Interest in adopting more proactive tyre strategies is growing as they become a larger part of fleet costs, according to Chevin Fleet Solutions.

The fleet software provider says that with specialised wheel and tyre sizes seemingly growing greater and more vehicle specific, fleet tyre costs are increasingly going up.

Ashley Sowerby, managing director, said: “When you look at operational data, this is not just a question of bigger tyres being more expensive but also seemingly more susceptible to accidental damage and even more likely to be stolen.

“All of these factors lead to higher costs and fleets are increasingly trying to take managerial control in this area.

“This is something that is being seen on a wider industry basis with some of the largest fleets changing their buying arrangements and we see reflections of this in increased levels of price comparison using our software, for example.

“However, there is also a strong desire among fleets to take a greater amount of operational control over tyre costs.”

Sowerby said that Chevin offered a tyre management module as part of its FleetWave software and that this was increasingly being used to monitor tyre use.

“Successfully tackling costs in this area requires something of a change of culture, recognising that tyres are an area that respond to management attention. This is why, in our software, each tyre is recorded as a separate, specific asset.

“Managing this asset might mean actions as simple as looking at examining the different tyre replacement cycles that occur for different drivers in similar vehicles, seeing which are getting through sets of tyres more often and why?

“It might also mean identifying which drivers most often suffer accidental tyre damage and again trying to work out whether this is a result of their driving style or other factors that can be tackled.

“We offer managers the opportunity to use a range of KPIs and exception reports that make the whole process very simple yet structured and effective.”

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