JCB joins pothole partnership

15 January 2024

Apparently, today is National Pothole Day and JCB has joined a new road industry partnership to help tackle the problem that is affecting roads and vehicles throughout the country.

The company manufactures the Pothole Pro machine which has onboard tools to cut, crop and clean an affected area, and then to make a repair in an overall process taking eight minutes, reducing the equipment and manpower needed. 

The latest research by the AA shows that the motoring organisation dealt with 631,852 pothole related incidents in 2023, the highest number for five years. The cost of damage to vehicles is estimated at £474,000.

The new Pothole Partnership has a five-point plan to help tackle the issue and represents the interests of drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists, pedestrians, and road repairers. It has sent details of its pledge to central and local government today. 

Organisations involved include the AA, the National Motorcyclists Council, British Cycling, IAM RoadSmart, the British Motorcyclists Federation and JCB.

AA President Edmund King said: “Currently, we often have a vicious circle of: pothole formed; damage caused; pothole patched; pothole reappears with more damage caused – when what we need are more permanent repairs. Potholes are the number one concern for 96% of drivers and can be fatal for those on two wheels, so hopefully pressure from the Pothole Partnership will lead to permanent repairs.”

The partnership’s pledge highlights that repairs need to take account of five key parameters: permanence, precision, price, provision and progress. 

One specialist hirer already has a fleet of Pothole Pros for local authority customers, as reported previously on the blog. 

Photo shows Edmund King with an AA van and a Pothole Pro outside the association’s Basingstoke HQ.