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Wide-Single Tires Need a Little More Care

Trailers seldom get the maintenance they deserve, so it's not surprising that tires don't fare well. Photo: Goodyear

Wide-base single tires have saved truck fleets millions of gallons of fuel over the 20-plus years they have been in service and facilitated the transport of thousands of additional tons of payload. Both translate into fewer greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately lower fuel bills for fleets. But for all the good they do, they have certainly cost maintenance managers many sleepless nights.

Those maintenance managers have learned a few things about the wide-single tires over the years, and many have a better understanding today of what works and what doesn't. In general, they've found:

Fleets that run wide-base singles successfully probably didn't start out that way. But after years of observation and some trial and error, they have ironed out most of the wrinkles.

Ryder, for example, found that axle width has an impact on shoulder wear, especially when using offset wheels to compensate for the narrower axles capable of mounting dual or wide-single tires.

“We saw irregular wear all but vanish after moving to wide-track axles with zero-offset wheels,” says Scott Perry, vice president of supply management with Ryder System. But he acknowledges there were consequences to that move. “If you wanted to put duals back on the axle you'd be more than 102 inches wide.”

Other users report reductions in irregular wear with zero-offset wheels. But many buying decisions are based not only on the intended application of the original buyer, but also with residual value in mind. So fleets hedge their bets ...Read the rest of this story

Ploger Transportation Pushes 10 Mpg With a Far-From-Typical Powertrain Spec

Ploger Transportation's diverse customer base provides a mix of light and heavy loads, many multi-stop routes and high exposure to urban environments. Photos: Ploger Transportation

Right-sizing is proving to be an effective way of maximizing fuel economy with literally no performance penalty, says Joel Morrow of Bellevue, Ohio-based Ploger Transportation. The company's director of research and development, he's also a driver and test pilot running the same truck every day on revenue runs.

“In general freight especially, drivers and owners over-estimate their duty cycles – and not by a little bit,” he says. “They get caught believing they need 550 hp and 1,850 lb-ft or they just won't get anywhere. We're living proof that's just not so.”

At Morrow's direction, Ploger recently put a new truck into service with a very interesting spec. He drives it and sends performance reports to the company and to Volvo Trucks. As of this writing, the truck has clocked about 30,000 miles with lifetime mpg standing at 8.5. A LinkeDrive report for a weeklong period from August 11-18 (see next page) shows 10.47 mpg with 2.43% idle time over 2,398 miles.

Ploger is a diverse carrier hauling mostly high-cube multi-drop loads to customer retail locations in urban areas predominantly east of the Mississippi. Backhauls range from steel coils and roofing shingles to scrap paper. The trucks are usually loaded close to gross on the way home, with lighter outbound loads. A typical outbound leg would be 800-1,000 miles with seven or eight drops, with a single-stop backhaul. There's lots of stop-and-go driving, docking, and congestion to deal with, and when he's out on the highway Morrow unashamedly runs as close to 70 mph as he can where speed limits permit.

“We had a couple of high-speed customers with multiple pickups and drops, so we ...Read the rest of this story

Profit Is Hiding In Dark Places

Most fleets are operating on thin margins and that is not likely to change anytime soon.

Yet many of them are missing an opportunity to add to their bottom line because they don't have complete control over their procurement process. If managed efficiently, the procurement process — what is purchased, how it is purchased, who makes the purchasing decisions — impacts profitability.

Purchasing sounds pretty straightforward, but in reality, for many fleets it is surrounded by a great deal of confusion.

In a recent survey conducted by AmeriQuest Business Services, 2,000 respondents who were responsible for managing or influencing their company's procurement process shed light on why this process so often falls short of its potential:

20.4 percent of the companies had no procurement process in place;

13.3 percent had no idea if their company did, or did not have, a procurement process in place;

Less than a quarter of the survey respondents indicated that procurement was viewed as a strategic business partner;

Another 25 percent noted that procurement is simply seen as a function of accounts receivables/account payables;

Fifteen percent of the survey respondents didn't know which department managed their company's procurement, even though they were directly involved in the process.

Dr. Reggie Peterson, Director of Indirect Programs at AmeriQuest Business Services, has dubbed this phenomena “dark purchasing.” Basically, that refers to a fleet's inability to track where its expenditures are going. According to the survey, employees often do not know the best way to make a purchase especially when it comes to items that are categorized as indirect spend — categories of goods and services that are necessary to support a fleet's operation. In other words, everyday items like MRO supplies, office supplies, cleaning products, etc.

Yet it is often the little things that when added together end up costing more than imagined or anticipated. As Peterson says, ...Read the rest of this story

Not Much Activity in Diesel Prices, OPEC Teases Crude Deal

Source: EIA

The price of diesel fuel fell slightly last week, continuing a 5-week streak of nearly flat prices, according to the latest numbers from the Energy Department.

The average price on-highway diesel fuel in the U.S. fell by 0.7 cents last week, hitting a per gallon price of $2.382 at the pump. The price is still 9.4 cents cheaper than it was in the same week of 2015.

While the overall price was slightly down, prices fluctuated up and down based on the region with the largest decrease coming to the Rocky Mountain region at 1.5 cents. The largest increase in prices was a 0.4-cent increase in the Central Atlantic region.

The average price of regular gasoline was also essentially flat for the week, dropping by 0.1 cents to a per gallon price of $2.224. The price is 9.8 cents cheaper than it was a year ago.

Prices were more varied from region to region with the largest decrease in prices coming to the Rocky Mountains at 1.9 cents. The largest increase in prices hit the Central Atlantic region at 1.4 cents.

Crude oil prices were up on Sept. 26 as there were more indications that a deal to scale back or freeze oil production may be a possibility, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The same rumor of OPEC member countries making moves to stabilize and improve crude oil prices has had an up and down effect on the market. This week, the United Arab Emirates oil minister supported a deal publically and indicated that his country would support limits on production.

Related: Alternative Fuels in the Age of Cheap Oil

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Peterbilt's Winnipeg facility earns excellence award

Maxion Unveils MaxSmart Wheel-Mounted Sensor

Maxion Wheels announced a new commercial vehicle connected wheel safety measure called MaxSmart, combining the company's steel wheels with sensor technology to capture data for drivers and fleets.

Announced at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Hannover, Germany, MaxSmart s currently in a testing phase and is expected to be ready for production in 2017. The sensor will collect data and communicate it to drivers and fleets in order to prevent accidents and repairs.

By using kinetic energy from the wheel's motion to power the sensors, the device collects and transmits data on wheel load, clamp force to the axle, tire pressure and temperature. The information is uploaded to both the vehicle and cloud, providing vehicle safety intelligence to both driver and fleet.

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