08/03/10 - The beginning of the end?

Word on the street is that the recession that's been keeping this industry half starved for the last couple years may finally be on it's way out. According to one source (namely the CK Commercial Vehicle Research's Fleet Sentiment Report Equipment Buying Index) 45% of fleets are planning on purchasing new power units in the next 3 months with trailers close behind them.

Needless to say that's a pretty significat percentage. More importantly, that's the best reading that we've had in the last 2 straight years, which leaves me wondering, could this be the beginning of the end... is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Well end or not, more trucks are hitting the road, fewer trucks are parked in the yard and more freight is finding its way to its destination.

Certainly a welcome change in the wind.

Nathan Walker - Squarerigger Marketing Team

05/11/10 - Pneumatic anonymity

Tires in general have always had an identity problem. Of all the marks that are placed on a tire during the manufacturing process only one of them gives you any clue as to who a tire is... and even that (the DOT code) only tells you where and when it was made, a piece of information likely shared by many tires in your inventory.

Several methods of tire identification have been invented with varying levels of success. The tire brand for example providing an identifying number. This of course being helpful but not very efficient for tracking because it must be sight read and written in it's entirety to do you any good. It's also difficult to ensure the uniqueness of the brands number and thus many fleets end up with duplicates.

RFID tags are another option gaining steam in recent years. Although it's never seemed to catch on quite the way that it was expected to. This is likely due to the elevated cost of the tags and the equipment required to read them. RFID has also had problems in the past in distinguishing between inner and outer duals when identifying a tire with the wand.

We at Squarerigger Software have taken a different approach in our battle against pneumatic anonymity in partnering with Tire-Track, LLC. www.tire-track.com. The maker of the Tire-Track ID Unit, a permanent all-rubber bar code label specifically designed for tires. The reason being that it's simply the best solution for the job.

The "Inspector" (our handheld PC's) come with an integrated bar-code scanner allowing us to identify a bar-coded tire in a fraction of the time it takes to type in a brand number, and without any of the costs or unsurety associated with an RFID tag. Not to mention that every Revolution customer is issued special sequential numbers from Tire-Track to ensure that no Revolution customer anywhere in the world has duplicate codes.

Identity problem, solved.

Nathan Walker - Squarerigger Marketing Team

04/30/10 - Into the fray

Recently, as I'm sure you've noticed, the price of the raw materials used to make rubber as well as the cost of transporting them has risen... if not dramatically, at least uncomfortably. Most people haven't really noticed but for those of us that buy more than four tires at a time, this becomes an issue of immediate concern. After all, with raw material price increases come tire manufacturers announcing price hikes left and right. Yokohama being the latest to announce their price increase, as much as 8% depending on the type of tire.

This of course is no huge surprise as manufacturers such as Good Year, Michelin, Toyo, and many others have been raising their prices over the last few months as well, also in that 6-8% range.

"But Nathan" you say, "There's nothing we can do about these price increases". The interesting thing about the situation is that you're right. We cannot stop the price increases from happening. What we can do, is offset those costs by managing our tires better.

Tires generally fall within the top 3 highest costs for fleets around the world. The other two highest costs are fuel and payroll. Both fuel and payroll are well taken care of with many applications designed to manage them. Tires however, seem to be largely forgotten with their high costs simply accepted as being “unavoidable”. This was the inspiration behind the development of Revolution™. To provide fleets a way that they can efficiently manage their tires and minimize the amount of money that is being needlessly dumped into tires every month, year after year.

If you'd like to know more about how we can help your company save time and reduce your tire costs, give me a call, (360) 698-3562. I'll walk you through the program myself. Or you can click HERE and request more information online.

Nathan Walker - Squarerigger Marketing Team.

04/06/10 - National Scrap Tire Conference

The RMA in conjunction with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, the Arkansas Association of Solid Waste Districts, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and the Asphalt Rubber Technology Service of Clemson University will be hosting this years “From Scrap-to-Profit” Conference to take place on November 3rd and 4th.

