Winter tyres: can increase your van’s grip levels

Kwik-Fit Fleet launches new cold weather tyre programme

DID YOUR business suffer in the snow last winter because your van was unable to move in the white stuff? Or, worse, suffered a prang because of the icy conditions – and started hearing all those good things about winter tyres and how they coped with adverse conditions?

If so, now is the time to start planning for winter driving – and to stay mobile should we have another winter white-out.

Kwik-Fit Fleet, the fast-fit specialist, is launching a special winter tyre programme for the first time. As part of the offering there’s a ‘hotel’ facility to store your summer tyres when the weather is at its severest.

The storage facility sees all summer tyres removed, packed, labelled and stored for each company car in Kwik-Fit Fleet’s Northamptonshire National Distribution Centre for £40. In the spring, the summer tyres will be returned to each customer’s centre of choice for fitment with the winter tyres removed and stored until required again.

Peter Lambert, sales director for Kwik-Fit Fleet, commented: “Companies wanting to fit winter tyres to their vans should contact us now and we will arrange for the correct tyres to be delivered to their centre of choice for fitment at a pre-booked time. A similar service is available when the weather improves to refit the summer tyres.”

Why winter tyres?

Winter tyres, which are composed of more rubber and less silicone so they don’t harden so much when it is cold, work best in temperatures under seven degrees.

Winter tyres have wider grooves which have greater grip in snow and slush and more sideways grooves to give more edges and contact with the road surface.

All of which means shorter braking distances, which reduce the risk of a crash: at 20 mph a vehicle equipped with winter tyres will stop 11 metres sooner on icy roads than if fitted with summer tyres; at 30 mph the braking distance on snowy roads is reduced by eight metres.