Tires for Municipal, School Bus and Transit Fleets

A private fleet manager who finds a better tire can usually switch next week. A public fleet manager often cannot. Purchases may need competitive bids, approved vendor lists, cooperative purchasing contracts or council approval, and the budget for next year's tires may have been set before this year's problems showed up.

The fleet itself is usually more varied than a commercial one:

• Light vehicles: patrol cars, administrative sedans, pickups and vans.
• Medium and heavy trucks: plows, dump trucks, utility trucks and water trucks.
• Refuse trucks, which stop and start constantly and scrub tires against curbs.
• School buses, which carry children and run the same routes every day.
• Transit buses, which cover high mileage at low speed with frequent stops.
• Off-road and yard equipment: loaders, graders, mowers and forklifts at public works yards.

Each of those wears tires differently, and a single tire specification rarely fits them all.

The single most useful document a public fleet can have is a written tire specification by vehicle class and wheel position. It turns a vague purchase into something bidders can price and buyers can compare.

A workable specification covers:

• Size and load rating for each vehicle class and position.
• Construction and tread type for the duty: highway, mixed service, stop and go, off-road.
• Whether retreads are acceptable, and on which positions.
• Service requirements: mounting, balancing, disposal of old tires, roadside response, and records.
• Reporting: what data the supplier provides and how often.

Without a specification, bids compare different tires, and the cheaper bid on paper can become the higher cost per mile in service.

Stop and go. Refuse trucks, transit buses and school buses accelerate and brake constantly. That wears tread faster and builds heat in a different pattern from highway running.

Curb contact. Buses pulling to stops and refuse trucks working close to the curb scrub sidewalls. Sidewall damage is a frequent reason these tires come off before the tread is gone.

Seasonal work. Plows and winter maintenance trucks work hard for a few months and then sit. Their tires can age out before they wear out, so date codes matter as much as tread.

Idle time with load. Emergency and standby vehicles may sit loaded for long periods. Pressure checks on a schedule matter even when the vehicle has barely moved.

Retreading can reduce cost per mile on heavy vehicles, and it keeps sound casings in service rather than sending them to disposal, which matters to agencies with sustainability goals. It has to be planned:

• Decide which positions accept retreads. Drive and trailer positions on trucks are common places to start.
• Check the rules for your vehicles. Federal and state rules restrict retreaded tires on the front wheels of buses, and agency or district policies may add their own limits. Confirm what applies before writing retreads into a specification.
• Track casings. A program that records which casings went out and which came back can show whether retreading is paying off.

Purcell's retreading program collects casings at its stores and retreads them at Purcell plants. Whether retreads suit a particular public fleet is a question for the agency's own rules and specification.

Procurement processes often compare unit prices because they are easy to compare. The figure that matters is cost per mile, or cost per hour for equipment. A tire that costs more and lasts much longer can be the cheaper tire.

That requires records: when each tire went on, at what mileage or hours, and why it came off. The tire tracking and fleet reporting guide explains the numbers worth keeping, and the fleet tire program guide sets out how to build a program from scratch.

School bus fleets typically work under state inspection programs and district policies that cover tires, among much else. Requirements vary by state, so the fleet's own inspection standard is the reference. Two habits help regardless of where you are:

• Pre-trip checks that actually look at the tires, including inner duals, not only at the lights.
• Removing tires on condition, not only on tread depth: sidewall cuts, bulges and age are reasons to replace a bus tire before the tread is worn.

Before committing to any supplier, ask:

• How they handle your procurement process: bids, quotes, cooperative contracts or purchase orders.
• What roadside coverage they offer, and in which hours.
• What records and reports they provide.
• How they handle tire disposal and casing collection.
• Which of your vehicle classes they can cover, from light vehicles to equipment.

Purcell's fleet services are offered at 49 locations and cover specifications, scheduled work, records and authorization for fleets generally. Public fleet buyers should ask the nearest store directly how it works with their purchasing requirements.