At CF headquarters in Vancouver, old “162,” one of the company’s first cabovers, from 1947, stands beside “28-242,” one of its latest state-of-the-art conventionals. 2,200 long-haul tractors 5,000 city delivery tractors 19,000 doubles trailers 2,500 full-size city delivery trailers 230,000 total wheel positions (1/3rd tractor – 2/3rds trailer) 1,000,000 miles per day 24,500 new tires purchased last year 81,003 retreads purchased last year

What are some of the challenges you face at CF?

Tom Jarvi, vice president, maintenance and purchasing: “In some ways, we’re just like any truck fleet, big or small. The number one issue is safety. Our equipment-related record with the D.O.T. is the best in our industry segment. And we’re very proud of that.

“After safety, it’s getting costs down and keeping them down. We’ve got to squeeze out every dime we can.”And how do you do that?

“One way is by focusing on fuel efficiency. We use over 150,000 gallons of diesel fuel every day. If we can save just one tenth of one percent, whether from more efficient engines, transmissions, or tires, it’s a significant factor in our costs.”

Larry Malone is manager, tires/volume purchasing & equipment administration and Tom Jarvi is vice president, maintenance and purchasing.

What have you learned about tire fuel efficiency?

“We’ve run tests at various tire manufacturers’ proving grounds, looking at both the fuel economy of original treads and casings. Casing fuel economy is very important to us, because about two-thirds of our tires are retreads.

“We achieved excellent results with Bridgestone. That was part of what motivated us to start using Bridgestone a few years ago.”

What else influenced your decision?

“Something we apply to every equipment component purchase, our evaluation of total cost of ownership. We don’t buy on price alone. We evaluate fuel economy, but also the treadwear, retreadability, service and driver acceptance we get with every tire design. All of those factors contribute to our total costs one way or another.

“We started out giving Bridgestone about a third of our business, and were so pleased that today, we’re 100 percent Bridgestone.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had better service from a tire manufacturer. I hate the word ‘partnership’ because it’s so overused in business today, but with Bridgestone, we truly feel that ‘one call does it all.’”

How are you doing with retreadability?

“Very well. With two-thirds of our wheel positions running retreads, we need good casings. And, we’re retreading with fuel-efficient treads so we get fuel savings from both the casing and the tread.

“Most of the fuel economy you can attribute to tires comes from the trailing axles, and as an LTL fleet running single drive axle tractors pulling 28-foot pups, we have 12 tires in trailer positions, instead of the 8 you usually have with a truckload configuration.

“That makes the fuel economy of those trailing axles even more important.”

And driver acceptance?

“When we switched brands, we found that overall, drivers accepted the tires very well, and we even had a number of favorable comments about the new Bridgestones.”

Which tires are you using?

Larry Malone, manager, tires/volume purchasing & equipment administration: “For steer axles, we’re using the R227, and for drives, the M711. That’s on long-haul. For our city fleets, we run Bridgestone R250F on steers. And as Tom pointed out, most of our trailer axles are running retreads.”

Why the R250F on city trucks?

“Because it stands up to the scrub and curbing damage that city equipment is exposed to. Pickup and delivery operations cannot be compared to over-the-road line haul operations.

You’re constantly backing, turning and maneuvering, which increases treadwear, or possibly, rubbing against curbs. The R250 tread and its sidewall protector ribs are designed to combat that kind of wear and damage.”

Larry Malone and Tom Jarvi of CF join Steve Arnold and Loren Gwilliam of Bridgestone at the window of CF's main conference room.

Are you evaluating other tires?

“We never stop evaluating tires and other components. We track the performance of both test tires v. our standard tires for that wheel position.”

Is there a particular tire you’re evaluating right now?

“Frankly, we don’t evaluate prototypes, because those products may never become available in the replacement market. It doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of time and money evaluating something that’s not a real product that we could use.

“We are evaluating the new Bridgestone M725. It’s an open-shoulder drive design, which we need because we run primarily single drive axles, but it has a very deep, 30/32nds tread that should give us very long treadwear.”

What have you found so far?

“We’re getting very encouraging treadwear results. And, driver acceptance has been good with the M725 as well.”

Do you track the performance of every tire?

“We really couldn’t do that. We’d need a battalion of clerks and incredible computer power. For over 20 years, we’ve chosen instead to create samples that we track closely. What we learn from these helps us make decisions that affect our purchases for the entire fleet.

“Depending on what we’re evaluating, a sample might consist of from 10 to 100 pieces of equipment. Performance data is entered via the transportation maintenance computers at each
of our 350 terminals.

“All of that data is available to us here, and allows us to get a look at the big picture. As Tom said, we try to look at the total cost of ownership of every piece of equipment, including tires. One tenth of one percent change in a major cost – like fuel – has an impact.

“As we say around here, this company doesn’t run on ‘I think’s.’ It runs on proven data.”

CF's first long nose conventional, purchaesed in 1984, sits in the company's atrium, retired after 2,245,313 miles of service.

How are you managing your retreads?

“We work very closely with our retreaders nationwide. And we rely on them for casing evaluations.

“Sometimes, if a line haul casing is getting old, we may have it retreaded specifically for use on our city fleet, where the service requirements generally aren’t as severe.

“We generally pull steer tires at about 7/32nds and drive tires at between 2/32nds and 6/32nds, depending on the season.”

How does that work?

“In summer, we’ll let drive treads get down to about 2/32nds, but in months where we might encounter snow, generally September through April, we pull drives at 6/32nds to get a little more aggressive traction.

“If we pull them that early, we’ll often move them back to trailers for a while before retreading. Part of that depends on our casing needs.

“Casing management can be tricky. We have an objective of providing about 30 percent of our drive tire requirement through retreads. We work closely with our retreaders to try to accomplish that.”

What’s next, equipment-wise, for CF?

Tom Jarvi: “We’ll continue to test and evaluate new ideas and new products, as we always have. There are lots of claims made about products, and what works for someone else doesn’t necessarily work for us.

We’ll continue making real-life tests, and we’ll continue to work with suppliers like Bridgestone, to make sure we achieve the lowest possible total cost of ownership.”