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With their large fleet widely dispersed across 30 distribution centres stretching from Glasgow to Avonmouth, keeping control of tyres, both in terms of tyre husbandry and of costs, can be a challenging management task. Enter the Continental Euro Service (CES) function located at the company’s UK headquarters in West Drayton and in each of the major European countries. Using specially developed software, CES manages and controls tyre purchase and maintenance for fleet customers using the five-stage Conti Lifecycle process, which aims to deliver the maximum safe tyre life. The service also includes a call centre operating 24/7 to provide emergency response. Mark LeMontais, Director of Engineering & Operational Support at NYK Logistics, said that their involvement with Continental began two years ago with a competitive tendering exercise. “On a whole life cost basis, Continental offered the best value for money,” he said. “And whilst quality, safety and long life were also key factors in our decision, we saw business efficiency benefits to our business from using Continental’s tyre management service. “It removes a significant administrative burden from us; provides regular, up-to-date and detailed management information on our tyre costs; and gives us complete confidence that, in terms of tyres, our vehicles are operating safely and within the law. “Underpinning the process is a regime of monthly inspections by tyre suppliers who are local to our distribution centres and who are members of the ContiNetwork. These are usually carried out at weekends. Along with reports from our drivers following their daily checks, this ensures that any problems are spotted and rectified quickly and the need for a routine tyre change is identified at the right point of wear. “In line with the Conti Lifecycle process, we specify the appropriate type of tyre at the OE stage and once a vehicle is in service we only ever fit new on front axles. As tyres wear down they are given a second life from re-grooving and are moved to the back axles. Further wear leads to the casings going for re-moulding, which can then lead to re-grooving for the second time. And finally, when a tyre has reached the end of its useful life, we ensure responsible disposal, usually for recycling. “Fitting of new tyres, sending tyres for re-grooving or re-treading and any emergency repair work, are all pre-authorised by us. The supplier then carries out the work and invoices the Continental Euro Service centre. They consolidate this information into a single weekly invoice and a quarterly report that analyses the category of the work - new replacements, damage repairs, and so on – and which sets our precisely what our costs have been in each category. “From an administrative point of view, we know our spend week by week and this helps us to track our budgets. The system also substantially reduces the number of invoices that we have to process, which are down from figures in the thousands to just 52 a year, resulting in efficiency and cost savings. “From a purely operational viewpoint, the quarterly report is extremely useful in identifying trends that might require management action. It also includes Key Performance Indicators that are determined by us. These are the factors by which we can judge overall performance and include data on our spend relative to the mileages our vehicles are covering, which results in a pence per kilometre cost.” Continental is currently working to further improve its fleet management service and will shortly be introducing a web-based service capable of providing instant, real-time information. This will be based around a data warehouse that fleet operators like NYK Logistics will be able to access at any time. It will give information on adherence to policies, time of call outs and reaction times, along with more basic cost information including whole life costs.
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