Kwik Fit want your tyres

2 minute read  |  April 27, 2017

The legal requirement of a vehicle to change tyres is when the tread depth falls below 1.6mm, bluelight fleets on average change theirs at a tread depth of 2.76mm.

Following a Freedom of Information request made to every police force, fire and rescue and ambulance service in the UK, Kwik Fit discovered that only 16% of the UK’s bluelight services allow tyres on their emergency vehicles to fall below 2.5mm.

Kwik Fit’s study found that ambulance services have the strictest protocols, with 73 per cent having a formal policy. 82 per cent of ambulance fleets either mandate or strongly recommend that tyres are changed at a tread depth of no less than 2.6mm. Fire services and police services also have formal policies, although they only stretch to 68 and 66 per cent of the services respectively.

This isn’t the first time that Kwik Fit have delved deep into the tyre tread discussion, previous research found that 12 per cent of drivers fail to check their tyre tread on a regular basis.

Mixed message

While Kwik Fit may have the best of intentions going into this survey, the fact remains that their position in the discussion is heavily compromised. It would be like McDonalds funding a report into the benefits of milkshakes and discovering that people need more of them!

Emergency service vehicles are held to a higher standard than the average vehicle, for good reason. To compare vehicle maintenance, suggesting that drivers’ fork out even more money on their vehicle is slightly disingenuous of Kwik Fit. It’s like offering a free vehicle health check, and finding hundreds of pounds worth of damage that needs to be repaired.

The only thing Kwik Fit is missing from this piece of content is an offer on tyres!

Do you think tyres should be changed more frequently, or is this a case of Kwik Fit trying to increase tyre sales?

Back to resources