Ban on used tyres: Proposal not well-thought-out – stakeholders

The decision by the Government to ban the importation of foreign-used tyres is leaving more questions than answers for vehicle owners and used tyre dealers alike.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan, during his 2016 Budget presentation Friday last, issued a notice of intent to ban the importation of used tyres and to reduce taxes on new tyres to encourage their use.

This ban, he said, will be put into effect “as soon as some procedural hurdles are cleared”.

The Government had said that the ban on the used tyres was a safety measure to reduce the number of accidents on the country’s roadways.

However, many are contesting this theory pointing to Police data. The question that is now being asked: what exactly does the Government intend to do with the large number of used tyres on the market?

The Police have put speeding as the leading cause of death on the country’s roadways, followed by inattentiveness and drunk driving.

While there are known cases where lives were lost in accidents caused by a tyre ‘blowout’, these cases are extremely isolated.

As such, stakeholders are now questioning the Government’s rationale for arriving at the decision to ban used tyres in a country where affordability is a major factor for most vehicle owners.

New and used tyre dealers who spoke with this publication on the condition of anonymity said that while the plan to move in this direction seemed lustrous, there was no guarantee it would lead to a drastic reduction in road fatalities.

One dealer is even contending that the use of new tyres can lead to an increase in accidents.

“I feel that if people have new tyres on their cars, they will think you know my tyres are new, they are good so even if I speed, I won’t get a blowout or so; that, by itself, will lead to more speeding on the road,” the dealer opined.

“Banning used tyres and moving to new tyres doesn’t mean that there will be no more accidents as a result of a blowout, because you have to understand that tyres are made in different grades.  So an importer can go and bring in ‘x’ brand of new tyre which is not of a high quality, while you as a car owner can buy four used, let’s say, Goodyear tyres and they are better than the new ones,” another dealer in both new and used tyres told the Guyana Times International.

Another dealer pointed out “sometimes if you go certain places to buy tyres, they would give you certain quality of new tyres depending on your budget and the country of use. So the new tyres can be of a poorer quality, while the used tyre can be one of the good brands and it will last longer.”

Dealers are now calling on the Government to outline how it intended to monitor the quality of new tyres which would be imported and what systems were in place to deal with tyre life.

“They only say they banning used tyres, so how they plan on ensuring the new tyres are good quality? How they will know how long people must use the new tyres, because after a time, the new tyres will be just like the used ones, so I want to know who will be monitoring the vehicles to ensure that the tyres are changed after a certain mileage or years,” a dealer said.

Warranty

Other questions raised include whether or not vehicle owners will be able to return a new tyre if for some reason or the other it is faulty, and what systems the Government intends to put in place to ensure the rights of consumers are protected.

“The move to new tyres might be a good thing, but, then again, you have to know that if I buy a tyre and it has a problem, can I return it to the dealer? Will they give a replacement or a refund?  These are all things they need to let us know, because a new tyre is expensive and people money can’t go down the drain like that,” a driver told this publication.