NORTHBROOK, Ill.—TrucktireXchange. - com (TTX), the nascent commercial tire e-commerce site on the World Wide Web, has introduced a new service—the TrucktireXchange Data Terminal (TDT).
Introduced Oct. 24, TDT provides registered users of TTX with current average prices of new and retreaded truck tires and casings in four sizes (11R22.5, 11R24.5, 295/75R22.5 and 285/75R24.5). The data is gleaned from the TTX inventory posted for sale by members.
Interested parties can "slice and dice" the data by region and tire brand for each of the sizes, said Cort Jacoby, co-owner of TTX, which can be accessed at www.trucktirexchange.com.
TDT also provides a history of tire and casing prices and plans to add more features as the number of transactions increases and the database becomes larger, he said.
TTX was launched in May during the International Tire & Rubber Association World Expo and currently has about 750 members—about 500 of them tire dealers. At any given time, between 15 and 20 percent of the dealer-members have products listed on TTX's inventory, Mr. Jacoby said.
While there is no charge to register for the site, post products for sale and view TDT's data, the company charges a flat commission of 3 percent on each sale. To date, more than $1 million in transactions have been conducted on the site.
TDT was formed, Mr. Jacoby said, after he talked with several of the top 10 trucking companies.
Fuel prices for truck operators are readily available through trade publications, but there's no single source for information on commercial tire pricing, said Marc Imyak, the other co-founder of TTX.
"TDT makes it possible to see tire pricing," said Mr. Imyak, also principal of City Tire Inc. in Chicago. "After all, tires are the largest single maintenance cost item for carriers."
Mr. Jacoby speculated that certain entities in the commercial tire business are wary of providing pricing information and manufacturers lose track of the prices once tires are sold to large distributors or dealers.
"What we're going to be doing is providing better visibility to what the actual end user is actually paying for this product," he said.