How did you get into this business?

"I expected to end up in manufacturing. But, after I received my degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M, I interviewed with a gentleman whose wife worked with mine and ended up coming here to Bridgestone's distribution center in Roanoke."

Did you have any experience with tires?

"During high school I worked as an auto mechanic, and then put myself through college doing it. So I knew the terminology, had a basic understanding of vehicle components, but the insides of tires were new to me."

Now that you're a sales engineer for Bridgestone, what activities fill your day?

"A big part of our job is what I would call education. We do a lot of teaching right on customer sites, helping their maintenance people learn how to take care of their tires and reduce tire costs.

"We even make educational presentations to management and purchasing people, to help them make better decisions about the tires they buy.

"And, we take fleet customers to our proving grounds facility in Fort Stockton, Texas, so they can get an idea how we actually evaluate tires.

"Recently, we've started taking customers to Nashville, where we can give them tours of our manufacturing facilities and answer their questions about how their tires are made."

These plant tours are new, aren't they?

"Yes, they are. We started with the proving grounds seminars quite a while ago, and this adds an extra dimension to the educational experience."

Are there other kinds of fleet work you do?

"Two of the most important tasks are what we call 'Fleet Surveys' and 'Scrap Surveys.' In a Fleet Survey, we'll try to look at a representative number of trucks in a fleet, checking things like air pressure, remaining tread depth and overall tire condition.

"I analyze all this data using the computer, plot some graphs to show things like tread wear trends, and create a report for the fleet that helps them evaluate their maintenance program, or even create a new program."

Then you submit that report to the fleet?

"We do. And, if we discover any maintenance issues that need attention, like a tire that is way underinflated, we make sure to tell the maintenance manager before we ever leave the lot. We wouldn't want to submit a report telling them about a problem two days after the truck has gone back on the road."

So some of it is reporting right on the spot.

"A scrap survey is especially that way. We'll go through the fleet's own scrap pile, explaining what we think caused each tire to end up there.

"Right now, we're developing a program using a hand-held computer that will let us enter the scrap data and provide the fleet with a report by the time we finish the survey."

That must be a great educational experience
for the fleet guys.

"It is. And often, we find tires in the scrap pile that really don't belong there. These are tires that may have perfectly good casings that could be retreaded and put back on the road. That's helpful because it saves the fleet a lot of money.

"And even if they don't have a big scrap pile, we have a group of tires we keep at our warehouse which we can use to conduct a scrap or wear analysis class for them."

Are there other services you provide?

"Each of our regional offices now has a complete set of portable scales, so we can actually go out and measure loads on customer tires. That's a big help to fleets in figuring out what inflation pressures they ought to use."

What about problem solving?

"That's one of the most interesting parts of our job. If a fleet is having trouble with any aspect of its tire program, we have the tools and experience to help them find solutions.

"We're engineers, so we base our ideas on facts - and data we collect. I like to start by listening to customers describe the problem.

"Next, we make observations and collect data on the tires and vehicles. Oftentimes, I end up looking at decals on the trucks and engines, to find out about power, engine sizes and additional information that can provide clues.

"With tires, it helps to involve as many of your senses as possible. You can see a lot of things, but often, you can feel irregular wear with your hands long before you can see it with your eyes.

"We even find we can sometimes smell problems. A tire that's been sitting in a puddle of diesel fuel or oil can have a spongy feel, and you can smell the contaminant as well."

Do you use ALL your senses?

"Well, I don't think I want to taste a tire, but the other four senses have come in handy."

What's the most common problem you find?

"The thing almost every fleet struggles with from time to time is irregular wear. That's one of the reasons we are so careful to measure tread depths across all the grooves, and even plot them in the computer so we can see trends.

"We'll want to see alignment data, but more often than not, we find that inflation is the culprit."

Underinflation?

"Yes. If irregular wear is the most common problem, underinflation is usually the most common cause. And that's a maintenance issue, whether the fleet is doing its own maintenance or having a dealer do it for them."

What else do you do with the information
you collect?

"We're constantly reporting back to the home office what we learn out here in the field. In a very real sense, we are the eyes and ears of the company. What we observe can affect the future of Bridgestone products."