What’s Treading with Tire Review

How long have we been talking about the technician shortage now? Too long. It's been an issue for nearly every shop owner I've ever spoken to and seems to have taken hold of the industry around the time Moses was handed the 10 Commandments. We know better by now that there's no magic bullet out there to stop this boss monster, but there must be better ways to chip away at its life bar. Andrew Cocc...

I don't care if you've been in the tire industry for 40 years or 40 days – a lot has changed since you got started. Recently, some of the biggest changes are happening on the technology side: AI, smartphones and sophisticated software have never had such a presence on the shop floor. There's too much to wrap your head around to successfully keep the evolutions in the industry straight. To help add...

Ask anyone in business long enough to find success and they'll likely tell you that relationships got them there. Cosmo Tires , operated by Tire Group International , is no different and is continuing to lean on its uncanny ability to cultivate strong, family-first partnerships as a cornerstone for growth. "With everything that we do as a brand, if it's not all authentic and we're not able to reac...

Launching a brand in a new market is never easy... even if that brand has nearly 60 years of established history behind it. This is the case with MatraX Tyres, which has roots stemming back to 1965 in Portugal. Now, the company is expanding into the U.S. with passenger car tires, with plans to add more tire lines soon. "The U.S. market is big – it's the biggest market in the world. It's challengin...

 They say that 10,000 hours of practice will make you an expert at whatever task you've set your mind to. If that's the case, what does 120 years of practice make you? (That's 1,051,000 hours, for the record). In 2023, Continental marked its 120th year of retreading truck and bus tires. Today, the tire manufacturer retreads more than one million truck and bus tires worldwide every year – conservin...

Succeeding as an independent tire dealer isn't ever a "copy and paste" operation. What works for the dealer down the street isn't necessarily going to work for you, and what works for you may not work for a dealer selling the same tires halfway across the world. Yet, it's the same thread that lead to success for each one. "They all want to make money," says G.S. Sareen, president and CEO of Omni U...

Commercial tire dealers had their hands full in 2023, dealing with supply chain disruptions, fluctuating raw material costs and oversupply leading to less-than-stellar sales numbers around the country. The good news is that things are already looking up this year, but it's not simply by accident. Instead, commercial tire dealers are finding opportunities to improve their fleet relationships and ar...

What does "leveling up" your tire business in 2024 mean? It's an easy question to write off while your bays are filling up, or when your phones are ringing off the hook, or when a shipping delay stops an important order from arriving on time, or when a customer is complaining, or when your shop equipment fails... The list of trials and tribulations taking place daily in the life of your friendly n...

A successful tire launch seems to fall somewhere in the middle of innovation, customer satisfaction and dealer support. By that account, Hankook Tire seems to have followed the tire launch playbook to the letter with the recent debut of its all-season touring tire, the Dynapro HPX, designed for SUVs. According to Rob Williams, president of Hankook Tire America Corp., the R&D that went into the...

In only the past year or so, AI has opened a Pandora's box of opportunities to better care for customers and their vehicles – so much so that today's consumer has unlocked a new level of knowledge surrounding all aspects of maintenance. Here's an example: A driver thinks it might be time for a new set of tires since their current set is looking a bit on the worn side. He doesn't own a tread depth...

It's hard to think of many places where electrified and autonomous vehicles are more welcome than underground. Large mining outfits depend on the advantages these attributes offer – mainly zero emissions and keeping drivers out of harm's way, respectively – to maximize profits and uptime. To keep these and other OTR fleets moving, OTR tire manufacturers like BKT must constantly keep a finger on th...

Jared Kugel, the CEO of online tire retailer Tire Agent, made waves in the tire industry last August when the business appeared on Inc.'s 5000 list of the fastest-growing startups. Kugel says the accolades are due in large part to the company's customer-first approach, which has secured Tire Agent a loyal customer base and a high repeat purchase rate. "Over time we've become more than just an onli...

