Whether it’s winter or summer, there are some key items you’ll need in your vehicle all year around to help you stay safe on the road. Richard Gladman, IAM RoadSmart’s head of driving and riding standards, provides the eight essentials that you should always keep in your vehicle.

Tuesday and Wednesday saw me working in Dolgellau in the heart of Snowdonia. Home these days is near Presteigne, on the England/Wales border. The trip’s 70 miles or so, depending on the route you take, but all of them involve hills – not gentle rolling slopes, but big, steep sided mounts where the roads have to zig-zag up one side and down the other.

When it comes to the development of cars and motorcycles, manufacturers have proven time and again that the lessons they learn from putting their cars through their paces in racing environments, can eventually be used to improve their products for the general public on the road.

On average there are 4,809 towing incidents annually which commonly occur on motorways and major A-roads.1 So to help you stay safe on the road, this week’s tips are packed with towing advice, courtesy of the National Trailer and Towing Association.

A little discussed aspect of the growth of driverless cars is the related assumption that we will need many fewer vehicles overall.