Consumers steered wrong

Motorists are being duped by incorrect labelling on inferior tyres flooding the market from Asia, which could be putting thousands of lives at risk, a Unite investigation has found.

The government admitted in a response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) that it had undertaken inspections and found tyre labels — which give consumers critical information on tyre performance — that were incorrect.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) responded to the FoI request by saying that it had “inspected four separate sites and found varying degrees of sites not displaying the correct labelling. Advice was provided to the site managers on what should be displayed.”

The DVSA said it would carry out activities to “raise awareness of the regulations” and look “at ways of increasing compliance” but Unite believes this doesn’t go far enough.

EU regulations from 2012 require all tyres to have labels that give information on fuel consumption, wet grip and noise, and are classified between A (highest performing) to G (lowest performing). But Unite has expressed concern that nothing is being done in the UK to enforce these regulations.

The DVSA admission follows an earlier FoI request last month from Unite to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which previously had responsibility for upholding regulations until 2017. The BEIS responded that it had “no statutory powers” to take action if it found tyres had been incorrectly labelled.

Although the DVSA now oversees compliance, it too has no statutory powers to enforce regulations – a glaring loophole that Unite is now calling on the government to close with legislation that gives the DVSA ‘teeth’ to take action including prosecutions.

Unite national officer for the rubber industry Tony Devlin welcomed the fact that the DVSA is investigating incorrect labelling but called the agency’s admission “startling.”

“The DVSA has barely stuck its toe in the water and has already unearthed widespread non-compliance,” he said.

“The government needs to come clean and reveal how serious the tyre mislabelling problems are and who is responsible,” he added. “Is it the manufacturer the supplier or the retailer?

“Awareness raising activities are all very well but if a company is deliberately ignoring the regulations and mislabelling tyres then there needs to be proper enforcement and prosecutions, as drivers lives are being placed in danger.”

‘Steer Well Clear’

Unite Michelin convenor Rob Taylor, who is involved in Unite’s Steer Well Clear campaign which is pressuring the government to take action on cheap Asian tyres flooding the UK market, explained why accurate tyre labels are so important.

“Tyres are an important investment for motorists and consumers deserve to know what they are paying for in terms of performance,” he told UNITElive. “For many people, tyres are a ‘distress buy’ – they find out they need new ones at their MoTs and may be tempted to pay as little as possible.

“But tyre labels – which indicate performance on safety-critical aspects such as stopping power in wet conditions – can often influence buyers to invest in quality tyres. This can in the end be a life-or-death decision, and that’s why it is absolutely vital that tyres are labelled correctly.”

Taylor warned of the dangers of knock-off tyres imported from China and other countries.

“Consumers can’t actually test tyres for themselves but working in the industry I have, and the difference between quality and inferior tyres is stark,” he said. “Cheap imported tyres are much more likely to blow out and what’s more they’re a false economy. You might save money in the short-term but they wear out quickly so you’ll end up spending more in the long-term.”

Cheap imports aren’t recyclable the way quality tyres are, Taylor added, which becomes an environmental issue as well.

Asian tyres are sold well below the cost of production, and so have hit the UK tyre industry, which prides itself in quality tyre production, particularly hard. In the last two years alone, about 1,500 direct jobs have been lost and a further 2,000 jobs have gone in the wider supply chain because of Asian tyre dumping.

Taylor says he wants to see the government stop cheap and dangerous Asian imports completely but in the meantime Unite is campaigning to educate consumers and lobby the government for stronger regulations.

Find out more about Unite’s Steer Well Clear campaign, and the dangers of inferior imported tyres, in the video below: