Taking the initiative

Recent months have seen a flurry of activity in the road safety and legislative lobbying arenas. During March and April this culminated in the surreal combination of blimping, debating, campaigning and contesting – all focusing in on improving road safety in general and tyre and wheel integrity in particular.

First came the news that ETRMA had tested a selection of tyres for compliance with clean oil legislation and found a number of products wanting. There are two points of contention in this case – whether or not the tyres in question were compliant and if and how the legislation will be enforced in the respective European markets (see page 38 of the April magazine, which will be published soon, for more on this). It is not clear what will happen next in this case, but as one insider pointed out to Tyre & Accessories, raising the profile of Reach regulations and compliance with these rules both raises brings this issue to forefront and serves as a prelude to the much more demanding (and arguably more directly safety critical) 2012 performance and labelling legislation.

Next Goodyear used the return of its iconic blimp (Spirit of Safety I), back from a 12 year hiatus, to promote better knowledge of the highway code and road safety in general. With well-known motoring advocate Quentin Wilson backing the campaign, Goodyear put forward a series of far-reaching suggestions for how we can make our roads safer following survey results demonstrating poor levels of road sense. Recommendations included earlier driver training and re-testing knowledge of the highway code – with Quentin Wilson’s overall two-penneth that drivers have had enough of speed camera politics masquerading as road safety legislation. (Full coverage of this in on page 16 – 17 of April’s issue)

Wheels entered the spotlight at the end of March when the Labour member of parliament for Wythenshawe and Sale East, Paul Goggins sought to raise the concerns of his constituent John Ellis, managing director of Motor Wheel Service. He did this by chairing a Private Members’ Debate at Westminster Hall in conversation with the Conservative MP for Hemel Hempstead, Mike Penning, who is the current government minister for roads, on the subject of potential risks associated with fitting second-hand wheels. It also addressed concerns about the lack of regulation in this area (see this month’s wheel feature, which begins on page 26 for further details).

Then there was Environmental Protection UK’s decision to launch its Better Tyres campaign on 30 March. During the launch their chief executive made the excellent point that “if we all used energy efficient, low noise and safe tyres we would save 6.6 million tonnes of oil a year in Europe by 2020.” However, some may also say that the charity’s suggestion that a tenth of the UK population are exposed to “traffic noise at levels associated with stress, raised blood pressure and even heart attacks” are alarmist to the extent that they risk obscuring the overall tyre quality, efficiency and safety message.

However, while the publicity machine for 2012-compliant “better tyres” has already rumbled into action (although that’s probably too noisy an idiom in this case) many questions remain about the testing methodology for the forthcoming tyre labels. With a year to go before the introduction of the new labelling system, the rolling resistance measurement procedure remains the subject of some wrangling, according to technicians consulted on the process.

Nevertheless all publicity is good publicity, as the saying goes. So, whatever your position is in relation to the above issues and campaigns, you have to admit that putting tyres/wheels in general (and product characteristics in particular) on the agenda is good for raising general awareness of these safety critical products and all are examples of the various parts of the business taking the initiative. Share your thoughts on these or any other issues by emailing theeditor@77.237.250.82.

Related news:

• Westlake responds to ETRMA report with re-tests of its own

• Will European agencies take clean oil enforcement action?

• UK environmental charity launches ‘better tyres’ campaign

• Paul Goggins MP to debate wheel safety in Parliament