrong pressure until the end of its life.

“Customers do not talk in bars or PSI; they talk in pounds,” commented Stephan Renson, after sales and marketing manager Off-The-Road Tyres Goodyear EMEA. “For this reason, we decided to convert the variance between the measured pressure and the recommendation into a reliable ‘value at risk’ covering the life of the tyre. Under this format, the findings talk much more to our end-users. This system also gives the value of the fleet visit performed by our experts, a service that not all premium brands are providing today.”

The programme has been operating across most European markets since mid-November; Goodyear says the feedback it has received so far demonstrates that customers are impressed with how quickly they can receive the reports, but “above all it’s the value at risk’ report that is proving most impressive. This aspect of the report, which is believed to be unique in the industry, helps customers to understand the financial risk of running with incorrect tyre pressures.”