Fleet Risk Consultants

You know the scenario, you are driving to an important meeting and travelling down the road you hear the slap, slap of a flat tyre. What do you do? Or perhaps more importantly, what should your staff do if they have a flat tyre?

Do you allow your staff to change the wheels on their vehicles in the event of a puncture?

If you do, you could be giving yourself a potential headache for the future.

Some of the newer vehicles on the market do not even have spare wheels, they are fitted with ‘run-flat’ tyres, which in my opinion are safer than standard tyres insomuch that you can continue driving at a reduced speed to a safe place before stopping. They also reduce the risk of collision in the event of an instantaneous failure or ‘blow-out’ of the tyre.

For those of us with standard tyres, the issues caused by a flat tyre are a little more involved. Most new cars are fitted with alloy wheels rather than steel ones and the refitting of wheel nuts to an alloy wheel requires certain equipment not provided with the vehicle by the manufacturers. The changing of wheels also needs to be done by a competent person. More so if it is by the side of a road. The side of the road is a really dangerous place, and as the speed of the road increases so do the dangers.

Based on all the evidence and considering the legislation, you should be prohibiting the changing of wheels by your drivers on a number of grounds.

1. They are not trained to change wheels, so if the wheel subsequently falls of, who will be liable. As a Provider of the vehicle and the tools you could be prosecuted under the Provision of Work Equipment Regulations (1998)
2. They do not have the correct equipment. Jacks provided with cars are usually quite basic and none of the vehicles has a torque wrench issued by the manufacturer, despite one being a necessity for alloy wheels.
3. The side of a road is a highly dangerous place.

My advice to you is to call out the professional tyre companies who have mobile vans that are properly equipped to sort out your problem in a way that is both safe and competently done.

Nigel Grainger

Senior Consultant

Fleet Risk Consultants

I thought I would give a Risk Management perspective on the recent discussion about the plans to extend the use of the Hard Shoulder of Motorways in the UK as a live running lane during busy periods.

The way the system works is this.  The existing Hard Shoulder is upgraded to a running lane standard and periodic lay-byes are created as safety zones.  Then overhead signs are added to allow variable speed management and running lane management, as series of cameras are added to allow total coverage of the road.  Cameras are also installed to allow the management of the new variable speed limits.

Once all of these measures are in place they are now in a position to use the hard shoulder as a live lane when the traffic volumes warrant it.  At this point the speeds are all lowered to a maximum of 60 mph, but usually 50 mph.  This allows an increased volume of traffic at a reduced speed and uses all of the available road surface.

There are some risks to this operation as the Hard Shoulder has historically been a place to stop in an emergency, it has never been a safe place to stop though!  Under the new system the ability to stop in an emergency is still available, but the road controllers need to be vigilant so they can close that lane to running traffic.

Overall I think the idea is a good one and the trial on the M42 in the Midlands has been a success.  It also means that we do not have to remove more of the countryside on each side of the existing motorways to gain an increase in vehicle capacity.

Nigel Grainger

Senior Consultant

Fleet Risk Consultants