Harsh winter weather can hamper a business’s ability to get on the road and is therefore a threat to the bottom line. But one solution to ensure that a company continues to make a profit in poor conditions is to consider the use of winter tyres.
They have been increasingly talked about and bought into in recent times, largely off the back of perceived tougher conditions and, while it isn’t yet the time to be reaching for scarves and gloves, is now the time you need to be weighing up your options for a winter tyre package?
If the worst-case scenario is to be believed, you may have already missed the boat. In an ideal world, fleet operators would tee them up much earlier in the year, as head of technical policy at the Institute of Advanced Motorists, Tim Shallcross, explains: “They really need to be thinking about it a bit earlier because tyre manufacturers assess the market in late spring.”
Dave Crinson, national sales manager for car fleets at Michelin, also thinks fleets need to act sooner rather than later: “People should be thinking about them from the previous winter. We have to produce and fit them so we really need the order by March.
“It’s sometimes tricky to get them, particularly if they’re rare sizes or on big, posh cars. Somebody coming in [with a fleet order] now would struggle to get them, and that’s not just the case with us, it applies to all the other tyre companies as well.”
That said, tyre firms aren’t naive enough to assume that every business car operator is going to be on the ball enough to book their next batch of winter rubber six months before they need it. Ordering early is preferable, particularly if your fleet has specialist requirements, but if more conventional types and sizes of tyre are required, then it should be possible to get hold of them towards the end of the year, as the weather turns.
Tristan Campbell, fleet advisor for drinks business Chivas Brothers and secretary for ACFO’s Scottish region, tells BusinessCar: “September, October is about right. I’ve heard evidence of people looking at it in June, July, August, but I’ve never had any problems waiting until September, October or even sometimes November, but that all depends on what type of vehicle you’re putting the tyres on. A lot of fleets have a blanket policy, so if you’ve got a BMW 5-series and larger cars like that then it may be harder.”
As usual, the cost of winter tyres is what’s likely to be the one thing that puts operators off more than anything. As good and vital as the benefits are in certain cases, there is a big price tag attached, and it’s not just a case of buying and fitting the rubber – there’s storage of the summer tyres, the cost of swapping back when the weather improves as well as other factors to consider.
Peter Lambert, director at Kwik-Fit Fleet, adds: “You’ve also got to take into account when that car’s registered and when the tyres change around that – so you might end up running a car on one set for four months before it’s defleeted. You then have to take into account how much rubber is left on the tyres when the vehicle is defleeted.”
Crinson adds: “It’s probably about £30 a set for the switchover but the exact figure is up to the distributor and will vary depending on the fleet size. Kwik-Fit store all theirs at their distribution centre and ATS actually store them in their fitting centres. Yes, there is a cost to store them.but by doing that a customer is getting his tyres checked every six months then it’s another safety check that would not take place normally.”
It is possible to order winter tyres as a fixed-cost bundle – Ogilvie Fleet, for example, offers such a package – but, as BusinessCar revealed in its 20 August issue, it’s a practice that isn’t widely adopted within the leasing industry, largely because of the cost but also because of the complications involved with switchover times, particularly if vehicle contracts are extended even for a short amount of time.
Lambert adds: “It really is a complicated and a very expensive process. That’s why, with the leasing industry in the UK, it’s a case of ‘we’ll quote on application’ and charge for tyres outside of the contract hire agreement, because it’s a complicated arrangement.
“Now, with commercial vehicles, lots of fleets are putting winter tyres on all-year round [to keep vans moving in winter and to save on tyre storage costs], and it also happens on cars. I haven’t heard of any adverse impact in terms of wear or handling, so the jury’s out.”
Campbell’s fleet is one of those that has resorted to fitting winter rubber for 12 months a year, as he believes it’s the most straightforward solution for his CVs.
“We’ve ordered our last batch of vans with winter tyres fitted, so every time it visits Kwik-Fit they have to have them. that’s not ideal because then they’re fitted all year and they’re not as efficient or as environmentally friendly.”
The tyre companies would no doubt love it if the fleet industry adopted winters across the board, but the non-biased – including those who pay for and operate them – do not believe they’re essential fodder. The overriding consensus is that businesses operating vehicles that absolutely have to be out in all weathers – blue-light fleets, service engineers etc – need to be on winter tyres because they will see the benefits.
Shallcross explains: “Companies like BT, with its engineers, and ambulance services – there is categorically a definite benefit to them.”
Those who can survive without hitting the road for the occasional day should do without them, though. Shallcross continues: “There is a growing move within the tyre industry of ‘unless we all fit winters in October, we’re going to end up in a ditch’. If the rubber starts to harden at seven degrees then at what stage does it become noticeable to most drivers? Will it actually make a serious difference to a driver on the M3 in September? The answer is obviously ‘no’.”
Campbell adds: “We only put winter tyres on our fleet based in the north of Scotland because only then is it worth it. If someone in London is snowed in for four days a year then it’s not worth it. [We have them on] Hilux 4x4s, maintenance vans, Vauxhall Combos – that sort of thing. Some pool cars up north would get them but only when they’re essential users.
“If [staff] end up working from home for a couple of days then it’s not going to do them any harm to sit in the house and catch up with some paperwork. Most company drivers don’t need them.”
Despite his assertions that it’s only essential user fleets that should consider winter tyres, Shallcross surmises that there are reputational issues at stake for delivery companies that need to do their job even when the weather is bad, so specialist rubber can be worthwhile in this case.
“Generally, we’re seeing a massive increase in delivery vans prompted by internet sales. For them, it’s well worth considering, otherwise you’ve got a reputational issue. People might not go to work [because of the snow] but they still expect a parcel to be delivered. It makes sense providing your mileage is high enough and you’re going to be making good use of the tyres.”
How do they work
Contrary to popular belief, winter tyres don’t simply prove their worth when the snow hits. At 7°C – or a common enough crisp UK morning – the rubber of a conventional summer tyre will start to harden, which makes it less effective in terms of grip, so braking distances and general performance can be hampered.
Winter tyres are made up of different rubber compounds that are specifically designed to cope with low temperatures and handle wet, snowy and icy surfaces. They also have distinct tread patterns and a greater number of grooves than summer tyres, which allow more water/ice/snow to move into the crevices of the tyre, meaning there’s more rubber in contact with the road surface than there would be with a set of summers. The upshot of that is better grip and less chance of aquaplaning over puddles and standing water on the road.
Michelin says that braking distances can be massively compromised when a driver slams on the anchors with summer tyres in very cold weather. The firm claims that a vehicle on summer tyres will need an additional 31m to stop in the snow – 63m in total – while an equivalent vehicle fitted with winter rubber will need 32m.
National sales manager for car fleets at Michelin, Dave Crinson, tells BusinessCar: “We’ve got to get across to people that it’s under this temperature band that they start working. We do the swap over in October on all our own cars.
“They should be fitted in October time when the temperature drops to seven degrees – not when there’s snow all over the roads. Part of the problem is the attitude – we in this country want them when we see a heap of snow.”