In August, Linglong Tire established a new subsidiary, Linglong North America Sales, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The company appointed industry veteran Geoff Doster as the president of this newly established entity. Now, with a few months worth of his getting his feet wet in the position, Doster stopped by this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review to reveal his vision for...

Rolling resistance, durability and overall comfort all play a huge role in tire design, but these characteristics are under a bright-hot spotlight in the context of electric vehicle tires. That's why Nokian Tyres recently revealed its "Electric Fit" symbol to showcase to customers that these attributes have been given special attention in select tires. The company uses a combination of factors, in...

In September, Bridgestone Americas released its new Potenza Sport all-season UHP tire. As with many UHP tire offerings, the company says the tire is targeted toward consumers who are enthusiastic about driving their sporty performance vehicles, but the tire has also been designed with a focus on regions that experience light snowfall. One attribute that especially caught our interest was the fact...

When you think of your shop's most valuable assets, what comes to mind? Perhaps it's expensive shop equipment or the price that comes with employing skilled technicians. These are great answers, but the experts from Torqata, a data analytics software company that works mainly with tire manufacturers, distributors and retailers, suggest the answer may be a bit less tangible. "Tire dealers handle a...

If you support your community, it’s going to come back around to your business. It's a simple mantra, but sticking to it has worked wonders for Black's Tire & Auto Service. Today, the business stands 55 Black’s Tire & Auto Service tire and vehicle repair centers in operation across North and South Carolina, and Black's continues to grow. There are also 10 distribution warehouses – seven fu...

Reading the tea leaves is never simple for an OTR tire dealer. With the market so closely tied to typically cyclical industries like construction, mining, agriculture and forestry, many OTR tire dealers will tell you they've experienced their fair share of both feast and famine. So far this year, though, the OTR tire market has been relatively steady, according to Triangle Tire's OTR Director Step...

Over the last few years, Wegmann Automotive has found diversification to be a huge boon for business, whether that comes from various wheel weights options or the acquisition of Alligator TPMS in 2019. "I think everybody's always looking for ways to grow their organizations. We have a very large amount of business in the wheel weight space," says Greg Parker, the national account sales and marketi...

There are four particular American tire shops where the shop floor looks quite a bit different than what you might be used to. Two enormous robotic arms are lifting 80-pound tires with ease, waltzing to an orchestra or shop sounds as they change a set of four customer tires in 20 minutes. According to executives at RoboTire, who've designed and installed these robots, these robots are just at the...

Kumho Tire recently launched the Solus TA51a tire, a grand touring all-season tire that consolidates two products into one. Kumho has also been simplifying other product lines as well; According to Shawn Denlein, president of sales and marketing at Kumho Tire USA, it’s a strategy that will become a huge boon to tire dealers. “In 2018 we started this strategy of trying to consolidate all the lines,...

When your Average Joe or Jane hears the word Continental, what do think first comes to mind? A hotel breakfast? An airline? Plate tectonics? In large part thanks to Brian Beierwaltes, senior manager of marketing at Continental, many consumers out there first turn to the tires manufactured by a global tire brand. Every tire manufacturer has its own unique marketing strategy. So, how does a Continen...

A cloud of smoke arises from the GT Radial Champiro SX2 RS tires as Formula Drift Driver Odi Bakchis brakes to a halt. The tires are hot and worn after a few laps drifting, but they’ve kept Odi on the track for the full afternoon. So, what does in to the technological marvel that is race tires? To answer this, David Poling, Giti Tire USA’s director of tire development and product marketing, sits d...

A myraid of tire changers exist on the market today, so how do you know which one is right for your shop? Saying a new tire changer is a huge investment is an understatement, yet in order to service the wheel assemblies you’re seeing in your bays today, as well as those coming down the line, identifying the technology your techs need to perform proper and efficient tire service each time is a must...

The number of electric vehicles sold in North America is only going up, which has led many a tire dealer wondering how the characteristics of these vehicles will affect tires. EVs have heavy batteries and instant torque, which creates a perfect storm for these vehicles to eat up tires. However, that's not always the case, and tire manufacturers today are evaluating their current tire lines and wor...