Fuel remains one of the largest and most volatile operating costs for truck fleets across the United States and Canada. As carriers look for ways to control expenses, a new Continental study points to a straightforward and often overlooked lever: tire pressure. The analysis found that keeping tires within the recommended pressure range improved fuel economy by 4.5 percent – savings that add up on every mile driven. The study also indicates that higher levels of underinflation have an even more dramatic impact on fuel economy.

What the study found

The study analyzed 4,000 trips across 10 trucks (pulling trailers) over a six-month period, comparing fuel economy at different tire pressures. On average, the trucks ran at 106 PSI, below the target pressure of 110 PSI. Bringing pressure into that target range corresponded to a fuel economy gain of about 0.62 Miles per Gallon – from an average 7.87 MPG to 8.49 MPG, or roughly 7.9 percent.

Based on the predictive model, for a single vehicle, that improvement, translates into an estimated $1,718 in annual fuel savings, assuming 80,000 miles driven per year and a fuel cost of $4.05 per gallon.

Saving at scale

The effect grows quickly across larger fleets. Based on the same assumptions, Continental estimates annual fuel savings of approximately $85,900 for a 50-vehicle fleet, $171,800 for 100 vehicles, $859,000 for 500 vehicles, $1.72 million for 1,000 vehicles, and more than $17 million for a fleet of 10,000 vehicles.

Turning data into daily savings

Tire pressure tends to drift gradually and can fall outside the optimal range without being noticed between manual checks. The digital tire monitoring solution ContiConnect is designed to close that gap. By continuously monitoring tire pressure and temperature through sensors inside the tire, the systems give fleet operators ongoing visibility and automated alerts when values move outside defined thresholds. This makes it easier to keep tires in the range where fuel savings are realized, while also supporting tire life and uptime.

“With fuel prices staying high and volatile, fuel economy has become one of the most important factors in a fleet’s bottom line – and that’s only going to intensify in the years ahead,” says Renato Sarzano, Senior Vice President Truck Tires Americas at Continental. “Tire pressure is one of the few cost levers fleets can control directly, but staying on top of it shouldn’t be another thing operators have to worry about. ContiConnect addresses this, turning continuous tire data into measurable savings. For operators under constant cost pressure, that’s a meaningful and lasting advantage.”