The Automotive Blog

Gloucestershire Council released a statement on their website highlighting Safe Driving while at work.

There is a legal duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to ensure as far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of all employees while at work. Employers and employees also have a duty to ensure that others are not put at risk by work related driving activities.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work regulations 1999 also apply and require that risk assessment are undertaken for activities with significant risks, and that effective management controls are put in place and implemented.

When considering driving safety there are also a number of road traffic laws to take into account, including the Road Traffic Act.

This document details how managers should manage occupational driving and details staff (driver) responsibilities. It explains the processes to be followed in evaluating the risks associated with driving at work and the control measures that need to be in place to mitigate those risks, which include driver familiarisation and training, driver documentation checking etc.

X-Driven is an ideal tool to prove who is a Safe Driver, simply sitting on your dashboard or attaching to your windscreen the X-Driven is powered by the cigarette lighter or can be fully wired into the vehicle cab. The X-Driven will record and store data for any sudden ‘shock’ movements such as harsh braking, vehicle impacts or excessive acceleration. The X-Driven can also be dismounted and carried to record damage at the rear of the vehicle or general accident information such as loading or delivering damage.

aide automotive ltd promote safe driving through all its own fleet and UK companies.

The United States Senate have  invited Advantage PressurePro to Washington to take part in a Green Jobs Leadership Summit.  Claire McCaskill one of Obama’s advisors invited Advantage PressurePro to represent the state of Missouri as a business with Green credentials.

aide automotive are the European supplier for PressurePro, taking the guesswork out of tyre pressure monitoring.

Scott Benbow, product manager at Continental Tyres, answers some frequently-asked questions.

How do I know what the correct tyre pressures are?

The correct tyre pressures for your vehicle will be found in the vehicle handbook and in some cases inside the vehicle – such as on the pillar of the driver’s door.

Read more at Fleet News.

Also aide automotive offer AirAlert the ideal product to check tyre pressures.

ASDA have recently been featured on saving money through fuel economy performance.

A massive 23 % reduction in fuel use is providing ASDA with great standing with customer relations and environmental challenges.

You can see a full viedo artice at the BBC official website.

aide automotive also strive to promote fuel reduction, using tyre pressure monitoring devices helps reduce fuel usage and again help reduces environmental impacts.

Anti siphon device are also an excellent product to stop fuel theft.

The April issue of Commercial Vehicle Workshop features aide automotive in an article explaining the new Health and Safety (offences) Act. The article talks about the new law and how the maximum penalty has increased to £20,000 from £5,000 and an imprisonment of up to 6 months. 

This new act emphasises the need for businesses to demonstrate that they have health and safety procedures in place. Such as regular tyre pressure monitoring and brake tests. aide automotive has three products that can assist . BrakeCheck is an inspection sheet tester, designed for testing and reporting on brake efficency. For tyre pressure monitoring PressurePro and Air Alert are the answer.

The May issue of Caravan has a article describing AirAlert the excellent tyre pressure monitoring device for cars, vans, motorhomes and commercial vehicles.

AirAlert is as a stand device or as an anti theft version, to install check the pressure of the tyre, once set to the correct pressure screw the AirAlert on to the valve, once on the AirAlert will be calibrated to the pressure of the tyre.

When AirAlert sees a drop of 4 PSI a distinctive blink will flash until the valve is removed, the pressure is reset and the AirAlert is returned to the valve.

For more information go to to AirAlert at the aide automotive website.

Link to the aide automotive website.

Link to Caravan Magazine.

ATS recently conducted analysis on it’s business that highlighted alarming statistics on tyres.

Over 25% of commercial vehicles inspected showed faulty tyres.  A quarter of vehicles were driving with faulty tyres. This goes to demonstrate that monitoring tyres and in particular tyre pressure on a  regular basis helps eliminate the risk of accidents occuring. 

aide automotive’s PressurePro product helps eliminates the need to check tyre pressure on a  regular basis as the monitor does it for you. Alerting the driver when any of the tyres falls below the recommended PSI.

Since tougher penalties have been introduced when the Heath and Safety Offences Act 2008 was introduced with minimum fines being raised from £5,000 to £20,000 and sentences starting at 6 months imprisonment, companies should seriously consider testing their brakes and monitoring the tyres of their vehicles on a regular basis. By demonstrating that a business has undertaken regular checks should alleviate any blame in the event of an accident taking place. However Fleet News believe there is still a lack of understanding of the new laws and the Corporate Manslaughter Act.

Daily walkround check or first use inspection

The check should consist of a walkround look over the whole vehicle or combination. The check should cover the external condition, ensuring in particular that the lights, tyres, wheel fixings, bodywork, trailer coupling, load and ancillary equipment are serviceable. Assistance may be required at some time during the inspection, for example to see that lights are working. A check of wheel nuts must be included as part of a driver’s inspection routine, if wheel trims are fitted, they will have to be removed in order to allow access. Loose wheel nuts feature regularly in the issue of prohibitions (PG9s) and are an obvious and potentially fatal road safety hazard.

Preventative Maintenance Inspections (PMI)

You must also ensure that vehicles are subject to preventative maintenance inspections (PMIs) in line with the time basis specified in your maintenance contract. Your PMI regime must include brake testing. Advice from the Vehicle Operator Services Agency (VOSA) states that reliable brake testing will require access to either a decelerometer or (preferably) a brake roller tester, the latter being available for public use at all goods vehicle testing stations subject to a nominal axle fee.
Operators who do not implement a full maintenance regime, but rely instead on annual test presentations as their main inspection indicator, will be reported to the Traffic Commissioner for non-compliance with an important undertaking attached to their licence. A poor annual test pass rate is indicative of an inadequate forward planning maintenance system.

Link to Transport Friends for further info: CLICK HERE

Quarry Management Magazine (April 2009)  features the tougher penalties issues raised by aide automotive. Find out more at Quarry Management or for more information on products that help businesses overcome issues such as faulty tyres or brakes visit aide automotive.