One of the biggest problems fleets have reported with using tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) is not knowing when their systems stop working.
“Vehicles can run for days, weeks, and even months before someone realizes that a tire sensor or even the entire system is no longer monitoring a vehicle’s tires as everyone expects” said Peggy Fisher, TireStamp president. “This results in poor tire maintenance, enroute tire-related breakdowns, tire failures and negates the value of the TPMS whose purpose was to prevent these problems to begin with.”
The types of TPMS equipment problems that can occur include sensors that are missing, damaged or have dead or low batteries, vehicle electronic components that are unplugged from power or malfunctioning, and external hardware components that have no power, are malfunctioning or covered with, snow and ice.
TireVigil Cloud’s TPMS 2.0 service product addresses these issues by continuously monitoring each hardware component’s health and detects problems with tire sensors, external TPMS receivers and in-cab electronic equipment. When a problem is detected, maintenance personnel are made aware of it in the TireWatch servicing app which lists all vehicles requiring attention and a summary of all equipment issues across the fleet is provided. This app also provides tools to enable technicians to easily diagnose and correct equipment problems.
In addition to the TireWatch app, all outstanding equipment issues are listed on the Active Issues report so they can be included in a fleet’s daily service scheduling. Those not resolved within a week are listed in the Equipment Maintenance Report that is run weekly and keeps track of the length of time equipment issues have been outstanding. The vehicle unit number, the issue, the date the problem started and the last known location of the vehicle is provided in this report which prioritizes them by the length of time they have remained unresolved.
“The great benefit TireVigil Cloud provides fleet managers and maintenance personnel is visibility of their vehicles’ tires no matter where they are,” Fisher said. “Monitoring their TPMS equipment as well as their tires ensures they never lose sight of these assets or the savings in tires, emergency breakdowns, fuel and labor they can achieve.”