According to local media, a redundancy agreement for the 600 Bridgestone Australia employees at the soon to close Salisbury facility will be signed within a week. The News Review Messenger newspaper reports that workers “voted overwhelmingly” in support of Bridgestone’s improved offer on November 10. Only two of the 400 union workers that voted on the offer opposed the Bridgestone package.
Halloween can oft be a spirited affair in the Emerald Isle, and one newspaper has called upon tyre dealers to do their bit in keeping festivities under control. Reporting on the Irish tradition of bonfire lighting on the eve of All Saints Day, the Galway Advertiser quotes a local policing committee chairman as saying the “gardai will do everything to increase patrols in the city to eliminate illegal bonfires. Tyre companies will also be called to ensure they do not give out any old tyres, and if they do they will be prosecuted.
ATS Euromaster are urging motorist to have their batteries checked (free of charge) at their local ATS centre, in readiness for the onset of late autumn and winter. According to the company, the fact that the clocks go back on Sunday 25 October normally heralds the start of car and van batteries being put under increased strain, owing to drivers requiring extended use of their headlights and heating system, whilst the colder temperatures at this time of year reduce battery performance.
Reports from multiple news sources suggest that Pirelli is planning to shut its final-salary pension scheme in order to protect the company’s future. The closure would, according to the BBC, affect 743 staff members, all of whom would be eligible to join the defined contribution scheme open to new recruits to the manufacturer since 2001. Consultations with staff have begun, with a view to cancelling the scheme at the end of 2009.
Michelin has released a “pyramid of age” for its French workforce. The company employs 22,000 workers (equivalent full time) in its home market, of which some 12,000 are engaged in production. Approximately 1,0000 will retire every year for the next decade. Taking into account a natural attrition of two per cent per annum, 1,500 French workers will leave Michelin each year. This equates to 30 per cent of the 5,000 employees that will leave the group per annum in high cost countries. In total around 30,000 people are anticipated to leave the Michelin Group in the six years between 2007 and 2012, some 40 per cent of the company’s tyre workforce in high cost countries.
The UK government is to extend the successful “bangers for cash” scrappage scheme until February 2010 with £100 million in extra funding. Alongside the increased funding the government will work with manufacturers to extend the benefits to van owners with vehicles over 8 years old rather than the current 10 year requirement. Car owners will also get a boost, with the age qualification changed by 6 months to extend the benefits to cars registered on or before 29 Feb 2000 (V registration). The scheme will come to an end in February 2010 or when the funding runs out, which ever is sooner.
So far 227,750 orders have been placed through the scheme. The increased funding enables the scheme to fund a further 100,000 vehicles, bringing total budget to £400 million and covering up to 400,000 vehicles in total. The extension continues as a government and manufacturer partnership, with matched funding providing the £2,000 discount for each scrappage order.
Announcing the news Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said: “The sector has been strongly affected by the recession, but the scrappage scheme has delivered a boost to manufacturers and the supply chain. We have listened to the concerns of manufacturers and are increasing the funding of the scheme to £400 million.”
As Kwik-Fit points out, it’s not just bald tyres that cause danger – old ones are also problematic. New research commissioned by the company found that as many as 16.7 million motorists’ tyres could be suffering from premature ageing, a condition that tends to affect tyres more than five years old.
While tyres contain anti-oxidising chemicals to slow down the rate of ageing, factors such as infrequent use and poor storage can accelerate the ageing process and render them unroadworthy. This is why tyre manufacturers recommend that tyres over five years of age should be visually inspected for signs of premature ageing. To help identify their age all tyres display a coded date of manufacture, something that – no surprises here – three-quarters of British motorists are unaware of. But even so, Kwik-Fit notes that the average punter is unlikely to be able to translate the ‘tyroglyphics’ that appear on the side of the tyre.
According to the RMA, California legislators have tabled AB 496, a bill that would have forced tyre retailers to provide consumers with the date of manufacture for each tyre sold. The bill, RMA said, was pulled from consideration by the California Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee at the request of the measure’s sponsors. No reason for the action was given.
RMA said it had been scheduled to testify in opposition to the measure, and was “confident that had the bill received consideration, it would have failed to pass the committee.” While the bill is not dead, the measure could still be brought up for consideration since a vote has not been taken. However, the RMA said, the measure must still be heard by the same committee.
