Almost 20 years after it published the last “blue book” giving advice on how to comply with health and safety guidelines, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has released updated details. And what’s more “Health and Safety in Motor Vehicle Repair and Associated Industries” can be downloaded for free from the HSE website.

Apart from the Vauxhall Cavalier no longer being the nation’s favourite car, much has changed since the early nineties – the introduction of air conditioning, hybrid vehicles; and Small and Medium Area Repair Techniques (SMART) are just a few of the general changes motor vehicle repair industry. Tyre fitters specifically have the extra challenges of run-flats and increasingly large and low profile tyres to keep them occupied. As beneficial as these developments have been to the look and performance of our vehicles, the HSE points out each that of these technologies has also brought new health and safety challenges in an industry already dealing with many serious issues. In the last five years alone there have been over 8000 injuries and 25 deaths in the MVR sector.