Part 1: Drive Axles, Inflation Pressure, and the ROI of Tire Intelligence
Introduction
Sanitation truck tire failures are rarely random. They occur in patterns driven by axle load, duty cycle, and inflation maintenance.
The operational demands of urban waste collection, such as tight turns, curb strikes, potholes, frequent stops, heavy loads, heat buildup from low-speed, and high-torque operation, accelerate tire wear and contribute to tire failures including blowouts.
Over a three-month pilot, a waste disposal company equipped 15 Mack refuse trucks (10 sideloaders and 5 frontloaders) with Revvo’s AI-powered Tire Intelligence Platform. Across approximately 62,000 miles, the platform provided continuous pressure, temperature, and mileage data, enabling proactive tire management.
In this Part 1 of a 2-Part blog, we a) analyze how data collected from the fleet is used to identify key precursors to failure, and b) outline targeted prevention strategies. The pilot’s ROI results highlight the potential performance and cost savings achievable when more fleet assets adopt Revvo’s technology.
Methodology
Over the 3 month pilot, Revvo’s AI tire management system continuously tracked cold inflation pressure across approximately 216 tires in an urban waste fleet. The data showed that 37% of tire readings fell at least 5 psi below the Recommended Cold Inflation Pressure (RCIP), a critical threshold for identifying elevated blowout risk.
Daily pressure records were analyzed to determine the percentage of optimally inflated tires across steer and drive axles by vehicle configuration. These records also formed the basis for detecting critical tire events, enabling ROI estimation based on real-world fleet performance.
Finally, high-severity tire events i.e. those with the potential to cause extreme safety risk during operation such as blowouts, were quantified and analyzed by axle position and vehicle models to further understand where operational risks were most concentrated.
Revvo analyzed pilot data across multiple vehicle platforms to identify where fleets experience the greatest vulnerability and how deviations from RCIP directly correlate with critical tire events and cost impact.
Drive Axles: The Primary Failure Point
Analysis shows that drive axles are the most failure-prone position group. Both vehicle configurations in the pilot recorded a higher incidence of severe tire events on drive axles compared to steer axles, with sideloaders reaching a peak of 81 high-severity events during the measurement window.
Within this category, sideloader drive tires represent the highest-risk segment. Pressure compliance rates were lowest in this group, with only 61% operating within RCIP. This is a critical indicator that underinflation is the dominant driver of catastrophic tire events in these positions.
Pressure–Performance Correlation
The data confirms a consistent pressure-to-event relationship: Axle/tire categories with lower % Optimal Inflation (Figure 1) showed higher counts of severe tire events (Figure 2).
This validates long-standing fleet maintenance principles: sustained operation below RCIP increases casing stress, elevates operating temperature, and accelerates degradation leading to failures.
Maintaining tires at RCIP is therefore a preventive maintenance recommendation AND a primary control variable for event avoidance.
ROI from Corrective Interventions
Even in a limited pilot, corrective actions yielded measurable value. Addressing 22 critical underinflation-related tire issues delivered an estimated $5,000 in combined savings, including:
- Reduced fuel consumption from optimized rolling resistance
- Extended tread and casing life from improved load distribution
- Avoidance of roadside service events
Scaled across a larger fleet population, this ROI compounds, with a direct impact on cost per mile and vehicle uptime.
Summary
This analysis underscores how tire management is a cost-control lever, not just a maintenance function. Real-time monitoring allows fleets to enforce RCIP adherence, reduce high-severity failures, and recover measurable savings in fuel, tire life, and avoided service calls.
Want to see how your fleet stacks up? Contact us for a personalized ROI assessment
