The Tire Industry Association (TIA) has changed its tagline to “Tire Safety Starts Here” to bring greater attention to overall efforts to educate tire dealers and technicians – and now the general public about how to properly maintain their tires.
 
"TIA felt it was important to educate the public about the critical aspects of properly maintaining the most important component of motor vehicles – tires,” Randy Groh, new TIA president, announced at this week’s Global Tire Expo/SEMA Show. “It is important to begin a comprehensive campaign to educate the public about maintaining their tires.

"This new tagline closes the loop on TIA’s long standing efforts of raising the professionalism and perception of the tire industry and more accurately represents what this modern association’s core values are aimed toward," said Mark Cook, TIA director of communications.

TIA also revealed its education plans – for both consumers and technicians.
 
The association announced plans to develop an ongoing consumer education campaign that will start in 2013. Each quarter, the association will launch a 3-5 minute video that supports the "Tire Safety Starts Here" tagline. The videos will be available in multiple formats on the TIA website, and they will be accessible at no charge to both consumers and retailers.

"As the leader in technician training, we felt it was necessary to take the next step and start the process of educating the motoring public," Groh said. "These short videos will be focused on specific subjects that have a direct impact on tire safety for motorists.”  

On the books for 2013 are videos titled: Tire Safety Starts with Proper Tire Repair (first quarter); Tire Safety Starts with TPMS (second quarter); Tire Safety Starts with Inflation (third quarter); and Tire Safety Starts with Rotation (fourth quarter).
 
"The new consumer education program has a lot of synergy with TIA’s training and legislative agendas," said Roy Littlefield, TIA executive vice president. "Obviously, the first video on proper tire repair will support our efforts to ban on-the-wheel plug repairs and other tire repair practices that are not consistent with industry guidelines. And while we do not have any plans to introduce legislation on the remaining topics, we expect the concepts of a properly functioning TPMS, correct inflation pressure, and regular tire rotation to have a positive impact on safety as well as the image of our industry."
 
TIA also said it plans to continue the consumer education program in 2014 and beyond with new topics.
   
On the professional education side, TIA announced a 16-city Certified ATS Training Tour for 2013, the follow-up to the highly successful 2012 tour that took in 28 cities.
 
TIA’s Certified ATS Instructor Program provides in-depth and comprehensive instruction on the recommended procedures for servicing modern automobiles and light trucks. Retailers can take advantage of TIA’s "train-the-trainer" model by investing in the education of a key employee who can return to the dealership as a TIA Certified Instructor to train their other technicians.  
 
The locations and tentative dates for the 16 cities are:
• February – St. Louis and Miami
• March – Los Angeles and Phoenix
• April – Boston and Toledo, Ohio
• May – Rochester, N.Y., and Pittsburgh
• June – Milwaukee and Seattle
• September -Tampa and Oklahoma City
• October – Charlotte, N.C., and Minneapolis
• November – Jacksonville, Fla., and Houston   

"Based on the feedback from this year’s tour, we feel it is definitely worth the effort to revisit our most popular locations and reach some new markets in 2013," said Kevin Rohlwing, TIA senior vice president of training. "By making the Certified ATS Program more accessible around the country, we’re confident we can continue to fulfill our mission of improving safety by raising the bar for tire retailers."

TIA has also grown, according to Littlefield, with the association standing at 6,279 total members, and sporting a 92% retention rate year-to-year. Littlefield said that to-date TIA has added 684 new members in 2012, and might break the 700-member barrier during the run of the GTE/SEMA Show.

On the legislative front, TIA members approved a pair of resolutions for 2013. The first positions TIA as supporting repeal of the estate tax, while the second opposes a proposed credit card settlement.

“In nationwide polls, small business owners have expressed a deep concern regarding the death tax, and named it their primary legislative concern,” the resolution on the estate tax read. “This tax has had an overwhelmingly harmful effect upon a small business…to that end, TIA is resolved to support all federal legislation that will repeal the estate tax. If necessary, TIA will also support legislation that will extend the current law of a 35% top rate and a $5 million exemption.”

With regard to credit card processing fees, TIA’s resolution stated, “These fees are the third largest expense on a business, after labor and rent. To combat these rising costs, over 40 lawsuits have been combined in a class action suit, suing Visa and MasterCard and their issuing banks. The Merchants Payment Coalition has been formed to seek a more transparent credit card system, which will better serve retailers and consumers alike.”

But the proposed settlement “gives merchants a limited right to surcharge consumers, and it does not reduce swipe fees in the long-term,” and with such TIA opposes the settlement.