Since the NTDA issued the 5000th Roadside Emergency Action Concerning Technicians (REACT) licence to Commercial Tyre Technician Keiran Smith of Lodge Tyre Company on Tuesday the 18th September, the scheme has continued to go from strength to strength.
Commercial Tyre Technician Safety
The Association’s Chief Executive Stefan Hay said: “Since September, a further 178 Commercial Tyre Technicians have been trained, assessed as competent to work safely at the roadside and have been issued with their REACT licences and certificates. REACT has become even more significant as more and more Motorways are changed to SMART Motorways with the resulting loss of the hard-shoulders across most of the network. Unfortunately, the refuge areas are often too small for an HGV and the Commercial Tyre Technicians van and leave very little room in which the technician can work safely. Greater safety awareness is, therefore, paramount.”
REACT licensed Commercial Tyre Technicians can be found across all four countries of the United Kingdom, and as a result of a recent agreement with the Irish Tyre Industry Association, now in the Republic of Ireland.
In October this year, the UK’s three largest breakdown organisations joined forces to call for enhanced motorway safety rules to protect recovery patrols and other road users. The RAC, AA and Green Flag wrote to Jesse Norman MP, road safety minister, calling for the introduction of a ‘slow down, move over’ rule when drivers pass a broken-down vehicle, or a recovery vehicle with flashing amber beacons. The call followed several serious incidents involving vehicle recovery staff – including the death of an RAC roadside technician.
Stefan Hay continued: “The NTDA has recently become a stakeholder of the Slow Down or Move Over UK group. The group’s vison, is to build a culture of awareness for all road users so when they are presented with a temporary hazard on the road network it will assist them in taking the appropriate action to avoid the danger. We believe that more organisations and companies need to engage with Slow Down or Move Over UK to give the campaign more momentum”.
The NTDA has also reported that its Tyre Technician Professional Development Scheme (TTPDS) is also doing well with a total of 297 licences issued to both commercial and retail tyre technicians in 2018 to date.
