Page 23 - CTB N17 - 2017-01

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
CommercialTyre
Management
and Fleet Business
The tyre maintenance team at Cometa’s Guarulhos workshop
In our International News section, we take a look at how commercial tyre dealerships and truck and bus fleets operate in different parts of the world. In this issue of Commercial Tyre Business we focus on two businesses from opposite sides of the globe and the business spectrum – a small family run tyre servicing business from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and one of the largest bus fleets in Brazil.
Brazilian Bus Fleet Optimises Cost per Kilometre with Tyre Analysis
With a fleet of 700 regional buses and coaches in operation, Cometa is one of Brazil’s most prominent bus fleets. At is main “Maintenance Excellence Centre” and workshop in Guarulhos near Sao Paulo, the fleet gets through two hundred new Goodyear tyres
Cometa has been on a 100% Vipal retread policy, and the Nova Prata based tread rubber supplier has been working closely with Cometa to help identify how tyre performance and CPK in the fleet can be improved, not least by checking damage etc.
we are comparing them with Vipal’s standard line as part of the analysis process.”
In order to control CPK all tyres are given a so-called “Obituary certification” at the end of their life and statistics on their performance throughout their life are gathered and analysed. The team working on tyres within the fleet is also given a target CPK and if these targets are reached, then they get a bonus.
“We have a high degree of analysis here,” explains Cordeira,
“and we know exactly how each brand performs. They know that Bridgestone and Goodyear perform the best on our fleet across the tyres whole product life, both in terms of CPK and retreadability. Pirelli is also very good when new but in our experience falls off in performance somewhat when retreaded,” he added.
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and three hundred retreads per month, which means efficient management of the company’s tyre assets are required. The extensive facility in Guarulhos has a dedicated tyre facility to do just that, and thanks to tread rubber suppliers Vipal and their retreader partner NSA Pneutec, we were able to have a look at how the fleet is working with the retreading industry to help optimise the fleet’s cost per kilometre in relation to its tyre investments.
Tyre Supervisor at the Guarulhos workshop is Fernando Cordiero, and he explained Cometa’s tyre policy; “Our new tyres are all fitted to the front axle, but then removed at 5mm and refitted on the drive axle. This is because the front axle tends to have a problem with irregular wear, so we put them on the drive axle to recover the wear consistency. We only do one retread before valorising the casing, and these are used on the third axle, which is 100% retread and on the drive axle, which is a mix or new and retread.”
With this aim in mind, staff from Cometa have carried out training at Vipal’s tyre repair workshop in Nova Prata, studying tyre damage, analysis and maintenance. In addition, Cometa is visited every week by NSA Pneutec and every 15 days by Vipal as well as receiving technical support from main new tyre supplier Goodyear. “As a result of this support, we now have retreads that can reach 200,000 km, which is high for Brazil,” said Fernando Cordeira. “Within the JCA Group, of which Cometea is a member, the average CPK is 5.8 Reais,” he added. “Ours has been able to be reduced to 4.5 Reais.”
One thing Vipal has been able to help with in this regards has been the provision of the company’s Eco-Line of tread, which Cometa says have been able to significantly reduce fuel consumption.
“We’ve compared the Eco-Line with regular tyres on both Scania and Mercedes and achieved fuel savings of 6.53% and 5.05% respectively, says Cordeira. “Now