Declaration on Best Tyres for CO2 reduction, improved safety and noise abatement

Context of Transport Climate Action

Car fleets consume a lot of fuel. Better tyres and tyres kept at the recommended pressure can save 5-10% fuel per year. This can amount to 150-250 euro in fuel savings (or the equivalent to 0.25-0.50 tonne CO2 saved per car per year). This helps to build the argument to consumers and fleet owners to interest them about the impact of choosing better tyres and maintenance.

Description

The Declaration on Best Tyres can be signed by cities, regional authorities or third parties. The website on the Declaration is an initiative of DCMR EPA. The Dutch ministry of Infrastructure and Environment regards this Declaration as a cornerstone in their awareness raising campaign ‘Choose the Best Tyre’.

In the Declaration signatories promise to make efforts in:

  • Providing their car fleets with Best Tyres
  • Check the tyres of their car fleets on tyre pressure every 2 months
  • Promoting the use of best tyres among public, companies and institutes in their cities and regions.
  • Reporting the progress of implementation of best tyres in their car fleet every two years, starting from 2018.

Implementation

In spring 2016 there will be two international meetings held in the Netherlands. These are a meeting on “Transport innovation for sustainable cities and regions” (POLIS) in Rotterdam and the “Environmental Forum meeting” (EUROCITIES) in Utrecht. The dates of the meetings still have to be determined. It is the intention that at these meetings European cities can sign the Declaration on Best Tyres.

Benefits

TNO has calculated the fuel savings for several car fleets for:

  1. Moving from the present tyres used towards A level tyres for fuel efficiency of the European tyres label.
  2. Keeping the tyres at the correct tyre pressure.

Table. Potential benefits of moving to level A tyres for fuel efficiency, including correct tyre pressure, for the car fleets of the Dutch Road Authority (RWS) and the municipalities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

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Win-win-win

Since better tyres do not cost more, there are no costs involved. On the contrary, cost savings on fuel and tyres (less wear) would probably pay for the tyres. Note: Better tyres should be chosen once tyres have to be changed when they are worn.

Potential for scaling up

Besides municipalities also other fleet owners could embrace the ideas of the Declaration on Best Tyres. They could, or should, put this in their contracts with lease companies. Lease companies should provide the best possible tyres to their customers as ‘normal practise’.

 

PROJECT INFORMATION

Location:

Europe

Start:

2016

Finish:

On-going

Tags:

Netherlands, Mitigation, Cars, Technology

Organizer/s:

DCMR, cities Rotterdam and Utrecht

Contact/s:

Henk Wolfert, henk.wolfert@dcmr.nl

Many cars are part of car fleets of local, regional and national governments or companies. Mostly they lease their cars. In the Netherlands 40% of the new cars sold are bought by leasing companies. The role of public procurement can influence the take up of better quality tyres and increase the awareness of the importance of keeping them at optimal pressure. The fuel savings and therefore gains in CO2 are considerable.

Henk Wolfert (Environmental Protection Agency of local and regional authorities in the Rijnmond region) and Johan Sliggers (Ministry of Transport and the Environment)