An eagle eye on truck tyres

March 22, 2024

GoMetro has launched ConnecTyre: a rim-mounted tyre pressure and temperature management system that lets commercial vehicle owners livestream tyre pressure and temperature into their control centres.

Tyre pressure and temperature are considered some of the hardest but most important factors to manage in a commercial vehicle fleet, says Justin Coetzee, CEO of GoMetro. Historically, tyre pressure monitoring systems only alerted the driver of the vehicle to any issues, despite vehicles often spending weeks on the road away from depots. This meant fleet managers were oblivious to tyre problems and trends, leaving the fleet as a whole vulnerable to breakdowns and delayed deliveries.

“With too little tyre pressure, steering becomes difficult; too much pressure and you lose road-holding capabilities. Stopping distance is affected by both high and low tyre pressure, increasing the likelihood of accidents. With live pressure readings visible in the control centre, however, a fleet manager in Johannesburg can tell a driver on the N1 in Cape Town to pull into the next truck stop and have a specific tyre’s pressure checked,” Coetzee explains.

Cut costs with ConnecTyre

Tyre pressure is also a key factor in the lifespan of the tyre itself – an important consideration when a replacement tyre costs between R6,000 and R10,000 and each truck has as many as 28 wheels. Incorrect tyre pressure affects the casing life and reduces the number of times a tyre can be retreaded. It also contributes to higher fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions, which are increasingly important points on companies’ balance sheets.

How the magic happens

The ConnecTyre sensor is mounted on the drop centre of the rim with a metal strap. It has a battery life of up to five years, gathering and transmitting information via Bluetooth to a central hub in the vehicle. This hub then relays the data to GoMetro’s Bridge web portal. The portal displays the pressure and temperature information in real-time on the fleet manager’s desktop.

Accurate information allows fleet managers to be proactive rather than reactive. For instance, the system will alert fleet managers and drivers to a slow leak before it turns into a breakdown that may take hours to resolve. “Mounting the sensor takes roughly 25 minutes per wheel. This is a small investment, considering that delays and damaged cargo resulting from breakdowns can permanently affect customer relations,” Coetzee emphasises.

The system was tested on three GoMetro clients’ heavy commercial vehicles, and is presently being rolled out to their broader fleets.

ConnecTyre is currently available in the UK, South Africa, and Australia.

* GoMetro is a UK-based business-to-business software as a service (SaaS) fleet management company founded in 2014. Civil engineer Justin Coetzee built the first version of GoMetro for the South African National Rail Agency, having become frustrated by the lack of passenger information for trains that were constantly running late.