What sort of hauling does Haney Truck Line do?

Roger Bell, Vice President for Operations: "Haney Truck Line is engaged in heavy and specialty hauling throughout the northwest United States. We are permitted to run loads up to 105,500 pounds in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In Montana, Wyoming and Utah, we can go as high as 130,000."

What kind of cargoes are those?

"Some people think of us as the northwest's beverage hauler. We carry all sorts of soft drinks, wine, beer, specialty drinks, along with the empty cans and bottles that hold them.

"We are a for-hire carrier, and on backhauls especially, we might be carrying flour, rolls of paper, or whatever else makes sense for us."

So that means you're sometimes very heavy and sometimes very light.

"Yes, fully loaded we might have about 64,000 pounds or more of payload, but when it's empty aluminum cans, we're very light. Most of the beverages are palletized, and a pallet will weigh around 1,800 pounds, so we might have around 32 to 38 pallets in a load.

"The number of pallets will also vary because of the product or its packaging. Some soft drinks are in cans, some in glass bottles, which of course weigh more. We even find that diet soft drinks weigh less than those with sugar.

"When it's empty cans or bottles, we become a 'high cube' carrier. Most of our double trailers can hold at least 5,000 cubic feet."

How many pieces of equipment do you run?

"We have about 400 power units and about 1,200 trailers. Most of the tractors are tandem axle drives, but we're gradually adding some three- and four-axle
tractors with lift tag axles."

What kind of trailers are you running?

"A lot of them are what we call 'maxi-doubles,' combinations that are 64 feet long. It might be a 40-foot lead with a 24-foot behind it or a pair of 32-foot trailers or some other combination that adds up to 64 feet.

"We also have about 20 reefers, and do some frozen food hauling with those.

"And we run about 600 53-footers. Most of these are on quad axles, instead of the usual tandems. That gives us the load capacity to meet bridge formula rules while being able to go up to very high total gross weight."

Those must be hard on tires!

"They are, but we've been able to reduce some of that tire wear by specing these trailers with a rear lift axle. That way when we're maneuvering into a dock, we can get those tires off the ground and save some of that maneuvering scrub."

What tires are you using?

Scott Kessinger, Service, Tire and Parts Manager: "On steer tires, we're using primarily Bridgestone R287, with M725 or M726 EL on drives and R195F, R196 and retreads on trailers."

How are they performing for you?

"We're doing pretty well. Even with our very high loads, we can usually expect around 106,000 to 120,000 miles on our steer tires and around 150,000 to 175,000 on our drive tires.

"The difference mostly depends on whether the equipment is used in local service or long-distance hauls."

And on trailers?

"That's very hard to say. We don't run hub odometers, and trailers switch around to different tractors constantly.  I would say we get over 90,000 miles from an R195F or R196 before we send it for retreading."

How many retreads do you expect to get from your casings?

"We generally get two caps per casing. We have very stringent criteria regarding the number and type of repairs, casing age and so on. We don't retread anything over five years old, and we're very careful about section repairs on our lift axle tires."

Which tires are those?

"We use a Bridgestone R294 there, because it has a smaller diameter, which provides more space for the lift axle position. We try to avoid section repairs on those, unless it's very early in its life."

Well, you've got to tell us about this simple thing you're doing to improve your tire maintenance. What is it?

"Our secret here in Yakima is Hollie Shields. She works for our dealer, Commercial Tire, but she's here full time, from Tuesdays through Saturdays."

And what does Hollie Shields do?

"Basically, she checks every single trailer tire in our Yakima lot, five days a week. She inspects the tires for damage and wear, but most important of all, she checks and adjusts air pressure on every one of them."

How does she do that?

"We took a little electric golf cart and added a gasoline-powered air compressor onto the back. Hollie can drive all over the lot and top off any tire that needs it."

How often does each trailer tire get checked?

Roger Bell: "It actually depends on how long a trailer sits in the yard. Hollie's job is to check every trailer tire every day, so if a trailer spends some time in the yard, it might get checked every day. As a rule, however, our objective is to check trailer tires once a month."

What about the tractor tires?

Scott Kessinger: "Our representative from Commercial Tire, Paul Osborne, comes out on the weekend and checks those. During the week, most of our tractors are out on the road and it's only trailers that are here. Plus, Paul writes up service orders for the tractors and gets tires changed on them on Saturdays as well.

 "Our tractors also go through lube service about twice a month, and air pressure checks are a regular part of that process."

Is this producing a good result for you?

"Absolutely. We've been doing this now for about four years, and each year, we've found between 1,600 and 1,800 flat tires on trailers in our yard.

"In terms of savings over having to have those tires replaced on the road, we've saved around $400,000 each year.

"And, what we also see is that in spite of the fact that the number of road calls we have keeps going up each year - mostly because our volume of work keeps increasing - the number of road call tire replacements keeps going down.

"That tells us this program is definitely working, since tire problems are becoming an increasingly smaller proportion of reasons for road calls."

Is this kind of tire service going on in your other yards?

Roger Bell: "Yes, we're doing the same thing at our terminals in Yakima, Portland, Tumwater and Longview, as well as in dropyards and dedicated
customer locations - anywhere we have trailers parked on a regular basis."

How did you come up with this idea?

"I'd have to credit Scott Kessinger here in Yakima, Tim Greenameyer in Portland and Morrie Folsom in Tumwater for developing this concept. It's working great, and we're going to continue doing it."

How Commercial Tire Cuts Haney's Tire Costs Paul Osborne of Commercial Tire's Yakima location has been working with Scott Kessinger on this simple, yet unique tire maintenance program since it began. "One of the things we stress is service," says Paul. "People can buy a tire anywhere. We want to make sure they buy from us, so we offer extra services like these." What gets Paul to come in to work on Saturday and check tractor tires at Haney? "Saturday's the day that about 95 percent of Haney's tractors are parked on the lot. "And Haney's people are very good to work with. The owners, the Richardson family, run it like a family, and that shows all the way through everything they do. "Hollie took over the tire inspection and maintenance position from her sister about two years ago, and has done a great job. The 'pride in job' that characterizes Haney employees has rubbed off on her, and she and I both are proud to work with the people at Haney Truck Line."