Optimizing heavy duty vehicle management with RAIN RFID

From haulage trucks to community buses, every year heavy-duty vehicles cover immense distances, pushing their tires to the limit.

Managing tire inventory is, therefore, crucial to ensuring vehicle safety and to keeping costs under control. For the fleet managers in charge, this can be an expensive, complex and time-consuming business.

And given that they can neither mitigate tire wear nor compromise on safety, the opportunities to make efficiencies in this field are few and far between.

RAIN RFID presents one such opportunity.

Electronic tire identification attaches unique identifiable data directly onto a tire with a tag or other machine-readable solution. This can then be used to track the performance and condition of each individual tire.

A 2019 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report to Congress explored requiring tire manufacturers to include tire identification number (TIN)-based electronic tire identification in all new tires. The report concluded this is indeed possible, and highlighted RAIN RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) as a leading solution.

RAIN RFID uses small electronic tags attached to, or implanted within, the tire that transmit stored information when scanned. With the impending publication of the American Trucking Associations' Technology and Maintenance Council Recommended Practice 247 (RP247), RFID tags for medium and heavy-duty truck tires look set to be a major focal point for the entire ecosystem.

This is good news for tire manufacturers, merchants and end users alike. Even if you put legislative necessity to one side, adopting RAIN RFID technology across the tire industry still makes a whole lot of sense; it unlocks a host of commercial benefits for all involved.

Tires account for one of the highest overhead costs for all heavy-duty vehicles. In the trucking industry, it's estimated by the American Transportation Research Institute that they account for 2% of the total cost-per-mile of each vehicle. Poorly maintained tires can also severely impact the fuel efficiency of a vehicle, and so proper tire management to control these expenses is crucial.

RAIN RFID tags help to create a seamless, automated inventory process. Fleet managers can scan the embedded tag to obtain real time information on the age of a tire, its condition, and the warehouse it needs to be allocated to. This eliminates the need for manual processing, helping save time and money while mitigating the risk of human errors. Fleet managers can therefore be confident that they have the required stock available to them and can accurately forecast future needs.

Keeping drivers and other road users safe is also a major concern. Tires must be carefully managed to ensure that they remain within safe limits. RAIN RFID-based tire inspection enables fast and efficient servicing.

A structured, computerized inspection process can provide logistical efficiency to testing that ensures the right test is done for the right tire, first time. Furthermore, as each tag is unique to each tire — even within a set bought together — tires can be properly rotated to ensure that wear is even, helping maximize the lifespan of each tire.

RAIN RFID also enhances traceability during the retreading process. The casing on heavy duty vehicle tires often differs based on if they are drive or steer tires, so making sure the tire is retreaded to meet these specific functions is key. RAIN RFID allows users to check the tire's function and ensure it is retreaded to meet this need quickly and easily.

Unidentifiable tires are often discarded if their composition cannot be properly validated. Here, with RAIN RFID tags in place, such tires can be given a second life.

Should they not be suitable for retread, the tag can provide the requisite data to determine the recyclability of the tire, helping to reduce waste and create a more sustainable tire ecosystem.

Using RAIN RFID, the serial number, production date, and more key information is bound to the tire directly. This process goes far beyond manual tagging processes, as RAIN RFID permits each tire to have its own ID number.

This means that in the event of a recall, individual tires identified as problematic can be recalled instead of an entire manufacturing batch, which could save thousands of perfectly serviceable tires from being taken out of circulation needlessly helping to save tire manufacturers and fleet managers alike both time and money.

Tire manufacturers and fleet managers have the opportunity to stay ahead of NHTSA or other upcoming legislative requirements and create state-of-the-art tire solutions.

Many tire manufacturers including Bridgestone, Continental and Michelin, are already developing smart tire technologies and products. In parallel, stakeholders from throughout the ecosystem are also coming together to create guidelines and best practices within collaborative not-for-profit forums such as the RAIN Alliance Tire Working Group.

With the right backing, RAIN RFID technology has the power to transform how heavy-duty vehicle fleet operators manage their tires, creating ergonomic, sustainable and safe practices that help deliver unparalleled operational efficiency.

Peter Ramirez is co-chair of the Tire Working Group at RAIN Alliance, a group of like-minded companies that use RAIN RFID technology to interconnect trillions of objects.