CST sends Continental Truck Tire New Technology to the streets
Continental Sime Tyre PJ Sdn Bhd is organizing a series of roadshows from now till July aimed at truck and bus fleet operators for the purpose of introducing its new line of products and also to educate them on the importance of proper tyre maintenance.
In order to successfully drive the message across to commercial operators, whose eyes remain fixed on the bottom line, CST’s approach is to stress that investing in good tyres and good maintenance ultimately helps to reduce long-term running costs by reducing accidents and also frequency of tyre changes, which leads to increased down time.
The roadshow is carried on a specially-built show truck, which is essentially a mobile information centre that showcases testimonials from satisfied customers, touch screen demonstration of the e-Tools, namely the ContiTireFinder, the ContiTireTerminal and the ContiCostCalculator. Continental’s line of truck tyres will also be put on display.
Truck tyres to be showcased at the roadshow will include the HD Hybrid tyre, launched in conjunction with the show, and also the new ‘R’ series tyres designed for heavy commercial vehicles. A fact that might be little known to the casual observer is that for truck applications, different tyres are made for different axles on the truck.
While those of us shopping for passenger car tyres are accustomed to prices in the region of RM150 to even RM800 per piece depending on size, prices of truck tyres usually start at RM1,900 per piece, and trucks usually have more than four tyres each. The simple maths easily produce a five-figure bill for each tyre change op, and that is not something most operators would be pleased to endure.
In the face of such costs, it is most tempting for operators to resort to alternatives such as cheaper tyres, or retreading and regrooving to prolong the tyre life-span. A point to note is that retreading and regrooving are completely different exercises. In a retread, a new layer of tread is attached to the tyre casing, whereas regrooving involves cutting into the tyre to deepen the worn-out tread.
Modern passenger car tyres are not suitable for regrooving because of their reduced thicknesses, but some truck tyres can support a limited number of regroovings. Retreading is also only practicable with confidence if the retreaded tyre is engineered with the appropriate strength and durability.
According to Mr. Benoit Henry, Executive Vice President of Business Unit Asia Pacific Truck Tires and also Chief Executive Officer of Continental Sime Tyre PJ Sdn. Bhd,, “Our ultimate goal is to help our customers to achieve the lowest overall driving cost. Hence the objective for the event – Your Way To Lowest Overall Driving Cost.”
