The operator’s tyre manager Lee Franks says he is “genuinely astonished” that other operators rely on drivers’ routine checks and six-weekly inspections. “Offer people the chance to save a tiny fraction on fuel and you have their immediate attention, but offer them potential savings on tyre wear and tear – which can have an impact right across the whole operating spectrum – and you get nowhere near the same levels of interest,” he says.
Bideford-based Evans Transport has had a relationship with Continental Tyres for 25 years, using drive, steer and trailer axle tyres on several vehicles. But trials over the past 18 months have reignited its interest in the brand, after it was persuaded to try the ContiPressureCheck system.
Evans says the system has already saved “a good number” of tyres, on the tipper fleet especially, with ContiPressureCheck alerting the team to slow punctures that could otherwise have gone unnoticed.
With its own eight-bay workshop at the Bideford site, Evans Transport fits the system itself, including the in-cab monitor that alerts drivers to potentially dangerous and costly pressure changes.
The company intends to roll out ContiPressureCheck across more of the fleet as new vehicles are acquired and wherever current vehicles require it, and is considering installing the Automatic Trailer Learning function, which allows any unit to hitch up to any trailer and immediately show all tyre pressures on the trailer.