‘An engineer and a salesman walk into a bar...’

Two different mindsets converged at the Intelligent Tire Technology Conference

By: Bob Ulrich

Modern Tire Dealer Editor Bob Ulrich shares TPMS statistics with the ITTC attendees. MTD was the media sponsor of the three-day event.

Jacques Bajer is an engineer by trade. Percy Ruch is a salesman. Although they have vastly different perspectives, they agree on at least one fundamental rule of retail: The consumer is king.

They did not meet in a bar, as the old joke says, but both attended the third annual Intelligent Tire Technology Conference (ITTC) in Dearborn, Mich., in April. Bajer, president of Tire Systems Engineering Inc. and a longtime contributor to Modern Tire Dealer, helped usher in the radial age of tires in the 1960s. Ruch is national sales manager for Mohawk Rubber Sales of New England Inc., a 75-year-old retail and commercial tire shop supplies distributor based in Hingham, Mass.

The conference focused on the latest tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) technologies and processes. Bajer has been a participant, sometimes as an observer, in the development of the TPMS for nearly 40 years. That includes the direct and indirect systems.

Ruch and his company handle TPMS scanners from K-Tool Corp., Bartec USA LLC, ATEQ Corp. and OTC, a unit of SPX Corp. They also sell TPMS sensors from Dill Air Controls Products LLC, Pacific Industries and Schrader-Bridgeport International Inc.

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