Page 8 - CTB n5 - 2014/1

NEWS
Giti Tire Appoints New Country Manager for Italy, Spain and Portugal
Daria Sala Della Cuna has been appointed by Giti Tire as Country Manager for the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese markets.
In the role she will work
closely with major clients
and partners in Southern
Europe, direct marketing
activities and handle brand strategy and channel
development for specific GT Radial, Primewell and
Runway products across passenger car, SUV and light truck (PCR) and commercial truck and bus (TBR) operations.
Reporting directly to Richard Lyons, Managing Director - Europe, Daria will be based in Milan, Italy and will sit with the business’s European Management Team.
Daria, who has over 20 years
experience in the tyre industry, joins from Continental Italia where she was holding the position of Training, Product & After Sales Back Office Manager. During her tenure with the company she held senior sales and marketing roles in passenger and truck divisions, working primarily in Italy but also covering tasks at a European level.
Continental's TPMS Delivers Benefits at Barnes Coaches
Improved wear, safety and fuel economy are the main benefits resulting from trials of the latest coach tyre and pressure monitoring system from Continental carried out by leading Wiltshire coach operator Barnes Coaches.
Designed specifically for bus and
Trevor Summers says that the system is resulting in drivers more readily reporting incidences of falling pressure to the workshop enabling early action to be taken to avoid any potential problems. Continental believes that the benefits of fitting a TPMS unit couldn't be clearer. Studies have
shown that over 90 percent of tyre failures are preceded by slow leaks, causing gradual loss of air pressure which often goes undetected. Underinflated tyres can significantly affect rolling
resistance, increasing fuel consumption and therefore carbon emissions, as well as causing increased tyre wear and reduced service life, all of which can adversely impact on operating costs and potentially on safety. ContiPressureCheck measures the pressure and temperature of each individual tyre every few seconds and delivers the results to the driver information display enabling problems to be quickly identified and acted upon, as is happening at Barnes Coaches.
The measuring device is a single module with integrated sensors, data processor and communication system, housed in a rubber container that is glued to the inner surface of the tyre tread. Established almost a century ago, Barnes Coaches runs a fleet of 35 coaches including Bovas, Van Hool bodied Volvos and DAFs, and Jonckheere tourers. It also provides the team coach for the
Swindon Town football team. The company buys its Continental tyres from Barry Shaddick Tyres, which has outlets in five locations across Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Avon.
coach applications, Continental's new generation CityPlus HA3 tyres were fitted to a Bova Futura touring coach earlier this year by the Swindon based company. Continuous close monitoring since the trial began shows them to be wearing evenly and providing increased resistance to damage from 'kerbing'. Road holding and handling characteristics, especially in the wet, are also reported to be good.
As a result Barnes Coaches has made this tyre its choice when buying new tyres rather than the Conti regional truck tyres that it has previously used and which are commonly used across the bus and coach industry.
A trial of the innovative ContiPressureCheck(tm) tyre pressure monitoring system also proved such a success that the company decided to fit one to another of its premium touring coaches. Workshop Manager
Michelin Delivers Twice the Life for Interhaul
The delivery of an SDC trailer on Michelin tyres two years ago has helped define a new tyre strategy for South Wales-based Inter-Haul Pallet Services, which is helping the company reduce its operating costs.
The double-deck trailer arrived from the factory on 265/70 R 19.5 Michelin XTE2 tyres
as original
equipment and is
used for night-time
trunking to the
Pallet Track hub in Wolverhampton – a
round journey of
nearly 400 km.
Fitted with a
hubodometer, the
customer has been
able to compare
tyre performance
between the Michelin-shod trailer and other double-deckers in the fleet.
Julian Larking, Transport & Procurement Manager at Inter- Haul Pallet Services, says: “We’d previously been fitting cheaper tyres and we thought the mileage we were getting was pretty good, until we made comparisons with the Michelins. They have out-
lasted our previous brand by a year.”
According to Larking, the Michelin XTE2 rubber remained in service for 22 months on the third axle, whilst the tyres on the first and second axle are still in service after two years.
The Inter-Haul fleet comprises 17
commercial vehicles, including seven tractor units and 10 rigids, together with 15 trailers. As well as the night-time trunking, the tractors also operate during the daytime with a fleet of urban trailers, supporting the rigids in making deliveries and collecting freight locally for overnight transfer via the hub.
8 Commercial Tyre Business