Van safety checks: what roadside enforcement is finding on trades vehicles

Recent roadside enforcement data suggests plenty of vans on UK roads wouldn’t survive a close look. And if someone drives for your business, that vehicle is legally their workplace, which makes you responsible for the condition it’s in.

What enforcement teams have been finding

TyreSafe has been supporting police forces and the DVSA at enforcement checkpoints across the UK, working alongside Driving for Better Business. The operations included Operation Spotlight on the M53 and in West Mercia, Operation Considerate and Operation ACT in Greater Manchester, and border checks in Cumbria.

The findings, published in July 2026:

• Cumbria border checkpoint. Of 21 vehicles checked, mostly light commercial vehicles and trailers, more than one in four had a critical tyre-related safety risk. Inspectors found exposed structural cords, active punctures and severe overloading.
• Operation Spotlight, M53. In a sample that was 97% commercial vehicles, vans and trailers, 23% had at least one tyre defect.
• Operation Spotlight, West Mercia. 26% of vehicles inspected had tyre-related issues. Of those, 85% were critical, including tyres at immediate risk of blowout.
• Operations Considerate and ACT, Greater Manchester. A high volume of immediate PG9 prohibitions, alongside insecure loads and vehicles running over their gross vehicle weight.

One caveat worth stating: these were targeted operations, designed to focus on higher-risk vehicles and locations. The numbers don’t necessarily represent the average van on the road. But the same problems turned up in every region checked, which points to something systemic rather than a run of bad luck.

The sectors named are the ones that will feel familiar: small builders, landscape gardeners, scaffolders, independent waste carriers, private hire.

Why a PG9 hurts more than the fine

For a business running three vans, a prohibition isn’t a paperwork problem. It’s a van sitting at the roadside, a job that doesn’t get done, a customer who has to be contacted, and a recovery bill. Then there’s the knock-on: repeated prohibitions attract attention, and insurers take a dim view of vehicles that were demonstrably unroadworthy at the time of an incident.

The cost of the tyre is never just the cost of the tyre.

Tyres and overloading are the same problem

Enforcement officers record these as separate offences. On the road they’re linked.

When you overload a van, the tyres are working beyond their rated load index. The sidewalls flex more than they’re designed to, that flexing generates heat, and heat degrades the rubber and the bonding agents holding the tyre together. At motorway speed, a tyre that’s been cooked like this is a blowout waiting for a reason.

Add an unsecured load that shifts on a roundabout, and you’ve concentrated all that force onto one tyre that was already struggling.

This is why “the tyres looked fine last month” isn’t much comfort. A tyre that’s been run overloaded has been damaged in ways you can’t see from the outside.

The checks that would have caught almost all of it

Here’s the part that should be encouraging: most of what enforcement teams found wasn’t hidden.

Exposed cords, severe under-inflation, a van sitting low on its suspension, cargo that isn’t strapped down – these are visible issues that a simple walkaround before the first job of the day catches.

TyreSafe’s ACT framework keeps it simple:

• Air pressure: correct for the load you’re actually carrying, not the empty van
• Condition and cargo: check the tyre carcass for damage, and confirm the load is secured, balanced and within your weight limit
• Tread: keep it well above the legal minimum, especially loaded and in the wet

Two minutes per van. Every morning.

If you’re not sure where to start, Driving for Better Business (a free, Government-backed programme) publishes a Van Driver Toolkit and guidance for exactly this.

Making the check stick

Knowing the walkaround matters is the easy part. Getting it done every morning, on every van, and being able to prove it, is where most small operators come unstuck. Paper sheets get filled in at the end of the week from memory, or they go missing, or nobody looks at them until something goes wrong.

Quartix Check is our vehicle inspection app. Drivers complete the check on their phone before they set off, and it syncs straight into the tracking dashboard.

What it changes in practice:

• The check is quick enough to easily fit into the day. A few taps and swipes rather than a clipboard. Default templates cover daily van, car and HGV inspections, and you can build custom checklists for your own vehicles.
• Defects are sent with photos. A driver spotting a damaged tyre uploads a picture there and then, so you can see it rather than trying to interpret a scribbled note.
• You get a digital audit trail. The app records when each inspection started and finished and captures signed fitness-to-drive declarations. If your roadworthiness process is ever questioned, you have the evidence.
• You can see patterns. Reports show passed and failed inspections across the fleet and let you compare vehicles, so recurring problems on a particular van surface before they become a prohibition.
• Parts get ordered sooner. An up-to-date defect list means you can line up parts and workshop slots before the van is back, which cuts the time it spends off the road.

The default checklist covers windscreen, tyres, horn, foot brake, hand brake, dashboard warning lights, wing mirrors, seatbelts and camera, with plenty more available and everything customisable.

Alongside the checks, your vehicle tracking data tells you which vans are working hardest and where. A van on construction sites five days a week picks up tyre damage faster than one doing motorway runs, and it needs looking at more often. Driver behaviour reports also show who is putting the most stress on tyres and suspension.

Drivers can also log incidents through the Quartix Check app too – a photo, time, location, description, and the details of anyone else involved.

A good process makes sure inspections gets done, defects and incidents get recorded, and everything gets acted on promtply.

Quartix and Driving for Better Business

Quartix is co-sponsoring Brake the Road Safety Charity’s 2026 Fleet Champions Awards alongside Driving for Better Business – a programme we support because it takes managing road risk seriously for businesses. Our 35,000 customers are running small to large fleets of vehicles, and the safety guidance available to them is crucial.

What you need to do

1. Put a daily walkaround check in place and make it a habit rather than a form. If paper isn’t working, move it to an app.
2. Weigh your loaded vans. Most operators who do this are surprised.
3. Ensure loads are properly secured.
4. Check tyre pressures against the loaded figure in the handbook, not the unladen one.
5. Look at your mileage data and usage, then service the hardest-worked vans first.
6. Download the free DfBB toolkits at drivingforbetterbusiness.com.

Nobody sets out to send a driver onto the road in an unsafe van. It happens because the check gets skipped on a busy morning, and it keeps getting skipped until a solid process is in place.

Findings reported by TyreSafe and Driving for Better Business, July 2026.