It seems that every conference concerning salt usage has a presentation on the advantages of using pre-wet for winter maintenance treatments, yet less than 5% of the UK local authorities have adopted pre-wet spreaders. This raises questions as to why? 

The environmental advantages of pre-wet and cost savings can be demonstrated repeatedly by any one of the saturator suppliers, but one simple fact may be overlooked: public perception of seeing salt on the road.  

Bucher Municipal has several pre-wet spreaders in the demonstration and rental fleets which have worked with contractors and local authorities, testing these pre-wet systems (70/30, 60/40 and even 50/50 splits). Bucher Municipal also offer a full liquid de-icer which is very popular on French highways and across Europe.  

One of the unusual feedback reports from these tests has been from public and the impression that the road is not safe unless they can see salt. This perception may even make societal sense: if you consider driving on a cold and frosty morning and setting off in your car, we all expect to see the road covered with a reasonable amount of salt or a slight mush of crushed salt melting the ice.  

A salt-covered road is a sight the public have associated with safety; when that is removed, extra caution and slower driving speeds would be expected from drivers. This caution may not be a bad thing as extra vigilance is always advised during extreme weather conditions even if the road is free of ice. However, this misconception may lead to an increase in complaints from the public.  

The perception does not stop at local roads, contractors who have tested pre-wet systems have difficulty proving the car parks and industrial sites have been treated. Because people are so used to seeing salt in car parks, the absence of the grit had people feeling unsafe when driving and walking to their offices or shops. Contractors have previously been challenged on whether they had treated the area with some companies even refusing to pay for the service provided.  Luckily Bucher Municipal have a solution for this too with our proprietary Bucher Assist planning and telematics system. Through the cloud-based service, it is easy to provide clear and undisputable evidence if ever challenged on this.  

Even though pre-wet has huge advantages for salt saving and environmental benefits due to the more controlled spread of pre-wet salt, local councils have a hill to climb to convince the public it’s a better way to treat the streets.  

One of the options Bucher can offer to help spread the word is a roller signboard which can be fitted to the spreading machines.

It allows an advertising platform for local authorities to highlight they are indeed spreading, but by using the innovative forward-thinking solution of pre-wet. The messaging is fully customisable and some of the messages could relate to operating electric spreaders, advising the public to check their cars to be winter ready or to highlight the environmental advantages of pre-wet.

Another option is to publish the telematics data on a freely available public website, allowing the public to see which roads have been treated and when.