The marketing manager at HiQ’s largest franchise has raised £500 from a 5K run completed with her sister for Cancer Research UK. Emma-Jane Kisby, marketing manager for Easy Autocentres, and her sister Claire Murray, completed the Sutton Park Race for Life, to the delight of their friends and family.
Shandong Linglong reports that despite import restrictions upon Chinese tyres in a number of markets including the US, Argentina and India, the company has relied upon a “flexible marketing strategy” and introduced new products to counter any resulting downturn. And the company’s approach appears to be working – according to Shandong Linglong, between January and April 2010 the total amount of foreign exchange it earned through exports has grown 56.47 per cent year-on-year. This is, the company states, a sufficient amount to have enabled it to already realise its 2010 export target.
TireHunter.com, a subsidiary of Network Tire Inc., from Chalfont, Pennsylvania in the US, has launched a free service for tyre wholesalers, retailers and consumers. According to the company, TireHunter.com helps locate those “hard to find” tyres and can do so “whether it’s one tyre or a container.” Apart from the wide-ranging scale, what’s unique about this offering is the fact that the company will arrange to ship the tyres it finds directly to the customers’ location.
Tire Review reports news of a US study conducted by Forrester Research that suggests consumers who research products in stores before buying products on a retail website are less satisfied with the experience than consumers who do the opposite. The findings were based on online surveys of 4,723 US consumers conducted in August 2009.
This year’s ‘Fill Up With Air’ roadshow promises to be the biggest ever, and Michelin hopes to use the opportunity to spread the message that UK motorists are throwing away more than ₤440 million pounds each year by driving on under-inflated tyres. The show is touring the UK and Ireland from May until October, with Michelin campaigning at every stop to raise driver awareness to the fact that incorrect tyre pressure can wear tyres out more quickly plus increase fuel consumption – the research also unearthed that more than 370 million litres of fuel are being wasted each year, contributing to an additional one million tonnes of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere.
Research by Micheldever Tyres Services shows that over 30 per cent of cars coming into the company’s flagship outlet in Hampshire have at least one illegal tyre – up from 19 per cent one year ago. Furthermore, over 80 per cent of cars have badly worn tyres, with a tread depth below 2mm.
The role compressed air equipment plays in the tyre business is often underestimated. But with the recession causing businesses to think more about energy costs and legislation; and with general opinion swaying us all towards being more ecologically friendly, this is something that the pneumatic experts at Tom Parker Ltd are hoping to change, with the launch of the Exhausted Air Recycling System or EARS. EARS is designed to capture the exhausted air from pneumatic tools and recycle this otherwise wasted energy back to the compressor, which improves efficiency and therefore saves money.
Because the new technology centres on recycling wasted exhaust air it represents a major advance in compressed air technology. It does this by running two lines between the compressor and the pneumatic tool in a way not dissimilar to veins and arteries in your own body – the primary airline acts like an artery sending out “clean” air to power the tool, while a secondary line is like a vein and returns used, or exhausted air, back to the compressor. By capturing and reusing this exhausted air, it reduces environmental pollution in the workplace with no airborne contaminants such as oil, dust or other pollutants being released. However it is also quieter, comfortable and more energy efficient due to higher output flows from the compressor, which maximises its power consumption and operating life.
GITI Tire’s UK operation has launched a new mixed service drive axle tyre specifically designed for “extreme all terrain conditions.” The new directional, M&S marked, GT686 is available now in 295/80R22.5, 315/80R22.5 and 11R22.5 sizes. According to the company, GT686 benefits from an extra deep tread depth and compounding developed to resist cuts and tread tearing and provide excellent self cleaning. Featuring a robust casing construction with sidewall protection, GT686 has been designed to provide excellent grip and deliver a high mileage performance throughout the life of the tyre when used in tough on and off road conditions.
GITI’s latest news follows what the company said was a “very positive” exhibit at the Commercial Vehicle Operator Show in April. It was here that the GT686 was first showcased also making its European debut at the show was the new GDL617, a long haul drive axle pattern available later this year in a variety of sizes. This new pattern features a compact tread design with a “multi-deep sipe arrangement” and reportedly benefiting from “the latest cool running compound technology.”
You’re an accomplished all-rounder, aren’t you? An intellectual colossus, football wunderkind unfairly shunned by the talent scouts, a lover par excellence….and an expert DIY mechanic. That’s why you’ve taken to fixing your own car, even though you really haven’t the foggiest about what’s lurking under the bonnet. Don’t worry, mate, you’re hardly alone…According to statistics released by Kwik-Fit, our roads are full of cars that may have been shoddily serviced.
The ASEAN Rubber Conference Secretariat has selected Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to host the 6 ASEAN Rubber Conference (ARC), which is scheduled to be held 17 – 19 June 2010. Since its inception in 2005, ARC has travelled to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines and Laos. In Kuala Lumpur, ARC 2010 is expected to be bigger than ever with an estimated 700 delegates from 25 countries converging to discuss commercial and economic issues, latest supply/demand trends and price forecasts for 2010/2011 with renowned experts and industry leaders from commercial organizations, government agencies, research bodies and associations across 10 countries.
Pirelli Motorcycle has launched what is says is the first motorcycle tyre riders can customise with their own initials, name, individual words or whole messages. According to the company, consumers that wish to stamp their own mark on their tyres can also reproduce images and logos, which can then be applied to the tyres’ sidewalls with special labels created by the rider. The sides of the new Diablo Rosso Corsa tyres were designed to accommodate the adhesive labels that anyone can design on Pirelli’s website and receive at home.
ATS Euromaster has merged or closed 80 branches in the past year, as a result of the consultation exercise reported by tyrepress.com in September 2009 (see ‘ATS Euromaster “Reviewing” 80 Branches’ on tyrepress.com). In the time since that article, there has been a shift from the regional organisation towards a segmentation of the organisation of the business into Retail, Comprehensive and Truck, which group operations director Chris Hufflett characterised as giving “more emphasis” to the needs of the customer when he spoke to Tyres & Accessories. An additional element of this increased customer focus is the “significant investment” in mobile service vehicles, he continued, leaving ATS-E able to meet the figure of 10,000 breakdowns every month. And further investment in the ATS-E network is to come in the form of “£6 million rolling investment”, which will mainly go to “stronger locations”, MOT servicing, some location scouting and the continuing process of refurbishing and improving the facilities available in outlets.
Europeans’ concern about the spiralling cost of fuel is being exacerbated by the state of motorists’ tyres according to research conducted by Bridgestone. According to the manufacturer, four billion litres – worth approximately £4.6 billion – of fuel are being wasted every year due to the under-inflated tyres of four in every five motorists. This inadequate tyre care does not just affect motorists’ wallets; the wasted fuel equates to 9.3 million tonnes of unnecessary CO2 emissions, and therefore increases the harm to the environment caused by motoring. The findings come from safety checks carried out on 52,400 cars in 15 E.U countries in 2009.
On April 20 Bekaert open its first research and development centre outside of Belgium. The Asia Research and Development Center in China’s Jiangsu Province is intended to strengthen the company’s “commitment to develop and supply innovative products to Asian customers while enhancing its technological leadership in the region.”
According to a recent survey, British businesses are squandering millions of litres of petrol because employees don’t drive company vehicles efficiently. Poor driving technique, inaccurate fuel gauges and bad record keeping are all contributing to companies being unaware of the real consequences of their fuel usage, the survey adds.
The research by leading telematics expert Trimble MRM found recent hikes in petrol and diesel prices is the biggest challenge facing fleet managers today. The drive to make business more fuel efficient is forcing fleet managers to take a long hard look at their vehicles and driver behaviour.
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