Tyre Pressure and the Importance

We wrote last week about Horsebox license training and I thought I would carry on from last week’s blog due to the response we had with comments and questions so I done my research on tyre pressure and the importance of this.

Highways England have said there is a big problem with tyre pressure on the UK roads and is becoming even more dangerous than what it is already anyway. The research done is that one in every four cars has one tyre that is flat and dangerous, and also that HGV’s are driving with at least one flat tyre at any given time in the UK.

The results shown and that our out there this is not good at all, as anyone will know about tyre pressure if the tyre is at a level that it looks odd it is dangerous and will need to be taken care of straight away, This is whether it is a Car-Horsebox or Tipper lorry tyre pressure is paramount to safety.

Recent research done from Highways England looked at earlier research that showed how bad things are in a more grim way. Research from tyre safe found that 10millions vehicles on the roads are driving on UK roads that have dangerously low tyre pressure and tread levels this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Highways England teamed up with Wheelright and Welcome break to tackle tyre pressure and treads on vehicles traveling on parts of the M6, A system was put in place that was capable of measuring vehicles tyres as they drove by, the system was located on motorway services near Staffordshire. Wheelright has been offering tyre pressure checks on HGV’s for free since the system came in to action.

The CEO of Wheelright said to HGV UK that his company had “taken in the region of a thousand tyre pressure readings and collated some shocking statistics which showed the true extent of tyre neglect on ours roads. As many as 1,500 very serious accidents each year were directly connected to flat tyres and tyrer pressure which is shocking. Following this 20% of the breakdowns on the roads were also a result of tyre and wheel issues.

Tyres and Checks on vehicles

HGV lorry drivers and Bus drivers in the UK have to check tyres before the start of shift on their daily walk around checks, this is to find problems straight away so that the large commercial HGV vehicles do not get on the roads in bad condition that would then lead to accidents and just dangerous roads in general. With checking tyre pressure this is a required part of walk around checks, and is a great idea that should really be carried out all the time every time.

As for horsebox and caravan drivers are not required to have special commercial driving license, but routine tyre checks are still necessary. The unfortunate thing is most people take tyres for granted until it’s too late and then something goes wrong. Statistic from research reports does make us wonder how many accidents and breakdowns could have been avoided completely if more time and attention had been paid towards our tyres.

Here at HGV Driver Training Centre we encourage people to pay more attention to all safety aspects big and small at all times no matter what Tyres being one of the main look outs. It doesn’t matter if you drive a Horsebox or HGV lorry or even a passenger car make sure you do the checks, Just that little time to do the safety checks could be the little time that saves an accident/breakdown being caused and for safer UK roads.