Fleets will benefit from expanded tire fitment choice thanks to a new agreement between i247 Group, a provider of outsourced solutions to fleets, and Fleetcor-owned epyx and its Tyreserve platform.

TyreServe has 4,000 registered franchised or independent dealers that can offer tire fitting. These are now being added to the panel of suppliers used by i247 Group to offer tire management to fleet customers.

According to David Legg, tire director at i247 Group, there was a gap in the company’s provision of tire management services to leasing customers around dealer-based services.

“With the rise of tire manufacturers aligning their new electric vehicle tire stock holding with dealers, it’s important we find a solution that increases the chance of finding stock availability,” said Legg.

“TyreServe is the ideal answer for us in these instances, providing stock access and control over brand and price while ensuring we minimize lead time issues and keep vehicles mobile by growing our network coverage to over 6,500 centers.

“We have also created a high level of digital connectivity between our respective systems, improving the speed of service and demonstrating the benefits of collaboration and digitization across fleet services.”

The partnership will allow tire authorizations to be automatically passed to i247 Group for  approval and billing, removing the need for resource-heavy pay-and-reclaim, said epyx.

Tim Meadows, chief commercial officer at epyx, added: “TyreServe is a specialist add-on tire management service module for our 1link Service Network platform, enabling dealers to provide tire fitments at competitive prices at times when it is more convenient to the driver. An example could be that the vehicle is already in for routine maintenance or where the usual tire fitment partner does not have stock. It’s ideal for i247 Group’s needs and is already being used by some major fleets.”