Supporters of the measure include Sean Kane’s plaintiffs’ attorney aide Strategic Safety and Research and by the Consumer Attorneys of California. The bill had been passed by the California House Business and Professions Committee in April, and by the full House in late May. (Tire Review/Akron)
A new Co-operative Insurance poll suggestions 55 per cent of young drivers “get behind the wheel under the influence of drink or illegal drugs.” As part of The Co-operative Insurance’s ongoing ‘2 Young 2 Die’ campaign, 2079 drivers under the age of 25 were polled via 2young2die.org.uk and 1,143 admitted to driving under the influence. Historically, drink driving has been the catalyst for motoring convictions, however the figures suggest that drug driving is on the rise, with 18 per cent of young drivers polled admitting to driving under the influence of illegal drugs and 37 per cent under the influence of alcohol.
David Neave, Director of General Insurance at The Co-operative Insurance, commented: “At least 15,935 people in the UK were killed or hurt by drink and drug-drivers in 2007, whilst these figures do not suggest that every young driver was over the drink drive limit they are very concerning especially with reports warning that illegal drug use in the UK is on the increase.”
Research by the Transport Research Laboratory has found that 17 per cent of drivers who die in road traffic accidents have traces of illegal drugs in their system which may have affected their driving.
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Using this yardstick, Bridgestone has no less than fifty five and a half million safety and environment related words on its hands: the company reports that at least 55,676 European primary school children participated in its “dreams at heArt” children’s drawing contest during 2009, more than 35 per cent more than last year. Children from twenty-five countries – including for the first time the Baltic States, Slovakia and Romania – sent in drawings of their thoughts and aspirations on the theme “Safe Travel in a Greener World”.
While flagging Western markets are offering handouts to carmakers in order to lubricate sales, in China – with a car market still widely regarded as booming by comparison – has announced that it is to increase its own scrappage budget from one billion yuan (£95.6 million, $146 million) to six billion yuan (£573.6 million, $876 million). According to a China4Auto.com report, the move follows the success of the incentive program in rural areas.
Much has been said about the British making the most of their newly enfeebled pound by taking their holidays at home, and this means….gulp….that many of the approximately two million caravan owners nationwide may consider hitting the road this Easter. Many of these owners will set off without having carried out basic safety checks to ensure a trouble free break, says Protyre, the UK’s leading independent tyre dealer network.
The population of Britain is in danger of losing skills that have long been considered vital, including sewing, DIY and changing a tyre, according to a poll conducted by the website Ask.com.
The survey says that, while particularly under-30 year olds are acquiring essential abilities such as setting up a profile on Facebook more easily than previous generations, that age demographic is also the one least likely to be able to change its cars’ rubber. The problem is not merely confined to the younger generation; only just under half of all Britons would struggle to change the tyre on a pushbike, let alone a motorised vehicle. Though the survey revealed that illegally downloading films and music would represent a comparatively small challenge for many, it did not go into how many know the correct method for sitting on a toilet seat.
The median age of passenger cars in operation increased to 9.4 years in 2008, breaking the previous two-year record high of 9.2 years, according to a new report by R. L. Polk & Co. In its annual report, Polk said that the median age for all trucks in 2008 increased to 7.6 years from 7.3 years in 2007. Light truck age increased from 7.1 years in 2007 to 7.5 years in 2008.
“As the fleet of pick-up trucks, SUVs and minivans purchased in the late 1980s and through the 1990s ages, their scrappage rates accelerate,” said Polk’s Dave Goebel. The percentage of total passenger cars and trucks scrapped in 2008 increased to 5.6 per cent compared to 5.2 per cent in 2007. The passenger car scrappage rate was 5.1 per cent. For all trucks, the scrappage rate was 6.3 per cent and light truck scrappage was 6.4 per cent, both up notably from 2007.
“The current economic environment, coupled with high gas prices last spring and summer, have resulted in consumers delaying purchases of vehicles because their discretionary income has fallen,” said Goebel. “Based on the uncertainty of what the future holds, consumers are trying to keep their current vehicles running longer, until their confidence improves.” (Tire Review/Akron)
Following record results in 2008, with more than 40,000 entries from 20 European countries received, Bridgestone plans in 2009 to expand its “dreams at heArt” competition to the Baltic States and Romania. In addition to prizes, says the tyre major, this year winners will again receive school visits from Bridgestone staff, who will arrive armed with a playful educational programme on road safety and ecology that includes an authentic GP2 racing car.
The “dreams at heArt” children’s drawing contest aims to encourage children to start thinking about road safety, and invites them to express their creativity in drawings or paintings. The competition is open to all primary school children in Europe up to the age of 11 years (split into 3 age groups, 0-7 years, 8-9 years and 10-11 years) and features a different theme for each annual edition.
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