Since changing to Michelin Tyres two years ago, Britannia Bus, based in Northampton is seeing the difference. With the company operating five local service routes, the company is on course to eliminate instances of punctures across its six-strong fleet.
Michelin Prove Efficient for Britannia Bus with Michelin X Multi Z Policy
Managing Director of Britannia Bus, Derek Taylor explains that he would experience a puncture within the fleet at least once a month. Since moving to a Michelin X Multi Z Policy, the new tyres have delivered 100 per cent uptime.
Introduced to Michelin through a Twitter conversation in May 2019 between the tyre manufacturer and a haulier which had recently begun seeing great results after fitting Michelin tyres, Taylor took note. Taylor exchanged a series of tweets with Michelin and was subsequently put in direct contact with his local Michelin account manager. A change in policy was then requested via his local dealer, Tyres Northampton. Commenting on his decision to switch to Michelin, Taylor explained: “It’s very rare to find a product which you can 100 per cent put your name to, but I genuinely can on the back of my experience fitting Michelin tyres.
“I don’t know what Michelin builds them with, but their resistance to picking up punctures or any kind of tyre damage is phenomenal. I used to joke that you’d only need to look at our previous tyres and you could find a puncture! The difference between the two is night and day, and we’re only paying between GBP 40-50 more per tyre.”
Michelin Tyres Going the Distance for Britannia Bus
Each vehicle covers an average of 600 miles per week on a mixture of urban and rural work. Based upon current wear rates, Taylor estimates the Michelin tyres are on track to easily last 12 months longer than his previous brand – with the potential to regroove and retread the tyres beyond that too.
“We’ve not even got to the point of having to consider regrooving yet,” he explains. “Right now, we’re just focused on switching out the old tyres and getting the Michelins on all four corners. We’ve replaced all the steer tyres; we’re just waiting for the last few drive tyres to come up for replacement.”
As the owner of a small, hard-working fleet, Taylor admits to having been impressed by the performance improvement he has seen from a change in policy. “We are now fitting the best possible tyres on the market and saving money in the process. It’s a win-win situation, and it’s great from a sustainability perspective too as we’re travelling so much further on every tyre we fit,” he noted, happily.
Michelin’s 245/70 R19.5 X Multi Z tyres are ideally suited to the firm’s full-size single-deck Alexander Dennis buses – delivering a perfect blend of safety, mobility and road-holding, combined with excellent mileage potential and reliability.
The tyres were designed by Michelin to blend the lowest cost per mile with solid grip all year round with the tyres featuring the highly-desirable Three Peak Mountain Snowflake (3PMSF) markings on the sidewall, after passing tests in defined snowy conditions
