Craig Gifford, Author at Tire Review Magazine - Page 2 of 6
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Mostly Cloudy

Mostly Cloudy Consolidations, NHTSA testing and Asian imports have made the retread market muddy Inspect the casing. Remove old tread. Apply new tread rubber. Cure and trim the tire. Repeat as necessary. The act of retreading a tire isn’t the most complex thing in the industry. However, getting a firm handle on the medium truck

Serving the Servants: Hard Work and Supplier Support Can Bring In The Business

Serving the Servants Hard Work and Supplier Support Can Bring In The Business In one of his TV commercials, a Northeast Ohio tire dealer tells a story about a customer who completely abuses his vehicle. The customer is always "tromping on the accelerator," and he "probably is always on the brakes," the dealer laments. The

Virtually Trained

Virtually Trained Different tactics may be the key to training in the tire industry.   Within the tire industry, most dealers will say there’s a serious need for training. Either training on new equipment or products, or training for continuous improvement. Rare is it that a dealer feels he knows everything there is to know

Programming Profits: Software Programs Can Benefit Dealers – If They’re Willing to Listen

Programming Profits Software Programs Can Benefit Dealers – If They’re Willing to Listen By now, everyone has heard about tire dealers and their relationship with computers, the Internet and software packages. Most have them, many are afraid of them, and some don’t want anything to do with them. Simple enough. Having a computer in your

Forestry Tires-Timber: Soft Logging Markets Keep Pressure On, But Opportunities Still Exist

TimmmmmBberrr Soft Logging Markets Keep Pressure On, But Opportunities Still Exist You may or may not realize it, but it’s because of a tire that you’re reading this article. No, I’m not talking about the tires on the truck that delivered this magazine to the printer. Nor do I mean the tires on the mail

Big Enough?

Big Enough? As the diameters of performance tires increase, manufacturers have to walk the fine line between function and fantasy You’re walking along the show floor at the International Tire Expo in Las Vegas. You pass a seemingly endless collection of cars and tires. Wheels shimmer on display. Parts and accessories abound. And the people

Racing For Retail Dollars: How Dealers Have Turned Race Track Involvement Into Large Profits

g. "We are perceived as being more of a hard-core retailer, especially with Falken and the other brands we carry," Trahan said. "We’re more prone to selling products for their performance characteristics. We don’t really believe in things like Plus-4. Performance is the No. 1 thing here. The look is secondary." Another thing that Trac

Twist and Turn: Monster Profits On These Micro-Machines For Smart Dealers

Twist and Turn Monster Profits On These Micro-Machines For Smart Dealers Construction is slowly improving and the agriculture market looks reasonably solid this year. So does that mean the skid-steer market should do well? If dealers look solely at those two factors, they’d be missing a big piece of the pie. Yes, the skid-steer market

Clear for Takeoff: Despite Uncertainties, Private Brands Continue March On With Confidence

The private brand tire market has had to fight through a lot in the past year. First, there was the ongoing recession. Then a belief that private brands would get left behind in favor of major brands popped up. And there was one month when everything came to a standstill. Then, of course, there was

Weather or Not: Weak Winters Hamper Winter Tire Growth and Opportunities

Weather or Not Weak Winters Hamper Winter Tire Growth and Opportunities Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening. A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight. Walking in a ®ƒ Winter wonderland? It’s May, winter’s over. But that doesn’t mean dealers and tiremakers aren’t thinking about winter tires. On the contrary, they’re

Genders and Generations: Figuring Out What Really Makes Your Customers Tick

Figuring Out What Really Makes Your Customers Tick Tire dealers see a variety of customers stream through their doors everyday. Quiet ones, loud ones, demanding ones, meek ones, young ones, old ones. And no matter who comes in, the dealer has to be ready. If he isn’t, business will be lost. Handling customers is always

Moving on Upward: Luxury SUVs Have Changed the Way Manufacturers and Dealers Think

Moving on Upward Luxury SUVs Have Changed the Way Manufacturers and Dealers Think It used to be that a sport utility vehicle was nothing more than a pickup truck with a backseat and a covered bed. A time when the Jeep Cherokee was the most luxurious SUV simply because it was the only SUV. Now