The Alberta Motor Transport Association is urging Transport Minister Ray Danyluk to join other provinces in increase the allowable weight on wide base super single tires.
An AMTA delegation recently met with Danyluk to discuss increasing the allowable weight on wide base, single tires from the current 7700 kg per axle to 8500 kg, effectively putting them at par with a set of dual tires.
“Moving to wide base tires would result in productivity gains. At the moment wide base tires can only be used on equipment that is not fully loaded,” says AMTA Executive Director Don Wilson. “The tires offer productivity enhancements — better fuel mileage — something which would reduce the industry’s contribution to greenhouse gases.”
Wilson added that some fleets are realizing a fuel saving as high as 10 percent by running single wide tires. “The environmental benefits, coupled with being better for the Alberta economy, are just too significant to ignore.”
The delegation team was made up of AMTA Board President Carl Rosenau (Rosenau Transport Ltd.), incoming President Dan Duckering (Duckering’s Transport), AMTA Executive Director Don Wilson and industry advisor Ron Madill — a former Ontario transportation ministry staffer with extensive knowledge of wide base tires.
Minister Danyluk told the delegation that he was “keeping an open mind and would take a closer look at the overall picture.”
