The company pitted Bridgestone’s Ecopia HS1 (steer) and HD1 (drive) 315/80R22.5 tyres against its R-Steer and M729 (drive) tyres for 134 days on a pair of vehicles.
The savings in fuel – which Bridgestone pouts down to its NanoPro-Tech energy loss reducing compound – amounted to 2.11%.
Extrapolating over the fleet, Bridgestone Ecopia tyres could result in fuel savings worth more than £133,246.00 per year for Howard Tenens.
“The results certainly exceeded my expectations,” says Howard Tenens’ director and company secretary Ben Morris.
“They proved that the life of the Ecopia tyre is much more than the industry believes to be the case,” he continues.
“To gain a forecast of two thirds the life of a normal tyre - for a nominal cost increase of around £30 per tyre – is compelling,” he adds.
And Morris goes on to say that predicted savings are around £2,500 per vehicle over three years, based on current fuel prices.
“That’s a substantial amount once you start spreading it over a whole fleet,” he says.
Bridgestone’s fleet manager Ian Davis said that the fuel savings were so great, that they covered both the higher price of the tyre and the marginally shorter tyre life.
“The fuel savings were huge, extraordinary in fact. This is a really substantial sum of money that we are talking about. I was surprised myself.
“I have never been able to appreciate the benefits of our Ecopia tyre first hand, but this exercise has done that and more.”
“Howard Tenens are a very forward thinking fleet, an early adopter of technology and an active member of the FTA’s Low Carbon Reduction Scheme, which we have supported for many years,” comments Bridgestone commercial product and marketing manager Andy Mathias.
“Fleets really need to experience these savings for themselves in order to fully trust the results,” he continues.
“We are very grateful to Howard Tenens for allowing us to conduct these trials, which have proved that our Ecopia products are a compelling choice, with tangible benefits to businesses.”