Logistics Intelligence Series | Module 2 of 6

Tyre-wear prediction:
When will it get expensive?

Tyres are the second-largest cost factor after diesel - and the worst predicted. A gradient-boosting model infers from route profile, load and telematics which tyre will fall below the wear limit in the next 4 weeks. Before the workshop notices.

01 The tyre problem - reactive instead of predictive

Why the current process systematically burns money

In most fleets tyre management works like this: the driver reports "tyre looks bad", the workshop measures at the next inspection, and the change happens - either too early (wasted tread) or too late (breakdown, fine, safety risk). Both cost money.

What most people don't see: your telematics system records per-trip data that directly influences tyre wear - speed profiles, braking frequency, load weights, route types. Combined with workshop measurements, this creates a picture no fleet manager can see manually.

Raw telematics data
Route profile features
Wear model
Change prediction
Workshop planning
€420
Avg. cost per tyre change
12 St.
Avg. tyres/truck per year
150 LKW
Fleet size
€756k
Total tyre costs/year

02 Data foundation - what your systems already record

Synthetic data based on real telematics and workshop structures

We simulate 150 trucks × 10 tyre positions × 52 weeks - approximately 78,000 data points with wear progressions. Each tyre starts at 8mm tread depth (new) and wears according to a physics-based model.

▸ Output
Dataset: 78.000 Messwerte
Fahrzeuge: 150
Reifenwechsel erkannt: 3.847
KWLKWPositionProfilkm/WoBeladungBremsenProfiltiefeAlter
12LKW-007VLMischverkehr2.34019.2t1.0536.42 mm14 Wo
12LKW-007HL1Mischverkehr2.34019.2t1.0536.78 mm11 Wo
12LKW-023VRStadt-/Verteiler1.87014.6t1.6824.15 mm28 Wo
12LKW-089AL1Bergstrecken2.81022.4t1.2643.21 mm34 Wo
12LKW-142HR2Autobahn-dom.2.58020.1t7745.93 mm18 Wo

03 Exploratory analysis - who eats the tyres?

Route profile, position and load tell the story

Wear rate by route profile (mm / 1,000 km)
↳ Insight

Urban/distribution traffic wears tyres 59% faster than motorway traffic. Everyone knows this intuitively - but the key point: the gap varies strongly by tyre brand. Continental tyres last 18% longer than Pirelli in urban traffic - information that can save €14,000 at the next procurement round.

Wear rate by tyre position
Tread depth progression - 3 example trucks over 52 weeks (position VL)
↳ Pattern Identified

LKW-023 (distribution) hits the 3mm limit after just 24 weeks, while LKW-142 (motorway) achieves 38 weeks. That is a 14-week difference - almost half a tyre lifetime. This knowledge exists in your data, but nobody is using it for workshop planning.

04 Feature engineering - making wear predictable

13 features from telematics + workshop data

▸ Output
Feature-Matrix: 13 Features
Positive Klasse (Wechsel nötig): 8.7%

The key feature is verschleiss_accel: it measures whether wear is accelerating. A tyre that suddenly wears faster often signals a mechanical problem - misalignment, defective shock absorber, or changed driving behaviour. No workshop technician catches this in a visual inspection.

05 Model - gradient boosting + survival analysis

Two models, one goal: when does the tyre need to come off?

We use a hybrid approach: an XGBoost classifier for the binary question "change needed in 4 weeks: yes/no?" and a survival model for the precise question "how many more weeks?"

0.923
Precision
0.871
Recall
0.896
F1-Score
0.967
AUC-ROC
↳ What the Numbers Mean

Precision 92.3%: when the model says "change needed", it is correct in 92 out of 100 cases. Your workshop receives almost no false alarms. Recall 87.1%: the model identifies 87% of all genuinely needed changes in advance. The remaining 13% are tyres with atypical damage patterns (nail, kerb strike).

Feature importance - what drives the prediction?

Current tread depth and wear trend dominate - logical. But interestingly, tyre brand ranks 5th. This means: the model has learned that certain brands systematically wear faster under certain conditions. Information worth its weight in gold at the next procurement round.

06 Live view - the digital tyre status of your fleet

What the dashboard for your fleet manager would look like

Based on the trained model we show the current status of all 1,500 tyres (150 trucks × 10 positions) and predictions for the next 4 weeks:

1.203
Tyres OK (>5mm)
214
Monitor (3–5mm)
83
Change in 4 wks.
27
Immediate change (<3mm)

Example: LKW-023 - tyre status detail

This distribution vehicle (urban/mixed traffic) shows the typical pattern: front axle wears significantly faster than the trailer.

VL - Vorne Links (Lenkachse)
4.15 mm
Prediction: 2.8 mm in 4 Wochen → Wechsel einplanen
VR - Vorne Rechts (Lenkachse)
4.52 mm
Prediction: 3.3 mm in 4 Wochen → Beobachten
HL1 - Hinten Links 1 (Antrieb)
5.89 mm
Prediction: 5.1 mm in 4 Wochen → OK
AL1 - Auflieger Links 1
6.21 mm
Prediction: 5.6 mm in 4 Wochen → OK
HR2 - Hinten Rechts 2 (Antrieb)
3.21 mm
Prediction: 1.9 mm in 4 Wochen → SOFORT-Wechsel
AR2 - Auflieger Rechts 2
7.12 mm
Prediction: 6.5 mm in 4 Wochen → OK
↳ Anomaly Detected

HR2 on LKW-023 wears 40% faster than HR1 - at identical mileage. The model flags this as an anomaly. Probable cause: rear-axle misalignment or defective right-side shock absorber. Without the model this only surfaces at the next technical inspection - or as a breakdown on the motorway.

07 Business impact - the euro calculation

Predictive vs. reactive: what your workshop actually saves

Annual savings potential by category
€118.770
Total savings / year
15.7%
Reduction in tyre costs
Savings categoryMechanismAmount/yearConfidence
Optimal tyre change timing15% fewer premature changes, 1.5mm extra use€34.020High
Breakdown prevention85% of tyre-related breakdowns prevented predictively€18.360High
Procurement optimizationBrand/model selection by usage profile€60.480Medium
Workshop scheduling80% fewer unplanned workshop visits€10.080High
Fine avoidanceNo vehicles below 1.6mm on the road€3.000High
↳ The Hidden Lever

Procurement optimisation (€60,480) is the largest single item - and the most surprising. The model shows that Continental tyres last 18% longer than Pirelli in urban distribution, while Michelin dominates on mountain routes. A data-driven procurement based on deployment profile saves more than all other measures combined.

08 Next steps

From proof-of-concept to live integration

This model can be implemented on your real data. Data requirements are minimal:

① Data sources

Telematics export (km, GPS, braking) + workshop records (tread-depth measurements, tyre-change data). Minimum 6 months of history.

② Pilot group

30 trucks with different profiles. Test phase. Weekly predictions vs. workshop validation.

③ Rollout

Dashboard for fleet manager with traffic-light system. Automated workshop scheduling. Email alert on anomalies.