LOUISVILLE, Ky.-Iowa Mold Tooling has developed a ``life-cycle costing program'' designed to help tire dealers determine the proper time to replace a tire service truck. According to Mark Whaley, vice president of sales for the Garner, Iowa-based company, the proprietary software program processes information supplied by a dealer on service truck use and develops an optimum replacement schedule-based on anticipated operating costs vs. a new truck, replacement costs and trade-in value-to provide the dealer with the lowest actual operating cost.
The majority of commercial tire dealers typically have replaced their tire service trucks every five to seven years, Mr. Whaley said. But data from the IMT life-cycle costing program suggests they should consider a replacement cycle of every three to four years to keep their actual costs to a minimum.