June 19

Press Release

Tyre labelling should change fleet buying habits, says CFC

New compulsory tyre labelling is likely to have a dramatic effect on fleet buying habits in a very short space of time, says CFC Solutions.

The fleet software specialist says that the EU labelling – showing fuel economy, wet weather braking and tyre noise – will provide fleets with easily available, independent information on tyre performance for the first time when it takes effect in November.

Neville Briggs, managing director at CFC, said: “Tyre companies have been quick to point out that some key tyre performance factors, notably longevity, are not part of the labelling and, to some extent, they have a point.

“However, fleets are very likely to start rating and specifying tyres based on the information that is available to them and the labelling system will inevitably play quite an important part in buying decisions.”

The labels will rate tyre performance on an A-G scale, similar to that used in other EU labelling schemes such as domestic appliances, and this will provide fleets with an easy-to-use set of parameters.

Briggs said: “Fleets may start to specify tyres that only have an A or B rating for fuel economy and wet weather braking, in the same way that they may currently have a policy that says any car on their choice list must have four or five NCAP stars.

“Certainly, it would make sense to align the tyre ratings in some way with existing fleet risk management and environmental policies. It may be that, quite quickly, fleets stop using tyres that do not score highly altogether.”

About Licence Link

Free to adopt, Licence Link is designed to help employers simplify the routine task of regularly checking car and van driver licence information through a web based system - something made essential by the introduction of risk management legislation.

Once basic driving licence information is entered onto Licence Link, fleet managers can choose how often automatic checks are made with the DVLA database – for example, annually for low mileage drivers or more often for high mileage, high risk employees.

Risk summary reports will automatically group drivers into different levels of risk group – for example, those with 1-3, 4-7, 8-12 and 12 plus points, and Licence Link can be set up so that those with higher numbers of points are checked more often.

Automatic alerts are sent to the fleet manager if the DVLA checks show changes to endorsements, the categories of vehicle that an employee is allowed to drive or if there are critical licence events such as disqualification or a photo card expiring.

Further features in Licence Link include the ability to upload and store document scans against each driver record, such as an image of each driver’s licence and driver declarations. These files are held online and encrypted for security purposes.

Access to Licence Link is via a credit payment scheme. To run checks, a company buys credits in advance and as each licence check is made, the system displays the credits remaining, providing a constant balance reminder for the fleet manager.

About CFC Solutions

CFC Solutions has supplied fleet, contract hire and workshop management solutions for more than three decades, delivering ground breaking vehicle management software to UK and European blue chip customers.

A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a holder of the ISO27001 data protection accreditation, CFC Solutions employs leading edge technologies guaranteed to keep pace over time, providing customers with fleet compliance, time and cost savings.

Further information on products and services from CFC Solutions can be found at www.cfcsolutions.co.uk.

For further details about this press release please contact Simon Wells at Paperchase Public Relations on 01283 711311/07768 912430 or e-mail simon@paperchasepr.co.uk.