TyreSafe presents new partnerships, launches Tyre Safety Month campaign materials

Online briefing shows how new chair Stuart Lovatt is steering the tyre safety organisation to be a fulcrum of cooperation and tyre resources, in addition to its core safety messaging agenda

TyreSafe has held its annual briefing with a slick online presentation designed to demonstrate its direction under a new chair. Presenting contributions from a veritable rollcall of regional and national road safety and risk management stakeholders, chair Stuart Lovatt and TyreSafe manager Jason Simms detailed the last 12 months of TyreSafe’s activities, which have included a tyre safety demonstration day at Mira, the development of new and existing partnerships with road safety organisations such as National Highways, the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), Roadsafe, and several fire and police service representatives, and a range of events in local communities around the country. Lovatt explained how TyreSafe’s work is of crucial importance to the Safe System Approach, the widely accepted strategy on reducing the number of fatalities, casualties and incidents on Britain’s roads.

Emma Burley, Tyresafe communications lead, also introduced the 2023 Tyre Safety Month Campaign, ‘Be Safe and Save’, indicating another way in which TyreSafe is tweaking its approach in 2023. The campaign emphasises how maintaining the good condition of tyres fitted to cars also reduce costs to motorists, a tyre safety message designed to resonate deeply in the cost-of-living crisis. TyreSafe also unveiled its latest national tread depth survey, conducted with the assistance of members at the point of replacement. Before launching into the briefing, Lovatt and Simms also paid tribute to previous chair Stuart Jackson, who stepped down after 14 years at the helm last year, prior to Lovatt’s election.

Over the course of the two-hour briefing, Lovatt was joined by prominent guests from across the road safety and risk management community, including Adrian Walsh, director of RoadSafe, and Jamie Hassall, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety. Road safety partners also include Tony Crook, road safety manager, Lancashire County Council; Kathleen Bowman, community road safety officer, Cambridge Fire and Rescue Service; and Sarah Smithurst from the National Trailer and Towing Association. Andy Pratt, deputy police and crime commissioner for Lancashire, also provided some insight into the value of the tyre safety campaign to the police. Mark Cartwright, head of commercial vehicle incident prevention, National Highways. His colleague Bev Hannah, regional safety programme manager South West, added more details on how the research will be used to inform on-ground activities.

Tyrepress attended the briefing as ever, live-tweeting the event on the @Tyrepress Twitter feed. A video of the briefing will also be available to members and registered attendees in full from TyreSafe.

TyreSafe briefing as it happened

In addition to his fulsome thanks for Stuart Jackson, who led TyreSafe with distinction, marked early on by the organisation’s Prince Michael International Road Safety Vehicle Safety Award in 2009, Stuart Lovatt said that TyreSafe intends to continue the good work it has done through its history, thanks to the support of the tyre industry, while also “working more” with other members of the road safety community. He said that TyreSafe wants to extend the delivery of its messages to become a consistent national resource for tyre safety information and expertise, with advisory connections to national road safety bodies. He exemplified this by mentioning TyreSafe’s input into the government’s MOT consultations, surrounding the proposal to increase the intervals between tests, a move that statistics show would result in substantially more illegal and defective tyres being used on UK roads.

Lovatt explained that the organisation has increasingly emphasised and utilised the internationally recognised methodology for reducing the risk of road accidents, the Safe System Approach. TyreSafe aims to raise awareness of the integral involvement of safer tyres within this approach. The approach comprises five key pillars that interact with one another: Road Safety Management, which uses data and intelligence to examine the root causes of accidents to alter and improve behaviours, public perceptions, and compliance; Safer Roads, to use road construction and planning technologies to increase their safety; Safer Vehicles, the pillar most directly related to tyre condition, which plays a key role in transmitting vehicle safety technologies to the road; Safer People, acknowledging the role that attitudes and behaviour play in creating safer roads; and finally Post Collision, identifying what happened in incidents and how to reduce their frequency and severity. TyreSafe wants to develop strategies to deliver these messages.

“It’s about the management of kinetic energy,” summarised TyreSafe’s first guest of the day, Adrian Walsh, director of Roadsafe. Describing the tyre as “a sophisticated piece of technology” integral to enabling the delivery of the Safe System, Walsh explained Roadsafe’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) hub, revealing that TyreSafe now has a place within the project and a partnership with Roadsafe as a technical advisor. Walsh said, “the tyre industry has a very important role in aftersales care” for its customers – on that he said it generally performs very well – in that the tyre is designed to be replaced regularly in order to enable increasingly sophisticated, ADAS-enabled vehicles to deliver their safety benefits.

ACT – TyreSafe’s advice to motorists for checking the condition of their tyres

Air pressure – The air pressure of each tyre should also be checked using an accurate gauge. Typically, car manufacturers recommend two different tyre pressures, one for light loads and another for when the vehicle is fully. It’s essential that drivers adjust the pressures to accommodate the load they are carrying. These settings can be found in the vehicle handbook, on reputable internet tyre pressure charts such as the one at tyresafe.org, and often in the vehicle’s fuel filler cap or door sill.

Condition – with a visual check, looking at the overall condition of each tyre to see if anything might have penetrated the tread, such as nails or other objects. If any of these objects, cracks or bulges are present, the driver should refer immediately seek professional advice.

Tread – drivers should check the tread of their tyres to ensure they are above the UK the legal tread depth minimum of 1.6mm. Ideally an accurate tread depth gauge should be used but if this is not available, a 20p coin can be used as a guide. Insert the 20p into the main sections of the tyre and at various points around the circumference – should you see the outer rim at any point, you need to have the tread depth checked as it may be illegal.

