What is tyre safety month?
Now in its 14th year, October is National Tyre Safety Month, an initiative run by TyreSafe to raise awareness of the importance of tyre safety.
In 2018 targeted enforcement activity by TyreSafe found:
-1/5 (20%) drivers have never checked their tyres.
-More than 50% of vehicles in the UK are at least 4psi below their recommended pressures.
-27.3% of cars on UK roads have at least one illegal tyre, meaning there could be up to 10 million potentially dangerous vehicles being driven.
Remember - your tyres are the only thing that connect you to the road.
So bad tyres can cost you more than money - they could cost you your life.
How you can ensure your tyres are safe…
Check your tyre pressures at least once a month
About one pound per square inch (PSI) is lost from your tyres each month after you fill them, so you should ideally be checking your vehicles tyre pressure every month to ensure that they are always inflated to their correct pressure. Ensuring appropriate air pressure on your vehicle improves your fuel economy and prevents unnecessary carbon emissions. This is because an under-inflated tyre has a larger footprint, causing more friction between the road and rubber, meaning your engine must work harder to turn the wheels. When your engine needs to work harder to keep the tyres moving, it also produces more emissions into the environment.
If you’re unsure what your vehicles tread depth should be, you can find out here
Make sure you always have sufficient tread depth.
Although the legal tread depth is 1.6mm in the UK, tyres perform better with a tread depth of 3mm or more, so you should consider changing your tyres before they reach this level. The braking distance on wet roads when travelling at 50mph is 25.9m with a new tyre at 8mm tread depth, but that distance is increased to 37.8m with worn tyres at only 1.6mm of tread.
The 20p test reveals whether your tread is below the 1.6mm legal minimum. After placing a 20 pence coin into the main tread grooves of your tyres, the outer rim of the coin should be completely covered by the tread, indicating your tread depth is above the limit. If it isn’t, then you should book your car into a garage for new tyres as soon as possible.
How TCH Leasing helps ensure your tyres are safe…
TCH Assist provides every driver of a TCH Leasing vehicle with direct access to our team of experts who will efficiently and effectively deal with any query you may have. This includes any repair issues you may have or tyre replacements, find out more about TCH Assist here.
In addition to this, we have a long-standing agreement with KwikFit for all our fleet customers to have a tyre inspection and replacement service at any KwikFit location nationwide.
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