The Tire Industry Association (TIA) has changed its tagline to “Tire Safety Starts Here” as part of its overall efforts to educate the general public about how to properly maintain their tires.
Randy Groh, TIA’s new president, said at a press conference during the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show, “TIA felt it was important to educate the public about the critical aspects of properly maintaining the most important component of motor vehicles – tires. It is important to begin a comprehensive campaign to educate the public about maintaining their tires. The tagline will work on repeating the importance of safety with a series of sub-taglines consisting of ‘Tire Safety Starts with Proper Tire Repair,’ ‘Tire Safety Starts with TPMS,’ ‘Tire Safety starts with Inflation’ and ‘Tire Safety Starts with Rotation.’
Roy Littlefield, executive vice president of TIA, believes that, “This campaign is a natural extension of the emphasis the association has had on training for many years, now having trained over 70,000 technicians.”
“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 towards,” said Mark Cook, director of communications of TIA.
Also announced at the press conference was the schedule for TIA's 16-city Certified ATS Training Tour for 2013.
TIA officials said the award-winning four-day ATS Certified Instructor Course will visit 16 cities across the United States, with classes being held at community and technical colleges near the main metropolitan areas. “Because of the incredible success of the first ATS National Training Tour, TIA is embarking on a 2013 National Tour to reach even more technicians” said Groh.
TIA’s Certified ATS Instructor Program provides in-depth and comprehensive instruction on the recommended procedures for servicing modern automobiles and light trucks. It is designed for the professional passenger and light truck tire technician so the subjects range from the relationship between torque and clamping force to the increasingly important TPMS relearn procedures on domestic and import vehicles. 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 as follows:
* February – St. Louis, Mo., and Miami, Fla.
* March – Los Angeles, Calif., and Phoenix, Ariz.
* April – Boston, Mass., and Toledo, Ohio
* May – Rochester, N.Y., and Pittsburgh, Pa.
* June – Milwaukee, Wis., and Seattle, Wash.
* September – Tampa, Fla., and Oklahoma City, Okla.
* October – Charlotte, N.C., and Minneapolis, Minn.
* November – Jacksonville, Fla., and Houston, Texas
“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 plans to release the specific dates and locations for the February to November classes by the end of 2012, but the dates may change depending on availability.
For more information, visit www.tireindustry.org.
