The Tire Industry Association announced it has reached the 8,000 member mark – the highest in the association’s history – in addition to recently training its 100,000th tire technician since the inception of its training programs in 1997.

Earlier this month, The Hybrid Shop signed on and became TIA’s 8,000th member.

“It is great to know that we have had a record number of members in TIA. We continue to deliver value to our members through our training and member benefit programs,” said Roy Littlefield, TIA executive vice president. “Additionally, the industry is realizing the positive impact of our government affairs efforts. It’s been a very active year on Capitol Hill and I think that some of the increase in membership can be attributed to our work on the legislative front.”

Regarding the training milestone, TIA hit the 100,000 mark when Franklin Clark, a mechanic with Black’s Tire in Whiteville, N.C., earned his CTS 300 Level Certification in mid-October.

The milestone includes all employees who were formally trained through the Association’s programs in automotive, commercial, earthmover, farm and industrial tire service. The figure includes technicians certified through classroom and hands-on instruction and technicians who completed basic technician training using the traditional workbook/video format. It does not include those trained using TIA’s online university.

“We are amazed by the number of companies that have made safety a priority in recent years,” said Kevin Rohlwing, TIA senior vice president of training. “It is incredibly rewarding to know that our training is saving lives each and every day. However, there are still thousands of untrained technicians on the job and that’s just an accident or a lawsuit waiting to happen. We want to encourage all tire service providers to implement some type of technician training program to ensure their employees can make it home safely at the end of the day.”