Research published by Intelligent Car Leasing (ICL) has highlighted a low level of awareness when it comes to vehicle maintenance among the UK's young drivers.

When asked the question 'do you know how to change a tyre?' 54.5% of drivers aged from 18 to 24 said they did not.

The reasons respondents gave for this shortfall in basic motoring skills varied from a lack of need to, as it is easier to simply call out an emergency recovery specialist rather than get one's hands dirty, through to many cars now have run-flat tyres that mean in the event of a puncture, the vehicle will still operate, so they believe this means it does not have to be changed.

This is not the case, with run-flat tyres only supposed to be used for extremely short distances - usually enough to get a vehicle to a garage or other safe place where the tyre can be replaced.

Steve Clarke, group marketing manager at Fuel Card Services, suggested this lack of awareness could prove costly to businesses with drivers in this age bracket: “Making sure that drivers know basic vehicle maintenance could save businesses time and money. A vehicle being off the road for even a short period of time due to a flat tyre is simply unacceptable for most companies."

However, best practice for organisations where people drive on business prohibits any driver from changing a wheel at the roadside and to wait until a technician from a recovery organisation has attended to perform the change themselves.

A statement from ICL read: "Clearly, we can see that in more than half of cases if an 18 to 24-year-old was to find themselves in a situation that required a wheel with a burst tyre to be replaced, they'd need assistance.

"This is in some ways surprising, as anecdotally older drivers have this ability and the skill either hasn't been passed on or learned by younger people yet."

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Author: Fleet News