K&M Tire Dealer Conference: More and More
After years of watching its annual dealer conference progressively grow larger and larger, the under-theme of K & M Tire’s 2016 gathering had to be “more and more.” More products, more programs and more opportunities were the talk of the two-day program at the Overland Park Convention Center, in suburban Kansas City. And K&M Tire
Crafting Tire Registration: Bring Your Ideas to the Table
Now that the president has signed the massive five-year, $325 million surface transportation reauthorization bill, work can begin on fixing more of our badly broken roads and bridges. And tire registration system. Everything needs a starting point, and I suggest this process would best be served if all of the parties – in particular the
The War on Imports
“Rinse and repeat.” Handy instructions on the back of a shampoo bottle. Also short-hand for witnessing the same sad thing over and over. An infinite loop of loopy. Like the movie “Groundhog Day,” only not nearly as funny. Titan International opened 2016 by filing petitions claiming “material injury” from imported OTR tires being “dumped” on
Mounting Death Toll From Demounted Tires/Wheels
“Man dead after flying wheel crushes SUV on Hwy. 400” “Lexington man killed by runaway wheel is mourned” I cannot recall a single week in recent years that I’ve not read these and similar headlines from newspaper and radio/TV websites across the U.S. and Canada. And the sad thing is that the ones that make
Titan Trade Injury Claims Just More of the Same
“Rinse and repeat.” Handy instructions on the back of a shampoo bottle. Also short-hand for witnessing the same sad thing over and over. A seemingly infinite loop. Like the movie “Groundhog Day,” only not nearly as funny. Titan International opened 2016 by filing petitions claiming “material injury” from imported OTR tires being “dumped” on the
Building the Brand
Forgive the folks at Falken Tire Corp. as they seem a bit giddy these days. They’ve hit a streak of good news, and are already taking advantage of the good fortune to launch a more aggressive brand-building effort and an expansive collection of new consumer and commercial products. This past summer, the dissolution of the
Starting Off Fresh
If ever there was a tiremaker seeking a rebirth it might well be Kumho Tire USA Inc. Victim of its own inconsistency, the global economic meltdown and problems with its parent company in South Korea, the North American arm appears to have shaken off all of that and sees better days ahead. The turn of
Year of the Tire Dealer
The long-term survival of independent tire distribution depends on dealers. The best ones are the smart businesspeople that build customer-first cultures, make finding and nurturing good employees a priority, and spend their time on the business and not in the business. We created the Top Shop Award program with a single purpose: leverage the very
Titan Chief Ready to Pull Trigger on OTR Tariff Play
A friend of mine who is close to the government agencies involved in setting anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imported goods called me the other day. He had a few questions about imported OTR and ag tires, specifically he wanted to clarify a few things about pneumatic versus non-pneumatic units and where certain manufacturing was
The Lean Green Gas of Home, SEMA Notes & Tire Trained Women
Where have all of the green tires gone? Long time passing…apparently. At the SEMA Show/Global Tire Expo last week, I walked through a number of tiremaker booths and checked out the new rubber. Perhaps I didn’t look in all of the right places (there were a lot of tires), but I can’t recall seeing the
2015 Top Shop Winner: Atlantic Tire & Service
Very little and yet so much has changed over the seven years since we profiled Atlantic Tire & Service when the Cary, N.C., dealership took top honors in the 2008 Tire Review Top Shop Awards, presented by Ammco/Coats. It’s still all about great people delivering great customer service. It’s still about a team built
Raising the Bar: Safety Systems for People or Profit?
If you raise the bar should you expect others to follow? Does raising the bar establish only one new level of competence or does it instill consistent focus on continuous improvement? What if you felt that raising the bar would benefit another group, but that group doesn’t seem to notice or care? Where is the