Want to save money on your tyres? Well here's a clever little device from T-Comm Tracking & Tracing of The Netherlands which means you can quickly check your truck tyre pressures at a glance and save money along the way. And you can see it at next week's CV Show too.
Known as "P-eye", the little gadget has taken two years to develop. It is easy to use. All you have to do is unscrew your tyre valve cap and replace it with the P-eye which measures the preset minimum tyre pressure. And if it drops more than 5% below the ideal pressure the LED lamp on the end starts blinking. The driver knows then that the pressure of that particular tyre is too low and that it should be inflated.
And the clever bit is when your fleet is parked up on site, you don't have to check every single tyre on your vehicles just look for those where the LEDs are blinking. Now clic through here for news of a anti-theft version...and the sums that make it good financial sense....
According to the company: "The investment per tyre amounts to £20 to fit the device. For an extra £2 an anti theft version is also available." And that's it below.
And the sums? Well leaving aside the time and money spent on replacing a tyre that's given up the ghost due to poor inflation monitoring, an under-inflated tyre can increase the tread wear by 15-20%---while fuel consumtpion goes up by 7%. Apart from the saving on the fuel bill,T-Comm says: "The average saving following less tyre wear has been established as £215." And naturally if you run on a poorly-inlfated tyre you end up damaging the case so it can't be re-used.
Meanwhile, BLB understands that In the United States a tyre pressure monitor is obligatory in new cars from the end of this year and according to some Dutch members of parliament a similar regulation should be possible in the Netherlands in 2011---and there's "pressure" on the Dutch traffic secretary to plead for such an obligation as a European directive. For further information check out this weblink.
Now what do BLB readers think of this? Workable?