This year has delivered plenty of challenges, but for Nokian Tyres Inc., it’s also brought growth. “We gained market share every month,” said Tommi Heinonen, director of sales for North America. “That means our dealers were trusting us and giving a fair share of their business to us even when times were quite nasty.

Plenty of truck tire manufacturers offer tools and software to monitor the health of a fleet’s tires. Some use chips. There are patches. Others utilize barcodes. With every new tracker or tracking system, the tire company develops its own tool to read and access the data.

Bigger tires with heavier farm equipment add up to more complex fitments. They require more precision and expertise. For Pat’s Tire Sales & Service Inc. in Chilton, Wis., the bigger the better. Those combines, large four-wheel-drive tractors and choppers drive this 42-year-old family business.

Tire dealers in need of a pep talk and a reminder of all they’ve encountered and adjusted to in 2020 need to look no further than Rich Kramer’s remarks that capped off the virtual conference hosted by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. “We’ve always known that each of you is essential to keep the world moving. Well, now everybody else knows, as well."

Alexis Garcin, chairman and president of Michelin North America Inc., says the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the tiremaker’s focus on sustainable mobility.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will continue to focus on fleets in 2021 with new fuel-efficient-focused tires, three new retreads, plus a portal to help fleet managers manage multiple aspects of their tire programs.

During the opening session of its online customer conference, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s Steve McClellan acknowledged the negativity the company’s tire dealers faced when President Donald Trump called for a boycott of Goodyear tires.

Goodyear dealers won’t be gathering in Orlando in early 2021 as originally planned, so this week Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is hosting an online virtual conference to unveil its newest products to the marketplace, including a new line of all-terrain tires.

As a junior in college, Judd Shader was facing a common decision among almost-graduates: "What do I do next?" Shader has found his calling as the driving force behind the fast-growing Leeds West Group. He explains his company's growth strategy in this article.

BTS Tire & Wheel Distributors hosted about 150 customers for in-person training, equipment demonstrations and a trade show this month. In a year where most dealer events were canceled due to COVID-19, the BTS team wanted to find a safe way to offer the help it traditionally offers customers.

Fuel efficiency and a quiet, comfortable ride might not be the first things that come to mind when thinking about light truck tires. But the tiremakers designing original equipment LT tires indicate those are key considerations at work in the next generation of products.

Planning for the new year might seem especially daunting given the rollercoaster of 2020, but Mike Brown says this isn’t the time to wing it. “You don’t want to throw out strategy when things are uncertain.”

In 2021 the California Energy Commission (CEC) plans to implement a replacement tire efficiency program. Its goal is to ensure replacement tires sold in the state are just as energy efficient as the tires installed as original equipment on vehicles.

The wholesale division of Black’s Tire Service Inc. regularly plans events for its customers, bringing in vendors, trainers and speakers to talk about how they can improve their businesses. In 2020, that’s proven to be more important than ever. And so with safety precautions in place, the show will go on.

Five years after tariffs were imposed on passenger and light truck tires imported from China, the Department of Commerce (DOC) has determined removing those tariffs would likely result in tires being dumped in the U.S. market and subsidized by the Chinese government once again. As a result, both the anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed in 2015 will stand.

Monro Inc. is expanding its presence on the West Coast, acquiring 17 stores in Southern California.

When customers arrive at your tire dealership ready to buy replacement tires for a CUV or SUV, guiding them through the selection process might seem akin to searching for a needle in a haystack.

The challenges of 2020 have been immense, and commercial tire dealers are doing their best to weather the storm. As Bob Berlin, president of Orange, Mass.-based Pete’s Tire Barns Inc., put it, “We’re pretty much flat for the year — and we’re happy.”