Attitudes towards fuel saving tyres can range from the cynical to the downright disinterested amongst some commercial fleets, with a mistaken belief that the more expensive products don’t necessarily return the value for money to justify the spend.
But Bridgestone believes that such perceptions might soon be a thing of the past, thanks to an ‘extraordinary’ tyre trial with Howard Tenens, in which the company’s low rolling resistance Ecopia tyres returned savings which are impossible to ignore.
The privately owned logistics company pitted Bridgestone’s Ecopia HS1 (steer) and HD1 (drive) products against its R-STEER and M729 (drive) tyres for 134 days*
The savings in fuel, owing to exclusive NanoPro-Tech™ compound which reduces energy loss in the top compound as the tyre rotates, amounted to 2.11% for the vehicle in question.
Extrapolating the results over the size of the fleet, by using the Bridgestone Ecopia product, Howard Tenens can actually save more than £133,246.00 in fuel savings each year.
As a long term partner to the FTA’s Logistics Carbon Reduction Scheme, Bridgestone has long championed the use of running low rolling resistance Ecopia tyres on UK fleets and believes this data might be the most compelling yet.
Bridgestone’s fleet manager Ian Davis said that the fuel savings were so great, that they covered both the higher price of the tyre and the marginally shorter tyre life.
“The fuel savings were huge, extraordinary in fact. This is a really substantial sum of money that we are talking about. I was surprised myself.
“I have never been able to appreciate the benefits of our Ecopia tyre first hand, but this exercise has done that and more.”
Howard Tenens’ director and company secretary Ben Morris said: “The results certainly exceeded my expectations on the results. They proved that the life of the Ecopia tyre is much more than the industry believes to be the case. To gain a forecast of 2/3rds the life of a normal tyre – for a nominal cost increase of around £30 per tyre – is compelling.
“And a predicted saving of around £2,500 per vehicle over three years, based on current fuel prices, is a substantial amount once you start spreading it over a whole fleet.”
Bridgestone’s commercial product and marketing manager Andy Mathias said: “Howard Tenens are a very forward thinking fleet, an early adopter of technology and an active member of the FTA’s Low Carbon Reduction Scheme, which we have supported for many years.
“These factors make them an ideal testing partner for Bridgestone. We were keen to conduct some ‘real world’ tests with our Ecopia tyres having proven significant fuel savings versus our regional product on the test track at Millbrook, but fleets really need to experience these savings for themselves in order to fully trust the results.
“We are very grateful to Howard Tenens for allowing us to conduct these trials, which have proved that our Ecopia products are a compelling choice, with tangible benefits to businesses.”
