Transport MP visits Goodyear Wolverhampton
Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for Transport, Gavin Williamson visited the Goodyear factory in the West Midlands last week. The famous Wolverhampton factory has been developing tyres for 85 years in the region and is now a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for retreaded truck tyres.
Gavin Williamson MP started: "Goodyear are an important employer for the local area. My constituency starts at the edge of Wolverhampton so many of my constituents will be working at the plant. It is an important local employer and important local investor in the West Midlands.”
The visit saw Williamson have a full tour of the state of the art Wolverhampton factory, commenting: “It was impressive to see the production of tyre compound because, being a novice, you don’t realise the different components that go into making a tyre. You naively think it’s just rubber and don’t understand the regulations, the environmental impact and the detail that goes into creating not only compound but a retreaded tyre.”
Goodyear believes that too many truck and bus tyres are being scrapped unnecessarily, which is bad for the environment and an inefficient use of a fleet’s assets. Quality remanufacturing techniques at Wolverhampton ensure that, where possible, truck and bus tyres have at least four lives (including regrooving, retreading, and regrooving the retread), providing optimum mileage and fuel consumption over the whole extended period.
Gavin Williamson concluded by saying: “It has been a great insight into the factory, I have learnt about some of the important processes that go on here. Retreads are a growing part of Goodyear’s business and, as a member of Parliament, it’s important to understand what an integral part of the business that is. [It is also important to consider] the amount of technology and investment that goes into making very safe and very good value tyres.”
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