TyreSafe has been internationally recognised for its ongoing contribution to motoring security. Friday’s steering committee meeting was punctuated by the lunchtime presentation of the Prince Michael International Safety Award: Recognising achievement and innovations which will improve road safety. Vredestein managing director and chairman of TyreSafe, Stuart Jackson declared himself, on behalf of the whole organisation, “ecstatic about the award”, saying that it represents an “accreditation of what we believe in”, as an organisation that cuts across company divisions.

Members of TyreSafe include representatives from across the tyre business, encompassing everyone from manufacturers to retailers, a fact that Jackson emphatically declared gives TyreSafe “immense expertise and experience”, alongside openness to ideas and commitment to the cause that transcends competition – all factors that he believes have led to the organisation’s international recognition.

TyreSafe has experienced a particularly impressive year in terms of coverage, with October’s Tyre Safety Month generating support from the BBC and prominent motoring journalist Quentin Willson, and requests for information materials up to 165,000 from 40,000 in 2008. These requests came from organisations as prominent as five different regional councils, the Ministry of Defence, the Fire Service and, perhaps most significantly, seven different driving schools. Jackson told Tyres & Accessories that the pervasiveness of the message was of paramount importance and, in the case of the latter, educating new drivers with the TyreSafe message could only help foster tyre safety-conscious habits. While the public is prone to a temporal philosophy, Jackson stated, TyreSafe aims to create a valuable expanding and continual message, impressing on drivers the responsibility they carry.

With this in mind, Tyres & Accessories asked how TyreSafe was planning to continue expanding its agenda in the New Year. Jackson replied that the tyre safety message must continue to reach drivers with disparate driving habits. With that in mind, projects such as Bike Tyre Safety Month will be developed using the expertise of appropriate TyreSafe members. He also restated the organisation’s aim to raise the tyre safety consciousness of everyone that drives, including both HGV drivers – who are generally easy to persuade about the value of checking their tyres’ safety, given the time they spend in their vehicle – and fleet drivers – some of whom may be less attached to their vehicle and as a result are less likely to be in the habit of checking their tyres. It is this disparity that motivates the continued spreading of the TyreSafe message.

Despite the satisfaction receiving the award evidently gave Jackson, he was therefore cautious about playing up TyreSafe’s success, stating that the award “shows that we are on the right track; not that we have achieved”. The tyre safety message is one that needs to be continual and continually extended, avoiding the public’s habit for faddishness when it comes to safety measures.

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