Michelin, ATS-E to stage Eurotunnel tyre pressure roadshow
Michelin and ATS Euromaster will stage a ‘Fill up with Air’ roadshow at the Eurotunnel Le Shuttle terminal in Folkestone on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 April 2012, between 7am and 3.30pm, offering free tyre safety inspections for departing vehicles. Seven tyre specialists will check tread depths and pressures, inspecting tyres for potential safety hazards like objects penetrating the tread or lumps, bulges, cracks or tears to the sidewalls. The roadshow will offer free on-site puncture repairs for the first time, thanks to ATS-E’s involvement.
Michelin’s head of communications, Phil Baldock explains: “Every driver should check their tyres at least once a month and before any long journey, but in reality we know this often doesn’t happen. Our Fill up with Air roadshow is designed to educate motorists about the importance of tyre safety and to help get dangerous tyres off the road.
“The last thing holidaymakers want is a tyre failure bringing their travel plans crashing to a halt; particularly if they have a car full of excited kids and a boot jam-packed with luggage. Under these conditions weak or damaged tyres are more likely to fail, as they’ll be carrying a heavier load than normal. What’s more, if a car is travelling fully laden, tyre pressures must be increased in line with the vehicle manufacturer’s recommendations.”
Chris Hufflett, group operations director of ATS Euromaster, said: “Nearly every car has two recommended pressure settings – one for ‘normal’ use and a higher figure for full loads. Driving a fully laden car on tyres inflated to the normal setting will compromise handling and mean stopping distances increase dramatically. It will also see tyre wear rise and punctures will be more likely.”
In 2011 the Fill up with Air roadshow toured more than 40 different sites in the UK between May and October – inspecting approximately 10,000 individual tyres. It found that 39 per cent of motorists were driving on dangerous or very dangerously under-inflated tyres (meaning over 8psi under the recommended pressure), whilst five per cent were unaware of the fact they had a punctured tyre.
Eurotunnel Le Shuttle is also proactively inviting motorists to visit the roadshow this week via an email marketing campaign directly targeting travellers departing Folkestone at corresponding times. The roadshow first visited the terminal during summer 2006 and has returned annually ever since. This marks the first occasion it has visited at Easter, following a special invitation from Eurotunnel Le Shuttle to hold an additional event due to strong customer feedback.
Harvey Alexander, Eurotunnel sales and marketing director stated: “Eurotunnel Le Shuttle is delighted to team up once again with Michelin and to welcome ATS Euromaster to offer our departing customers another opportunity to check the safety of their tyres before leaving the UK. Safety is the utmost priority to Eurotunnel Le Shuttle and we especially wanted to offer this popular and worthwhile safety initiative to the large numbers of customers departing during the peak Easter holiday period.”
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