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Kwik-Fit Increases Mobile Fleet to Meet Growing Demand

Workplace safety is increasingly a high profile issue, and this is no less the case for professional drivers and those using company or fleet owned vehicles. Kwik-Fit Fleet reports carrying out more than 220,000 vehicle inspections during 2007, a total markedly up from the previous year’s 188,000. To cope with a growing demand to ensure at-work driver safety, Kwik-Fit Fleet is preparing to add an additional 30 units to its mobile fleet this year.

It is likely that the April 6 introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act will place added pressure upon businesses to comply with workplace health and safety legislation. Thus this year the company expects even stronger demand for its mobile service, and anticipates its mobile technicians to undertake more than 250,000 tyre safety checks in company car parks or at a driver’s location of choice.

15th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Dębica Launches Passio 2 Mileage Tyre

Dębica has launched a new passenger car tyre aimed at the mileage market. The Dębica Passio 2 summer tyre is the latest addition to the Passio product line, which is one of the most popular summer tyres in Poland, according to the Polish manufacturer (owned by the Goodyear group).

Dębica Passio 2 is said to offer a 16 per cent higher mileage performance than its predecessor. According to the manufacturer, the tyre shows improved performance in almost all characteristics, including driving and braking on wet surfaces as well as higher resistance to aquaplaning. Consequently, Dębica Passio 2 offers compact and mid-size cars improved performance on all road surfaces.

12th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Putting a Better Smile on Employees’ Faces

Michelin has reportedly began to provide its UK employees with a part-funded dental plan intended to counter ever-increasing National Health Service costs. According to the publication Employee Benefits, the company reviewed its existing cash plan last year, and asked staff whether a dental plan would be of interest. The response from employees was, Michelin decided, sufficient to implement such a scheme.

“The survey was to gauge how much interest there would be” said Michelin’s benefits manager Julie Lovett, “and we didn’t get a fantastic response but it was enough to get us a meaningful set of results, so that’s the route we are going down.” Employees have already been sent information about the dental plan.

30th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bike Tyrestore Wins British Dealer News Award

Bike Tyrestore (BTS) has won the “Best Trade Service” award during the British Dealer News Industry Awards ceremony, following day one of the 2008 Motorcycle Trade Expo Show. Presented by industry personality Peter Gleave, the trophy was presented to Bike Tyrestore’s Managing Director, Peter Smith. The award follows a survey of motorbike tyre dealers (conducted by British Dealer News) that resulted in BTS being described as the best trade service. During the presentation citation BTS was described as being “recognised not just for its excellent service but for the breadth of its service.” The citation continued: “Next day delivery and competitive pricing is normal these days, but this company goes the extra mile with a free phone order service, free technical training for dealers’ staff, a weekly trade newsletter and customer invitations to their highly popular track days.”

28th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Pessimistic Outlook for US Equipment Aftermarket

In the US the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) has announced the results of a recent member survey showing that suppliers expect business to look a little less than rosy for the automotive aftermarket this year. The results were compiled from quarterly market segment surveys conducted by the three MEMA market segment groups – Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA), Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association (HDMA) and Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA). These member-only industry surveys serve as barometers for the business outlook for the next 12 months.

7th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Alarming Results From NTDA Company Car Driver Survey

The NTDA has called on small business car users to take a more responsible attitude to tyre maintenance after results of a survey issued this week showed that over 70 per cent of vehicles in this sector were running on cars with tyre problems.

The survey, carried out over a six month period last year, was produced by Total Motion as part of their regular vehicle monitoring programme and covered nearly 6,000 company and privately owned vehicles used for business.

7th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

German Readers Vote Bridgestone Best Brand of 2007

A survey in German motor sport publication Motorsport aktuell has named Bridgestone brand of the year for car and motorcycle tyres. Motorsport aktuell belongs to the Motorpresse Stuttgart group and reaches over 60,000 car and motor sports enthusiasts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Readers were asked this autumn to compare and choose the “most convincing tyre” amongst 14 different car tyre brands and 6 motorcycle tyre brands. In the car tyre category, Bridgestone came out on top with 60.8 per cent; while 58.1 per cent of motorcycle tyre voters made Bridgestone their first choice.

3rd January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Climbs Nikkei Environment Rankings

The Bridgestone Corporation jumped to 2nd place in the 2007 Nikkei Environmental Management Survey in Japan on 1st December 2007. The research was conducted by Japan’s leading business newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc., abbreviated as Nikkei and known the world over for its Tokyo stock market index.

The survey monitors environmental policies and practices, both in Japan and around the world, of leading Japanese companies in all major industry sectors. Findings are converted into scores to produce a ranking for both manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies. According to the company, Bridgestone’s strong showing is partly due to earning the maximum 100 points for “product measures”, defined by the company’s global commitment to reduce the environmental impact of tyres right through the product life cycle.

