NEW ORLEANS—After marking its official entry into the U.S. truck market a year ago with its linehaul products, Apollo Tires returned to TMC’s annual exhibition to celebrate the anniversary with its full tire range now available to commercial fleets and independent operators.
Benchmarked against leading Tier 1 competitors with millions of miles of testing, Apollo Tires offers more than 40 SKUs, delivering high mileage and low CPM, explained Apollo’s Laurence Bennett, AVP, commercial vehicles.
“We now have products that cover the entire spectrum—regional, mixed application, and linehaul—here in North America,” Bennett told FleetOwner. “We’ve spent several million dollars in testing the product here in North America, on North American vehicles, North American highways, and North American applications. So it's specifically built for this market.”
Apollo truck and bus tires are produced at the global manufacturer’s Chennai (India) Plant, among the largest manufacturing facilities in Asia, which was recently recognized with the Deming Prize, one of the highest awards for Total Quality Management, Bennett noted.
“We're known elsewhere around the world, but here in North America we're one of the new companies,” he said. “But, again, with the high-quality products we're launching and the team that we have here, it's just a matter of time before the market will certainly take notice.”
Indeed, among the company’s early milestones, Paccar selected Apollo Tires to be a factory option on its new vehicles, Bennett added.
Backing up the quality claims, Apollo Tires offers a complimentary road hazard warranty on all commercial vehicle tires. It also offers nationwide delivery, domestic inventory, and a 72-month workmanship and material warranty.
“Apollo’s DNA is a truck tire company,” Bennett said, emphasizing construction quality and innovative tread designs. “Apollo absolutely knows how to build a high-quality casing, and then build everything else around that. The casing of the Apollo truck tire is foremost, one of the best in the industry.”
Alongside its entry into the North American market, Apollo Tires has announced the launch of its National Account program. Available through authorized dealers from coast to coast, the program is designed to control costs, providing a standard cost per tire wherever a fleet operates. The program features nationwide access, competitive pricing, cashless transactions, consolidated billing, and OEM specification credit.
“What a difference a year makes,” Bennett said. “We look at the number fleet customers that have reached out to us, that want to talk to us, and take a look at our product—that has been absolutely encouraging.”