Technology to mitigate tyre price rise of 33% in two years

Fleets will be able to improve tyre management thanks to new connected vehicle technology after experiencing a 33% increase in prices during the past two years, new research from Epyx shows.

Matt Waller, director of connected car at Epyx’s parent company, Fleetcor, said that spiralling costs meant that both the monitoring of tyre performance in real time and prediction of future wear were becoming essential to controlling costs.

“The average price of a fleet tyre has risen by a third in the last two years, according to data from Epyx’s tyre purchasing product, TyreServe,” he said. “That’s a massive increase and flags up tyres as an area where fleets need to find ways of accessing greater control.

“Fortunately, there are a number of tools on the horizon that will help them to improve their tyre management and forecast future spend much more accurately than anything else currently available.”

As connected vehicle solutions become more widely used, they will enable widespread capture by fleets of high-quality information covering metrics such as mileage, tyre pressure, atmospheric indicators and vehicle motion, explains Waller.

“This will mean that complex algorithms can be developed that can accurately measure key elements of tyre management including current tread depth, as well as predicting when specific tyres will need replacing,” he added.

“These improved forecasting tools will allow fleets to take tighter control over tyre budgets, ensuring all purchasing and other tyre related expenditure is carried out through the most cost-effective channels.

“This is becoming particularly important when similarly dramatic price increases are being seen across multiple areas of service, maintenance and repair (SMR) expenditure.”

Epyx is currently trialling a connected vehicle solution with a number of fleets that is delivering impressive results, it says.

This will be brought to market in the next few months – although tyre management functionality would take further time to develop.

Waller continued: “For many years, there have been three main barriers to connected vehicle data use by fleets.

“First was the availability of data from manufacturers, second was the percentage of vehicles that had the technology fitted and third was the means to present that information to fleets in a format that makes it genuinely productive.

“The first two issues are quickly being resolved within the market and the third is very much an area of deep expertise for Epyx, with more than two decades of experience in working with fleets to turn data into insight and then action.

“We see potential for connected vehicle data across the entire fleet management value chain including service and maintenance, remarketing, risk management – and tyres.  Bringing our first connected vehicle product to market promises to be a very exciting moment.”

Epyx’s TyreServe is a tyre purchasing programme that aims to allow better control of tyre pricing and brand fitments across more than 3,800 franchise and independent dealers.

It is designed to enable fleets to access pricing and rebates comparable to their preferred partner, without the loss of manufacturer rebates, when tyres are fitted by a dealer as part of routine SMR.

Waller said: “We see growing opportunities for TyreServe in the fleet sector over the next few years because EV tyre homologation means it is increasingly likely that franchised dealers will have stock availability comparable to independent tyre specialists.”