The fleet of the medium-sized logistics company comprises twenty vehicles whose tyres are subjected to all kinds of stress during the course of the year. Owner Kevin Flüthmann has been testing the ONYX treads for light trucks on two of his vans since late summer 2021. Since then, the high-grip, all-season NY-AS 687 tyre has mastered long-haul trips, while the durable NY06 summer tyre has been used in regional traffic. After a few tens of thousands of kilometres, the entrepreneur takes stock.
Quality is extremely important to Flüthmann. The forwarding agent has often made a mistake by using supposedly inexpensive tyres and is therefore also somewhat sceptical about new brands. 'You must be able to afford to lose if you buy cheap, that's what we've learned in recent years', the entrepreneur cautions. 'That's why we have now started to initially test new treads intensively before converting several vehicles'. He has rather bad memories of a handful of makes.
'You must be able to afford to lose if you buy cheap'.
'If you get a really bad tyre, the tread blocks wear down on one side and you get the sawtooth effect'. This is hard to notice when you're constantly stopping and starting in city traffic. But out of town, such a tyre develops very loud running noises above a certain speed and makes the steering wheel vibrate. 'You end up getting rid of it after a quarter of the expected mileage so you really haven't gained anything', Flüthmann sums up.
Secret tyre change
Accordingly, Flüthmann was reluctant when Bohnenkamp, together with his tyre dealer, offered him a practical test of the new ONYX tyres. But in the end, curiosity won. To obtain an unbiased result, however, Flüthmann did not even announce the switch to ONYX to his team beforehand. Instead, he introduced the new treads secretly. 'The tyre is the crucial link between the vehicle and the road. My team has the right to be critical in this regard. I wanted the drivers to travel on the tyres completely without prejudice', he explains. And that's what they did.
Flüthmann has fitted the all-season NY-AS 687 tread to a Mercedes Vito, which is mainly used over long distances. 'Whether from Marseille, Vienna or Stockholm, the Vito is on the road in a wide range of weather conditions. Accordingly, the tyre must also withstand wear and tear', describes the entrepreneur. For the test in local traffic, a Mercedes Sprinter was converted to the ONYX NY06 summer tyres. The tyres have become familiar with almost the entire Ems and Münsterland region over the past few months and will soon be going into their winter break.
Light truck with quiet ONYX tyres
'I was really curious to see what feedback I would get from the drivers,' explains the forwarder - and was surprised to get none. 'Nobody does 800 kilometres a day with noisy tyres; their colleagues would complain right away'. Instead, he says, they didn't even notice that they were driving on different tyres to those they had previously been using.
Low wear: Onyx tyres can go around the world twice.
The entrepreneur can also give a positive assessment in terms of wear. Both sets of tyres are in top shape and wear evenly. The Mercedes Vito has already covered 41,000 kilometres since the switch to the ONYX all-season NY-AS 687 tread. This corresponds to the complete circumference of the earth. Despite this, the visible wear of the all-season tyre remains limited. Flüthmann: 'We don't have to change the AS-NY 687 for a long time yet; the Vito will certainly run on this set of tyres for another 40,000 kilometres through the winter until well into the new year'.
Mark Sobiech, Key Account Manager Truck & Transport at Bohnenkamp AG, underlines the excellent performance level: 'If we take a conventional all-season passenger car tyre, 40,000 kilometres is the limit. The AS-NY 687 will certainly manage twice that distance, so businesses can make significant cost savings with Onyx'. Freight forwarder Flüthmann can hardly tell that the ONYX NY06 summer tyre has covered around 15,000 kilometres on the road. This shows the production quality of the tyre manufacturer ONYX, which has been active in the light truck and passenger car sector for decades and has state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities.
Conclusion: price-performance ratio impressive in the long term
The verdict of the boss of Rheiner Courier Service is clear: 'The price and performance of both ONYX treads really surprised me!' The entrepreneur plans to equip parts of his fleet with ONYX light truck tyres in the future as well: 'For winter use, we have just converted the Sprinters in regional use to pure winter tyres, and this time we also informed the team. I'm curious to hear what the initial feedback will be'.
Light truck tyres from ONYX have been proving their worth for years in the Bohnenkamp product range
The strengths of the ONYX brand have long been known at the commercial vehicle tyre wholesaler Bohnenkamp. Mark Sobiech, Truck & Transport Manager, knows: 'Many of our customers now appreciate the ONYX treads for their balanced price-performance ratio. They have high mileage and traction and allow trucks, light trucks and comparable vehicles to arrive safely at their destinations in summer and winter'. The brand also offers a wide range of products for the most demanding requirements. According to Sobiech, the manufacturer's treads cover around 90 percent of all application scenarios for vans and light trucks in the logistics and trade sectors. The brand also stands up to comparison with other tyre brands when used for long-distance transport.
Biographical profile of Rheiner Courier Service
About 35 years ago, the father of the current managing director Kevin Flüthmann founded Rheiner Courier Service. The forwarding company undertakes national and international direct consignments and express shipping for its clients in a wide range of industries. The goods they transport range from documents to spare parts of all kinds to foodstuffs. Around 20 employees take care of the day-to-day business from the headquarters in Rheine, North Rhine-Westphalia. The place is buzzing, not least thanks to the 20-vehicle fleet. The vehicle classes range from the flexible and quickly deployable passenger car to the resilient twelve-tonne truck. In the area in between, the logistics company relies on Sprinters and Vitos from Mercedes Benz, among others.