The Scrap-to-Profit conference will be preceded by the EPA’s Resource Conservation Challenge Scrap Tire Workgroup meeting on Nov. 2, which is a collaborative effort consisting of Federal and state officials along with members of the rubber industry.

Approximately 79% of new rubber world wide is used by the auto/transportation industry. It's been estimated that North America alone produces 300 million waste tires every year with over 50% of those going directly to existing stockpiles.

The Major difficulty here being that there are not that many uses for recycled rubber. The vulcanization process that turns raw rubber into cured rubber is also the same process that gives the rubber it's shape. Rubber that has been recycled has altered properties and as of yet has either been unable to properly devulcanize the rubber, unable to produce consistent quality, or has simply been far too expensive to utilize, making it unsuitable to use in new tires.

The conference and preceeding work group aim to open a forum where all the major topics impacting the ground (recycled) rubber products market can be discussed.

With any luck this type of activity can lead us to a solution for the large stockpiles of used and now useless rubber products that are now accumulating at an alarming rate.

Nathan Walker

03/30/10 - New Legislation - tire labeling

It's already been 2 years since Congress passed the Energy Bill of 2007 but at long last the NHTSA has issued it's semi-final regulations on tire efficiency/safety/durability testing, labeling, and consumer education.

Well for the most part anyway. They have yet to pin down exactly how they plan to educate consumers on these issues but if nothing else they have 190+ pages detailing the requirements of tire manufacturers, vendors, resellers, auto manufacturers, importers, and just about anyone else who will be involved with a tire before it gets to the hands of the end user.

Mainly these regulations deal with the testing of tires, rating of tires based on those tests, and the reporting of those ratings back to the NHTSA.

Tires will be tested in three areas:

1. Fuel efficiency (rolling resistance)
2. Safety (wet traction)
3. and Durability (tread life)

According to the test results (all of which are standardized) the manufacturer will assign a rating in each area to each tire and then report the rating information along with the tire brand, model, size, specification etc... back to the NHTSA who will be tracking all of this information through their website.

In addition to requiring the testing, rating, and reporting, tire manufacturers/retailers must also provide color labels showing the consumer the ratings received by each tire (this label will be required to stay on until the sale of the tire). They will also be required to display posters explaining the ratings system used on the tires and giving the consumer additional information about the program.

This of course, only scratches the surface of the document that was released. If you would like to see it in it's entirety, you can download it here.

Nathan Walker

03/11/10 - TPMS in the news

This morning I was reading a very interesting article at TireReview.com that was talking about the various challenges associated with automated TPMS technology as it becomes more seasoned in the marketplace. It said,

"Not all tire pressure monitoring systems are created equal. In fact, each new vehicle model year brings with it a variety of updated TPMS replacement, reset, activation and decoding procedures.

Some measures necessitate using the latest tools; all require a thorough understanding of step-by-step maintenance and service procedures."

The article went on to point out that different makes and models of equipment can require different hardware even completely different proceedures to properly service. Some require setup and maintenance procedures that require detailed instructions just to accomplish.

Bartec’s Holloway said “the only thing consistent about TPMS is the change that seems to occur on a regular basis. To navigate through this challenge-filled opportunity, tire technicians need knowledge, training, technical support and superior tools.”

Of course most industry professionals know that tire pressure is linked to many money eating pit falls such as higher fuel consumption and more frequent blowouts, but I found myself wondering why someone would put themselves through the headache if they had another option for tracking their fleets tire pressure.

Revolution allows you to quickly and accurately track not only your tire pressure but your tires tread depth as well. It also tracks the movement, costs, recaps, and repairs on your tires. Above all Revolution provides you with feedback on all these topics. Instead of just measuring to make sure you're in compliance with regulations, we can give you detailed reports covering every aspect of your tires. From a simple inventory to a detailed comparison of brands, models and sizes with what they're costing you and much more.

