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Andrew English's column
Working forecourt airlines are a thing of the past
My front tyre needed pumping up. I knew this because it leaks slightly and, as I hadn't ridden my motorbike for several weeks, the Michelin would be a couple of psi short of the perfect roundness. "No, sorry, pump broken," said the chap at my local garage. So I drove on. Ten miles up the road, it was the same story. "Sorry mate, we're waiting for an engineer," said the man, before admitting that this BP garage had been waiting for an engineer for the past three months. I drove (slowly) on.
My house used to have three garages within flat-tyre driving distance. Now, there's only one, and it seems more interested in selling groceries, speciality coffees, pecan Danish pastries, disposable barbecues and magazines about women's chests than fuel.
It's not just stockbroker-belt property prices that have seen the number of garages round my way fall, either; this is a long-term trend. British motorists bought a record amount of fuel last year, but that was pumped from a rapidly diminishing number of petrol stations. Unleaded sales were up 3.1 per cent, diesel 8.4 per cent and total motor fuel sales rose to 40.5 million tonnes. The number of registered vehicles was also up 0.6 per cent to 33.1 million, yet the number of forecourts fell 382 to 9,382. This is the smallest number in the UK since the Twenties. Esso closed the most (46), followed by Shell (34), BP (20) and Texaco (13). The supermarkets did open a few (19), but the trend of forecourt closures has been on a fall-off-a-cliff trajectory for the past decade.
None of this would matter if the sites that were left bothered to look after their equipment. How many times have you searched in vain for diesel gloves, waded the Serpentine to get to the tap, passed on the chance to wash your windscreen with the brown goo in the bucket or tried to pump your tyres up?
Sure, you should always check pressures when tyres are cold, so it's better to have a local garage. But if you do it before driving off, you will know how much to put in when you find a pump.
Most drivers realise improperly inflated tyres will affect their car's handling and the durability of their rubber. Michelin reckons a 20 per cent under-inflation cuts a tyre's life by 20 per cent. Over-inflation by a fifth slashes it by 10 per cent.
The way tyres wear is a good indicator: too much psi, and the tyre wears in a central band round the circumference; too little and it wears at the edges. Under-inflated rubber attracts more punctures and, if pressures get too low, the tyres can roll off the rim and catastrophically deflate.
At motorway speeds, under-inflated tyres may overheat, causing the tread to strip off the carcass. Grip is cut drastically when pressures are too high. And it's even more critical for motorcycles. They have a range of tyre pressures for different riding conditions. Manufacturers obviously take it seriously.
And the consequences of drivers not doing so? The 2005 STATS19 police accident reports show vehicle defects contributed to 1,836 car and 262 motorbike accidents, with defective tyres a contributory factor in 930 of the former and 92 of the latter. The accident figures for sudden braking, swerving and loss of control are much higher, and these are all manoeuvres where tyres could play a crucial part.
In the same year, 14,617 car drivers and passengers and 6,508 motorcyclists and pillions were killed or seriously injured. I take care of my tyres to try to avoid joining that sad roll of victims, but forecourts aren't helping me much.
None of the four garages I tried had a working air hose, let alone an accurate one. I finally inflated my tyre 46 miles away at Shell in Wandsworth, south London. Can you be sure of Shell? Not sure, but at least it had an operating air pump.
Andrew English is motoring correspondent of the Daily Telegraph
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| I used to have three garages I could reach with a flat. Now it's only one... and it's more interested in selling coffee | |
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My house used to have three garages within flat-tyre driving distance. Now, there's only one, and it seems more interested in selling groceries, speciality coffees, pecan Danish pastries, disposable barbecues and magazines about women's chests than fuel.
It's not just stockbroker-belt property prices that have seen the number of garages round my way fall, either; this is a long-term trend. British motorists bought a record amount of fuel last year, but that was pumped from a rapidly diminishing number of petrol stations. Unleaded sales were up 3.1 per cent, diesel 8.4 per cent and total motor fuel sales rose to 40.5 million tonnes. The number of registered vehicles was also up 0.6 per cent to 33.1 million, yet the number of forecourts fell 382 to 9,382. This is the smallest number in the UK since the Twenties. Esso closed the most (46), followed by Shell (34), BP (20) and Texaco (13). The supermarkets did open a few (19), but the trend of forecourt closures has been on a fall-off-a-cliff trajectory for the past decade.
None of this would matter if the sites that were left bothered to look after their equipment. How many times have you searched in vain for diesel gloves, waded the Serpentine to get to the tap, passed on the chance to wash your windscreen with the brown goo in the bucket or tried to pump your tyres up?
Sure, you should always check pressures when tyres are cold, so it's better to have a local garage. But if you do it before driving off, you will know how much to put in when you find a pump.
Most drivers realise improperly inflated tyres will affect their car's handling and the durability of their rubber. Michelin reckons a 20 per cent under-inflation cuts a tyre's life by 20 per cent. Over-inflation by a fifth slashes it by 10 per cent.
The way tyres wear is a good indicator: too much psi, and the tyre wears in a central band round the circumference; too little and it wears at the edges. Under-inflated rubber attracts more punctures and, if pressures get too low, the tyres can roll off the rim and catastrophically deflate.
At motorway speeds, under-inflated tyres may overheat, causing the tread to strip off the carcass. Grip is cut drastically when pressures are too high. And it's even more critical for motorcycles. They have a range of tyre pressures for different riding conditions. Manufacturers obviously take it seriously.
And the consequences of drivers not doing so? The 2005 STATS19 police accident reports show vehicle defects contributed to 1,836 car and 262 motorbike accidents, with defective tyres a contributory factor in 930 of the former and 92 of the latter. The accident figures for sudden braking, swerving and loss of control are much higher, and these are all manoeuvres where tyres could play a crucial part.
In the same year, 14,617 car drivers and passengers and 6,508 motorcyclists and pillions were killed or seriously injured. I take care of my tyres to try to avoid joining that sad roll of victims, but forecourts aren't helping me much.
None of the four garages I tried had a working air hose, let alone an accurate one. I finally inflated my tyre 46 miles away at Shell in Wandsworth, south London. Can you be sure of Shell? Not sure, but at least it had an operating air pump.
Andrew English is motoring correspondent of the Daily Telegraph
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