Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions is launching a new marketing
campaign designed to promote retreading. At the heart of the
initiative is an appeal to fleets to consider extending their
casing age limits when a retread plan is being
considered.
Mike Bice, tire program manager for Crete Carrier Corp., has
extended his casing life from five to seven years. “We’ve been
tweaking our tire program for about five years, trying to find
a casing age limit that provided the best return on investment
for our fleet. We spent a lot of time diagnosing our scrap
pile. From the data we gathered, we determined that our casing
age limit should be seven years,” he says.
By adding those two years to his fleet’s specifications, he
has been able to realize one to two additional retreads per
casing and has lowered his overall operating costs. The fleet
has more than 172,000 wheel positions and uses Bandag
retreads.
Chris Ripani, the tire maker’s director of marketing strategic
brands and channels, says tightness in the market supply for
new replacement tires in 2011 has made retreading more
attractive for all types of fleets.
“Fleets who now retread are extending their age limits to
realize the most value from the casings they own,” he notes.
“We’ve also seen fleets return to retreading, or perhaps
evaluate retreads for the very first time, as a strategy to
maximize their tire programs and keep their trucks rolling.”
In some cases a closer look at repair specifications may be in
order, according to Ripani. Bandag has conducted studies of
more than 13 million tires rejected for retreading and
determined that 30 percent of those commercial truck tire
casings could have been retreaded at least one more time if
the repair specifications had been different, he says.
The company has launched a new website, www.retreadinstead.com, to provide fleet
managers with tools and information to get the most out of
retreading. It includes a Wheel Position Analyzer tool, a
cost-analysis example for considering extending current casing
age limits, and a video on Shearography, a modern casing
inspection technology that ensures retread reliability.
Tours of a retread plant are also available to fleet managers
by contacting Bandag’s affiliated tire dealers.
For more information, visit www.bridgestone-
firestone.com.
