The UK’s Climate Change Committee recently provided an update report to Parliament on the UK’s preparedness for climate change. You can see the report here: Progress in adapting to climate change: 2025 report to Parliament – Climate Change Committee
What does Climate change mean for the tyre fitting sector?
Climate change is already bringing more heatwaves, more intense rainfall and flooding and greater temperature extremes. The tyre fitting sector (garages, mobile fitters, fleet tyre services) will be affected by UK climate change in practical, operational, and commercial ways.
What are the direct impacts on tyres and tyre fitting businesses?
- Tyres will wear faster due to extreme heat. Hot road surfaces can soften rubber and lead to faster degradation
- Flooding will cause potholes and road debris, which will increase roadside incidents through more punctures and damage
- Heatwaves can lead to more blowouts, while storms will lead to more punctures, leading to weather-related spikes in demand
- The overall effect is that tyre businesses will likely see an increase in reactive and emergency tyre work, especially for fleets.
What about those involved in providing fleet services?
The CCC report highlights growing disruption to infrastructure and transport systems.
This means that logistics and transport companies will experience more breakdowns, route disruption and higher maintenance needs.
For tyre fitting companies this means:
- Increased need for mobile tyre fitting, 24/7 emergency support and preventive tyre management contracts
- Stronger expectation for uptime, leading to service-level pressure
- The net effect is likely to be growth in fleet contracts, but with higher service expectations.
What about premises and operational disruption?
The UK is experiencing wetter winters and more frequent flooding events. For tyre depots this can lead to:
- Flooded garages or storage areas
- Equipment damage (compressors, lifts, electrics)
- Staff unable to reach sites
- So, businesses may need to invest in:
- Flood resilience, including raised equipment and better drainage
- Business continuity planning
What impact will this have on our workforce’s health & productivity?
- Working outdoors (mobile fitting) becomes harder
- Heat stress risks increase
- Reduced productivity during peak summer periods
For tyre businesses, we need to consider how and when our people work, whether PPE is adequate for extreme conditions and what policy we have on hydration and rest breaks.
What are the more indirect effects of climate change?
- We are already experiencing this with the increasing number of electric vehicles, which are typically heavier vehicles, leading to faster wear and often requiring specialist tyres
- As vehicles and tyres change, we need to constantly upskill the workforce
- Extreme weather can lead to supply chain disruption, which may lead to larger stock holdings and supply diversification.
- Insurance costs may increase to cover flood risk and business interruption
- Environmental regulation is likely to tighten
What about our customers?
Tyre businesses need to ensure that customer behaviour changes with extreme weather. We must be strong advocates for:
- More awareness of tyre safety in extreme weather
- Seasonal tyre checks
- Tyre health monitoring
- Fleets becoming more data-driven
What does all this mean?
The tyre fitting sector is actually well positioned to benefit commercially, but only if it adapts:
- Invest in mobile and fleet services
- Build resilience in premises and supply chain
- Upskill for EV and specialist tyres
- Offer preventive maintenance, not just reactive work