Bridgestone arrived at this year’s TMC Fall show ready to roll, with plenty of new products developed in the last couple of years on both the tire and service side to show off.
On the tire side, Bridgestone had on display its newest drive tire, the M713. Tim Kelly, national account manager, fleet solutions, says this is Bridgestone’s first tire to feature 3D siping, which goes down through the full depth of the tire.
“It allows the tire, as it comes in and out of its footprint, to [have the 3D interlock] open up, and it gives [the tire] 30% better biting edges than its predecessor,” Kelly says. “We’re seeing great success with this. It has ultra-low rolling resistance – 8% better than the M710 and 15% better wear on the M713.”
Also on display was a prototype of Bridgestone’s new B713 retread, a product designed for line-haul, fuel-efficiency-conscious fleets, which is set to officially launch in the spring of 2022. Kelly says the retread has many of the features found in the M713, including 3D siping and interlocking lugs.
“The performance we’ve seen from the testing we’ve done has been significant,” Kelly says. “We don’t have benchmarks yet, but we’re seeing really good performance.”
Kelly also showed off the company’s newest steer tire, the R213. Featuring directional edge sipes to resist scrub and offer up to 15% longer mileage, Bridgestone says the R213 Ecopia outperforms the previous-generation R284 Ecopia. Additionally, a redesigned tread pattern paired with a compound reduces tire weight, improving rolling resistance and fuel efficiency by 6%, Kelly says. The EPA SmartWay-verified tire is offered in eight variations – with four sizes and two load ranges per size.
“It has directional siping throughout the treads, especially on the shoulder which will help reduce cutting and tearing,” Kelly says. “This really eliminates the irregular wear that can be caused by long mileage vehicles.”
On the service side, Bridgestone displayed its Intellitire TPMS system to attendees. The commercial tire TPMS can be used to proactively identify and address tire pressure issues, and the company says it can also increase technician productivity with digital inspections and electronic reports. As a brand-agnostic platform, it will work for any tire.
Kelly says the TPMS system integrates with Geotab to help with tracking throughout each tire cycle.
“All of that information is sent up through the cloud, and then there are analytics done to prevent or avoid some kind of [tire-related] event,” Kelly says. “There’s a ton of great reporting and alerts that are sent to the driver and the maintenance manager, or whoever is interested in that information.”
Kelly also detailed Bridgestone’s Reach driver productivity platform, an app designed to make preventative maintenance, roadside assistance and other vehicle service requests simpler and more efficient for fleets of all sizes.
“This will hopefully increase efficiency: less downtime for the fleet, more efficiency for the technician. It’s more critical than ever right now. We have several hundred fleets on it at this point,” Kelly says.
Kelly says in the future, Intellitire will be designed to integrate with Reach to send a notification to dispatch a technician wherever a specific truck might need service.
