Anyone running a multi-drop delivery fleet across Dundee, Perth or Angus will already have noticed it without needing us to explain it: the tyres come off delivery vans quicker than they come off a normal car doing the same mileage. There's a reason for that, and it's worth understanding, because it changes how often those tyres should actually be checked rather than just replaced when something goes wrong.
Stop-start driving is harder on a tyre than steady miles
A delivery round is nothing like a motorway commute. It's constant acceleration and braking, tight turns into driveways and loading bays, and short hops between stops rather than long, steady runs. Every one of those events puts extra stress through the contact patch, the small area of rubber actually touching the road, and that stress adds up to faster, less even wear than the same total mileage covered on an open road.
Kerbs do real, distinct damage
Kerbing is its own category of problem, separate from ordinary tread wear. A tyre scraped or struck against a kerb while pulling into a tight space can pick up sidewall damage that isn't always obvious to look at, but weakens the tyre's structure. It's a well recognised issue in the industry precisely because delivery driving involves exactly the kind of tight, repetitive manoeuvring where it happens. A tyre that looks fine from the tread can still be carrying hidden sidewall damage from a kerb strike three weeks ago.
Weight and load matter too
A van running with a full load of parcels all day is carrying more weight through its tyres than the same van running empty, and that weight doesn't let up between drops the way it might for a car making the odd loaded trip. Tyres rated for the vehicle and its typical load are important for this reason. An underrated tyre on a consistently loaded van will run hotter and wear faster than the same size tyre correctly rated for the job.
What this means for how often tyres get looked at
Put those three things together, stop-start driving, kerb contact and consistent load, and it's not surprising that fleet vehicles need a shorter interval between checks than the average private car. Most fleet-management guidance settles on checking tread depth and pressure monthly, and replacing proactively once tread hits around 2 to 3mm rather than waiting for the 1.6mm legal minimum. That gap matters because a tyre that's still legal can still be close enough to the edge that a pothole or a heavier-than-usual load tips it into a problem.
The practical upshot is that a driver's own visual check, useful as it is, isn't really enough on its own for a working fleet. Sidewall damage from a kerb strike, uneven wear from a slightly underinflated tyre, or tread creeping down toward the replacement threshold are all things that are easy to miss in a thirty-second glance before a shift, and easy to catch properly on a scheduled inspection.
Catching it before it becomes a call-out
None of this means delivery van tyres are a lost cause, it just means they need a slightly different rhythm of attention than a car sitting on a driveway most of the week. A fleet that gets its tyres properly checked on a regular schedule, rather than only when a driver flags a problem, catches the slow stuff, the early kerb damage, the tyre wearing unevenly, before it turns into a van off the road mid-round.
If you're running delivery or trade vehicles across Tayside, Angus or Perthshire and want tyres checked properly rather than reactively, our fleet tyre service is built around exactly this. Regular checks, honest advice on what actually needs replacing, and a fast response when something does go wrong.
