#Testimonial
Tidewater Transit Company, Inc.
Ricky Johnson
Since 1949, Tidewater Transit Co. Inc. has been providing dependable and efficient transportation of dry and liquid bulk products. Headquartered in Kinston, N.C., this privately owned fleet of 359 company-owned tractors and 755 tank trailers hauls dry and liquid materials all across North America. Mounted on every wheel position is a Continental truck tire or ContiTread retread – and director of operations Ricky Johnson wouldn’t have it any other way.
Tidewater Transit, Co. is an industry leader in liquid and dry bulk transportation. They needed a tire with stability that can withstand the cargo they transport.
With safety as their primary focus, Tidewater Transit relied on Continental with their variety of tire product offerings.
“Continental has been our supplier for almost 15 years now. At one point we had a choice to make about who would be our tire supplier, and when we tested their truck tires, we knew it immediately. We were going with Continental,” Ricky says.
With their entire fleet of Volvo tractors and Polar, Brenner, and Heil tankers ready at a moment’s notice to haul anything, from kosher approved food grade coatings to hazardous chemicals, Ricky says that Continental’s truck tires have always been ready to take on the job. Tidewater expects a lot from their equipment – they’ve earned safety awards from Volvo and the National Tank Truck Carriers Association – and their new tires and retreads are no exception.
Ricky Johnson, Director of Operations of Tidewater Transit Co., Inc.
“We absolutely love the Continental products. They get the best wear, the best mileage, the best fuel efficiency…whatever you want, they have a truck tire that can do it,” Ricky says, having used all three generations of Continental truck tires at Tidewater.
Ricky Johnson, Director of Operations of Tidewater Transit Co., Inc.
Today, they have most of Continental’s new Generation 3 products on the yard – including the Conti EcoPlus HD3, a fuel-efficient long haul drive tire; and ContiTread retreads in HDL Eco Plus for drive and HTL Eco Plus for trailer axles. Fleet manager Roy Morelock says the latest generation of Continentals and their retreads have exceeded their expectations.
For the fuel-efficiency, for the mileage and for the reliability, we really like the EcoPlus HD3 and the ContiTreads. You know, we have to have a real focus on quality and on safety. That’s a big part of our business. But it’s also why we have to have a tire we can trust, and we know we can trust these tires,” Roy says.
Continental proves their trust with regular fleet inspections at Tidewater, but Ricky says they really don’t have to. He tracks each tire, he knows the products and he knows why he chooses them. Since Tidewater only uses its own casings, which they retread with ContiTreads from White’s Tire Service of Wilson, N.C., Ricky says the run-out time is so long – they almost can’t generate enough casings to meet their needs.
Ricky Johnson, Director of Operations at Tidewater Transit, Co.
And that, he says with a smile, “is not a bad thing, to have the best product out there.”
