Truckers win award by burning less fuel riding on Continental tires

Lillibridge Transportation, a dry goods long- and regional-haul fleet from Urbana, Iowa, is the inaugural winner of Continental Tire’s “Beat the Best” Fuel Savings Champion award.

A Lillibridge rig running on Continentals claimed the top honor by achieving a 7.01 miles per gallon average, consuming just 14.28 gallons of fuel per 100 miles driven. The company was also the Midwest regional victor in the contest, which covered the U.S., Canada and Mexico

By claiming the championship, four Lillibridge staff members will be attending the ContiSpeed event, a racing experience to be held near Charlotte, N.C. with opportunities to participate in autocross, go-karting and stock car driving at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

The other regional winners of the Beat the Best competition were: Houff Transfer, Inc. of Weyers Cave, Va. (northern region); Southern Cal Transport of Birmingham, Ala. (southern region); BJ Trucking of Phoenix, Ariz. (western region); Scotlynn Commodities of Vittorio, Ontario (Canada) and Transportes Unidas Mexicanos (Mexico). The companies posted fuel efficiency levels of up to 6.74 mpg.

Robert Tucker, Lillibridge’s fleet maintenance manager, explains that timing was the main factor in deciding to participate in the contest. Over the past year the company had tried a few sets of Continental steer tires and was still evaluating the cost per mile, he says. Then this spring, he was in the process of purchasing two identical new trucks for the fleet of 28 and needed new tires. A Continental salesperson suggested joining the fuel savings competition.

“This was the first set of Continental drive tires that we had purchased as a company, although some of our owner-operators have been using them. Now, versus the tires we have used in the past, I would recommend Continental,” says Tucker.

“We were able to run the Continentals from coast to coast in rain, snow and ice and we were impressed by how they were able to perform,” he notes. “I also had the drivers collect a lot of data that I requested including idle time, weight and cruise usage, so we were able to pattern our drivers' fuel mileage to their location, weather and load. The result was that with the Continental tires, our driver was able to increase his mileage but his driving style never changed.”

Owner Lance Lillibridge has been in business since 1997. He says that his company was most interested in honest answers and proven technology that could help increase fuel efficiency. In fact, the drivers weren’t told about the contest until it was nearly over, he says, but instead they were informed that they were running a test for the company. It came as a surprise when they obtained an average increase of 0.4 miles per gallon using Continental’s tires.

“A lot of products to add fuel efficiency are out there on the market, and many times you try something new and it fails. In this case, Continental didn’t fail. It was a fact, and we’ve got our own data to prove it,” Lillibridge says.

The company plans to keep using Continental tires, buying more of them when its long-haul trucks are due for drive tires. The firm intends to start changing the tires on its regional trucks as well, according to Tucker.

Lillibridge points out that he was also impressed that the Continental tires were getting between 1,000 and 2,000 more miles per 1/32-inch of tread depth at a 14,000-mile check than they had been experiencing with other tires.

“We had a system that we didn’t think was broke, but when it was all said and done, and we’re getting nearly a half mile per gallon more and not wearing the tires out, I can assure you that we’ll be buying more Continental tires,” he says.

For the winning fleets in the U.S. and Canada, using Continental tires created an overall average fuel consumption of 6.39 miles per gallon. When compared to the average performance of their existing tire brands reported during the contest, the winners gained an average of 0.42 miles per gallon on the Continentals.

At their current average yearly mileage and fuel consumption rates, the victorious American and Canadian fleets could each save an average of 2,236 gallons of fuel per year by using Continental tires on a single truck, per data averaged from the regional winners’ reported mileage and fuel consumption over the length of the contest.

The Beat the Best competition began in April with a free fuel savings training course for participating drivers. Each fleet tracked fuel consumption and mileage on a weekly basis for two trucks; one equipped with new Continental HSL2 (Heavy Steer Long-Haul) and HDL Eco Plus (Heavy Drive Long-Haul) premium truck tires, and one identical model truck with new tires from any other national brand. The fleets had to have comparable commercial applications and truck models to be eligible.

During the 10-week contest, each fleet drove at least 10,000 miles with each truck and provided their fuel consumption and mileage on a weekly basis in order to continue competing. The statistics were published on Continental’s Internet site. The winners were selected based upon the lowest gallons of fuel per 100-mile average on the truck equipped with Continental tires.

“Because fuel consumption has such a deep impact on overall driving costs, it’s important to explore every technology and fuel saving technique on the market today,” says Clif Armstrong, Continental’s director of commercial vehicle tire marketing for the Americas. “The Beat the Best competition showed truck fleets how easy it is to improve fuel efficiency just by changing the tires on their vehicles.”

According to Armstrong, the company’s Long Haul tires optimize the combination of tire design and compounds to reduce rolling resistance and use less energy to move the tires. Both the HSL2 and HDL Eco Plus are SmartWay verified technologies as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Continental also has a SmartWay trailer position tire, the HTL Eco Plus.

The company plans to hold additional Beat the Best fuel savings contests throughout 2009 and 2010, including an upcoming competition featuring its new line of ContiTreads retreaded tires.

For more information, visit www.continental-truck.com.