Tyre Safety, Innovation and Maintenance: Why Standardization at Scale Matters Now
Paula Monteiro
Marketing Communications Director
Each October, TyreSafe leads the UK’s largest tyre safety campaign, rallying partners from garages to road safety teams around its “Under Pressure” theme. The campaign reminds drivers to check air, condition and tread, a simple A.C.T. that saves lives. Yet awareness campaigns only scratch the surface. Fleets, leasing firms, rental operators and OEM service arms face the same challenge as retailers: inconsistent inspections, limited transparency, and rising compliance and safety risks.
The industry’s opportunity is to move from awareness to action by adopting standardized, enterprise-grade inspection systems that deliver consistency, traceability and customer-facing trust at scale.
The systemic problem
We all know the issue: vehicle and tire inspections have been historically entirely manual. Technicians wrote down VINs, typed license plates into systems, and copied DOT codes from sidewalls. This approach wasn’t just slow; it introduced human error, made inspections inconsistent, and created major challenges for scaling operations across busy workshops, enterprises, or large fleets.
Digitization and AI change this process completely. With AI-driven identification and inspection, TireBuddy instantly captures vehicle IDs and tire DOT codes, even when numbers are dirty, faded, or partially obscured. That accuracy at the very first step ensures the entire inspection is based on verified data.
More importantly, once identification is automated, the inspection workflow becomes connected and data-driven. Tread depth readings, tire condition photos, and technician notes can all be linked to verified records, creating a complete digital audit trail.
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For workshops: Faster service, transparent reporting, and stronger customer trust.
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For fleets: Standardized inspections across thousands of vehicles, easier compliance, and the foundation for predictive maintenance.
- For enterprises: Standardized digital inspections that are traceable, consistent, and scalable on a global level.
The systemic problem
Insights from Anyline’s Auto Tech Show show just how fragile the status quo has become.
72% of drivers lack basic tyre safety knowledge, which means most cannot tell when tyres are unsafe. As a result, nearly half admit to driving on bald tyres and 46% have experienced a blowout. Underinflation alone is proven to triple the risk of a tyre-related crash.
In the UK, 42% of drivers never check their tyres, a habit that adds up to £120 million in roadside emergencies every year. These failures ripple through insurers, fleets, and the wider economy.
For consumers, the cost is personal safety and unexpected expense. For businesses, from fleets to dealer groups, the stakes are downtime, compliance risk, and lost revenue when customers decline replacements due to lack of clear evidence.
This is the systemic problem: tyre neglect is not an isolated driver issue but a sector-wide weakness that affects safety, efficiency, and profitability.
Industry transformation is already underway
Retail distributors such as Stapletons shifted nearly 80% of sales online during the pandemic, invested in mobile fitting, and supported dealers with digital enablement. What began as survival is now a permanent model.
Fleets and leasing operators are under pressure to reduce downtime and extend asset life. Predictive and preventive maintenance, powered by consistent data, is the new competitive edge.
OEM service arms face customers who expect transparency. A paper invoice no longer builds trust. Clear digital reports with photos and data-backed recommendations do.
Across all segments, the message is clear. Traditional inspection methods such as gauges and lane-bound scanners no longer fit the scale or flexibility the industry requires.
Standardization at scale: the Anyline advantage
This is where TireBuddy and Anyline’s AI-powered inspection platform redefine the game.
Unlike gauges, which are cheap but undocumented, or drive-over scanners, which are accurate but fixed and expensive, TireBuddy provides guided, visual inspections on any iOS or Android device already in use.
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Consistency and traceability: Every inspection follows the same AI-powered workflow, ensuring accuracy across sites, vans, and dealer groups.
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Compliance and safety: Automated tread depth warnings, tyre age alerts, and alignment indicators create a documented trail for audits and recall regulations.
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Customer-facing trust: Clear photo-backed reports help advisors explain findings, raise approval rates, and reduce disputes.
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Enterprise scalability: TireBuddy and the Anyline SDK enable deployment across hundreds of service points, from fixed bays to mobile vans, without costly build-outs.
In short, TireBuddy turns TyreSafe’s A.C.T. message into an institutionalized, repeatable process for businesses of any size.
Business outcomes for every segment
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Operational efficiency: Digitized inspections eliminate manual errors and reduce cycle times, enabling more vehicles to be serviced per day.
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Predictive maintenance: Fleets use standardized inspection data to forecast wear, reduce roadside breakdowns, and extend tyre life.
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Compliance and risk reduction: Data-backed inspections ensure adherence to safety and recall regulations, avoiding fines and reputational damage.
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Customer experience and revenue: Transparent reports empower customers to make informed decisions, lifting approval rates and increasing average transaction value.
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Workforce enablement: Guided workflows help technicians perform accurate inspections regardless of experience, addressing the industry’s skills gap.
From awareness to industry leadership
Tyre Safety Month is essential in raising awareness. But the real leadership move is to institutionalize standardized digital inspections across fleets, retailers, and service arms.
This shift transforms tyre checks from a manual, inconsistent process into a scalable, enterprise-grade system that delivers compliance, reduces downtime, and builds customer trust.
Tyres are like “a parachute for the vehicle”. The industry cannot afford to treat them as an afterthought. By combining TyreSafe’s awareness campaign with TireBuddy’s standardized inspection platform, UK businesses can ensure that every vehicle, every driver, and every journey is safer and more profitable.