It is time the many myths surrounding the retreading of truck tyres and those of other commercial fleets are dispelled, according to Australia’s only independent national tyre management specialist.
There seems to be a near blanket belief that retreaded tyres are completely useless and offer nothing but a cheap and dangerous solution to otherwise unscrupulous operators.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Mr Brad Bearman, Managing Director of Bears Tyres, a long-standing specialist on the fleet tyre management and the developer of the world’s only software based Tyre Tracker system.
“Retreading tyres, particularly those on the large trucks and long haul vehicles – makes not just good money returns but also excellent operational sense.
“For the last 20 years I have been advocating how retreading is the ideal solution for some businesses; depending on the size of the operation, the frequency of its movements and the level of output required from every single tyre.”
Bear’s Tyres stands in a unique market position as an independent tyre consultancy and seller, as well as an outsourced bureau for managing and repairing fleet tyres with its Tyre Tracker. Hence, the company is bound to no commercial brand of tyres.
“Once it is worn, there is often no need to throw a perfectly good tyre worth hundreds of dollars onto the scrapheap.”
“Even the tyres on the very large long haul vehicles carrying extremely heavy loads can be retreaded up to three times without losing any performance level at all and it certainly doesn’t make this tyre have any sort of danger.
“There is a completely unsubstantiated fear of retreaded tyres because bits of blown out rubber lies scattered on the edges of Australian highways. The truth is that even a brand new radial has as much chance of blowing out at high speeds as does a retread.”
According to the Federal Department of Environment and Heritage, end-of-life, dumped or stored tyres present serious risks to the environment, human health and public amenity, including the leaching of toxic chemicals into the environment, toxic tyre fires, illegal dumping and the increase in breeding grounds for vermin such as rats and mosquitoes. In many case, he has seen tyres with anywhere from 30-50% of rubber left on them blatantly discarded into the garbage.
“Retreading is very good for the environment because you can buy a tyre and retread at about three times,” said Mr Bearman.
“This is a very good environmental policy but even more so a very good example of lean management.”
“Retreading tyres – particularly those on the large trucks and long haul vehicles, makes not just good money returns but also excellent operational sense”.
