Fleet managers are being urged to implement mandatory vehicle maintenance checks on company vehicles and grey fleet, after a National Highways report revealed major issues with a lack of tyre maintenance. And the report adds more weight to the survey findings recently revealed by Total Motion, which highlighted a worrying trend of increased tyre defects from failings in tyre management.
A National Highways report recently revealed that 20% of all breakdowns on UK A roads and motorways in 2021 were related to tyre issues, which equated to 41,500 incidents. Last year Total Motion updated its vehicle monitoring survey first carried out in 2007, this surveyed over 200,000 vehicles and also found that 14.24% of company cars had tyres which were either illegal, damaged or outside the manufacturers’ guidelines, and this rose to 22% for grey fleet.
What should a tyre maintenance inspection include?
The findings from both these surveys highlight the need for fleet managers to implement mandatory vehicle maintenance checks, whereby drivers must, as a minimum, check the tyres, oil, lights, brakes and windscreen wipers on a regular basis, in addition to the regular MOT and service regime. Employers have a duty of care for their own vehicles and also for grey fleet(employee-owned vehicles used for company business and for which a cash allowance is paid for fuel usage), but it is important to note that drivers also have a responsibility.
Any basic vehicle maintenance checks should include a tyre management policy. This would ensure that checks are made on:
- Tyre pressure
- Tread depth
- Damage (tears or cuts should be no more than 25mm in length or cover more than 10% of the section width)
- Over/under-inflated tyres (tyre pressure varies per vehicle and you should check your vehicle handbook for ideal tyre pressure)
The problems poor tyre maintenance can lead to
Providing an online reporting facility or an app will make it easier for drivers to complete these checks and record the results for compliance purposes. This facility should include a mechanism for alerting the fleet manager that checks have taken place and also where follow-up action is required on the tyres or any other feature of the vehicle. The risks of not carrying out these checks include:
- Vehicle breakdown
- Over/under-inflated tyres can affect braking distances
- Cuts, bulges and tears can cause accidents
- Fuel efficiency is also affected by tyre pressure being incorrect
While fleet managers have a duty of care to provide safe and practical fleet vehicles, drivers need to be reminded of their own responsibilities. Drivers will be found personally accountable if they are stopped by police and found to have illegal or damaged tyres or tyres outside manufacturers’ guidelines. This could lead to a £2500 fine or three penalty points per tyre.
So how often do you check and maintain your fleet vehicle?
Total Motion are recommending that fleet managers implement mandatory checks on the basic features of a vehicle, on a frequency dictated by mileage undertaken, so this could be weekly, fortnightly or monthly depending on how much mileage the vehicle covers. This is in addition to regular servicing and MOTs and hence will ensure that drivers are safe and comfortable in their work and that fleet vehicles are efficient and downtime is minimised.
Ultimately this will improve the bottom line results of the fleet management department, but will also improve driver safety and compliance records. If you require any help or guidance on designing or implementing tyre management plans or mandatory vehicle inspections then contact Total Motion today. We have experts in the field who have worked with many different fleet managers to improve their vehicle maintenance and with tangible results, so get in touch today.
