Drive to get tire-labelling rules to stick in UK, Europe

London – Tire retailers in the UK are being urged to provide better guidance on tire labelling at the point of sale in a new national campaign to increase compliance with the rating scheme for rolling resistance, wet-grip and noise-generation.

The National Measurement and Regulation Office (NMRO) announced on 25 June that it had developed a plan to reach more than 95 percent of tire retailers in the country.

The initiative is being carried out in partnership with the National Tyre Distributor’s Association and the Tyre Industry Federation, said the NMRO, which enforces EU tire labelling legislation throughout the UK.

The main focus of the plan, said NMRO, is to increase compliance with the tire labelling legislation in small to medium enterprises.

Under the EU regulations, retailers must, for example, inform customers about tire labelling and ensure that at the point of sale, all tires carry a sticker displaying the relevant information prior to purchase.

“The NMRO seeks to encourage and assist compliance, and promote growth by simplifying technical regulations to the benefit of UK businesses,” the company noted.

The campaign follows an agreement by the European Commission to assign “several millions of euros” to carry out physical compliance testing in order to confirm the validity of tire manufactures’ performance labels.

According to a report by the Imported Tire Manufacturers Association (ITMA) in May, brand selection and testing will be carried out in the second half of 2015.

Giving its “cautious support” to the decision, ITMA said it had “severe concerns” over the brand-selection process and asked for “genuinely random” testing.

The UK-based body also voiced its concerns regarding traceability of tires, calling on the responsible agency to “takes steps to ascertain the provenance of the tires purchased for evaluation”.

Tires imported into Europe via third parties, it said, will not have been intended for sale here and may well not meet Europe’s regulations or requirements.

Stating that manufactures had relatively little control over the issue, ITMA said it would lobby hard to ensure that the EC will consider its proposals for the selection, testing and outcome evaluation.