The bumper November edition of Tyres & Accesories contains more than 120 pages of the latest tyre business news and information including features on Motorsport and full coverage of the recent Brityrex exhibition, TAFF Awards and Lifting equipment. Subscribers can enjoy flicking through this edition online by clicking 'more.'
Tyres & Accessories October magazine contains our annual e-Commerce feature, plus coverage of the latest developments in the tyre wholesale business and battery market. Subscribers can click more to view the whole edition through our virtual magazine system.
Dmack, the Chinese tyre brand authorised as a supplier to the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship, has completed testing and development of its snow and gravel tyres. It has also released details of the full range of competition tyres on offer for next season’s WRC series plus exclusive incentive offers and management packages for competitors using Dmack tyres.
The team at Tyres & Accessories wishes all its readers a Merry Christmas and all the best for the coming year. We hope 2011 will be a successful year for you and your business, and we look forward to delivering you the latest news and industry information through our magazine, tyrepress.com website and e-Newsletter. Please note that the Tyres & Accessories office will be closed from the evening of 17 December, 2010 until 4 January, 2011.
The HiQ fast fit network recently held its second national franchisee conference of 2010, an occasion that gave the network’s commercial manager Farrell Dolan the opportunity to announce two new programmes for 2011. The network plans to raise customer service standards with the introduction of a six figure mystery shopper programme and an Automotive Technician Accreditation (ATA) programme for HiQ technicians across the network.
During times of snow such as we have recently been experiencing in the UK and across larges swathes of Europe, chain maker RUD-Erlau is recommending that, as in Scandinavia, all commercial and rescue vehicles should carry a set of traction chains. While snow may be fun for the kids, “the last thing you want to be is either sliding on the stuff or stuck fast with nothing but a thermos for company” the company said in a statement, addressing those of us with both safety concerns and tight schedules to meet.
Specialist waste transfer contractor Shorten Environmental has recorded a 50 per cent reduction in punctures since it started fitting Michelin new and Remix tyres across its fleet. The haulier has also begun specifying Michelin tyres as original equipment on new vehicles – most recently when it ordered two Scania R440 6×4 tractor units. Before signing an exclusive Michelin contract, the company’s 31-strong fleet of 44-tonne tractor units, ejector and walking floor trailers had been operating on a variety of different tyre brands. It began Michelin trials in 2008.
In the annoying sound stakes, it jostles for pole position with fingernails scraped across the blackboard. For thousands of motorists, all too many a winter journey is accompanied by the cacophony of wipers making their squealing progress back and forth across the windscreen, jarring our aural sensibilities while leaving us with a smeared field of vision. Yet Kwik-Fit rightly points out that this is a torture of our own choosing – the fast fit network’s research shows that one in three British motorists are driving with defective windscreen wipers blades and 56 per cent of us don’t check this easily and affordably replaceable item from one year to the next.
Pirelli aims to increase the amount of tyres directly sold to consumers through online channels, a goal it believes best achieved through increased consumer product awareness and targeted communication. With this in mind, the tyre maker has launched a completely refreshed global website. The overhauled www.pirelli.com website is now live and offers consumers a way to discover the best tyre for their specific vehicle and driving requirements. To do this, the visitor can select an avatar who will guide them through a series of questions about annual mileage, vehicle type and usual driving terrain. A ‘perfect’ tyre to suit the visitor’s needs plus other options will then be recommended, followed by a series of virtual product tests and details of the dealers in the visitor’s local area.
Cold weather and snowy conditions do not just provide an opportunity for those selling winter tyres, Pro-Align has explained in a new statement. The effects of the climate last long after the snow has cleared, with the quality of road surfaces affected and providing motorists with the additional hazard of potholes. The UK’s pothole problem costs UK motorists around £2.8 billion each year according to the website potholes.co.uk, and Pro-Align says workshops without the latest four wheel alignment equipment may be missing out on a lucrative revenue opportunity. Driving over potholes is a major cause of wheel misalignment, which can reduce vehicle safety, increase fuel costs plus poor vehicle handling, causing distraction and concern for drivers. Unless workshops are equipped with the correct equipment, they will not be able to properly diagnose customer’s alignment problems and carry out the subsequent corrective work, claims the alignment specialist.
Britain’s largest ambulance trust, the North West Ambulance Service, has signed a deal with ATS Euromaster to fit Michelin cold weather tyres to its fleet of 135 rapid response cars. The NHS Trust covers Cumbria, Lancashire, Mersey Regional, Cheshire and Greater Manchester. It selected the cold weather tyres for its ‘blue-light’ Ford Mondeos, Skoda Elegances / Scouts and Volvo V50s. The tyres are being delivered directly to nominated Trust vehicle workshops across the North West, with ATS Euromaster’s extensive mobile tyre fitting fleet – the largest of its type in the country – used to co-ordinate the replacements promptly on-site.
Prices for JK Tyre and Industries products will increase by up to five per cent in the New Year as the tyre maker seeks to offset climbing raw material costs. India’s The Economic Times reports company vice chairman and managing director Raghupati Singhania as disclosing during the JK Tyre-organised Indian Car and Motorcycle of the Year awards that “we will increase tyre prices by four to five per cent from January to offset surging raw materials costs, especially natural rubber. Singhania added that the price increase applies to both passenger car radial and truck tyres and JK Tyre may implement further price rises should rubber prices continue to increase.
Premier Vehicle Rental (PVR) has selected Avon Tyres for its new three-year, fixed-term tyre supply contract through ATS Euromaster (ATSE). PVR is aiming to double its fleet of 150 vehicles and will benefit from the combined strength of ATSE’s nationwide centre network and its fleet of nearly 1,000 mobile service vans.
PVR has reportedly been seeking to better manage costs and says streamlining tyre servicing through a national provider will help take it “from strength to strength.” Its intention to double its fleet size in the next three ears, with an increase to 220 vehicles in the next six months, means that adopting a one-stop national approach is a vital step for the business. PVR’s fleet comprises mainly Mercedes-Benz Vito and Sprinter vans, which are rented on contracts for a minimum of 12 months. Its customers range from maintenance firms to food delivery services.
It’s customary at this time of year to take a quick look back over our shoulders at what has gone before and perhaps more importantly to make some sort of predictions as to the year ahead. In the latest in our series of perspectives from the shipping industry, Rob Shelley, CEO of Maritime Cargo Services, tells Tyres & Accessories where he sees shipping volumes and extra-slow-steaming going in 2011 and what this means for anyone importing tyres into the UK.
TMD Friction Group has announced plans for the acquisition of bt Bremsen Technik. TMD Friction has been a minority shareholder of bt Bremsen since 2001. On 16 December Derek Whitworth, president and CEO of TMD Friction Group, Luxembourg, and Dieter Goldbach, managing director, bt bremsen Technik GmbH, Rosbach (Hessen, Germany) jointly announced TMD Friction’s acquisition of the remaining 51 per cent of bt Bremsen. The transaction also includes the business of bt Brake Technology of America, registered in Florida.