Walsh also commended Tyresafe’s long-standing “ACT” message to motorists to ensure their tyres are in a suitable condition to deliver their safety performance characteristics. The ACT acronym stands for Air pressure, Condition and Tread, being the three essential condition checks that TyreSafe recommends to motorists.

Bev Hannah, National Highways regional road safety coordinator in the south-east, then explained how the road network organisation wants to encourage its users to improve tyre safety to reduce the large number of tyre-related incidents that reduce road network efficiency. Hannah has recently accepted a place on TyreSafe’s steering committee in order to deliver education on tyre maintenance, as well as looking at how National Highways can support efforts to increase authorities’ attention on tyre condition.

In a theme that he continued to return to throughout the briefing, Lovatt encouraged local tyre businesses to use the increased opportunities to get involved with National Highways, regional police forces, and other organisations with whom TyreSafe is connected, to deliver events in their local communities.

National Tread Depth Survey and the power of educating the public

Jason Simms then introduced TyreSafe’s National Tread Depth Survey results, conducted in partnership with National Highways using data gathered at the point of replacement. The survey is a major piece of research conducted with academic rigour, looking at the percentages of tyres that are at the 1.6mm legal limit, between 2 and 1.6mm, and over 2mm. The survey offers rich detail on a regional and usage basis, gives plenty of supporting evidence about the general state of tyres, and why there are so many tyre-related MOT failures. More details will follow in the coming months, but TyreSafe uses the survey as an example of the valuable research it can coordinate with its members. Lovatt told Tyrepress that the organisation wants to extend the amount of data fed into the survey via TyreSafe’s engagement with the tyre retail chain.

Tony Crook, road safety manager at Lancashire County Council, has also joined the steering committee of TyreSafe – another example of the organisation’s mission to partner more closely with road safety bodies. Crook talked about recent events conducted in Lancashire in partnership with Protyre and the regional fire service, offering free tyre safety checks. “We found all sorts” of badly maintained tyres, Crook explained, emphasising the value of proactively engaging with local communities on tyre safety. Crook and Lovatt encouraged tyre businesses to let Tyresafe know that they want to promote their business while delivering tyre safety messages in the local community, using TyreSafe’s plentiful, high-quality resources.

Andy Pratt, deputy Police and Crime commissioner for Lancashire also talked about the “power” of “educating the public and helping the public stay safe on the roads.” He talks about how effective events in central public places can be, with one taking place this Sunday (17 September) at the historic Preston Flag Market.

TyreSafe is also working together with the Parliamentary Advisory Committee for Transport Safety (PACTS), an evidence-based charity regularly in contact with parliamentarians, as well as conducting working groups, forums, and more. Jamie Hassall, executive director of PACTS said that connecting the right evidence to the right people can influence good business practice. PACTS is looking at the possibilities of connecting the benefits of well-maintained tyres with, for example, the insurance industry, and how this could influence road users’ behaviour.

Firefighters Charity Car Wash events present tyre safety opportunity

Kathleen Bowman from the Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Service said that tyre maintenance education is an important focus for the service, given the number of incidents in which tyre defects were a factor. Cambridgeshire, Lancashire, Scottish (Lanarkshire) Fire & Rescue Services have been piloting TyreSafe supported charity car wash events, during which tyre checks can be conducted. Bowman encourages tyre businesses to get involved in staffing such events.

Lovatt wants the charity car wash events to become a national initiative with the support of TyreSafe’s tyre industry members and partners in both technical expertise and sponsorship. The car washes are run in support of the Firefighters Charity.

Simms added that Tyresafe will be rolling out this scheme, offering assets for fire services and tyre retailers to help to promote Fire Service Charity Car Washes, such as leaflets offering in-store discounts on tyre or other purchases.

TyreSafe tailoring messages for specific segments

Another new emphasis for TyreSafe is its focus on tailoring specific tyre safety messages for different purposes. Trailers are one such case, since they are often used infrequently, meaning their tyres are especially prone to issues around underutilisation, such as ageing or flat spots. Sarah Smithurst, business development manager at the National Trailer and Towing Association (NTTA), explained these tyre problems related to trailers. Tyre safety issues can affect trailers in a variety of ways that therefore demand a greater level of attention to their condition. TyreSafe is tailoring particular messages for this segment as a result.

Continuing the theme of TyreSafe’s targeted messages for different tyre applications, Lovatt spoke to Tony Campbell, chief executive of the Motorcycle Industry Association, who explains the impact of tyre safety on two-wheel vehicles. Campbell said the MCIA wants to help riders better understand the particular properties of the variety of tyres available on the market now. The organisation has made Tyresafe an honorary member to help build its tyre safety message.

Summing up, Lovatt explained that the briefing day sought to demonstrate that Tyresafe is a “365 days a year” operation that can connect a wide variety of road safety stakeholders. He emphasised the importance of tyre industry support, which remains the bedrock of Tyresafe, and is integral to the delivery of its messages. Lovatt added that the organisation wants its website, TyreSafe.org, to be “the source” for technical tyre safety information, in addition to a hub for different road safety stakeholders to connect and deliver tyre safety messages more effectively and regularly.

Simms concluded the 2023 briefing by looking forward to a “face-to-face’ briefing event in 2024, which he said will aim to be “more experiential” than a series of speakers and presentations. In the meantime, those who missed this year’s event may watch the webcast at their convenience, with the video available to watch soon directly from TyreSafe.