French tyremaker Michelin has a solution to tackle a chronic issue in India’s trucking industry — overloading. But, then, fleet owners must want the problem solved.

All it takes is an RFID chip in the tyre. Michelin has already put these in 90 per cent of its truck tyres enabling the tyremaker to know if a vehicle is being overloaded. But Michelin tracks overloading only if its customer asks for it.

There are also other players like the UK-based VPG PM On Board weighers, who track overloading of trucks by installing weighers on trucks.

This is an appropriate solution for India where overloading of cargo vehicles is rampant. In 2017, overloading caused 55,512 accidents, resulting in 57,600 injuries and 20,848 deaths, according to Road Ministry data.

There are cases of fleet operators like Porter losing clients because they refuse to overload. Customers blame the transport company for loading extra, and transporters feign ignorance and blame truck drivers.

Sharing what it does with the data, Laurent Bourrut, Executive Vice-President, Road Transportation and European Region’ Member of Group Executive Committee, Michelin, said, “We use data captured from the RFID chips to design tyres to improve mileage, reduce cost, and prevent breakdowns. We use data to predict end-of-life of tyres. We use data for predictive analysis.”

For consumers, Michelin uses such data to increase safety and lower fuel consumption.

Interestingly, Michelin works with road building contractors, too, to find out the adherence to basic commitments, said Bourrout, at a recent in MovinOn Summit in Montreal.

Track trucks

This puts Michelin in a unique position where it can track trucks that are loaded beyond permitted limits, and share that data with private road owners or concessionnaires, informing them about the extent of overloading of trucks. Overloaded trucks damage roads and pollute air more than those adhere to the set limits, show studies.

Michelin handles such data for millions of vehicles under contract in some 30 countries in Europe and South America, according to Bourrut.

Michelin has not yet started its ‘tyre as a service’ or ‘fleet management as a service’ in India. It is evaluating if India’s fleet managers will be ready to pay for such a service, said Bourrut.

The benefits of such a service, Bourrut said: Lower breakdowns so more uptime, effectively saving time and money. Another benefit is peace of mind for fleet operators, drivers, and green impact.

According to T Sridhar, CEO of Chennai’s Shri Narayani Associates, which has a tie-up with the UK-based VPG PM On Board weighers, “These weighers, which are now installed standalone on trucks, can be connected electronically to RFID chips in future if required.

(The writer attended the MoveinOn Summit in Montreal recently at Michelin’s invitation)

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