Taxi Driver Online

Car fitted with worn down tyres approved for taxi license

https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/1828 ... i-license/


Image: Wirral Globe

A campaigner has exposed four North West councils - including Wirral - for issuing licenses for taxis fitted with illegal unmarked and unsafe part worn tyres.

The discovery raises questions about passenger safety and how thorough and safe the UK taxi compliance and licensing procedure is.

John Stone, owner of Stone Tyres and founder of the Independent Tyre Fitters Alliance, purchased a Skoda Octavia and fitted it with four illegal part worn tyres.

He then submitted the vehicle to St Helens, Liverpool, Wirral and Sefton council-approved test centres for a taxi compliance test. Each council’s approved test centre passed the vehicle as safe, despite part worn tyres dating from 1999, 2001 and 2003 being fitted on the taxi.

Furthermore, the fourth tyre was an illegal part worn winter tyre, imported from Germany 10 years ago. No tyres were marked as ‘Part Worn’, as they should be by law, next to the BS or ECE approval mark.

Mr Stone said: “This lack of care from our local councils is appalling and raises serious questions over taxi passenger safety in the North West and indeed across the United Kingdom.

“Part worn tyres are not safe, yet some councils are awarding licenses to vehicles running on illegal and potentially unsafe tyres – it is a disgrace and the licensing of vehicles running illegal part worn tyres needs to be stopped now."

“Full credit to St Helens council as when I approached them with my findings they took the issue with great seriousness and decided there and then that this wouldn’t be allowed to happen again. I’m pleased to say that on the back of this campaign St Helens MBC has already agreed to ban the use of part worn tyres on all licensed vehicles. They should be applauded for such a pragmatic and positive response, which ensures the safety of the public.”

Mr Stone is hopeful that other councils will follow suit.

When approached for comment, a spokesperson for Wirral Council said: “Wirral Council does not issue licences to any vehicle which fails to meet our strict criteria for Private Hire Vehicles, including the requirement that they are not permitted to use tyres which are more than 10 years old and comply with the Motor Vehicle Tyres (Safety) Regulations 1994, as checked by Authorised Testing Stations.

“Wirral Council takes its role in protecting the public very seriously and as a result of the report regarding a vehicle being presented for test with illegal tyres, the Licensing Authority has contacted all of our Authorised Testing Stations to re-iterate the importance of the checks that they carry out on vehicles and reminded them of the existing control measures regarding tyres with respect to licensed vehicles.”

The Motor Vehicle Tyres (Safety) Regulations 1994 govern the sale of part-worn tyres, but these are rarely being adhered to, allowing unsafe and illegal tyres to flood the UK’s part worn tyre market.

The National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) which represents national and independent tyre distributors across the UK, recently reiterated its call for an outright ban on part worn tyres due to safety concerns.

NTDA chief executive Stefan Hay said: “As we have advised the DfT on a number of occasions part worn tyres should not be fitted to vehicles, full stop.

"John has exposed a serious flaw in taxi licensing testing procedures in not one, but four, areas in the North West and we are extremely concerned that the practice is nationwide. The combined age of those four different makes of tyre was 67 years old, they had illegal repairs, different speed ratings and no part worn mark, this really is beyond belief!

"John is to be applauded for the incredible work he has done to expose this shocking situation, but it is appalling that it has taken his personal efforts to uncover such apathy towards passenger safety.

“Inspections carried out over several years into the sale of part worn tyres have shown serious safety breaches, including dangerous and unsafe repairs, exposed cords, bead damage and evidence of runflat damage. We call on these councils to review their procedures without delay.”

John has set up a website and petition to ban part worn tyres: http://www.banpartworntyres.com/

What was illegal about the tyres? Was it just that they had been purchased as part worn but not marked as such or were they under the minimum tread depth? Unless a tyre is brand new at the time of the test then it is by definition "part worn" but that doesn't make it illegal.
If we are going to say that the tyres were only illegal because they did not say that they were purchased as part worn then the illegal act was actually carried out by the person who knowingly submitted the vehicle to be tested. In my opinion.

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Grandad,

Haven't been through all this with a fine tooth comb, but had a quick read and look at the video via the website link, and the illegality seems to be with respect to:

- the tyres aren't marked 'part worn' as required by law;

- a couple of the tyres have illegal sidewall repairs;

- at least one of the councils bans tyres older than the age indicated on the tyres

It's certainly an interesting thing. Apart from the age aspect, not really sure how the councils could have picked up the fact that the tyres were unmarked 'part worn', or that they had illegal sidewall repairs.

On the website they have a list of councils which have already banned the use of part worn tyres, and obviously the campaigners are hoping others will follow suit, but I'm not sure how that would change what happened with regard to the dummy tests - even if a council has banned part worn tyres, how can they detect them if they're not legally marked? The councils listed as having banned part worns presumably wouldn't have picked these up anyway? Seems that the problem is with whoever is supplying and fitting such tyres, and it's difficult for councils to do anything about it.

As for any illegality on the part of the campaigners, that's maybe a fair point, although no doubt they would cite a public interest defence.

Seems a huge effort to go to, though, to expose this - I mean, presumably they had to apply for licences with each council, take the car for testing, they've got those council stickers on the motor, blah, blah?

I wonder if they're involved in the 'settle' car rental side of the trade?

The tyres are usually stamped with a small circle stating ‘part worn’ easily rubbed away. Which is what I suspect the guy has done.

Also the person who sold the tyres committed an offence,the vehicle from reading the article was presented by someone in the tyre trade and in all probability could be charged for using an non-roadworthy vehicle on a public highway,the article itself is sufficient evidence of proof.