AKRON (Jan. 11, 2013) — The New Year brings a lot of talk about resolutions, both personal and professional. We at Tire Business were able to obtain the unofficial (wink, wink) resolutions of several tire industry participants:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: To finally get around to issuing tire-labeling rules.
Tire Industry Association (TIA): To achieve its desire to be the consumer education source for the new tire-labeling rules.
Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA): To finally convince vehicle owners that tires really do require air and to check for proper tire inflation pressure regularly.
TIA/RMA: To continue to cooperate (unlike Congress) on industry issues such as used-tire and tire-repair legislation and tire-aging recommendations.
Right-to-Repair advocates: To attain passage of right-to-repair legislation in more states and even on the national level.
Nitto Tire U.S.A. Inc.: To attain 5 million Facebook fans by year-end.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Co./ Bridgestone Corp.: To make breakthroughs in their research to achieve viable alternative sources of natural rubber.
Monro Muffler Brake: To buy more tire dealerships and net the No.1 spot on the Tire Business annual ranking of the Largest Independent Retail Tire Dealerships in North America.
Environmental Protection Agency: To permanently acknowledge that scrap tires as tire-derived fuel are safe to burn—ending this burning issue once and for all.
South Carolina: To be home for a new tire plant from every tire manufacturer (that isn't there already)—and become the tire capital of the world!
Federal government: To refrain from enacting any more rules/regulations on small businesses for one year…ha ha ha!
Well, we can dream, can't we? Here's hoping that at least some of the more practical resolutions of the tire industry are achieved during another year of challenges and achievements.