Kwik Fit, the leading tyre supplier to fleets in the UK, has hosted its inaugural Tyre Insights Day for the industry, with the event attended by key decision makers from industry leading leasing and rental companies.
Attendees at the Kwik Fit Tyre Insight Day experienced a variety of driving conditions. Image: Kwik Fit
Collectively the attendees are responsible for a combined fleet of over 1.5 million vehicles. The event was designed by Kwik Fit to provide information which could help fleets improve safety by reducing accident rates, manage tyre wear across their vehicles and ultimately reduce costs.
The event was held at the MIRA Technology Park near Nuneaton in Warwickshire. This enabled Kwik Fit to not only share the company’s tyre market expertise, but also to offer attendees first hand driving experiences behind the wheel in different conditions – under the safe tutelage of experienced test drivers.
The combination of activity modules in the day’s programme was specifically designed to help inform fleets in their planning, both for the medium and long term. Presentations included discussions on the challenges faced by both vehicle and tyre manufacturers, forthcoming legislation and future vehicle technology. The Kwik Fit tyre experts also covered developments in tyre complexity, both in the context of meeting the widening needs of the ever-changing car parc and in responding to the drive for more sustainable products.
The day also included data from Kwik Fit’s proprietary analysis of current rates of tyre wear, examining the difference between ICE vehicles and EVs. The company has arguably the largest dataset on tyre wear in the UK, with more than 1.2 million observations being added to the data by its analysts each year. This information can be tailored by vehicle type to enable customers to plan for any changes in the profile of their own fleet.
Attendees at the Kwik Fit Tyre Insight Day test straight line wet braking. Image: Kwik Fit
The attendees were able to experience different types of vehicle and different types of tyres for themselves. Tests included comparisons between budget and premium tyres when straight line braking on wet and icy surfaces, as well as the difference in handling on wet and dry roads. Guests were able to feel for themselves the levels of confidence different tyres provided when handling unexpected situations.
Tom Edwards, fleet sales director at Kwik Fit, said: “We’ve already had some great feedback from attendees about the value of the event in providing them with practical information which they can feed into their planning. As Kwik Fit works with a wide range of tyre manufacturers, we are able to provide a sector wide view, rather than focusing on just one brand, and we believe this independent insight is invaluable to decision makers.
“An event like this takes a significant amount of planning and resource, but as the leading tyre provider to fleets in the UK we are aware that we have a lot of information which is useful to fleets, and we were delighted to make that available. We will look to hold these insight events on a regular basis – if anyone is interested in attending a future event we would encourage them to get in contact with our fleet team.”