2nd January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Costly Carelessness

Efforts to educate on the benefits of correctly inflated tyres seem to be falling upon deaf ears – Michelin has found that almost 80 per cent of cars on British roads are running with incorrect tyre pressure and over half have levels considered dangerous. This mind-boggling news comes courtesy of a nationwide inspection survey conducted by the manufacturer, during which more than 2,300 cars were inspected at 13 venues in the UK. From this sample population, 36 per cent were found to have at least one tyre between 7 and 12 psi below the recommended pressure, and an additional 15 per cent had a tyre at least 14psi or more below the specified level – potentially only 50 per cent of the recommended safe level of inflation. Furthermore, 13 per cent of all vehicles had a tyre containing a puncture.

27th November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Names the UK’s Ten Most Hated Speed Humps

Continental Tyres has lifted the lid on what many think to be the worst speed hump in the UK. The offending traffic control device is located in Staffordshire; Tower View road, Great Wyrley to be precise – and it is often obscured from view by floodwaters. Deep gouges in the hump created by hapless motorists are telltale signs of many an unexpected encounter with the hump. A local campaign calling for its removal is currently underway.

The nationwide survey to find the top ten speed most hated humps was conducted by Continental to gauge public opinion about one of the most common causes of tyre damage. A 2003 report by the British Tyre Manufacturers Association showed impact damage such as that occurring when striking a speed hump to be the second most common reason for the replacement of tyres before the end of their tread life. Conti has seen the volume of tyres returned as a result of impact damage increase by 60 per cent since 2001, ten years after the introduction of the first speed humps to the UK. One in eight cars is estimate to have experienced damage as a result of speed hump impact.

2nd November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Survey Highlights Sloppy Maintenance

A recent industry survey carried out by Norbar Torque Tools has revealed a shocking lack of awareness of the importance of properly maintaining torque-controlled tools such as wrenches and screwdrivers – with a staggering 24 per cent of respondents to the survey admitting that they never calibrated their torque tools.

Philip Brodey, sales director of Norbar, explains: “Although we were aware of the problem, we were truly surprised by its magnitude as revealed by the survey. As specialist torque tool manufacturers we naturally place a great deal of emphasis on the accuracy of our products. But even the most accurate tool needs regular checking and calibration to ensure that it remains within tolerance.”

17th October 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

TyreSafe Urges Women to ‘Better Handle Pressure’

Women hate being told that they are no good at looking after their cars, says TyreSafe. And yes, it is a stereotype, and of course it does not apply to all women, but a recent survey has shown that 21 percent of women do not – to use TyreSafe’s own words – “have a clue” about the correct tyre pressure for their car, preferring to get someone else to check their tyres for them.

This is one of the worrying findings of the largest ever tyre pressure and tyre safety survey undertaken in the UK, carried out by TyreSafe supporters to coincide with Tyre Safety Month. The face of the campaign, Vicki Butler-Henderson – a woman very much at home checking the pressure of her tyres – commented that “Drivers are clearly not aware of the dangers of driving a car with severely under-inflated tyres. I have recently been testing a car with tyres at low pressures and badly worn and the combination is potentially deadly.”

12th October 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Are UK Males Tyre Shy?

Hang your heads in shame, men of Britain, your counterparts on the other side of the Irish Sea are much more tyre savvy – and chivalrous – than you! This blow to the nation’s collective self-esteem comes courtesy of a survey conducted by Continental, which reveals that, perhaps, tyres may not always bring out what’s best in us.

Men in the UK are much more likely to leave changing a tyre to a woman driver than men in Ireland, says Conti. Nearly half of us would be perfectly happy to sit back while she throws some muscle behind hoisting the car’s jack into position, where only three out of ten gents from the Emerald Isle would do the same. And a third of British men confessed to using any excuse to weasel their way out of the task, compared with just one in seven Irish men.

And, to further rub salt into the wound, we’re not just un-gallant when it comes to tyres – when the rubber hits the road we’re also much more afraid of dealing with the rubber that hits the road. Almost all men surveyed in Ireland – 94 per cent of them – claimed to have changed a tyre at some time, compared with just over half of men in Britain. Conti reports that the most commonly used reason for not changing a car tyre was that it might ruin one’s clothes. This excuse was used by a whopping 47 per cent of UK based respondents.

28th September 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Toyo Rated Top by US Independent Dealers

Toyo has been named “#1 Overall Brand” for both consumer and in Tire Review’s annual Tire Brand Study of North American tyre dealers. Conducted by Babcox Research for Tire Review for the past 15-years, this prestigious survey measures tyre dealer opinions and perceptions about the brands they carry and sell. Toyo has received this honour a remarkable seven out of the past eight years for consumer products (passenger, performance and light truck/SUV) and four of the last six years for commercial products (medium truck).

26th September 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Varta Does Well In Awareness Survey

Johnson Controls, parent company of Varta, recently commissioned a survey to test trade awareness of starter battery brands. The survey was carried out by one of Europe’s most respected market research companies and covered eight European markets. 150 garages were selected randomly in each market and there was a 92 per cent response rate.

25th September 2007/by Tyrepress Editors