The following are responses to the question below by visitors to TB's Web site, www.tirebusiness.com. Are tire backorders still a problem for dealers? What percentage of your orders regularly arrive on time? Which tire brands, types and sizes are lagging behind demand?
We sell Goodyear and Cooper. Between them, I'm running about 30 percent behind on inventory.
Rick Hager
President
Canyon Park Tire and Service
Bothell, Wash.
Yokohama has been worst on availability. We never receive an entire order!
Jeff K. Wolf
Owner
Wolf Tire & Auto
McAlester, Okla.
11R245 Toyo M114Z's are being filled at about 10 percent. Goodyear 10R22.5 G159, G186, G124 tires also are very slowly trickling in.
Creed Wells
Commercial sales
Trans-American Tire
Fort Smith, Ark.
It seems high-performance tires, especially 18-, 19- and 20-inch sizes—are the most difficult to get on a regular basis.
Many manufacturers also are experiencing terrible backorders on snow tires. It appears none of them anticipated the huge demand both in the states and in Europe. We count on the winter season for a strong increase in our business, which is tough to do without supply.
Dunlop/Goodyear and Pirelli seem to be in tough shape on snows. So what else is new?
Barry Steinberg
President and CEO
Direct Tire & Auto Service
Watertown, Mass.
Michelin-Uniroyal-BFG: Excellent fill rates on all three brands, virtually no major backorders. Only the low-end Medalist tire (made for Michelin by Yokohama) and a few Michelin medium truck tires have a significant backorder situation right now. Grade: Passenger—A, medium truck—B.
Kelly-Monarch: Both brands' fill rates have been horrible. But they're finally getting better after a stretch of a few months where you wondered where all their tires were going, especially medium and light truck tires. We weren't getting them, that's for sure.
We even hear that in the Goodyear brand itself they don't have a P205/70R15 whitewall available in anything right now in the whole country. Also, snows are not in good shape this year. Grade: F, working its way up to a C. Can only keep getting better.
Firestone-Bridgestone: Passenger tire delivery hasn't been too bad. But light truck—OE in both brands—has been spotty. Grade: B-.
Dunlop: Not too bad. Spot shortages in medium truck and OE passenger sizes. Grade: B+.
Cooper-Pirelli: Backorders have only been a problem on the Cooper Classic II (60,000-mile) tire and some sizes of the Cooper light truck. And only in the last month or so has snow tire availability been good.
The problems with Pirelli have been mostly while the tires are being moved into the Cooper warehouses and out of Pirelli warehouses. Grade: B+.
Continental-General: Most tires have been available, but some shortages in the OE tires, especially the 205/65R15 black Ameri*G4S because of its popularity in the Ford Around-the-Wheel program. Grade: B.
Larry Lesieur
Tire buyer
Maynard and Lesieur Inc.
Nashua, N.H.
Goodyear backorders seem to be getting worse. We have less than a 25-percent fill rate on passenger, light truck and even less with medium truck tires. We do have a favorable rate from Cooper.
Bill Anders
President
Burlington Tire Service
Burlington, N.C.