The annual tyre safety campaign in Scotland moved from October to December last year. A four day clinic programme held in supermarket car parks revealed that 20% of motorists had tyres with tread below 1.6mm. The clinic programme was followed by a week of police enforcement on the roads, which showed an illegal tyre level of 14.4% – almost exactly matching the UK average of 14%.
Every so often, Continental Tyre UK assembles a panel of interested parties to talk through a subject of interest. The most recent ‘Round Table’ was on the subject of truck safety, particularly that of tyres. Roadside checks on trucks seem to reveal a story of tyre neglect, with many tyres showing damage which would be obvious to the most cursory examination, implying that nobody bothers to look. The legal minimum tread depth for trucks in the UK is 1mm, and has been so for the past three decades. Conti is not convinced that raising the limit to 1.6mm would have a significant effect on safety. Most good fleet operators change tyres at 2mm anyway, which is what Conti recommends. Roadside fitter safety was discussed – a dangerous job made even more so by the extensive use of the mobile phone, which removes the police from the equation. If the police do not know of a breakdown, they cannot provide safety backup for the fitter. Like many other companies, Continental provides a complete tyre management service for fleets, taking on all responsibility for tyre-related matters. This not only means peace of mind for the operator, but should ensure better maintained, safer tyres. Full details of the Round Table discussion can be found in TYRES & ACCESSORIES 6/2000.
According to results from Tyrecheck 2000, carried out by Police forces throughout the UK, as many as one in ten cars on UK roads may be running on illegal tyres, 27% are, at best, close to the end of their safe and legal life. That’s in excess of 13million illegal tyres in use every day. Imagine then the figures for faulty shock absorbers hidden out of sight? Recent research carried out in the UK suggested that over 6 million out of 25 million (24%) cars on the road were running on at least one faulty shock absorber. Belgian research confirmed that this is not purely an UK problem when figures produced there showed 20-25% of motorists driving with faulty dampers. If the car driver is unaware of a problem, how can the industry realise the potential sales in the shock absorber aftermarket? The market is estimated by Datamonitor to be worth in excess of 124M Euro at Retail Selling Price (RSP) in the UK alone, and across Europe has a value of some 471M Euro at Manufacturer Selling Prices (MSP). How does the fast fit salesman persuade the customer that he needs a new shock absorber? Moreover, how does he persuade him that he needs to change a pair? More about this can be found in the December issue of TYRES & ACCESSORIES.
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