Most businesses use company vehicles, whether it is for delivering materials, picking up supplies, offering mobile business services, or for other uses. When you are using a company vehicle, you depend on the vehicle to get you where you need to go safely. Part of keeping your vehicle safe is proper tire safety and maintenance. If you fail to perform regular maintenance checks of your vehicle’s tires it can cause an auto accident, from mild to severe. The Rubber Manufacturer Association recommends that you check your tires, including your spare tire, at least once a month.
Maintain Proper Tire Pressure
One of the most important aspects of proper tire safety and maintenance is to maintain proper tire pressure and avoid under inflation. When your tires are not inflated to capacity, it can cause a number of issues including increased risk of accidents from loss of control, and wear and tear on the tires which may cause you to replace tires more frequently. To find out how much air needs to be in your tires, look on the side of one of the tires for the PSI number, or per square inch tire pressure. The number indicated is how much you should fill up the tire with air, which you can check with a tire gauge. Check your tires when they are cool, preferably at least once a month and always before taking a long trip.
Ensure Tire Alignment
The tire alignment of your tires is also important to check once a month, though you may notice a problem without checking. If while driving, the vehicle seems to be shaking more than normal, pulling to one side over the other, or just seems off; it may be due to misalignment. Aside from making driving more difficult, misaligned tires can cause more stress and wear to them, increasing your risk of an accident as well as increasing the frequency at which you have to replace them. If your company vehicle is a front-wheel drive vehicle, then all four wheels will need to be aligned.
Get Tires Rotated
While general maintenance and care of your company’s vehicle’s tires is important on a monthly basis, you only need to get the tired rotated every 5,000 miles, or when your tire manufacturer recommends it. Your mechanic will be able to rotate your tires during the tune up process or for a nominal fee if you have driven more than the recommend number of miles.
Ensure Tread is Adequate
The tread on your tires is extremely important and one of the things vehicle owners often forget about until it’s too late. You not only want to visually inspect the tread of your tires often, but measure the tread as well. Without proper tread, you are increasing the risk of an accident exponentially. The thread should be over 2/32 of an inch, but may need to be higher depending on your state’s inspection requirements. Once the tire reach below this minimum measurement, they need to be replaced. Another easy way to check the tread is to hold a penny against the tire with the top of Lincoln’s head in a groove on the tire tread. If you can see all of his head, it’s time to replace your tires.
Committing to proper tire safety and maintenance will help you to avoid unnecessary accidents and frequent replacing of the tires when it’s not necessary. As tires are an expensive purchase, you don’t want to have to buy them more often than what is necessary for safe driving.
