Commercial Vehicle Tyres
SAS Logistics is switching to an exclusive Michelin tyre policy across its commercial vehicle fleet – including eight biomethane-fuelled tractor units – as part of the company’s ongoing sustainability drive. The Avonmouth-based operator is transitioning its Volvo and Scania trucks, as well as its mixed trailer fleet, onto products from the Michelin X Multi and Michelin X Works ranges.
Giti Tire has launched its Mercury fleet management programme. The programme offers online real-time reporting across all core operational areas. Giti plans to offer Mercury as a value-added service to all truck and bus customers contracted to the brand. Giti is also introducing its Retorque App, designed to give fleet managers visibility that their retorque policy is being followed in real time. The software was soft-launched with several UK-based key fleet customers last September, the company adds. The launch is designed to allow Giti, a mid-market player, to offer services that are now common amongst premium fleet tyre suppliers and partners.
TÜV SÜD and Goodyear have integrated the Goodyear CheckPoint solution into the TÜV SÜD Digital Vehicle Scan (DVS) inspection system. The system uses advanced sensor technology to elevate vehicle safety and performance, making the vehicle acceptance and return process more efficient. The testing organisation says the DVS enables accurate diagnosis and timely maintenance recommendations, which can improve overall safety and efficiency. The Goodyear CheckPoint drive-over tyre inspection system reads tyre condition and vehicle parameters, sending actionable insights to fleet managers. It streamlines tyre pressure and tread depth inspection by providing automated inspections completed within seconds.
Goodyear’s recent Sustainable Reality Survey has shown that UK fleets are more focused on sustainability than their European counterparts, with higher-than-average knowledge and application of sustainable solutions, including fuel-efficient tyres. Goodyear surveyed more than 1,400 fleets from 33 countries, asking about their current efforts and targets for the future. It found that 93 per cent of UK fleets are committed to sustainability goals, compared to the European average of 83 per cent. The UK industry is also in a position of strength when it comes to investing in sustainable solutions, including fuel-efficient tyres, telematics and driver training. The full report on Goodyear’s survey is available from the manufacturer’s website.
Goodyear aims for its integrated fleet solution to play an instrumental role in helping customers achieve their sustainability targets, and anyone wishing to learn more can do so next week: The Goodyear Drive Results showroom is set to showcase Goodyear Total Mobility to UK and Irish customers on 6 and 7 July.
With the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship’s 2023 season two meetings and eight races old, the purple-liveried SL Apollo Tyres Trucksport is competing at the top end of the driver’s championship. German 35-year-old driver Sascha Lenz says that the truck is ready to compete following mechanical challenges in pre-season practice, having stepped up the pace in the season to sit in fourth position in the driver standings. The championship has visited the Autodromo Misano World Circuit in Italy and the Slovakia Ring so far, with the new Polish round at Poznan coming up on 24-25 June. Lenz pronounced himself and the team “satisfied” with the team’s improvements in the new race truck: “My initial feeling after the testing was that we were far from where we wanted to be in terms of set-up. However, we have proved that we are going in the right direction.”
All of Tanvic Tyres’ 25 technicians have received National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) Category One Accreditation following the company’s bespoke three-day training programme, delivered by the Michelin Training and Information Centre (MTIC). The independent business said the course would boost its staff’s career development and improve the service levels it delivers to customers. The course was delivered at the Tanvic Tyres depot in Newark, near Nottingham.
Clugston Distribution Services says the Michelin X Multi Energy tyre specified as original equipment on 35 new Renault 6×2 tractor units is helping to improve fuel consumption by up to six per cent. The Scunthorpe company, which transports bulk powder and fuel, has used Michelin’s multi-life policy for nearly 30 years. It has operated the X Multi Energy-shod tractor units for six months. Clugston Distribution Services’ fleet, including 110 Renault trucks and 180 trailers, all run on Michelin multi-life tyres from its Scunthorpe site and depots in Driffield, Teesside and Hull.
