Alarming Results From NTDA Company Car Driver Survey

The NTDA has called on small business car users to take a more responsible attitude to tyre maintenance after results of a survey issued this week showed that over 70 per cent of vehicles in this sector were running on cars with tyre problems.

The survey, carried out over a six month period last year, was produced by Total Motion as part of their regular vehicle monitoring programme and covered nearly 6,000 company and privately owned vehicles used for business.

A worrying 91 per cent of drivers admitted to not making regular checks on their vehicles, and 98 per cent said that their companies did not verify whether or not they did so.

Most of the 70 per cent of vehicles that had tyre-related problems should have had them picked up during basic safety checks. “This is yet another damning indictment on the lack of interest in tyres which are such a safety critical component of all vehicles” commented NTDA Director Richard Edy.

“Our 3,000 member tyre centres offer free checks to any motorist requesting them so there is no excuse for responsible motorists not checking their tyres on a regular basis, especially in the winter months when road conditions call for tyres with at least 3mm of tread.”

Simon Hill, Managing Director of Total Motion says in the current issue of Fleet News: “It is clear that the safety issues raised by private cars being used for business are not being addressed – and, even where companies are introducing duty of car policies, they are failing to enforce them”.

The results were obtained from driver appraisal and physical checks undertaken on-site by qualified engineers as part of Total Motion’s continual vehicle monitoring service.

It found that while several issues need immediate attention n the ‘grey fleet’, in contrast the condition of company owned fleets continued to improve, with just 0.2 per cent of vehicles inspected were found to be unroadworthy.