Continental is one of the leading players in the tyre management arena, and here we talk with Continental’s Ian Jackson, Continental’s Head of Digital & Fleet Solutions about their view of the market
Continental’s Ian Jackson updates Commercial Tyre Business on tyre management
As a market leader, Continental has a number of tools at hand to assist in tyre management. These tools are under constant development, so we asked Jackson, what does Continental does to offer improved tyre management for its customers? How do you carry out tyre maintenance checks?
Jackson explained; “Continental has an array of solutions to promote tyre management and inspections. Every tyre pressure monitoring system starts with sensors, which read the pressure and temperature. Both in-tyre and external valve-cap sensors are available. From this, the data can be transmitted to the driver, fleet manager and workshop depending on the solution desired. Inspections can also be carried out manually, via an app and through our ContiConnect Pro tyre management platform, offering a multitude of options to suit our customers’ needs.”
As a leading supplier to the fleet sector Continental has discussed options in telematics for some years at the IAA Hannover and these must now be reaching through to fleets, who will be benefitting from the technolgy.
Continental wants to protect their customers investment, by providing a full operating system to manage tyres and trace their life cycle. The ContiConnect tyre management platform is our solution for integrating and analysing tyre data,” Jackson adds; “We can, however, integrate using an API to merge the data in the portal they use currently.”
Continental’s Digital Solutions are available for any fleet size and vehicle type in the commercial sector. This includes trucks, PCVs and material handling equipment.
There has been much talk in the industry about specifying tyres for specific tasks. How deep does Continental’s technology dive into tyre management? For example, can it help select specific tyres for particular jobs, does it also involve driver behaviour data?
Jackson responds; “ContiConnect, our online portal, is solely focused on tyre management. It shows which tyres are working in which applications and how they are performing. Driver behaviour and other telemetry information is not currently shown.”
Tyres in fleets can be swapped between vehicles and trailers, how does ContiConnect follow the tyres, how far does the data recording go?
“ContiConnect allows tyre life cycle to be followed from initial fitment to removal,” says Jackson “It also records if a casing has been sent to our state-of-the-art ContiLifeCycle retreading facility in Ivybridge, Devon.”
This brought us neatly to the retread question. Does retreading have an impact upon the data readings from the individual tyre?
“A retread tyre saves up to 70% of materials used in the manufacturing process but, when it leaves the factory, it is an as-new tyre, points out Jackson. “Sensors can be installed at this remanufacturing stage, if the customer wishes to incorporate a Conti Digital Solutions product.”
As tyre chipping becoming a standard, will that enhance tyre management technology by enabling read-write RFID on tyres?
Jackson concludes; “RFID has been featured within some of our products for several years. When combined with additional sensors monitoring the tyres condition, it can only enhance tyre management and provide an enhanced level of service for our customers.”
