Kwik-Fit Fleet Reports 20% More Tyre Safety Checks

Last year, Kwik-Fit Fleet carried out more than 220,000 vehicle inspections – up from 188,000 in 2006 – and this year the company expects its mobile technicians to undertake more than 250,000 tyre safety checks in company car parks or at a driver’s location of choice.

Initial tyre checks result in about 25 per cent of vehicles inspected requiring attention, usually tyres being replaced because they are illegal. Extrapolated across the UK’s three million-strong company car and approximately one million van parc it means that up to 800,000 vehicles could be running on at least one unsafe tyre.

Typically tyres maybe under or over inflated; tread maybe below, or close to the 1.6mm legal minimum across the central three-quarters of the breadth of the tyre and around the entire circumference; tyre wear maybe irregular which may indicate a wheel alignment or vehicle loading problem; or the wall of a tyre may be damaged. The current fine for driving on illegal tyres is £2,500 per tyre and three points per tyre on a driving licence.

A recent survey by fleet consultants Total Motion of almost 6,000 company cars and privately-owned vehicles used on business, which was highlighted by the National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA), found that 70 per cent of vehicles had tyre-related problems.

And, it seems, more businesses are taking that message on board as Kwik-Fit Fleet will this year add 30 new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans to its 200-strong mobile fleet. Technicians that drive the mobile vans undertake tyre repair and replacement work and safety checks on company-owned vehicles and carry out tyre-related work at dealers and accident bodyshops.

Mr Wise said: “We are expanding the fleet because of rising demand from businesses for tyre safety checks as well as our broader range of mobile fast-fit services as companies and drivers alike search for maximum convenience and minimum vehicle downtime.”