Pan-European haulage company Alcaline has changed its tyre policy across the fleet after a successful year-long trial of Michelin’s award-winning X One MaxiTrailer tyres.
The trial saw a set of the tyres fitted to a new Schmitz Cargobull tri-axle trailer and compared directly against Dunlop tyres fitted to many of the other trailers in its fleet.
So far the new Michelin tyres have covered 176,569 km, with a further 9 mm of tread remaining. Used primarily on trunking routes between Ashford in Kent and Italy, the tyres are projected to cover a further 78,000 km before needing to be regrooved in-line with Michelin’s Four Lives tyre policy.
As a direct result of the trial, Alcaline is now fitting X One MaxiTrailer tyre on 15 new Schmitz Cargobull tri-axle trailers which are entering service in its fleet during 2009. These will join more than 170 vehicles and trailers spread between operations in the UK, Holland and Italy.
Mick Richards, Fleet Engineer at Alcaline, comments: “We are a 24-hour business operating across Europe, so tyre-related breakdowns can have a massive impact on our service and also affect our costs.
We made the decision to trial the Michelin X One MaxiTrailer tyres as we were experiencing damage, casing failures and heavy wear on other makes of tyres fitted to brand new trailers as original equipment.
“We approached Michelin to see if they had a solution and arranged for a set of X One MaxiTrailer tyres to be fitted to a new curtainsider. Over the course of the 12-month trial these tyres were considered to be the best we’ve ever bought. Damage has been eliminated thanks to the robust sidewalls and we are recording exceptional mileage performance.”