Every tire in the industry has its tread depth checked on a semi-regular basis... If you have an extra few seconds, we can save you a whole lot of money and time on a TPMS system.

Nathan Walker

02/26/10 - Tire age, a major issue

ABC recently released a story talking about how many of America's top tire retailers are selling potentially unsafe tires. Unsafe they say, because in the good ol U.S. of A. there are no official restrictions on how old a tire can legally be when it's sold.

Tires, age. As the years pass the rubber dries out and even though an unused tire may very well look brand new, 6 or 7 years down the line, a good portion of the moisture that give the tire its flexibility will be gone. This makes the tire more prone to failure, ie blowouts. In an undercover operation, investigative reporters posed as tire buyers and found that some top retailers were selling tires from as far back as 12 years ago as "new tires".

Of course identifying the age of a tire is not all that difficult as they have the DOT number on every tire which identifies the week and the year that the tire was manufactured. The difficulty of course being that not everyone knows how to read a DOT number or even knows what it's for.

In Revolution we have a utility that can simplify the identification process and automate it so that your fleet will never run on aged tires. What we do is enter the DOT number into the Inspector (handheld PC) as you're doing your standard tire inspections and we, on the back end, can extract that week and year from the code and store that in the program. So along with your remaining tread depth/tire pressure history, you'll also know the age of every tire in your fleet. More importantly if you start seeing advanced age in your newer tires. you'll know exactly where that tire came from and who you need to talk to about it.

Nathan Walker

02/22/10 - New legislation - texting

On January 26, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced federal guidance to prohibit texting by drivers of commercial vehicles such as large trucks and buses. Drivers caught texting could face civil and criminal penalties up to $2,750 for a single infraction.

Just this morning Secretary LaHood unveiled a sample bill designed to aid state lawmakers in crafting legislation to ban texting while behind the wheel of any vehicle, commercial or not.

Reasons for this push to ban texting while driving are as obvious as they are numerous. Texting (as it states in the official press release) combines 3 different types of distractions.

• Visual
• Manual
• Cognitive

Meaning that it forces the driver to take their eyes off the road, their hands off the wheel and their mind off what they're doing. All things considered, that makes texting while driving one of the most dangerous activities that a person can engage in.

"According to NHTSA research, nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 in crashes involving a distracted or inattentive driver, and more than half a million were injured. Research also shows that the most frequent offenders are the youngest and least-experienced drivers, men and women under 20 years of age."

visit www.distraction.gov to make your voice heard.

Nathan Walker

02/18/10 - And we're off...

As of February 15, 2010, our tire management system, Revolution, has been released and is available for purchase. As a way of illustrating the reaction we've had to the release of our newest product, you'll notice that it's been three days since it happened and only just now have I had a moment free to write a short blog post about it.

For those of you who are only just now hearing about Revolution, you're in for a treat. This last week we've been doing back-to-back product tours for companies all over the country and would be more than happy to show anyone who's interested the details of our program.

If you can invest 15 minutes to see what we have to offer, we can save you money and give you a better hold on your tires. Just call (360) 698-3562 and ask for your live system tour today. You won't be disappointed.

Nathan Walker

02/15/10 - Mining tires, a whole different beast

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that mining trucks are in a category all by themselves when it comes to just about everything. With trucks able to haul as much as 360 tons of material and tires as tall as 2 suv's stacked on top of each other, mining trucks tend to stand out.

Recently we were contacted by an organization in the mining industry looking for a solution for quickly and accurately tracking tread depth on their immense mining tires. Obviously our standard commercial truck tread depth probe wouldn't do the job so we thought it an appropriate time to introduce our OTR (Off The Road) tire probe option.

The OTR probe features automated and motorized tread depth measurement and can handle tread up to 130mm deep and pressure measurements up to 190PSI. The rugged design includes a large area foot to span the wide tread of large off road tires. As with our standard tire probe, it communicates via a Bluetooth connection to “The Inspector”. Planned improvements to the OTR probe include an integrated UHF RFID reader and side wall temperature measurement capabilities.

