After a successful eight-month trailer that led to savings of £45,000, family-owned haulier Ronnie S Evans has signed its entire fleet of trailers up to Michelin’s Effitrailer programme. Michelin’s dedicated trailer telematics system was initially fitted to 15 assets, showing its worth by alerting the haulier to 45 cases of low tyre pressure and therefore preventing potential puncture costs of up to £1,000 a time.

“We recently had a driver collect a load and just 20 minutes into the journey I received an alert to say one of the tyre’s pressure had dropped to a critical level. After contacting the driver, he found a piece of metal lodged in it. He managed to get the vehicle safely to the nearest tyre dealer and got it repaired straight away, which also saved on the cost of a roadside call out and the unnecessary downtime this would have brought – all thanks to Effitrailer,” said company director Sion Evans.

“The nature of our work sees part of the fleet going into scrap metal yards every day, so we’re operating in an environment where there is a higher risk of punctures. The Michelin system will transform our operations and allow us to be more proactive when it comes to potential tyre and brake issues,” he added.

Carmarthenshire-based Ronnie S Evans will now get the system fitted to its remaining 41 trailers on a three-year contract. The company will have access to the system’s on-board data link, tyre pressure monitoring system, electronic braking system data analysis and constant geolocation. The technology also details each trailer’s mileage, the length of any periods of abnormal downtime, the ‘unhooked’ or ‘towed’ status of the asset, and whether the trailer is overloaded.

Michelin Effitrailer can be installed on all trailers equipped with EBS, regardless of age or manufacturer, and is available regardless of current or future tyre policy.