This legislation which takes effect on 1st February 2021 applies mainly to heavy commercial vehicles – HGVs and PSVs – which the DVSA test at Authorised Testing Facilities (ATFs).
After an incident, which occurred in September 2012, in which a coach returning from a music festival crashed after a 19-year-old tyre fitted to its front axle blew out, causing the death of three people on the coach following an industry-wide consultation, in July 2020, the Department for Transport (DFT) announced a ban on tyres over 10 years old on any axle of minibuses with single wheels fitted or on the front axle of any lorry, bus or coach.
This legislation which takes effect on 1st February 2021 applies mainly to heavy commercial vehicles – HGVs and PSVs – which the DVSA test at Authorised Testing Facilities (ATFs). But it also applies to some vehicles that fall into the MOT scheme – so vehicles with more than 8 passenger seats that are not used commercially – so are not tested as PSVs. These vehicles are tested in MOT classes 4 or 5, so the test will change for them.
This means failures for tyres over 10 years old on the front axle of any vehicles with 9 or more passenger seats, and any single wheels of a minibus (9-16 passenger seats). These vehicles will also fail if they do not display a legible date code on in scope tyres.
So, when testing you will need to check that each tyre displays a date of manufacture or re-treading date on the appropriate vehicle.
This will not add significant additional test time as the tyres are already checked for condition.
What happens next
The DVSA will publish updates to the MOT inspection manual which will be user tested before going live in January before the new legislation comes into force. This will set out the detail of what you need to look for and what will fail during an MOT test.
DVSA’s chief executive Gareth Llewellyn said:
“This new landmark legislation will help to protect all road users against unsafe vehicles.
Drivers, owners and operators are responsible for the safety of their vehicles, so we advise them to start checking the age of their tyres to ensure they’ll meet the new requirements.”
