A steady route gives you the cleanest data a fleet can get
Most fleets cannot tell whether a tire change or an alignment correction did anything, because too much varies. Different routes, different loads, different drivers, different seasons.
A fleet running the same corridor repeatedly does not have that problem, and it is an advantage worth using.
When the route is consistent, tire mileage becomes a genuinely comparable number. Unit to unit, before and after a correction, this quarter against last. There is no need to adjust for anything, because nothing changed except what you changed.
Which makes a long-haul operation the one most able to prove an alignment correction worked, and the one most able to find the unit that is quietly costing more than the others. The data is already being generated; it usually just is not being compared.
What to compare
Steer tire mileage per unit, on the same route. That is the measure most sensitive to alignment and the easiest to collect.
A unit that is consistently twenty or thirty percent below its stablemates on the same work has something wrong with it, and alignment is the first thing to rule in or out. Ask for before and after readings so the correction is documented against the figures that follow it.
What gets measured
Steer axle angles, drive axle alignment, and the relationship between them. Where the readings point at a worn or bent component rather than an adjustment, you get told.
The national heavy-duty truck alignment page covers the symptoms and what a correction protects. Trailer alignment is at the same store, which matters when a combination still tracks badly with the tractor right.
About this store
The Fernley store runs sixteen services, carries all nine Purcell tire categories, and is managed by John Jangula.
See the national heavy-duty truck alignment page for all 40 locations.