In this exclusive article, Rajesh Rajgor reports on how the unmatched performance of Bridgestone’s tubeless tyres and the tyre maker’s dedicated on-ground team have delivered fantastic results for My Home Group’s logistics business, thereby helping the fleet significantly reduce its total cost of ownership
My Home Group is one of the largest business conglomerates in the country with a group turnover of nearly Rs. 5,000 crores. Headquartered at Hyderabad in Telangana, the group is into construction, cement, power and education businesses and has earned very high trust and respect in all its fields of operation. My Home Industries Pvt. Ltd. is the group’s division that manufactures and transports its own brand of ‘Maha’ cement, fly-ash coal, red soil and gypsum across the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Orissa, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
Operating a wide range of businesses that involves manufacturing and transportation, My Home Group runs its own fleet of vehicles to ensure its goods are transported in the best and most efficient way possible. The company’s logistics operations are handled by S. Rajasekhar, DGM, My Home Group – Transport Division, who joined My Home Group in 2013. A mechanical engineer, Rajasekhar has been instrumental in turning around My Home’s logistics division into a profit-making unit through careful selection of vendors, adoption of technology, and ensuring to get the best out of his material and human resources.
For a transporter having to deal multiple variable factors such as large fleet with varying loads and applications, varied road conditions, and volatile driving patterns by different drivers, My Home’s logistics arm has done extremely well to derive optimum operational efficiency across its fleet of over 850 owned trucks. And one major factor that has paved way for the company to excel has been its tyre procurement and maintenance, done in close cooperation with its trusted tyre solution provider – Bridgestone.
Optimizing CPKM – a real advantage
My Home has benefitted exceptionally post its adoption of Bridgestone’s tubeless tyres, with on-time delivery, competitive pricing, uncompromising safety and drastically improved quality of operations being some of the notable improvements. Sharing insights, Rajasekhar says, “Today, over 90% of our tubeless tyres are from Bridgestone. We have seen an increase in initial tyre life from 1 lakh kms previously, when we were using tubetype radial tyres of competition, to an initial tyre life of 1.5 lakh kms at present with Bridgestone tubeless tyres.”
My Home’s penchant for superior technology tyres and its forward-looking approach of monitoring the cost per kilometre (CPKM) have proved to be major game-changers for its business. The company has seen a significant rise in fuel mileage, to the tune of 5%, and tyre mileage by around 20% in the last two years, since they have switched to Bridgestone tyres. “Bridgestone’s highly durable tyres, namely R156 tubeless on the steered axle and M751 on the drive axles, have helped us achieve fantastic mileage results which have translated to huge cost savings. Our partnership with Bridgestone has proven to be a winning combination that has given us an edge over our peers,” states Rajasekhar.
Throwing light on the CPKM practices of the fleet, he shares, “We do trial runs for up to 50,000 km with new tyres and then arrive at a specific mileage for each tyre. For instance, if the mileage is fixed at 3.7 kms per litre for tube tyres, for tubeless tyres we will get 3.9 kms per litre. If a driver manages to deliver 3.8 kms per litre or more, we give him half the benefit as an incentive.”
He continues, “Prior to using Bridgestone’s tubeless tyres, our CPKM was 19 to 20 paisa per km. Today, it has come down to 14 to 16 paisa per km. The overall saving is to the tune of Rs. 10 lakhs per month on all our vehicles put together. We are now targeting 12 paisa per km; however, due to poor road conditions in our operating area we are yet to reach the target but are confident of doing it soon.”
The revenue clocked by My Home’s logistics division has multiplied 2.5 times, from Rs. 120 crores in FY12 to Rs. 300 crores in FY20. “The increase in revenue can be mainly attributed to the introduction of tubeless tyres, monitoring of fuel and tyre mileage, increase in fleet size and also our efforts in implementing a robust vehicle tracking system (VTS),” he informs.
Comprehensive tyre maintenance support
Rajasekhar is someone who believes in being hands-on. His vast experience and keen attention to detail is reflected in the fact that My Home not only procures the best performing tyres available in the market but also ensures to maintain them in the best possible way, thereby extracting the maximum life out of the tyres. Apart from its main setup in Hyderabad, My Home has a well-trained team of technicians and its own workshops at Kurnool, Vizag and Kodad.
From a tyre maintenance perspective, the Bridgestone team offers extensive support to My Home which has gone a long way in improving the fleet’s tyre upkeep and reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO). Rajasekhar shares, “The Bridgestone team provides us excellent on-site service and supervisory support. Since last year, we are having dedicated Bridgestone personnel at our premises to support us on our fleet maintenance activities. They share periodic tyre reports, best practices related to tyre maintenance and keep us apprised about new products and tech developments. A testimony to Bridgestone’s support and expert guidance is the fact that we have not observed a single casing failure in their tyres even after the axle load norms increase which is quite a remarkable achievement.”
Another aspect of tyre management where Bridgestone has been assisting My Home is in the effective adoption and use of tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS). “The TPMS software that we are piloting using sensors, with the help of the Bridgestone local team, helps measure the tyre pressure and accurately gauge performance parameters. We have made a dashboard that reflects the tyre data along with live photographs of the tyre. Initially, the Bridgestone team helped us track the data, but post the highly beneficial training our team underwent at their Chakan plant, we are able to measure it on our own,” he adds.
Similar to any relationship that thrives purely on trust and mutual care, Bridgestone’s partnership with My Home has been nurtured by setting high benchmarks of quality and commitment and delivering results where it matters most. In a fleet’s case, it is all about delivering the best CPKM, uncompromising service support and a thoroughly pleasant overall working experience – all of which Bridgestone has managed to do with aplomb in its strong partnership with My Home.
“Bridgestone’s highly durable tyres, R156 tubeless and M751, have helped us achieve fantastic mileage results and have reduced our CPKM by nearly 30%. Our partnership with Bridgestone has proven to be a winning combination that has given us an edge over our peers”
– S. Rajasekhar, DGM, My Home Group – Transport Division
The Bridgestone Effect
• 5% increase in fuel mileage
• 20% increase in tyre life
• 30% reduction in CPKM
• End-to-end tyre management & maintenance support