Bridgestone's IntelliTire tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) is now accessible through the Geotab Marketplace.
Users of IntelliTire who also subscribed to Geotab's transport management system had to switch between Geotab's applications and Bridgestone's IntelliTire applications when managing their fleets. Now, users can seamlessly check tire health through the Geotab integration—a highly requested feature, according to Dan Levy, executive director of product at Bridgestone Advanced Tire Solutions.
"We made the decision to then create this Marketplace application so that customers who use Intellitire and then are Geotab subscribers could access their entire experience without leaving Geotab," Levy told FleetOwner. "It takes the nice-looking vehicle layouts with wheel positions and alerting type of applications, and it has ported those into the Geotab application frame for our mutual subscribers."
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The value of the Geotab Marketplace is expandability and the power of choice, wrote Robin Kinsey, senior manager of marketplace sales at Geotab, in an email to FleetOwner.
"Bridgestone’s IntelliTire provides Geotab customers with advanced real-time tire pressure and temperature monitoring insights," she said. "With access to these insights, commercial fleets can reduce tire costs, increase fuel mileage, boost productivity, and improve fleet safety. ... The ability to schedule, download and view these reports within one single platform helps save the customer’s time and simplifies tire maintenance."
IntelliTire works by installing an aftermarket TPMS sensor—typically onto the valve stem. In addition, Bridgestone provides fleets with communication equipment that is used with either in-yard routers for vehicles in and out of the same yard frequently, or it can be used in conjunction with Geotab to provide real-time data about the tires' performance and health on the road.
When used with in-yard routers, it automates certain inspection tests, allowing customers to see the pressure of every tire on every vehicle. Furthermore, the software can be customized; for example, users can set thresholds at which they would like to be notified when the tires are underinflated.
The IntelliTire integration is the first of many capabilities that Bridgestone will bring to Geotab, according to Levy, who said the company is working on a release roadmap.
"There's a lot of competitive offerings built by sensor manufacturers, electronics OEMs," Levy said. "What is unique about our offering is the fact that it was developed by a tire OEM," he added, continuing to say that Bridgestone has "an unparalleled understanding of tire constructions and tire operations."
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"What you will see as we progress our roadmap of tire health services is our unique ability to do things that I think would be very challenging for others to replicate, such as be predictive of tire wear based off the types of signals we get," he continued.
"Geotab is obviously super penetrated," Levy said. "I think they've got close to four million total subscribers today," he added. "Some of the areas that we think are interesting are the mobile applications that Geotab makes available for drivers—things like their DVIR applications. There's just so many different connection points between what a driver and vehicle does as it relates to required inspections, as it relates to tire health and operations, that we think we can make a real positive impact there as well."
This article was originally published on FleetOwner.com.
