When Bridgestone’s three-in-one FleetPulse solution was unveiled to the commercial world just months ago, businesses were promised reduced downtime, greater transparency into vehicle health and a reduction in potentially dangerous breakdowns.

With the technology – comprising of a mobile app, a centralised website and tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) hardware – now on the market, a number of fleet partners are signing up to make the most of its many benefits.

Bridgestone’s Solutions Segment Leader Panos Tsonis talks about the FleetPulse solution in greater depth, including where the concept was originally born, how easy it is to use and how it simplifies fleet operations and increases time on the road.

Where the FleetPulse concept arose…

New social, economic and technological megatrends are pushing the pace of change in the automotive industry and the future of vehicles is connected, autonomous, shared and electric (CASE). With this in mind, Bridgestone has identified digital mobility solutions and fleet solutions as a priority. This is reinforced by the growing importance of fleets over individually-owned vehicles for transportation of people and goods. Increasing demand in the transportation industry means that fleet owners and managers need to maximise productivity and minimise total cost of ownership more than ever. This has resulted in the launch of a range of digital solutions and applications such as FleetPulse, Tirematics, Mobox and Bridgestone Connect.

FleetPulse is a three-in-one solution composed of a mobile app, a centralised website and Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) hardware, keeping fleets one step ahead of their maintenance activities.

Why FleetPulse is so revolutionary

FleetPulse provides fleet customers with insights to help them understand what is happening with their fleets and simplify life on the road for drivers. With the designated FleetPulse Android app, drivers can easily complete their road-compliance checklists. Through the centralised FleetPulse online portal, fleet and maintenance managers can have a real-time view of the whole fleet via the cloud, including defects and damage as well as performance data. They can then individually notify drivers and technicians through the FleetPulse App about new checklists, service bookings and even the removal of vehicles from the road.

Plus, when used with the TPMS the drivers will be able to automatically check their vehicle’s tyre pressures and receive alerts if they are too low. Correctly inflated tyres significantly reduce breakdowns to ensure customer deadlines aren’t missed and reduces the costs. Whether the fleet is made up of tractors, trailers, rigids, coaches, buses, vans or a combination of all, FleetPulse is the fleet management solution that keeps you moving.

Top features:

From streamlining daily inspections to managing defects and service bookings, FleetPulse has everything your fleet needs.

Vehicle Checklists

Our vehicle checklist app for drivers is easy-to-use. It’s customisable and it lets them log defects and share them with you, along with comments and photos. It’s also tamperproof and audit-compliant.

Vehicle Management

Managers receive email notifications and an online dashboard allows them to manage their fleet in real time, check a vehicle’s status and its history backlog.

Service Bookings

Managers can also book services or workshop appointments through the online dashboard. The details are automatically sent to drivers.

Tyre Pressure Monitoring System

TPMS allows the fleet to keep tyre pressure at optimum levels in an incredibly easy way, via the app, a dongle and the tyre sensors. It helps the fleet to reduce tyre costs, fuel consumption and number of breakdowns

Why the TPMS element is so essential

Drivers, technicians and fleet managers can also benefit from new insights into tyre health thanks to FleetPulse. The service comes with TPMS hardware for the vehicle that consists of Tirematics sensors and a dongle. FleetPulse automatically connects to the vehicle’s TPMS and collects data on tyre pressure. It then relays the results back to drivers and managers through the FleetPulse app and online dashboard in real-time. This helps to ensure tyre pressure is optimised, which is essential given that that 30% of breakdowns are caused by low tyre pressure and 90% of tyre-related breakdowns are caused by slow leakers. Despite this, 20% of commercial tyres on the road are significantly underinflated.[i] By ensuring that appropriate tyre pressure is maintained, FleetPulse avoids breakdowns, excessive wear of the tyre and unnecessary fuel burn – cutting unwanted tyre costs and CO2 emissions.

The sensors easily fit on each tyre, they have three-year battery life (even with daily usage), they work with all commercial tyres and they seamlessly fit into a driver’s daily walkarounds.

Based on the assumption that a typical tractor and trailer combination running at optimal tyre pressure can save, on average, up to £950 per year in fuel, tyre and breakdown costs, FleetPulse would be amortised within a year,.[ii]

The fleet can easily fit the sensors without demounting the tyres, since they are connected in the existing pressure valves externally. In the pictures below, it’s shown how the three types of sensors can fit in the truck or bus wheels. The short sensors are fitted in the sterr and trailer wheels, the short flexi in the outer drive wheels and and the long flexi in the inner drive wheels.

A detailed tutorial video on how to fit and read sensors can be found in this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDvfn_OWYVc&t=122s

How it works:

In the picture below, we demonstrate the main steps of working with FleetPulse, highlighting the simplicity and power of the solution, at the same time.

For any driver, anywhere, anytime

Today FleetPulse is the only solution on the market combining vehicle checks, booking services, fleet management and TPMS in a single platform, all while enabling real-time communication between drivers, technicians and fleet managers via the cloud. FleetPulse can be used anytime, by any driver, across all vehicle and tyre brands, and is available on Android devices.

The transportation industry is in a continuous digital transformation phase and FleetPulse is a strong mean to help fleets being strongly positioned towards the challenges of today and tomorrow.

How to find out more:

For more information about FleetPulse, including a free trial of the technology, visit https://fleetpulse.app.

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About the Author: John Loughran