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  • Regular tyre pressure monitoring saves lives

    Tyre Pressure Monitoring

    As a fleet manager the condition of your vehicles tyres will massively affect overall performance and safety. The effect of worn tyres can be anything from reduced fuel economy affecting overall business costs, to the cause of incidents and even potential liability claims.

    In fact, As a fleet manager the condition of your vehicles tyres will massively affect overall performance and safety. The effect of worn tyres can be anything from reduced fuel economy affecting overall business costs, to the cause of incidents and even potential liability claims.

    In fact, under-inflated tyres have been found to reduce fuel efficiency by up to 3%, and whilst this may not sound significant to a driver it certainly makes all the difference to a fleet manager. Depending on the size of your fleet it could amount to thousands of pounds over the course of a year.

    Recent study relating to tyre pressure monitoring

    Following a recent 18-month study conducted by Highways England and Bridgestone, findings have also now shown that three quarters of those tyre failure related incidents that they reviewed could have been prevented by regular tyre checks. Researchers believe that those defects found would have undoubtably been spotted with more frequent tyre checks in place.

    The importance of checking tyre pressures, tread depths and debris penetration were dramatically highlighted by this study, showing how simple checks prior to setting out on journeys can save lives. Often tyres suffering penetration from debris suffer from gradual deflation as the object tends to plug the hole initially, so the chance of spotting these prior to them causing an incident through regular tyre checks is high.

    Highlights from the findings

    The findings from this study revealed that:

    • 56% of tyres failed to debris penetration
    • 18% failed due to poor inflation
    • 8% failed due to poor vehicle maintenance
    • 1% of tyres failed due to manufacturing defects
    • 1% failed from excessive heat
    • 16% were unspecified

    How Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems can help

    Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems come as standard now in all vehicles and will alert drivers when tyre pressure is particularly low. TPMS will alert the driver of any abnormal pressure conditions on the tyre so that they can take immediate action. But this doesn’t eliminate the need for manual maintenance checks to spot any issues that such systems may not pick up.

    Smart tyres take it a step further

    So-called ‘smart’ tyres are beginning to find more prominence in the market. They are basically tyres with embedded sensors which can deliver data to help predictive maintenance, which will lead to improved safety and fuel economy in addition to an extended life of the tyre itself. Such sensors will provide a fleet manager with information not only on the tyre, but also on the road conditions and driver behaviour.

    In addition to keeping track of an under-performing tyres, Fleet Managers can utilise useful data gathered to optimise routes based on roads and motorways that alert them to poor tyre performance. In the future those roads that are particularly wearing on tyres can be avoiding prolonging the life of the tyres and ensure the safety of drivers.

    The smart tyres work by enabling electric signals to be sent from a sensor in the tyre to a receiver. They continuously measure tread depth and temperature and can alert the driver to anything penetrating the tread as well as adjusting pressure to adapt different driving conditions.

    By implementing such intelligent systems, you may even find that some fleet insurers will offer premium discounts due to the reduced risk involved.

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