The secrets to success in the tire business – and, for that matter, in trucking – have not been deep and dark. They are not extracts from some higher learning or the result of intricate laboratory testing. Except for technological breakthroughs, no great tire or trucking business thoughts have been unearthed over the last 10 decades.

Common sense really is at the core of any so-called business success secrets. For example, if you want to increase sales, treat people right and provide products with obvious value. Simple. Practical. Effective.

The theme of this third annual issue of Fleet & Tire is leveraging tires and tire programs to reduce fuel costs – improving tire fuel efficiency, as we call it. Sounds like some fancy concept, but as we gathered the sage advice of tiremaker and fleet experts for stories in this special supplement, it was clear that their input really centered on tried-and-true tire common sense. Simple, straight-forward concepts we have been preaching – and subsequently reinforcing – since the first rubber tire met the first over-the-road truck.

Select the right new tires and retreads for the application. Maintain those tires with regular, detailed inspections. Keep the tires properly inflated at all times, using a quality pressure gauge. Reduce vehicle and driver inputs that waste fuel.

It’s basic ‘blocking and tackling,’ to borrow a popular sales phrase, of tire fuel efficiency. Simple, practical advice that works. Common sense.

With all the complicated technologies and multi-layered systems and relationship management we deal with day in and day out, it’s quite easy to lose track of the simple approach. When business survival requires so much knowledge and effort, ‘simple’ just seems old-fashioned and out of place.

But it should not.

Buried under all the fancy buzzwords and mantras so-called business gurus preach are the exact same simple principles that formed the basis of success 100 years ago. Terminology changed, but common sense did not.

As you’ll see in the pages of Fleet & Tire, it’s the same with tires and fuel efficiency.