A real fleet visit about tire management, fuel efficiency and better fleet decisions.
Sai Gon, 04 Jul, 2026. Last week, we spent an afternoon visiting a fleet in Sai Gon.
For this story, I’ll call our sales engineer Young Bamboo Shoot, and the fleet manager simply Alex Sing a Song.
Both are just over thirty. Young by trucking industry standards, yet already carrying responsibilities that don’t wait for experience.
Young Shoot is still learning how fleets think.
Alex is responsible for keeping around 150 trucks moving every single day.
Mục lục
The Conversation Started with Tires
The first thing we noticed wasn’t the office.
It wasn’t the workshop.
It wasn’t even the trucks.
It was the tires.
10.00R20. Tube type.
Young Shoot looked at me.
I looked back at him.
Neither of us said a word.
But we were probably thinking exactly the same thing.
“Seriously? A long-haul fleet is still running tube-type tires?”
At first glance, it felt like stepping back twenty years.
Most long-haul fleets today have already transitioned to radial tubeless tires because of their advantages in heat management, maintenance efficiency and fuel economy.
So why was a fleet of this size still committed to a tire specification that many would consider outdated?
Before we had time to ask that question, Alex opened one of his monthly reports.
He smiled and pointed directly at one KPI.
Fuel consumption.
“We’re consistently performing better than the target set by headquarters.”
There was no arrogance in his voice.
Just quiet confidence.
Managing fuel across 150 trucks isn’t easy.
Driver behaviour.
Payload.
Traffic.
Maintenance.
Route planning.
Every litre saved has to be earned.
At that moment, Young Shoot wanted to continue talking about tires.
Alex wanted to talk about diesel.
Neither of them was wrong.
One was looking at tires.
The other was looking at the business.
Sometimes the Best Conversation Happens Beside the Truck
The conversation paused for a moment.
Instead of opening another product presentation, I asked Alex,
“Would you mind if we took a quick look at a few trucks?”
He smiled.
“Of course.”
Out came our familiar TireCheck kit—one of the diagnostic tools that always travels with us, together with a few other “toys” we bring on every fleet visit.
Nothing complicated.
Just a quick health check.
Within minutes, we had collected the basics.
- Tire inflation pressure
- Remaining tread depth
- Axle loads
Enough to understand the fleet beyond what could be seen with the naked eye.
As the measurements came in, the conversation quietly changed direction.
The first thing that caught my attention was the inflation pressure.
All tires were running at close to 10.0 bar, despite the trucks carrying full payload only.
Then came something we could almost see before taking any measurements.
On several drive axles, the center ribs were wearing noticeably faster than the shoulders.
The tread depth gauge later confirmed what our eyes had already suspected.
The difference reached nearly 5 mm on some tires—roughly 30% of the remaining tread depth.
Standing beside those trucks, something suddenly made sense.
Alex wasn’t exaggerating when he said they managed fuel consumption well.
Keeping tire pressure consistently high certainly requires discipline.
Higher inflation pressure reduces tire deflection.
A smaller contact patch generally means lower rolling resistance, which under certain operating conditions may contribute to measurable fuel savings.
But every engineering decision comes with a trade-off.
As the contact patch becomes smaller, the load becomes more concentrated toward the center of the tread.
Over time, that can accelerate center wear and shorten the amount of usable tread before the tire needs to be removed from service.
What interested me most, however, wasn’t the wear itself.
It was the reason behind it.
Was this a deliberate strategy to optimize fuel economy?
Or was it simply a maintenance habit carried over from the days when many Vietnamese fleets were still running bias-ply tires?
Back then, inflating tires harder was common practice.
It helped reduce heat.
It provided a sense of security when carrying heavy loads.
And eventually, it became part of fleet culture.
The trucks have changed.
The tires have changed.
But perhaps some maintenance habits haven’t changed at the same pace.
We never had enough time to continue that conversation.
Looking back, I think it would have been the most valuable discussion of the day.
Because before recommending a better tire…
…we first need to understand the thinking behind the tire that’s already on the truck.
When Data Changed the Conversation
Walking back into the office, the atmosphere felt different.
The quick inspection had changed the conversation.
Not because anyone had been proven right or wrong.
But because we now had something more valuable than opinions.
We had data.
Young Shoot could hardly hide his excitement.
The TireCheck results had given him exactly what every sales engineer hopes for—a meaningful starting point for a technical discussion.
Instead of comparing tire models, he began comparing operating costs.
The discussion naturally shifted to a modern low-profile tubeless Energy-pattern tire.
The proposal wasn’t simply to replace 10.00R20 tube-type tires with a newer specification.
It was to improve two of the fleet’s largest operating costs.
With lower rolling resistance, the Energy pattern could potentially reduce fuel consumption by another 3–5%, depending on operating conditions.
Combined with inflation pressures matched to the manufacturer’s recommendations, rather than long-established workshop habits, it could also deliver a more even wear profile and extend tire life by over 40%.
Young Shoot wasn’t trying to sell a better tire.
He was presenting a way to lower the fleet’s total operating cost.
Alex listened carefully.
He nodded several times.
Occasionally he smiled.
But I could still sense a hint of hesitation.
Not because he doubted the technology.
But because changing tire specifications meant much more than changing tires.
It meant changing purchasing decisions…
maintenance practices…
inventory…
and the economics of running 150 trucks.
At that moment, I realized they weren’t disagreeing.
They were simply asking different questions.
Young Shoot was asking,
“What’s the better tire?”
Alex was asking,
“What’s the better business decision?”
Sometimes, the better tire isn’t automatically the better fleet decision.
The Best Fleet Decisions Start with a Trial
When we finally stood up to leave, nobody had “won” the discussion.
Young Shoot hadn’t convinced Alex.
Alex hadn’t rejected the proposal either.
Instead, they agreed on something much more valuable.
A controlled fleet trial.
Two trucks.
A new tire specification.
And six months of monitoring fuel consumption, tire wear and operating data before making any fleet-wide decision.
Both walked away smiling.
One had the opportunity to prove a proposal.
The other had the confidence to make a future decision based on evidence, not assumptions.
If the results meet expectations, the benefits will reach far beyond those two trucks.
Less fuel consumed.
Fewer tires replaced.
Lower operating costs.
And a little less carbon released into the atmosphere.
We’ll be back in six months.
Not to ask whether they liked the tires.
But to see what the data has to say.
Because in the end, the trucks will decide.
And the data will tell the story.
Nhat Diem Hong
