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Vince Fortuna, vice president of maintenance for Ryder
Commercial Leasing and Services, is one of the trucking industry's busiest men. Certainly
he has the biggest maintenance management responsibility; 150,000 tractors, trailers and
straight trucks, 8,500 maintenance technicians; some 830 service locations in the
continental U.S.; and over 10,000 very demanding customers.
And he runs one of the tightest and toughest tire maintenance
programs in the industry.
Ryder spends tens of millions of dollars each year on new and retreaded tires, and Fortuna
and his team work hard to squeeze every penny out of every tire. Helping make the job
easier are the local tire dealers and retreaders Ryder uses for its national new tire and
retreading programs. The national new tire programs are worked through
Bridgestone/Firestone, but local area dealers provide the day-to-day service.
"Those local dealers are very important to our
success," said Fortuna. "We probably don't use their talents and knowledge
enough, but they have helped us reduce our costs."
And, as you'll see in this interview, Fortuna feels closer
alliances will be even more important in the future.
Despite his tight schedule, Fortuna was able to spend a few
minutes discussing Ryder's massive tire maintenance efforts, and giving us his views on
the relationship between fleets and suppliers. |
With the vast number of vehicles and tires your
staff has to deal with, how important is accurate
tire record keeping and how do you use these records to improve tire life cycle costs?
"From a standpoint of our customers, it's very important that we monitor and keep
records on tire wear. If we PM a truck and we know the application of that vehicle, we
definitely need to know if the tires will make it to the next PM, and we calculate that
from the remaining tread depth and compare that to past records for those tires. I think
we and all fleets need to do a better job of analyzing and managing tires from cradle to
grave. We probably don't have the best system in the world to do that, but as a user of
millions of dollars worth of tires, it's imperative we have a system to do that.
Is that something Ryder wants to co-develop with its tire manufacturers, or is
that something that Ryder itself is working on?
"We need to work together to come up with a process to manage the tire throughout its
lifecycle. I don't just look at the rubber, I look at the whole process, and we need to
work closely with our tire suppliers, Bridgestone/ Firestone being our largest supplier-
to develop such systems."
Engineering and technical support from your tire and retread suppliers is vital to
Ryder. How do you use that information?
"With all the different types of vehicles we operate and the different applications
they're used in, it's imperative for us to have the right tire for that vehicle and that
application. Our tire suppliers each have an engineer assigned to our staff. It's
essential we have that kind of hands-on engineering support to help us, and work with us
to improve or develop tires that give us the wear characteristics and durability we need.
We use the engineering information we receive to determine what tire to buy for a
particular application, and to review all our suppliers to see how they stack up against
each other. In the future, as we get into new types of applications and vehicles, this
will be even more important." |
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What do you look to extract from tire
maintenance records? How do you use that data in tire purchasing and maintenance?
"Well, we look at all the information- tire mileage, fuel efficiency and
cost-per-mile-to make sure that we have the most fuel efficient and cost effective tires
available. And we look at cost-per-mile by-fleet and by-application. If we have two
different fleets using the same tire, each with different applications, we can use that
information to compare tire use and cost. That allows us to better measure ourselves to
see if we can come up with lower tire costs. I feel fuel efficiency will come into the
picture more, and in the future will see how tires can help us get better fuel economy out
of our vehicles. At the same time, we must keep in mind that the tire is only one aspect
of fuel efficiency. There are other attributes that are also important-original tread
life, retreadability, wet traction performance and so on."
How much of an influence is vehicle usage
in tire life?
"Each vehicle has its own characteristics, as does each lease customer. With a high
mileage, over-the-road tractor, we look at cost-per-mile and wear on a mile-per 32nd
basis. If a tractor or straight truck is being used in the city, then vehicle usage can
definitely play into tire costs and tire life. Some tires in some operations might only
get 80,000 miles, but those same tires in another operation might get 180,000 miles. It
all depends on how the vehicle is used, what the loads are, and where the vehicle is
operated."
Ryder tries to match tire attributes
to a customer's application, doesn't it?
"Yes, we're very customer-specific. We try to do that all the time. I'd say in some
cases we're not as successful as we want to be, and to do a better job of that we need
more help from our suppliers. It wasn't too long ago that Ryder used only a handful of
tire sizes and types. One of our big challenges has been getting the right tire for the
job, matching tire attributes to the customer application."
If you could point to just one thing, what does Ryder do that extends tire life
the most?
"Training. Developing our people's knowledge of the total process of managing and
maintaining tires, I think, will lower our costs more than anything. Developing people to
understand what it takes to run a good tire program, how you have to really stay on top of
it and understand the total system is the answer."
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With the advent of set back axles,
aerodynamics and so forth, how much does truck configuration impact tire usage?
"Well, based on our experience, because you're putting more weight on the front
tires, set back axles actually will wear tires out a little bit quicker.
At the same time, we're seeing better characteristics with the
whole vehicle. With aerodynamics, especially with over-the-road tractors, the right engine
electronics parameters must be speced or you'll get too much speed out of the vehicle. And
too much speed means greater tire wear and more heat. You can experience faster wear with
aerodynamic vehicles than non-aerodynamic vehicles."
What process do you go through to uncover potential tire problems before they
blossom into severe problems?
"That's our trade secret. The short story is we've got some pretty sophisticated tire
cost tracking systems that can break things down by customer, service location and
vehicle, and give us a pretty precise picture of our true running costs. We take that
data, develop a model, and compare that model to other situations. If there is a problem,
we then try to determine what the real issues are: Is it the tire? Is it the driver? Is it
the application? Is it a maintenance problem?"
If there was one thing you'd want a tire manufacturer to do that would help Ryder
extend tire life, what would it be?
"Help me develop systems to manage the total lifecycle process, and not just look at
32nds of tread wear. Look at the total process. And for our company, that includes
ordering, delivery, payment, tire technology, tracking technology, analysis of wear by
application, tire disposal. It's the total process from beginning to end. I need their
help to do all that."
If you were to rank tire characteristics most desirable to a fleet like Ryder,
what would they be and why?
"To answer that, I've got to put on a couple different hats. I think for our
customers' benefit- if it will provide the best payback to them- we should be trying to
use the most fuel efficient tires possible. Fuel still makes up 40% to 50% of our
customers' operating budgets. It's a delicate balancing act because you have to look at it
fleet-by-fleet, and any potential fuel savings needs to be weighed against any shortfalls
in other tire performance criteria.
"Another thing, again from a customer perspective, is road
handling and traction, how the driver feels the tire handles. On the other side, from a
Ryder standpoint and looking at things I want to see, the first would be resistance to
irregular wear. Then I'd look at original tread life, heat dissipation and retreadability.
Obviously, if you want a retreadable tire it's got to be good with heat. Give me something
to manage the heat, tell me when a tire is hot and when the pressure is low and you could
be a winner." |
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