KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, June 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — It is no secret that the Road Safety Plan 2014-2020 has set an ambitious target: a reduction of 50% in the number of deaths and serious injuries resulting from road accidents by 2020. We can see the effects already, through reduced road fatalities in 2018 (5,870 cases compared to 6,265 in 2017), yet total road accidents rose from 533,875 in 2017 to 548,598 last year.
The commercial vehicle industry is most affected by road accidents due to frequency of movement, Kit Loong Commercial Tyres feels the industry should be doing more to educate, enforce regulations and set standards when it comes to safer vehicle operation and reducing road accidents.
“It’s always surprised me how many people see safety as a cost to their business, when we have been helping customers improve safety and reduce costs for over 85 years,“ said Michael Hutt, Group Marketing Manager of Kit Loong Commercial Tyre Group (KLCT).
“It is key that standards are enforced, and this mind-set is addressed. Companies in Europe are investing heavily in safety and seeing savings for their business.”
The research is clear: companies that outperform on health and safety also outperform financial growth targets. We have our own big data sets to show improvements in safety and cost savings from fleet tyre management.
Continuing KLCT’s ten-year focus on safety, we are launching an integrated campaign, “Safety =” at the Malaysia Commercial Vehicle Expo 2019 (MCVE), focusing first on “Safety = Savings” for commercial fleet operators.
Our focus will be changing industry perceptions of safety, through education for fleet operators, working with CEOs to change organisational safety culture, help to enforce existing policies and standards, alongside services and technology to improve proactive management of fleet operations.
“Retreaded tyres have received some bad press, but safety regulations haven’t been effectively enforced, leading to poor providers being able to sell unsafe tyres, sometimes illegally,” said Hutt. “We want to stamp this out and help the industry lead the way in safety with the ultimate aim of reducing accidents through correct tyre usage and ongoing tyre care.”
KLCT can focus where we are specialists: commercial tyre management and fleet operations. We want other areas of the industry to join us in pushing for greater focus on road safety by understanding that ‘Safety = Savings”.
From publications, to collaborations with MIROS and our partners, such as Giti Tyres, Bridgestone, Michelin and Continental, KLCT will be sharing our wealth of tyre safety knowledge over the next six months. We can also offer organisations an audit on their fleet tyre management, through KL Compass, delivering a bespoke overview of how they can save money through better tyre management.
“Using our fleet-management big data and cloud computing system, KLConnect™ TTM+, we can help organisations analyse their data so they can clearly identify the cause of operational or logistic downtime and tyre failures,” Hutt said.
“This information allows us to implement the right systems and procedures to reduce costs while making the fleet safer. We are working to make the system more accessible, aiming to provide a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offer for all sizes of organisations, using cutting-edge technology to enhance safety and reduce costs,” he added.
KLCT’s KL 24/7 will also shortly be relaunching its nationwide tyre rescue service, with a subscription model, giving customers fast, effective tyre rescue services for a flat-rate based on fleet size. Peace-of-mind for all fleet operators in the event that breakdowns occur.
If commercial or industry partners wish to get involved in helping us continue the push for safer operations, please contact Mohd Zahurin Bin Mohd Zin or Michael Hutt at Kit Loong Commercial Tyre Group.
About Kit Loong Commercial Tyre Group
Kit Loong Commercial Tyre Group is Malaysia’s only full-service fleet tyre management provider. With 88 years’ experience in new and retread tyres and tyre-related services. All our services are awarded with the international accreditation for service methods certified by UKAS for ISO certification and Standards Malaysia.