Tire Maintenance: 4 Simple Ways to Reduce Operating Costs for Trailer and Truck Fleets
For trailer and truck body fleets, tires are one of the most controllable operating expenses. With a consistent fleet tire maintenance program, you can significantly reduce overall costs while improving safety and fuel efficiency.
Small preventive steps can extend tire life, improve retread potential, and help prevent expensive roadside failures.
To help lower your costs, we’ve put together four fleet tire maintenance practices that can help lower your costs and help your operation run more smoothly.
1. Schedule Routine Tire Inspections
Regular tire inspections are one of the easiest ways to catch problems early and prevent costly downtime.
Routine inspections also protect tire casing health, which is critical for retreading.
Checking tread depth is equally important. Worn tread reduces traction and increases stopping distance, especially in wet or cold conditions.
A simple tread depth gauge helps drivers quickly measure tire wear and keep tires matched across dual assemblies.
2. Maintain Proper Tire Inflation for Better Fuel Efficiency
Maintaining proper tire inflation is one of the fastest and simplest ways to reduce fleet operating costs.
There are multiple disadvantages to not maintaining proper tire inflation pressure. Underinflated tires increase rolling resistance, forcing engines to burn more fuel. Overinflated tires can create uneven wear and reduce traction.
Maintaining the correct PSI improves:
- Fuel efficiency
- Tire life
- Load carrying performance
- Wet/Dry Traction
- Smooth ride
- Handling characteristics
- Casing life
- Retread potential
This becomes even more critical with dual tire assemblies. A difference of just 5 PSI can create uneven load sharing, create irregular wear, increase the risk of blowouts and lead to premature tire replacement.
Maintaining proper inflation can deliver measurable fuel savings over time.
Looking for more fleet efficiency tips? Learn more about how fleets can improve fuel efficiency through driver training.
3. Rotate Tires to Prevent Premature Wear
Tire rotation plays a major role in extending tire life.
For most fleets, rotating tires every 5,000–7,000 miles can help to ensure even wear and prevent early replacement.
Dual tire configurations require extra attention. Tires on the same wheel end should match closely in size and diameter to maintain balanced load distribution. When mismatched, one tire carries more load than the other, accelerating wear and increasing failure risk.
Performing scheduled tire rotations can add thousands of miles of usable life to your fleet’s tires.
4. Use the Right Tire Monitoring Tools
Manual tire checks are important, but technology can make maintenance easier and more consistent.
A quality tire pressure gauge is essential, but many fleets are also adopting tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) that provide real-time pressure alerts.
These systems can help fleets monitor tire pressure more effectively, by detecting slow leaks early improving overall tire performance. TPMS systems can also help fleets by:
• Preventing heat buildup from underinflation
• Reducing roadside breakdowns due to underinflation
It’s also important to follow tire manufacturer load and inflation tables. Proper inflation depends on load conditions and whether tires operate as single or dual assemblies.
The Bottom Line: Tire Maintenance Protects Your Fleet’s Bottom Line
Routine inspections, proper inflation, tire rotation, and better monitoring tools all help extend tire life and maximize retread opportunities.
Service is an essential component of a tire management program, and support is always available through Bridgestone’s Commercial Dealer Network when fleets need help maintaining tire performance.
The bottom line is: “An effective tire maintenance program that includes routine inspections, inflation checks, tire rotations, and better monitoring tools will help protect casings, mitigate premature tire failure, and reduce costs, providing fleets the ability to retread their tires and extend their tire investment,” said James Greer, Director, Bridgestone Commercial Truck OE.
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