The third-annual IPBN Business Success Award for 2021 was given to the IPBN member company TireCheck and was accepted by the company’s CEO Michael O'Dwyer on January 27 at the Irish Embassy in Lisbon in front of a sizeable and socially-distanced crowd of members and supporters of the network. 

Clearly, business success in the wake of a pandemic is no small feat, but Michael told the IPBN that there was a silver lining when it came to how COVID’s affected his business. “Our initial prognosis was very bad…We had orders that we were told couldn’t be installed in the field, but we were lucky in that we convinced them to take the product anyway. I suppose the benefit of COVID was that we had some uninterrupted time to do some deep thinking on the design of the product, and were granted a little bit of space to the guys who would have struggled to focus as intently on the office.” 

Before accepting the Business Success Award, Michael gave a short presentation of the company and its achievements to the attendees, describing TireCheck as a “technology company servicing the transportation sector through the digitalization of tire management on truck and bus fleets.” He went on to say that the company’s "From measurement to management" philosophy goes beyond simple fleet management, as it supports the planning of resources and people to increase safety, optimize vehicle availability, and reduce costs and pollution through its cloud-based platform that provides real-time data to its users. This data can then be used to track the fleet’s condition, alerting the user when preventative interventions should be scheduled while providing the means to plan, execute, validate, and track services across multiple locations and timezones. 

Michael told the IPBN, “The products we give to our customers have always been meant to improve tire life and improve emissions. Where we began to have a more direct impact [on sustainability] is our sensor system (INCENTER) that is used to collect data allowing us to inform people when they need to take action…The system, if used properly, reduces the carbon footprint of each truck, and allows the companies that use the tax credits for complying with regulations on emission levels.” 

The INCENTER product was recently voted as the number-one app for usability and productivity by the thousands of tire technicians servicing fleets globally for Michelin. Michael added, “Additionally, TireCheck’s automotive-grade tire sensors and AI-enhanced optical scanners uniquely provide an intelligent infrastructure that enables total peace of mind for fleets and dealers alike. The company was selected in 2021 as the supplier of a tire-mounted environmental sensor that will be a key enabler for the provision of direct road condition data to improve the safety of autonomous driving in Electronic vehicles - the first of its kind!” This sensor has recently passed the 250,000km mark at a constant test speed of 300kph and is still going strong.

The future holds even more promise for the company, according to Michael. “We have about three products [involving AI] that will come to fruition in 2023, one of which is currently being tested in Finland with a forward-thinking partner. As engineers, we constantly have to be working on new products!”

Michael thanked the IPBN for the success of the network as a whole and the membership of which it is comprised. “Other organizations we have been members of have turned out to be more of a talking shop, whereas the IPBN with its Board of Directors and Arnold Delville especially are offering so much more and with a high level of ambition. I have gotten a lot out of the Master Class series as well as the general support of other members. I hope to offer the Portuguese membership the same courtesies I was extended in Portugal when the IPBN’s Dublin Conference takes place!”

To read about the tech, healthcare, tourism & events, and sustainability sectors from which the nominees for the award came, click the individual links above.