The Fleet AdvantEDGE

A Guide to Tire Safety, Fleet Maintenance, and Improved CSA Performance  

National Tire Safety Week (NTSW), led annually by the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA), returns June 29 - July 4, 2026. This nationwide initiative highlights the critical role tires play in fleet safety, fleet maintenance, and overall fleet performance, particularly for organizations with heavy-duty trucks and Class 8 trucks. Tire maintenance is no longer simply a maintenance issue, it's a critical component of driver safety, regulatory compliance, vehicle uptime, and operational efficiency. 

For organizations with transportation fleets, tire maintenance is about more than extending tread life. Proper tire management directly impacts fuel economy, roadside breakdowns, vehicle uptime, CSA scores, and driver safety. According to the latest TRUST (Truck Reliability and Usage Safety Tracker) Safety Index, tire-related violations account for 50% of all vehicle maintenance violations and 92% of vehicle maintenance out-of-service (OOS) violations among the nation’s top fleets. These findings reinforce the importance of proactive tire management programs and ongoing driver education. With tires serving as the only point of contact between a truck and the road, maintaining them properly is one of the most effective ways to improve safety and reliability across a fleet. National Tire Safety Week serves as the perfect opportunity to review tire maintenance practices and ensure drivers and technicians have the tools and training needed to keep vehicles operating safely.

Significant Savings Realized When Leasing Compared to an Ownership Model Over the Same Period

Fleet Advantage, a leading innovator in truck fleet business analytics, equipment financing and lifecycle cost management unveiled today new analysis that shows the operating and financial benefits of a truck lease vs. buy structure for private truck fleet operators, as well as for-hire carriers. The analysis illustrates a missed opportunity for cost savings when comparing a seven-year ownership of one truck to a four-year ownership and a four-year lease of two consecutive trucks.

Fleet Advantage, a leading innovator in truck fleet business analytics, equipment financing, and lifecycle cost management made public today its 2017 Truck Lifecycle Data Index (TLDI) comparing all-in operating costs of early-model Class-8 trucks to 2018 model-year replacements. The TLDI shows significant cost savings when replacing older-model vehicles with 2018 MY trucks. According to Fleet Advantage’s ATLAAS (Advanced Truck Lifecycle Administrative Analytics Software), the TLDI shows that fleet operators can realize a first-year per-truck savings of $22,162 when upgrading from a 2012 sleeper model-year truck to a 2018 model, a 17% increase in savings compared with year-ago figures ($19,023) for 2017 model-year upgrades. 

Fleet Advantage was founded in 2008 on a number of principles formulated around information technology. It was also founded upon the necessity to help organizations improve their tractor fleets’ productivity and to reduce operating costs by improving their fuel efficiency from 6.0 MPG to 10.0 MPG. One of the cornerstones was the Greenhouse Gas Mandate that took effect in 2011 with its requirement to reduce CO₂ emissions, which can only be accomplished by improving fuel economy/MPG.  The technology and supporting data analytics have arrived, and we are now seeing the results we knew were there - tracking a goal of 10.0 MPG.

A recent success program called “Run on Less”, organized by the Carbon War Room and the North American Council for Freight Efficiency, proved that 10 MPG is possible using technology that are available on the market today. The results exceeded the original 9 MPG goal set by CWR and NACFE.