Commercial vehicle operators could prevent thousands of costly punctures on motorways every year in England by checking yards for dangerous debris.
Said to be the first report of its kind, a two-year study into debris-related punctures among Bridgestone customers revealed hundreds of puncture causes that could be easily eradicated.
Utilising overhead satellite heat maps and painstaking daily checks, Bridgestone discovered 504 items of debris across the five customer sites, 200 of which were ‘medium to high risk’ hazards and were the potential sources of puncture-related tyre removals thereafter.
The company is now urging commercial fleets to utilise magnetic road sweepers, driver walkaround checks and daily visual inspections of their yards to significantly reduce the risk of costly punctures.
Tellingly, the depots that didn’t use a road sweeper as part of their housekeeping practices had the highest number of debris collected.
The highest amount of debris accumulated across the five fleets were in the vehicle washing areas, which could be the result of parts becoming dislodged as vehicles were being washed. Considerable debris was also found in loading and unloading bays, which Bridgestone believes could be the result of drivers sweeping debris off their vehicles.
Bridgestone’s north region technical manager Gary Powell, who headed up the Fleet Debris Study, said: “We’re extremely proud of this study, as it gives the biggest insight yet into the risks that are present on forecourts every single day. The aim was to determine the amount of debris present in fleet depots and to ascertain the risk and we believe we have a body of work that removes any ambiguity when it comes to commercial fleet yard management.
“Higher amounts of debris collected at some of the depots inspected could be attributed to the lack of good housekeeping and tyre husbandry practices. It was noted that depots which employed a road-sweeper were successful at significantly reducing the amount of debris and specifically high-risk debris items such as bolts and nails.”
National Highways has welcomed the work to reduce the risk of costly punctures.
Mark Cartwright, head of commercial vehicle incident prevention, said: “Just as charity starts at home then puncture prevention also clearly starts at the yard! This report is so valuable in drawing the attention of truck and van operators and owners to their responsibilities in ensuring they aren’t damaging their tyres before joining our roads. We would strongly encourage operators to ensure their tyre damage isn’t self-inflicted.”
