As a fleet manager, you are always hunting for the best fit for your fleet. The best tractors, the best trailers and importantly: the best tyres. There are many criteria to keep in mind when choosing your fleet’s next tyre.

One of the most commonly used is the tyre’s cost per kilometre. This is calculated by dividing a tyre’s total cost by the number of kilometres that can be driven on it before it needs to be replaced. After doing the math, you pick the tyre that lasts the longest and gives you the best value for your money. 

Makes sense, right? Not always. If you only choose a tyre based on mileage, you might miss out on saving more in other ways. For instance, fuel economy. 

An optimised fuel-efficient tyre can significantly lower your fuel costs. You might save more on fuel than you would save on tyre costs by choosing a fuel-efficient tyre. Because they have lower rolling resistance, your vehicle will require less fuel to keep it moving.

But how do you choose what tyre is right for your fleet? To help, we ran a basic calculation for you and compared a set of tyres optimised for mileage with a set of  versatile tyres optimised for fuel efficiency.

For instance, let’s take a fleet that runs 100 trucks (tractor + semitrailer), each fitted with high-mileage truck tyres. Every vehicle drives 100,000 km per year, with a fuel consumption of 28l/100km. If we calculate the total tyre cost per kilometre, a fleet running tyres that give more mileage but only have a ‘C’ rating in fuel efficiency saves around €23,400/year on tyre costs.

However, if we take potential fuel-savings into account, the results change rather drastically. Let’s take the same fleet with the same vehicles, travel distance and average – but assume the fleet runs tyres that are B-rated for fuel efficiency.

Now we see savings of up to €91,600 in fuel costs. And, they’ll cut their CO2 emission by up to 149,000 kg per year. That’s why you might want to consider a fuel-efficient tyre like the FUELMAX ENDURANCE for your fleet, instead of only looking at the tyre’s mileage.

The figures above rely on publicly available tyre ratings. They excellently illustrate the savings that one can achieve in theory.

But your reasons for choosing fuel economy over a more durable tyre depend on many factors. They depend on routes and road surfaces. They depend on weather conditions and traffic. They will also change over time.

But use this as a starting point and draw your own conclusions: whatever your priorities, there is a Goodyear tyre to help your fleet drive the results that you are looking for.

We aim for our publications to be as accurate as possible, but they do not constitute legal or technical or professional advice. Please seek professional advice before taking any action. 

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