Rob Tuckett of Tuckett Tyres, Hastings (and Cranbourne) has a favourite saying which he mentions to the many grumpy customers who come in with pothole damaged tyres and rims: ‘Your car has to be roadworthy but there is no law to say the roads have to be carworthy.’
Rob is seeing at least two customers a week whose tyres have been destroyed and of those one will also have damaged or destroyed a rim. It is an expensive business. Tuckett just ordered eight Mercedes Benz wheels at a cost of between $600 and $1,500 each. That sort of cost hurts and Rob Tuckett says that frustrated customers sometimes blame the brand of tyre which Tuckett says is unrealistic, because potholes tear low profile tyres apart, regardless of the brand.
Traf District News has been writing about the state of our roads for the past few issues and hastens to add that it is a state-wide problem, not simply a Baw Baw problem and it also needs to be said again, that not all roads in Baw Baw Shire are the responsibility of the Council. Baw Baw, like other councils, can only do as much roadworks as funding will allow. The problem is funding for roads is insufficient.
We spoke to Peter Dart of Trafalgar Tyre Service and he sees an average of two customers a week who have wrecked tyres from potholes. John Brown Tyres (Traf) told us that they agree with that figure and that damaged rims occur for many customers whose tyres have been destroyed.
A family member who lives on the Mornington Peninsula has lost two tyres at $400 each and had to have a rim re-rolled ($350) so he is out of pocket $1,150. You would think he could make a claim for recompense. No, he can’t. “I gave up on chasing that,” he told us. For a start the minimum amount before a claim will be considered is $1,640 and then it is a very difficult process to make the claim, requiring photographs of the damage and the pothole, location of the pothole to determine which authority is responsible and more red tape which makes the exercise seem futile.
Truck tyres and 4WD tyres are less susceptible to pothole damage because the tyres are tougher, with more tyre between road and rim, better clearance and tougher suspension. Low profile tyres which are on most late model cars are less able to withstand hitting a pothole.
Nationals Member for Eastern Victoria, Melina Bath, told Traf District News that road maintenance in Victoria plummeted a staggering 95% last year. Road “rehabilitated or resurfaced” in regional victoria fell to 0.4 million square metres, compared to 9 million square metres the previous year. Putting that figure in perspective, 0.4 million square metres translates to approximately 60 kilometrest of road resurfacing, compared to approximately 1,290 kilomtres the year before.
(*How did we arrive at the cost to Victorian motorists? There are 571 registered tyre dealers in Victoria. If we assume two damaged tyres a week for each at $150 each and a rim repair at $150 we arrive at $13 million per year.)
