Glen Birkwood retires
After 34 years in the tyre industry, Uniroyal truck tyres manager Glen Birkwood is retiring on 31 October. Having entered the tyre business in 1980, Birkwood rose through the ranks at Pirelli, Firestone and then Bridgestone before becoming Uniroyal truck tyres sales manager in 2000.
Continue ReadingNTDA silent auction raises £500 for BEN
During Brityrex International 2014, the NTDA held a silent auction of a signed Ryan Giggs no.11 Manchester United shirt, which commemorates his 588 appearances, 108 goals and 24 years of service with Manchester United. It also lists all of his accolades as a player during that period including his PFA Player of the Year in 2009.
Continue ReadingDangers of driving after dark
As British Summertime ends, a new survey of over 1,ooo motorists commissioned by the Eyecare Trust and not for profit insurer Westfield Health reveals more than half of Britain’s 34 million motorists struggle to see when driving after dark, whilst many more avoid driving at night altogether.
Continue ReadingRMI urges Government to listen to retailers
“The retail motor industry compromises of 8,000 member sites and too often the Government listens intently to the manufacturing sector, but takes scant account of the interests of retailers,” said RMI deputy chairman Peter Johnson, speaking at this year’s Retail Motor Industry Federation annual dinner in London on 23 October 2014.
Continue ReadingTIF disappointed with tyre labelling consultation, but pragmatic about the future
Following the publication of the DfT’s Tyre Labelling Enforcement Consultation document during the last week, NTDA representatives have articulated their disappointment with the government’s conclusions – apparently representing the views of the larger part of the Tyre Industry Federation (TIF) board (see DfT completes Tyre Labelling consultation for more on this)
Continue ReadingMercedes-Benz opens 24hr service centre at Avonmouth
City West Commercials, Mercedes-Benz’s commercial vehicle partner in the South West has launched 24-hour servicing at Avonmouth. With the increasingly hurried nature of the modern working world, more companies are opening later than ever and with that is a growing need for business vehicles to be on the road at all hours of the day. However, until now there has been a lack of service facilities open for extended hours in the region to meet this increasing demand.
Continue ReadingMotor Wheel Service Distribution becomes TruckForce preferred wheel supplier
Motor Wheel Service Distribution (MWSD) has been chosen as the preferred commercial vehicle wheel supplier by TruckForce, Goodyear Dunlop’s truck tyre and breakdown assistance support network. According to the company, the contract will encompass over 45 different wheel sizes ranging from 5.75” x 17.5” to 11.75” x 22.5”, most of which are available in either steel or forged aluminium for the truck, trailer and bus and coach segments.
Continue ReadingBandvulc hosts key partner conference in Manchester
After a one-year gap Bandvulc recently held its Key Partner Conference for its dealer network at the prestigious Midland Hotel in Manchester. Famous for a particular historical partnership, the Midland was where Messrs. Rolls and Royce met and agreed to form their company. The conference theme was: Partnerships, loyalty and recognising customers. Company representatives explained that this year’s conference was designed to inform the network of Bandvulc’s performance amongst other things.
Continue ReadingSewells: Fleets are worth £19.5 billion to UK economy every year
Car and van fleets add £19.5 billion to the UK economy each year, according to market research firm Sewells, which released the figure during an industry briefing at a recent Fleet200 quarterly meeting. The figure is based on an average annual running cost of between £4500 and £6500 per vehicle and a fleet car parc, which is said to be roughly 3 million units in total. Therefore the parc is said to add £19.5 billion annually. Based on commonly held long term averages that suggest cars require one new tyre per car per year, this could also suggest that the fleet parc consumes 3 million tyres a year or a bit under 10 per cent of total annual tyre demand.
Continue ReadingThe Parts Alliance announces online garage services aggregator partnership
UK automotive parts distributor The Parts Alliance has announced a new partnership agreement with online servicing and repairs aggregator WhoCanFixMyCar.com. The group says the deal will help to provide motorists nationwide with quality parts and value in their vehicle repairs and servicing through their local independent garage. Within the trade, The Parts Alliance says the partnership will result in increased enquiries for its customer garages, while the ease of quoting and auto parts purchasing processes will be increased.
Continue ReadingDfT completes tyre labelling consultancy, continues with risk-based enforcement plans
The UK government’s Department for Transport announced that it had concluded its consultation on the enforcement mechanism for European tyre labelling legislation which began on 10 April and ran for around six weeks. As a result, the National Measurement Office (NMO) will now be basing its enforcement mechanism on a risk-based process using measures including criminal sanctions despite widespread tyre industry support for civil sanctions too. However, questions remain about exactly what this might mean in practice and – as we have seen – some will be disappointed that calls for civil penalties to be part of the enforcement mechanism appear to have gone unheard.
Continue ReadingTreadsetters wins best stand award at Brityrex 2014
Treadsetters (Part of the TIA Group) won the best stand award at this years Brityrex 2014 Show. Having gone with the primary objective of promoting the companys high tyre and wheel brands, winning the award was described as an “unexpected bonus”.
Continue ReadingPart-worn tyres a factor in up to 475,000 accidents – survey
A new study carried out by ICM Research for Kwik Fit suggests that 22 per cent of British drivers have purchased part-worn tyres for their car at some stage and nine per cent – a figure that represents close to three million drivers – have done so in the past year. However the survey of 2,561 adults in the UK found that only 17 per cent of respondents would consider buying used tyres in the future, with many saying they wouldn’t do so as they have experienced problems as a result of opting for used rubber.
Continue ReadingKumho Tyre partners with R3 for safer UK roads
Driver training school R3 (Road Risk Reduction) has selected Kumho Tyre UK as a new commercial partner. The arrangement will see Kumho Tyre UK and the Rockingham Motor Speedway-based outfit work together towards giving British drivers a solid foundation in both attitude and skill. Kumho will equip all R3 cars with its Ecowing ES01 KH27, and on top of this will send all Kumho Tyre UK staff on a bespoke training course with R3 to ensure safe and economical driving.
Continue ReadingAndy Baron joins SD-International, Toledo range introduced
Shanghai-based contract tyre manufacturer SD-International recently reinforced its European sales team with the appointment of Andy Baron as sales manager (Northern Europe). Both this and the introduction of the company’s new Toledo range took place during October’s Britytrex exhibition in Manchester.
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