The managing director of a company driving for years to educate transporters on the under-utilisation and general waste of tyres says it is a ‘turning point’ for the company to be recognised as a finalist in the prestigious Mercury Awards for the transport and logistics sector.

Brad Bearman, of Bear’s Tyres, believes the company’s inclusion in the short list of finalists for the ‘Best Green Initiative’ category is a turning point for a country where tyres are not only retired way too early, but they have also been found in massive illegal dump piles around the nation.

“Being so close to winning an award is not just a huge achievement for the hard work by our staff, it signals that at long last managers of Australian businesses that operate trucks, buses and general haulage vehicles have realised tyres are a recyclable asset rather than a dead-end costly consumable,” said Bearman.

“It is of great importance to our hard work as a company to have our tenet recognised by heavyweight industry experts that formed the judging panel of this recognised industry award which culminated in a night that recognises the ongoing achievements by global names such as Coca Cola Amatil, Schenker Australia, and Barker Transport

“And to have our Bear’s Tyre Tracker make the cut for the final four in the ‘Best Green Initiative’ category is a huge honour for our dedication in developing a software product — a world first — which manages the entire lifecycle of every single tyre on a fleet.

“For many years now, the industry has relied on the very basic cpk (cents per kilometre) software platform which does little else but count the distance a tyre has travelled and, in the end, favours the tyre dealerships through revenue streams.

“To be in the finals of the Mercury Awards in an environmental category sees the Bear’s Tyre Tracker recognised by a third party for its one key unique competitive advantage — handing control of this particular asset, being the tyre, to where it should be, and that is into the hands of the business owner or its management team.

“We are prolonging the lifespan of all tyres, increasing the safety levels for drivers, cutting out all the wastage that often occurs with the cpk system, turning tyres into a quantifiable profit generator, and creating a modern business loop which discourages the illegal dumping of tyres purely because at retirement they can be sold into the recycling chain.”

The simple-to-use system, Bear’s Tyre Tracker, logs distances and advises rotations and retreading at optimised moments of each tyre’s lifespan, has been developed in-house by the brand-neutral company for national use.

Apart from enhancing tyre life, the technology is also said to deliver intensely accurate cost breakdowns for each tyre.

[Post-Mercury Awards]