Age Old Question

Peter Gaster confronted the issue of tyre ageing head-on in what is likely to be his last NTDA dinner as association chairman. The headline news is that, following negotiations between NTDA director Richard Edy and the RAC Foundation, the respected motoring organisation has pledged its full support for to an industry-wide tyre age check campaign.

The idea, initiated by the NTDA, is to communicate this particular safety message to Britain’s 30 million plus motorists. Exact details of what will be happening here are expected shortly, but the association is expected to communicate its tyre ageing message over a three-month period with specific high points of awareness throughout the campaign.

The campaign will offer motorists the chance to check the age of their tyres and receive the correct advice. In essence the NTDA proposes to offer a free check to all motorists who go to an association member. The NTDA has reportedly received “fantastic support from all sides of the industry” for the venture.

Here’s how Peter Gaster introduced the concept: “A few years ago I was asked specifically by VOSA if they should be concerned if certain tyres could be dangerous if they were over 10 years old and still in service…The tyre in question was 13 years old and was entirely unsafe and had actually been fitted onto a car that was in use at the time.

“Let me make this clear here and now: We are not making a statement on how long tyres should last or how many miles tyres should perform – such is the wide and varying degree of use and application – it is impossible to comment officially or otherwise on the life of any tyre. Given the litigious society we live in there are many clever lawyers who would salivate at the prospect of such statements and we are not going to make them. This campaign is about common sense and safe motoring…”

As a point of interest VOSA apparently asked the Department of Transport to include an age check during an MOT test, which can easily be included in the existing tyre checking requirement, but this was refused.

One unified association?

Changing tack, Peter Gaster gave details of the previously announced NTDA review: “I said last year that I will be undertaking a review of the NTDA to see where we are now and what future we can expect…

I am pleased to confirm that this review has started and a select group consisting of a broad spectrum of members has already met to discuss the issues we face and how put these into context…This process will culminate in specific recommendations to your council which I hope to have completed by the end of this year.

“Over the last year we have been in informal discussions with other industry associations about the possibility of coming together as one industry group,” the NTDA chairman revealed. At this point however, there doesn’t appear to be any sign that enough of a consensus can be reached between each of the individual parties for any kind of association assimilation and integration process to take place.

However, Peter Gaster continued: “The clear and very strong message that comes out of the Tyre Industry Federation is the absolute need to have a platform to come together on common issues – and there are many – which further enforces the benefit of the Tyre Industry Federation…The NTDA is at the heart of the TIF and we will continue to give our full support into the future.”

Fulfilling his duties as NTDA chairman, Peter Gaster also honoured wholesale industry veteran Ashley Croft with the chairman’s award. In his citation prior to the presentation, Gaster spoke of his personal selection of the winner, speaking of how Croft, a former aeronautical engineering student, ended up being a high flier in the tyre wholesale business. Ashley Croft, who is particularly known for his long association with Stapleton’s – and currently works as a consultant for the Letchworth-based operation, won the prize for “meritorious service to the tyre industry.”