Treading carefully with checks

A transport company based in Staffordshire has become expert at going that extra mile after one of its lorries travelled 280,000 miles on the same set of tyres.

The lorry, a Mercedes-Benz Atego, has travelled an equivalent distance on its Michelin tyres of more than once to the moon.

Alternatively it has travelled the same distance as driving from London to Edinburgh more than 630 times. Transport bosses at family-run Weller Packaging, in Shenstone, Lichfield, say the astonishing feat is down to careful monitoring and maintenance of the tyres.

The company, which was started by Paul Weller in the early 1970s, transports plastics and packaging up and down the country and believes in getting value for money from its trucks and tyres.

It first took delivery of the 18-tonne truck back in November 2001 and the lorry is in operation five days a week driving an average of 300 to 400 miles a day with a nine tonne load.

Staff at the company, based at Birch Brook Industrial Estate, in Shenstone, regularly inspect the tyres and will constantly swap them to different wheels as well as altering the pressure.

Nigel Hastilow, pictured, a driver and transport manager for the firm, said this had probably saved the company approximately £3,000 for this truck in terms of not replacing the tyres.

He said: "The tyres are very important as they are the things that have to get you around a corner. Years ago on a car you would swap the tyres around all the time to get the best performance and that's what we have been doing.

"Getting the best performance is all down to attention to detail. We carry out weekly tyre inspections, including pressure checks, which ensure our tyres are always in prime operating condition."

Mr Hastilow, who used to drive the truck himself, added: "It did around 200,000 kilometres on the same front and rear tyres but then we took the front off and left the back ones on.

"If we had used a different combination we would probably be on our third set of tyres now.

"It's really important to look after the tyres and other companies could save a lot of money doing this as could the normal car owner."