Kwik Fit’s Road Safety Heroes!

Today marks the beginning of Brake’s Road Safety week, the UK’s biggest annual road safety campaign. Every year Brake help to raise awareness of crucial safety issues on the road, and thousands of people get involved, working together to help make every journey as safe as possible.

This year’s theme is Road Safety Heroes, celebrating the amazing efforts that people have made in recent times. With that in mind, we felt this was a fantastic opportunity to highlight some of the incredible work that has been done by our heroes in recent times, whether that be staff, customers, or both!

Keeping Essential Workers on the Road

We’re sure that nobody needs reminding how tough the past couple of years have been, and thankfully it feels a long time ago since early 2020 when the UK was almost totally locked down. At that time, it seemed more than ever that the real heroes stood up to be counted – whether that was emergency services working all around the clock, lorry drivers helping to keep supermarket shelves stocked with food, or parents and teachers having to adjust to a brand new style of remote learning.

During these times Kwik Fit was thankfully able to stay open as an essential business – helping to keep the real heroes on the road, keeping the nation as safe as possible and working tirelessly to improve the situation we found ourselves in. We were proud to help to maintain ambulances, pharmaceutical vans, police cars, and many other important vehicles, keeping them on the road doing the critical work that they did so tirelessly.

Our Team at Kwik Fit Farnham worked hard to keep emergency vehicles on the road

Not only did we welcome essential workers to our centres, but our mobile fitting fleet also allowed us to get to key workers when it was not possible for them to visit us. From grounded ambulances to punctured police cars, our amazing team of mobile fitters were on call to save the day.

Our mobile fitters came to emergency workers to get them back on the road as soon as possible

Medical Equipment and PPE

When it came to the emergency services our support didn’t end with vehicle repairs. The preparations we had in place to keep both staff and customers safe at the beginning of the pandemic meant that in some centres we had a surplus of PPE, such as seat covers and facemasks. As it became apparent that a nationwide shortage was leaving NHS staff with insufficient PPE, our centres banded together to provide as much equipment to those in need as we could, keeping the nations brave NHS staff as safe as possible.

The amazing NHS staff at The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh were grateful for the seat covers that Kwik Fit was able to donate.

Charity work

One of the most inspiring things to come out of the past couple of years is undoubtedly the generosity and selflessness of our customers. In 2020 Kwik Fit introduced an option to add a charitable donation with any order, going to NHS Charities Together. In a short window of time our customers donated an incredible £15,141, to support NHS staff and volunteers at a time when they needed it most - truly heroic!

More recently, Kwik Fit have partnered with Prostate Cancer UK, working together to save men’s lives. The importance of this charity can’t be understated – currently one man in the UK dies from prostate cancer every 45 minutes – but an amazing effort from Kwik Fit’s staff and customers are going a long way to making things better. From charity football games, to marathons, to mud runs and assault courses, our staff have been going above and beyond to raise money for this incredible charity. This unbelievable effort can be seen in the running total which currently sits at over £200,000 raised for Prostate Cancer UK!

Kwik Fit’s Northern and Midlands divisions come together for their annual football charity match.

Green Fingers

On a more local scale, a recent initiative saw 35 used tyres donated to Hednesford town council to assist in transforming a local derelict alleyway into a friendlier place in the community. It is so important to ensure that used tyres are correctly recycled, so this opportunity to give used tyres a new life as planters was the perfect way to add some life and colour to this previously dreary landscape.

A Display of Safety

And finally, our Mobile Tech Liam Potts was recently called out to ensure the tyres were fit and safe for the RAF’s Red Arrows. 2021 was an eventful year for the Red Arrows, covering events including the Isle of Wight festival, Goodwood Festival of Speed, and the UEFA Euro 2020 final, and we’re proud to have contributed to keeping those involved safe as they touched back down.

Liam Potts put in the work on the ground to keep the Red Arrows safe when they hit the skies!

Do you know someone that you think is a Road Safety Hero? Head over to Brake.org.uk where you can submit their story, and they might just end up featured in the Road Safety Heroes hall of fame!