How To Reduce Road Congestion: It's Not What You Think!

As a lorry driver, maintenance of your vehicle should be one of your primary concerns. After all, your vehicle is your livelihood and if you suffer any downtime while fulfilling your transport contracts due to mechanical or safety issues, the effects come straight out of your own pocket.

Tyre Maintenance and Road Congestion

While it may seem incredible, one of the leading causes of congestion on our motorways in the UK is not the poor state of the roads, but the poor state of the tyres that use them! Tyre related issues like blowouts and under-inflation can affect traffic flow by leaving drivers stuck on the road, with traffic piling up behind them. Of course this then causes a knock-on effect, with expensive breakdown call-out charges and the possibility of jeopardising transport contracts over missed deadlines or failure to deliver goods.

The impact on the UK economy is huge and it's a frustrating problem for the logistics industry because such disruptions are so easily preventable. Many drivers' problems can be put down to tyre issues (65% of HGV drivers polled had suffered some kind of tyre related issue while on the job), including poor maintenance and incorrect pressure.

WheelRight Gets it Right

But help is definitely at hand for busy drivers and fleet managers, because one tyre management solution is making life a whole lot easier.

WheelRight is an innovative technology system that allows quick and easy monitoring of tyre pressure on a daily basis. Using the system not only helps reduce fuel consumption, but it also causes minimal disruption to transport contracts and provides vast improvements in safety.

How Does It Work?

It couldn't be quicker or easier, and the real beauty of WheelRight lies in its convenience to the driver – negating downtime on transport contracts and requiring very little effort at all.

Where the patented system is installed, all you have to do is pull in to the services and drive over the WheelRight system to measure and record your vehicle's tyre pressures. The next step is to select your number plate from the touch screen (you don’t need to get out of the lorry) to see your personal data. If your tyres are underinflated or overinflated you can rectify it immediately, but if all is well, you simply drive on.

The cloud-based drive-over technology affords a very simple solution to a highly complex issue, and WheelRight's vision is to contribute significantly to both global road safety and environmental protection with their "high quality, high value service to customers in all sectors of road transport."

The system has proved popular where it has been installed, with 90% of drivers surveyed saying they would use the WheelRight system at least once a month to supplement their daily checks and 95% rating the system "9 out of 10 for accuracy and ease of use."

Make It a Habit

As a driver, it's your responsibility to conduct your own daily "walk-around" to ensure the maintenance of your vehicle, including the all-important tyre pressure, is up to scratch. But revolutionary systems like WheelRight are contributing to making the best practice in tyre management far easier, and the commitment to the use of this technology has the potential to lead to significant improvements on our UK roads.

Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the leading online trade network for the road transport industry. Connecting logistics professionals across the UK and Europe through their website, Haulage Exchange provides services for matching available drivers with transport contracts. Over 4,500 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.