Tyres that are not kept in good condition will simply not work as efficiently, thus increasing the risk to you and others. Furthermore the tyre life will be shorter, the time to replace them comes round quicker, and your fuel efficiency is reduced, all of which is added expense. It takes at most, 5 minutes to check your tyres – pressure and condition – yet the cost of not doing so could be added expense at best, or a fatality at worst. Surely that makes it time well spent.
If you drive for work using your own car, or a company car, vehicle checks (of which tyres are a part) should be carried out as part of your organisations driving for work policies. Tyre condition extends to more than just the tread depth, so if you were involved in a crash the tyre doesn’t need to be below the legal tread limit for it to be considered a contributory factor in the cause of the crash, an under inflated tyre could as easily be the cause. Failure by an organisation to have adequately monitored management processes can have repercussions on you, the driver, and your employer, who also has a duty of care to ensure the health and safety of its employees and third parties they share the roads with regardless of vehicle ownership. Fleetrisk24 work with many organisations, of all sizes, to help them and their drivers manage such risks.
A final thought that may make all drivers think it is worthwhile checking their tyres. Tyre Safe, one of the UKs leading tyre safety organisations, carried out a survey earlier this year which found that at the time tyres are replaced, more than one in four were below the legal tread limit, meaning those vehicles were being driven illegally. That equates to around 10 million illegal tyres on the road in 2015 and at this very moment one in four cars could be illegal. For each tyre that is, you could receive three penalty points, so, how many points could you get if you were stopped right now? …. Maybe it would be a good time to check.