Who Is On Our Side?’: Dealer Asks Tough Question, But Maybe the Real Answer is You!
Instead of my usual mish-mash of sticky note items and holiday cheer, I want to leave all of you with a philosophical question to chew on as we head into a new year. Who is really watching out for the best interests of the independent tire dealer? Seems like a pretty simple question, doesn’t it?
Reflection and a Pledge: Hall of Fame Inductee’s Look Back at the Early Days of the Rubber Trade
In recognition of the induction of Theodore E. Smith, founder of this magazine, into the Tire Industry Hall of Fame, we thought it appropriate to publish one of his last columns for what was then called India Rubber Review, which he had founded in 1901. Published 85 years ago this month, Ted’s reflections on the
Higher Standards?: New Form of Liability Suit Raises Issue of What Customers Should Expect
What do customers have a right to expect from your business? When they come in for new tires or complaining about some odd sound in the rear end, what level of service should they – or can they legally – expect from you? Should there be a “standard of care” for tire retailers and shops?
Pushing Rope?: How High Will Another Price Increase Fly With Strapped End-Users?
Rumblings are up about an upcoming round of across-the-board tire price hikes. No one should be surprised. Legacy costs, operating costs and, most especially, raw material costs, are chewing up tiremakers, especially those on these shores. The price increases invoked over the last three years have certainly been warranted, and, for the most part, those
Hanging High and Dry: Blurred ‘Facts’ Leave Dealers to Answer Consumer Fuel Economy, Aging Questions
Ford. DaimlerChrysler. NADA. Sean Kane. California. Massachusetts. Sen. Chuck Schumer. Four think old tires are a plague. Three are convinced OE tires are highly fuel-efficient. Nice to be loved, isn’t it? TPMS regulations aside, this industry – tiremakers and dealers – faces two major issues: tire aging and tire fuel efficiency. Last year, California enacted
Roll Over? Never!: Vigilance, Skill, Backbone Needed to Deflect Ongoing Tire Criticism
Despite the obvious political expediency – 2000 was an election year, after all – the TREAD Act wasn’t about penalizing wrong-doers, enhancing standards, improving technology or even getting a better handle on occasional problems. No, the real reason behind the TREAD Act, if you really think about it, is quite basic: People are ignorant about
Slicing it Extra Thin: Next Big Breakthrough Will Be Measured in Billionths, Not Billions
What will be the next great tire breakthrough? What will make radial technology the sliced bread of our age? If I’ve heard the question once, I’ve heard it a million times. It’s been six decades since the radial was invented – 30 years or so since it really hit the market here – but there
Always Keep Moving: New, Sharper Look; Same Commitment to Your Bottom Line
“Stand still. You’re going to end up all blurry!” my parents would yell every time they tried to take a picture of me, back in the days of slow-speed film. Everything was slow then. There were no faxes or Internet. No microwaves. TV was black and white with three networks. Rotary phones and party lines
No Big Deal?
Mallory Eddy’s stop was at the bottom of a long, steep hill on two-lane Peterboro Road in Smithville, N.Y., a quiet little burg near Oneida. It was a sunny and clear late-May day when the school bus pulled up hard against the right berm to let three riders off. The cheerful, chatty second grader was
Around the Globe
My youngest son, Alex, loved Legos. Still does. For Christmas or his birthday, he would often get those pre-fab Lego kits that would yield a racecar, Space Shuttle, robot, what have you. One quick glance at the instructions and 10 minutes later, he’d be done. So much for the “hours and hours of enjoyment” promised
The Far, Far East
equipment in sight. Looked like an Ohio road construction project. • Very stratified pecking order in most workplaces. Employees know only enough to perform precisely their job. Nothing more. If you ask them for anything beyond that, they have to go find the next guy in the order. • China has re-embraced its ancient cultures,
Lesson Learned
It was probably a good thing there was traffic when the woman pulled out of Tire World. The vehicle was going slow enough that when the wheel came off a few hundred feet later, she was able to stop safely. Of course, the Colorado Springs police had to do their thing and make a report.