Olleco is the renewables arm of ABP Food Group, and provides the food and hospitality sectors with a range of services designed to help them to tackle the climate emergency by converting their waste resources into renewable energy. The company employs over 1,000 people, at 19 sites strategically located throughout the UK and Ireland, and has grown to become the UK’s leading supplier of premium cooking oils and fats as well as its largest collector of used cooking oil and food waste. The company has signed a new Effitires contract with Michelin’s Services and Solutions division; the agreement between the two businesses was secured on a joint commitment to sustainability, and a cleaner and greener future for the transport sector.
A Kent auto services and tyre supplier has upgraded its wheel alignment system to rectify axle and wheel misalignment with greater speed and accuracy. A2 Tyres, which operates four retail sites in the south-east, three for retail and vans and one for commercial vehicles, switched from a basic wheel alignment system to a Josam Cam-aligner upgrade kit after receiving a demo from Josam’s exclusive distributor, AES UK (Automotive Equipment Supplies). Accurate wheel alignment can reduce tyre wear, improving safety and saving fuel.
Craig and Simon Reid and the rest of the team at Reid Freight Services are completing final preparations to transport their two racing trucks to Brands Hatch for the first event of the 2023 British Truck Racing Championship season when Tyres & Accessories visits the regional haulage firm’s Stoke-on-Trent site. The brothers and their father, David, have a long history of competing in one of motorsport’s most unique disciplines, with a reception area lined with trophies and memorabilia from track-based competition to show for it. In 2023, both brothers are competing in division one of the BTRC. Craig, who is infectiously enthusiastic about racing if also endearingly downbeat about his own chances in the competition, took the time to tell T&A about the Reid brothers’ trucks, the competition, and his affinity for the tyres of the series’ exclusive tyre supplier, Giti, both on-track and on the Reid fleet of trucks, heavy haulage trailers and specialist rail logistics units.
Following on from a successful 2022, Hankook Tyre UK has signed up again as official partner at this year’s Devon Truck Show and the Truck Show Cornwall, which will respectively take place on 13 and 14 May at Honiton Showground and 29 and 30 July at Stithians Showground, Truro. Hankook says these events will be an “excellent opportunity” for it to exhibit products from its truck tyre portfolio and to liaise with new and existing fleet partners.
2022 Tyre Industry Awards Truck and Agricultural Tyre Supplier of the Year, GB Tyres has announced the latest phase of its commercial vehicle tyre portfolio development with the introduction of its own exclusive brand, Aerotyre. The company states: “Aerotyre is more than another brand in our portfolio. It is made specifically for us and is our own tyre brand, Aerotyre products are only available from GB Tyres. We are delighted to provide a product which offers such excellent quality at a highly competitive price.”
UK truck tyre sales for Falken Tyres have increased significantly during the past 12 months, according to the Sumitomo Rubber Industries brand and its distributor Micheldever Tyre Services. In 2022, Falken sold more than 8,000 more tyres in the UK market than it did during 2021. During 2022, Falken’s RI 151, BI 856 and GI 368 proved to be the bestsellers among its portfolio of customers, managed by MTS retail chain Protyre. The 2022 increase has also supported Micheldever and Protyre’s UK truck tyre sales, with “significant” year-on-year growth since 2020 and an overall increase of 350 per cent since 2018.
The British Truck Racing Championship (BTRC) will run exclusively on Giti Race-Tuned v1 global competition truck tyres in size 315/70R22.5 for a second season in 2023, beginning on 8 April at Brands Hatch. Competitors will decide the series over seven race weekends at some of the UK’s leading circuits, Pembrey, Thruxton, Donington, Snetterton, and coming full-circle to end the season, presumably with the hope of some on-track fireworks, on 5 November. Giti will augment its BTRC official tyre partnership status with the sponsorship of the two fully-liveried Team Oliver racing trucks, piloted by the father and son duo, Stuart and Michael Oliver.
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Andrew Bogie/Tyres & Accessories
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