As urban legends go, the belief that retreaded tires aren’t safe or practical ranks up there with the idea that one can find an honest politician during an election year.
The reality is that a retreaded tire produced by a top-quality retreader will perform as well as a comparable new tire and at a lower price.
Not far behind the cost of labor and fuel, tires are among the top operating expenses for most beverage fleets. Looking at just maintenance costs, tires rise to the top of the list.
It’s fairly common in business, psychology and elsewhere to incentivize the type of behavior one desires. Within the beverage industry, sales and marketing departments rely on numerous incentive programs, both internally with staff and externally with retailers.
Beverage Industry recently surveyed a sample of its readers to gain insight into the size and makeup of current delivery fleets, future vehicle purchase plans, as well as operational concerns and strategies.
Tires, by a wide margin, are the top maintenance cost for most beverage fleets. Containing these costs requires frequent, thorough inspections and diligently maintaining proper tire pressure to prevent a tire’s early demise.
Vehicle alignment settings serve a variety of functions in vehicle operation and affect, among other things, handling, steering, stability, performance and safety.
Tire technology is not a category that is immune to ongoing technology advancements. To gain some insight into this progression, I visited with Gary Enterline, product category manager for Greenville, S.C.-based Michelin Americas Truck Tires. Dedicated to the improvement of sustainable mobility, Michelin designs, manufactures and sells tires for every type of vehicle.
It’s hard to imagine many jobs as unpleasant as dealing with scrap tires. Most fleets store, pile or throw scrap tires somewhere behind the maintenance shop.