Tire Kingdom Tires Cheshire CT

Bill Ihnken thinks the TBC Retail Group can be a “category killer” in the tire and service trade. The 800-pound gorilla that no one can ignore in every town it has a store.

To reach that lofty goal, that pinnacle of retailing, the head of TBC Retail Group’s company-owned stores – Tire Kingdom, NTB and Merchant’s – is pushing the simplest tool in the toolbox. Vehicle inspections.

You might call them “Courtesy Checks” or “VICs” or “Safety Inspections,” they are a staple of Tire/Service Retailing 101, and should be the basis for any and all sales you make.

TBC’s inspection program is “non-negotiable,” he says, “It must be consistent, accurate, timely, informative, comprehensive and done 100% of the time.”

And Ihnken is dead nuts on.

Now TBC Retail Group executive vice president and COO, you can tell that Ihnken was once a trainer. He speaks with that level of enthusiasm and conviction, working off-the-cuff as he punctuates each point with a real life example. No lofty business book gibberish here, just a nuts-n-bolts focus on the pathway he sees to measurable success.

“You have to make it part of the culture,” he says of the safety inspections, as natural an action as breathing. And it starts before the customer even reaches the door.

A proper safety inspection, Ihnken says, begins by greeting the customer as they are exit...

There are tire engineers out there who don't much give a hoot about tire speed ratings. "It's not even a government regulation," says one. "There is no government test for speed ratings. The only speed-related test is euphemistically called a 'temperature resistance test,' and it's built around the ability of a tire to disperse heat successfully under controlled conditions on an indoor test wheel."

A tire's speed rating, the engineer says, tells us nothing about the performance of the tire, its handling ability, its ride characteristics or the noise it makes. "Read a tire dealer's website, and you'll find the same disclaimer. In my opinion, there is no reason to build a tire with anything more than an H-rating for use in the U.S."

Point taken. Whether that's right or wrong is open to debate. What we do know is that federally mandated tire safety standards issued back in the late 1960s forced us to make better tires. During this same period, speed-rated radials from Europe were catching on big. The combination of new tire safety laws and speed-rated radials from Europe provided a swift kick in the pants to the U.S. tire industry just when it needed it.

But that was decades ago. Today, Tire Kingdom's website says this about tire speed ratings: "Tire speed ratings do not imply that vehicles can be driven safely at the maximum speeds for which the tire is rated, particularly under adverse road and weather conditions. Never operate a vehicle in an unsafe or unlawfu...