Lothian renews Michelin Solutions tyre contract

Lothian will continue to roll on premium Michelin tyres after the largest municipal bus company in the UK renewed a three-year Effitires contract with Michelin solutions.

The new agreement will see Michelin solutions supply, fit and manage tyres across Lothian’s fleet of more than 800 single and double-deck buses, which is used to operate more than 70 services in Edinburgh and the surrounding areas of Midlothian and East Lothian.

Michelin solutions will support the fleet with a team of its own tyre technicians working in-house across Lothian’s three bus garages. Together, they are responsible for fitting all Michelin tyres onto rims, as well as conducting detailed fleet-wide tyre inspections to optimise replacement intervals and both spot and rectify potential issues before they result in downtime.

Michelin solutions will manage all Michelin tyres through a multi-life process including regrooving and retreading. This supports Lothian’s own environmental targets by extracting the maximum performance from every tyre on its fleet, in turn reducing raw material usage. The process of regrooving a worn tyre when it reaches 3-4mm of remaining tread depth also extends tyre life by up to 25 per cent in the most fuel-efficient state.

Stewart Pooley, sales manager bus and coach at Michelin solutions, explained: “Lothian is a very progressive fleet and they know precisely what they want from a strategic supplier – everything we do for them is geared around maximising safety and guaranteeing mobility. Naturally, we’re thrilled to be extending our relationship until at least 2021.”

As Michelin solutions’ largest regional bus customer, Lothian specifies Michelin tyres as original equipment on all new vehicles joining its fleet. This ensures they can enjoy the same long-lasting tyre performance across all assets, minimising wheel interventions and boosting performance.