SPECIAL REPORT
A fully equipped school-bus tire shop at Clark County School District.
with the greenhouse-gas–suggested standard are not nearly as demanding as the require- ments to meet the SmartWay standard,” Jones said. “Even within SmartWay-verified tires, there are tires that are 1 percent better than the SmartWay standard, and there are
tires that are 20 percent better.” Te bottom line is that both LRR and
Ultra-LRR tires sell very well, compris- ing around 40 percent of the market for replacement, and perhaps an even higher percentage for OE. “I think the technology is becoming a
given, something you must have. We put a lot of effort into it, as do all the major tire manufacturers,” Jones added. Jaye Young, U.S. marketing manager for
Michelin Truck Tires, identified two trends in the tire marketplace for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles — fuel savings and increased retreading. He stressed that LRR tires offer fuel savings as well as performance. “For most fleets, fuel costs represent the single, highest non-payroll operating expense. Te lower the rolling resistance, the less fuel consumed,” said Young. “A 3-percent reduction in rolling resistance translates into a 1-percent fuel savings or an increase of 0.05 miles per gallon.” Brian Sheehey, director of commercial
tire sales and marketing at Hankook Tire America Corp., said another major trend is a greater demand for environmentally friendly products and, hence, greater interest in fuel-efficient tires. “Hankook Tire has addressed this demand by increasing truck and bus tire production for 2013,” said Sheehey. “We don’t foresee any issues in the area of pro- viding LRR tires to meet the needs of our customers.”
Double Coin VP Aaron Murphy said
the company began developing energy tires for OEM/fleet requirements in 2010. He pinpointed fuel efficiency and aerodynamics as two top priorities for fleet customers. “Our energy tires for regional applica-
tions have the same features and character- istics of non-energy tires: For applications like buses … sidewall protectors to reduce curbing damage are important, and we use these to enhance the life of these tires,” said Murphy. While Goodyear Tire declined comment
See Us At Booth #205 42 School Transportation News July 2013
for this article, the company announced in April that three of its Fuel Max models are SmartWay verified and now deliver reduced rolling resistance for better fuel efficiency. All will launch during the second quarter of 2013. “We know that fuel is the number one expense for fleets,” said Brian Buckham, mar- keting manager of Goodyear Commercial Tire Systems, at the time. “Fleet managers are looking for ways to reduce fuel consump- tion while achieving long miles to removal in order to help boost their bottom lines.”
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