Application-Specific Tires for Regional-Haul Fleets 

Regional-haul (RH) was already an expanding segment of the trucking market, and the pandemic accelerated its growth exponentially with the rapid embrace of eCommerce. The rise of digital marketplaces drove demand for services such as last-mile delivery and pickup-and-delivery routes—resulting in a surge of regional-haul trucking.

One of the best steps fleet owners can take to improve the efficiency of their regional-haul operations is to outfit their trucks with the right tires. Application-specific tires can not only improve vehicle performance but have longer service lives, and cost less over the life of the tire, all of which adds up to big dollars that can be used to address the numerous issues at the forefront of the industry, like driver retention, adopting telematics, and investing in electric/hybrid vehicles. 

What are Regional-Haul Tires?

Regional-haul truck tires are generally designated for use by operations that work within a 300-mile radius with drivers returning to a home base at the end of the day. RH truck tires roll on routes that follow everything from two-lane roads to highways and are employed in industries including food distribution, manufacturing, last-mile delivery, waste removal, and local transportation services )such as buses). 

Application-Specific Regional-Haul Tires 

Low speeds, rough roads, and stop-and-go traffic are common on local routes and are just a few of the reasons why regional-haul fleets have different tire needs than those of their long-haul counterparts who rack up big mileage at highway speeds on comparatively smooth interstates. Application-specific RH tires are engineered to stand up to the challenges facing them and deliver everything from better productivity to greater ROI.  

Regional-haul tires face numerous challenges such as shoulder scrub, start/stop aggression, lateral scrub, and heel/toe wear. Application-specific RH tires are designed to address these issues with measures like: 

• Reinforced sidewalls to prevent damage from curbs
• Extra-tread depth to stand up to abrasion 
• High-scrub compounds for longer life in start-and-stop traffic 
• Pliant/durable casings to withstand jolts from hazards like potholes and railroad tracks
• Special bead packages for secure contact with rims and reduced downtime
• Special tread patterns such as large tread-to-void ratios and sipes for winter and wet weather

Fuel efficiency is also an important consideration when choosing regional-haul tires—many of our Galaxy truck tires are SmartWay verified—but the top priority is durability. In regional-haul applications, a long-lasting tire will typically provide a better ROI than a fuel-efficient tire that doesn’t hold up.  

The Importance of Regional-Haul Tires 

In addition to affecting the day-to-day performance of a fleet, tires are commonly one of the highest maintenance costs facing regional trucks. Consequently, even small improvements can add up to large gains as the miles pile up. And since tires are one of the first items replaced on a truck, they’re also one of the easiest places to begin improving the performance of your fleet. After all, you are going to need to replace your fleet’s tires anyway, so it makes sense to use the opportunity to switch to better-performing tires with a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). 

In order to maximize their investment in regional-haul truck tires, fleets will also want to consider tires with a durable casing capable of multiple retreads. A considerable cost of a tire is in its casing—which is why we concentrate on engineering and manufacturing such rugged body plies—and retreads cost just a fraction of purchasing a new set of tires. 

Go Galaxy 

After years of building tires for demanding off-road applications like demolition and scrapyards, we’re taking our application-specific Galaxy brand tires to the streets. What you can count on is our Galaxy RH truck tires to deliver purpose-built performance that meets the real-world challenges facing regional-haul fleets and the toughness and reliability all of our Galaxy brand tires are known for. 

Galaxy offers tires for all positions and whether an operation needs a drive tire or a steer tire, two things they all share are the long service life and low TCO that Galaxy is known for. Contact your local dealer or rep to learn more about how these tires can put you on the road to lower costs and more profit.