Continental tyres were first introduced to the Fagan & Whalley fleet two years ago, when an order of 100 new Lawrence David trailers were specified with the manufacturer’s HTR2 product.
Subsequently, the company trialled the new Conti Hybrid HS3 steer axle tyre at the start of 2015, and is now using them on tractor units.
Simon Brindley, workshop manager at Fagan & Whalley’s Coventry operation, says: “Safety, consistent fleet performance and reliability are our primary aims... With over 22 months now of running Continental tyres on our trailers, and 10 months on tractor steer axles, I am seeing far fewer issues than in the past.”
One of the main issues, adds Brindley, was the cost of uneven tyre wear: “Degradation on tyre shoulders, just from routine running, means tyres have to be taken off and replaced with anything up to 40% wear still available across the rest of the surface.
“That’s not acceptable, and it is one big difference I have noticed with the Continental tyres – we get good even wear from them and that is delivering considerable savings for us as we get the full ‘natural life’ from them.”
Fagan & Whalley’s fleet consists largely of Scania units, each averaging around 140,000km a year on long-distance tramping work.
The haulier is soon to trial Continental’s new-generation drive axle tyre, the HD3.
“We are content with what we’ve seen over the past months in terms of quality and performance from Continental,” says Bridley. “I’m certainly hoping for more of the same.”