New compulsory tyre labelling is likely to have a dramatic effect on fleet buying habits in a very short space of time, says CFC Solutions.
The fleet software specialist says that the EU labelling – showing fuel economy, wet weather braking and tyre noise – will provide fleets with easily available, independent information on tyre performance for the first time when it takes effect in November.
Neville Briggs, managing director at CFC, said: “Tyre companies have been quick to point out that some key tyre performance factors, notably longevity, are not part of the labelling and, to some extent, they have a point.
“However, fleets are very likely to start rating and specifying tyres based on the information that is available to them and the labelling system will inevitably play quite an important part in buying decisions.”
The labels will rate tyre performance on an A-G scale, similar to that used in other EU labelling schemes such as domestic appliances, and this will provide fleets with an easy-to-use set of parameters.
Briggs said: “Fleets may start to specify tyres that only have an A or B rating for fuel economy and wet weather braking, in the same way that they may currently have a policy that says any car on their choice list must have four or five NCAP stars.
“Certainly, it would make sense to align the tyre ratings in some way with existing fleet risk management and environmental policies. It may be that, quite quickly, fleets stop using tyres that do not score highly altogether.”
Login to comment
Comments
No comments have been made yet.