Goodyear’s EfficientGrip Fitted on UK Police Fleets

The police are always the first port of call for those in need of help securing personal safety, but they can only come to the aid of the needy if they themselves have taken the proper precautions. One of the prerequisites for road safety is a tyre up to the job of keeping the car where it should be – even when higher demands than your average drive are made of it. That is why Goodyear, in the run up to October’s tyre safety month, is talking about the fitment of its new tyre, the EfficientGrip to Bedfordshire police, Hertfordshire police and Thames Valley’s police fleet vehicles.

When you are driving at high speeds in a range of challenging conditions you must have total faith in your vehicle, especially its tyres. That’s why, says the company, police forces across the UK trust Goodyear when it comes to putting road safety first.

Ian Godolphin, Head of Chiltern Transport Consortium surmises, “As a police officer you never know what you are going to encounter. When you’re behind the wheel it’s important to have total confidence in your vehicle, and tyres are a massive part of this. Whether its routine patrols or high speed pursuits it is vital that the vehicles occupants are kept safe and importantly so are the public.”

Goodyear launched the EfficientGrip this year, and aside from its safety aspects, the company is looking to promote its FuelSaving Technology. This brand-new, more environmentally friendly, high-performance tyre helps deliver important fuel saving whilst offering high mileage and improved wet breaking performance. Testing at Goodyear’s Luxembourg-based technical centre found that the EfficientGrip tyre has 15 per cent better rolling resistance compared to the average performance of six leading competitors’ tyres (compared to the average performance of six leading competitors’ tyres when tested by the Goodyear Technical Center in December 2008; tyre size: 205/55R16; test car: VW Golf).

“In total we have 2,330 vehicles in our fleet doing approximately 33 million miles per year. No matter what your size of fleet, fuel costs account for one of your highest areas of expenditures. As a result fuel saving is at the heart of our cost reduction. We have been very impressed with the performance of the EfficientGrip tyre, so much so, we are rolling it out across all our vehicles. By using this tyre we get both value for money and eco benefits, all without compromising safety,” concluded Godolphin.