Well known Shropshire truck operator Maidens of Telford has chosen Continental as its primary choice of tyre.
The company runs 50 tractor units and 110 tri-axle curtainsider trailers on general haulage throughout the UK. These run on almost 1,000 tyres and the fleet covers around 8,000,000 kilometres a year.
The decision to move to Continental followed successful trials of the HTR 2 trailer tyre. Their tyre lifecycle policy now includes not only the HTR 2 fitment but also Continental’s HSR 2 on the steer axle and HDR 2 and ContiRe remoulds on the drive axle..
Good performance was not the only reason for the change to Continental, as managing director John Maiden explains.
“Safety, cost and customer satisfaction are the three key priorities in our business,” he says. “As a responsible operator safety has a high priority and in these challenging times we need to look carefully at all our costs. Of equal importance is that we can’t let our customers down because of tyre failures”.
“As a result we operate a strict tyre monitoring and management regime starting with our drivers being required to carry out daily visual inspections and report any signs of faults. This is reinforced by employing a dedicated tyre fitter who carries out more detailed inspections during the six-weekly safety checks, including measuring tread depths and pressures and when necessary, turning tyres on the rim, replacing or repairing them”.
Mr Maiden continued “Last year we put a pair of Continental HTR 2 tyres onto one of our trailers and monitored them very closely. We were very pleased with their performance and this led us to look at the whole Continental range where we found products to suit all our applications from steer axles on our tractor units to Super Singles for our trailers and high quality retreads that we could use on lift axles.
“We also found that Continental’s prices are competitive, their quality is good, and the back-up is first class, both from the local dealer, ATS Euromaster, and nationally should we need repairs or replacements out on the road at any time of day or night. In addition, the ability to hold imprest stock at our premises and to have it checked and updated weekly by ATS, means that we always have the right tyres available.”
Under the new supply deal ATS Euromaster’s Oakengates depot is supplying new Continental and Semperit tyres along with ContiRe remoulds under the proven ContiLifeCycle five stage tyre management process.
Stage one starts with new tyres and is followed by re-grooving to give an additional 3mm of tread. The tyre casing can then be sent for retreading and at stage four a further regroove of the retread can take place. The fifth and final stage is responsible disposal, with perhaps an environmentally friendly end use, such as providing fuel for cement kilns.
Overall the ContiLifeCycle process can reduce the cost of tyres over their entire life by up to 25%.
Established in 1931 Maidens today are a forward thinking independent provider of transport and warehousing who have recently moved to a new purpose built 2.5 million pound centralised Shropshire HQ just one mile off junction 4 of the M54. The company is accredited to the ISO 9001 quality standard and is a member of the Road Haulage Association.
