New Tyre Delivers the Goods for Car Transporter ECM
4th October 2017
Leading car transporter company ECM’s 30-year relationship with Goodyear and its FleetFirst services has not only resulted in ensuring minimum downtime for vehicles, reduced administration and lower cost of ownership but also in the development of special unique tyres tailored for its operations. The latest of these tyres went into service recently.
Recognized as Europe’s Leading Vehicle Logistics Provider and established over 35 years ago, ECM (Vehicle Delivery Service) Ltd has a car transporter fleet that comprises 520 specialist vehicles. These enable ECM to make around 1.3 million vehicle deliveries each year for many of the world’s leading manufacturers including BMW, Ford, Honda, Jaguar Land-Rover, Hyundai, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot Citroen, Toyota and Volkswagen. With such high-value cargo and strict collection and delivery deadlines, total reliability is essential making tyres and their maintenance critical elements. But unlike most other transport companies that operate standard trailers, ECM’s custom-built car transporters require special tyres. These allow extra internal platform width and low chassis height to maximise the capacity of the trailers which can carry up to 11 cars.
To keep within external width regulations and still have space for the vehicles being carried to pass inside the wheel arches, the trailer tyres must be narrow. Not only that but a 7100kg axle load is essential, and to add to the special requirements, the proximity of wheel arches to the tyres leaves little space for heat dissipation. Goodyear’s engineers in Luxembourg had previously produced a specific car transporter tyre for ECM about five years ago. This was a Goodyear LHT II tyre in size 275/70R22.5 152J for a new trailer.
The tyre Goodyear has introduced this year to meet ECM’s latest need, is in size 295/60R22.5 152J and is a development of the Goodyear RHS II as a specific trailer tyre. The tyre features an increased load/speed rating, and a specific tread compound that provides cool running capability. After intense field evaluation, the new trailer tyre was proven to work well under car transporter trailer conditions and is FRT (Free Rolling Tyre) marked as a result. Both this and the tyre that was developed earlier now form part of the Goodyear Dunlop truck tyre portfolio.
UK-based ECM has worked with Goodyear as its tyre partner for 30 years with TruckForce providing the necessary on-site services at ECM’s 40 locations. One of the key elements of the partnership is FleetOnlineSolutions (FOS). The unique Goodyear online tyre management programme allows ECM to focus on its delivery schedules, while ensuring minimum downtime and reduced administration. It further ensures that wherever tyre-related assistance is needed, the local TruckForce centre has access to all details of the fleet’s tyre policy as well as taking care of invoicing at agreed rates. This ensures correct and fast service along with simplified invoicing.
ECM also utilises Goodyear’s ServiceLine24h service, which provides round-the-clock roadside assistance for tyre related issues.