Excerpt from: “Tires: Transit Industry Advancements Riding on Rubber“
Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman and originally published by Mass Transit Magazine
August 17, 2021 —Tyrata, Inc., a tire sensor and data management company, has developed its IntelliTread® Drive-Over System (DOS), which automates tire wear monitoring. The Tyrata IntelliTread® DOS collects tire tread depth every time a vehicle passes over the unit, which resembles a speed bump. The collected data is sent to a Tyrata.io cloud for analytics and displayed on a customer portal in real time where fleet managers can access and manage every tire in the fleet.
Luka Lojk, vice president of Sales and Marketing explains the system provides daily tire readings and historical trendlines, which gives fleet managers an overview of their fleet and enables optimized tire maintenance.
“DOS is easy to install, it is fully automated and requires no maintenance,” said Lojk. “Customer payment is based on a per tire per month subscription basis with no direct hardware or software cost.”
The system and data dashboard are customizable and Lojk notes Tyrata’s engineers can refine the company’s hardware to meet fleet specifications, while its software allows for custom tread wear settings for front and rear axles depending on customer goals.
The system has been studied at the Durham City Transit Company (GoDurham) in North Carolina, which manages a fleet of 60 buses. The study shows GoDurham saw a 12 percent tire and tire maintenance savings with the system. The transit company was able to eliminate manual tire measurements entirely and tire tread usage increased from 9.9 mm to 11.2 mm. GoDurham also reduced tire requirements by 100 tires per year, while maintaining fleet safety goals.
Lojk notes GoDurham was able to save roughly $1,000 per vehicle annually in tire-related cost.
“In addition to cost reduction, using tires longer also significantly reduces environmental impact through better fuel efficiency and reduced waste,” said Lojk.
While better analytics are appreciated and a goal of transit agencies, Lojk recognizes the main priority of transporting people is safety.
“Our experience with transit fleet managers is that they are especially vigilant regarding tire safety. Tyrata’s Drive-Over System enhances safety by providing much more frequent monitoring of every single tire in the fleet—daily in most cases. This allows the fleet manager to have complete oversight of all tires in their fleet every single day,” he said.
To read the full article, visit Mass Transit online at https://www.masstransitmag.com/bus/maintenance/bus-tires-and-wheels/article/21232525/transit-industry-advancements-riding-on-rubber