Britain works on tyres (but they need regular maintenance)

1 January 0001

Story from Driving for Better Business.

Tyres on vans and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) lead a hard life, carrying loads or doing multiple drops, often in tough working environments. Rough ground or repeated kerb scuffing can cause levels of damage and wear way beyond that of a car tyre. As a critical vehicle component, it’s important to carry out regular checks on vans of all ages to make sure the tyres remain safe and legal.

There are now more than four million vans on Britain’s roads, 60% more than in 2000, and they clock up over a billion miles a week. According to the SMMT, they deliver £56 billion in wages to the UK economy.

With costs like fuel rapidly rising, businesses face increasingly tight margins and can ill afford the impact of any tyre-related problems such as vehicle downtime, missed appointments or repair costs. Regular checks can prevent these problems helping businesses to save time and money.

Van operators and business owners have a duty of care to their drivers and must ensure they are provided with a safe working environment, which includes the provision of safe and roadworthy vehicles. Since the Health and Safety Offences Act came into force in January 2009, UK courts have greater authority to prosecute businesses for committing offences such as running illegal tyres or faulty brakes. The maximum penalty has increased from £5,000 to £20,000.

Equally, van drivers have a duty of care to ensure their vehicle is safe and roadworthy. Drivers found to be driving on illegal tyres face personal fines of up to £2,500 and three penalty points for each illegal tyre, irrespective of whether the van is company owned or not.

TyreSafe, the UK’s tyre safety charity yesterday launched a new campaign focusing on van tyre safety at its annual Briefing at St George’s Park, home of the National Football Centre. The campaign aims to remind the UK’s van operators and drivers that ‘Britain works on tyres’ and the need for them to ensure they conduct regular checks and consider how much load is being carried and avoid overloading.

To dowload the TyreSafe Van Tyre Safety leaflet please click here.

For the full story please click here.