Specifying premium tyres is an approach which large corporate fleet take and Lorna McAtear, fleet commercial vehicle manager at E.on, says she won’t be changing her policy as a result of tyre labelling.

“We have always had premium tyres and we will still specify them when ordering new vehicles or replacing tyres when they wear out,” she says.

Driver communication

The issue McAtear has is educating drivers about tyre labelling. She points out that in the past a premium tyre was simply a premium tyre but, as of November 1, one premium tyre might be rated ‘B, B, 72’ and another might be rated ‘B, C, 71’.

Both are still good tyres but drivers might not recognise that unless it is communicated correctly.

Androulla Sofroniou, procurement manager at Hanson, agrees: “We might get drivers saying, ‘this is a C rating, why can’t I have an A rating? This is my own safety’.”

McAtear and her fleet colleagues have been holding forums with line managers and other key stakeholders to help educate drivers.

Education needs to include tyre maintenance. There is little point in specifying a premium tyre with a good tyre labelling rating if the vehicle is being driven on under-inflated tyres.

Similarly, having a mix of tyres would negate the benefit.

So will the tyre label be largely ignored by fleets? The general view is that it won’t radically change fleets’ tyre-decision making, although Dolby argues: “It is still too early to determine if, or how, buying trends will change because of tyre labels.”

Watts agrees: “It will probably be a good 12 months before people are used to measuring the different products.”

Fairlie points out that larger fleets often sign three- or four-year tyre contracts, so the full impact of labelling may not be felt immediately.

But all agree that tyre labelling is welcome and that it does mark the start of greater transparency.

Future changes

An impact assessment will be carried out in 2015 with the possibility of criteria for winter tyres being introduced as well as other areas, such as longevity.

“The tyre label is not going to go away, the EU will only add to it,” Watts says.

“Mileage will come eventually and once you have rolling resistance, wet braking and mileage you can start to do some spreadsheet calculations on what the knock-on effect of tyre choice will be for the total tyre cost and fuel consumption.”

Arguably fleet operators will have to wait until more criteria is measured before they see the real benefit of tyre labelling.