Nathan Walker

02/08/10 - Revolution, more than management

An idea that I've been running into a lot recently is that of Revolution purely as a way to tell you when your tires are worn out. I wanted to talk about this just quickly today because it's such a common mis-conception.

Many seem to think that unless your fleet is logging hundreds of thousands or even millions of miles a year then tire tracking is not useful... and to a certain point they're right. Until now tracking tires required a great amount of time and effort to gather the data you need and to enter it into a system. This of course costs money and by the time all is said and done you've already spent anything you would have gained on the payroll required to gain it.

So what are the value propositions Revolution has to offer? Where does the return on your investment come from?

1st - Time saved gathering and entering the data. By streamlining the process of data collection and removing data entry entirely you gain a significant amount of time and with it, money. Most fleets do standard pre/post trip inspections and gather data such as tread depth and tire pressure anyway. The only difference is that right now that information comes at a high price and gives them no actionable data beyond keeping them within regulations.

2nd - Detailed Reports allow fleets to have actionable data right at their fingertips. This is helpful for making good tire management decisions such as new tire purchases and scrapping vs. recapping.

3rd - Predicting and avoiding blowouts. Many blowouts are avoidable and can be identified as a potential hazard prior to the event. By utilizing a fast and easy method of performing inspections you create the opportunity for a more accurate inspection in a shorter period of time. This can help identify problem tires before they become headaches or catastrophes.

These are of course only a few of the ways that Revolution can save you money. We have fleets that want to utilize Revolution to save time on inspections, city municipalities that just want to have a readily available audit trail to show their superiors, tire dealers that want to increase sales through careful monitoring of their clients fleet tires, and the list goes on.

Tires are generally the second highest expense to American fleets with only fuel being higher. Yet most of the industry is making due with a pencil/paper system and a tire billy. Give us a call today and let us show you the value of a good tire tracking system.

Nathan Walker

02/05/10 - Kwik-Check Probe, mark II

Exciting news on the hardware front today! The developers working on the Revolution "Inspector" have finished a much needed functional update. Now technicians using the Kwik-Check Probe to perform tire inspections don't need to select the input field before they can enter data.

By taking the first tread depth reading the probe will populate the first field in the tread depth form and move automatically to the next. Taking the tire pressure with the probes self-calibrating pressure gauge fills in the pressure field regardless of the currently selected field.

In addition, a button located on the tread depth probes handle allows the technician to move smartly to the next tire in the rotation with a single click. No fiddling with the stylus, no typing, no need to reenter data due to putting it in the wrong field the first time around.

With this new functionality a technician may very well go through entire inspections without ever having to unholster the Inspector, using the probe itself to control the input of data.

I may just be easily amused but that's exciting stuff when you think about the time your guys will save on inspections. And of course whenever you're dealing with time, you're also dealing with money.

Happy tire tracking!

Nathan Walker

02/02/10 - Revolution is coming!

Revolution Tire Management System is ready to release and the date that it will do so is February 15th, 2010.

Interestingly enough it's almost as if the industry in general were aware of our plans before we were. All through January we were receiving phone calls and emails from companies around the globe interested in everything from puchasing the product, to distributing it in their respective countries.

From the beginning we knew that the response would be good. But the international response and the volume of companies deciding to preorder, after viewing our on-line demo, has supassed our predictions.

Here we are a mere 2 weeks from release, so if you haven't had the chance to preview how Revolution can save you money and streamline your tire management be sure to check out our video tour of the program. If you've already seen it and want a bit more of a hands on experience. Give us a call and ask for a live tour. We're always happy to sit down with you and show you the finer points of our software. You won't be disappointed. Invest 15 minutes - save a bundle.

Nathan Walker - Squarerigger Marketing Team.