One in five breakdowns caused by tyre failure

National Highways launches mobile tyre-management station

One in five breakdowns caused by tyre failure

Under-inflation has been found to be a major cause of tyre failure, a National Highways investigation has revealed.

One in five breakdowns on the strategic road network is caused by tyre failure: that’s 50,000 tyre-related breakdowns every year, with 30 per cent of these involving commercial vehicles.

Under-inflation causes vehicles to handle less precisely and increases stopping distances and fuel consumption.

National Highways has now invested in a mobile tyre safety station which it has been lending to operators of major fleets.

The tyre technology can be installed at any point on a site where vehicles cross, such as entrances and exits.

It combines sensors with vision technology and sophisticated software algorithms to read tyre pressure, tread depths and axle weight for vehicles up to 7.5t.

Any unsafe reading is immediately flagged to the transport manager for fixing.

Vehicles drive over the station, which can inspect up to 1,000 vehicles a day, and readings take less than 10 seconds.

Assistant project manager at National Highways CV incident prevention team Anthony Thorpe said: “The mobile tyre safety station has tested more than 28,000 vehicles, and 112,000 individual tyres.

“12,000 of the vehicles inspected had a tyre inflation issue, with over 4,000 severely under-inflated.

“23,000 individual tyres needed attention, and 7,500 required urgent attention.

“All of the vehicles we have tested so far with the mobile technology product belong to operators with excellent tyre management policies.

“It’s clear that vehicles benefit from being checked day-by-day because tyre pressure can alter quickly between even frequent inspections.”

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