Why the fees?
Upon reading an article by Senior Washington Reporter Miles Moore in the Feb. 4 issue of Tire Business (“EPA decision: TDF use OK”), I wanted to inquire as to why tire dealers are still having to pay for scrap tire disposal fees if these tires are being used to repave roads as well as being used as fuel?
Our dealership is located in Eatonton, Ga., and I heard just recently that Atlanta is using recycled tires in paving projects. Why should we, the small business owner, pay so that other people can make money?
The tire recyclers should be paying us to come and pick up our scrap tires because they are going to resale.
Can someone please help me to understand this situation?
Merita Brady
Co-owner
Lakeside Tire and Service L.L.C.
Eatonton, Ga.
Next: Used-tire lawsuits
I read recently a front-page story in Tire Business (Dec 3 edition: “Fla. bill would target sellers of used tires”) about a Florida legislator who wants the age of tires disclosed to a dealership's customers.
I found it interesting that on the same page I read that a legislator in Florida wants to make it easier for lawyers to sue tire dealers for selling used tires to customers, another story noted that one out of every eight vehicles in the U.S. has at least one bald tire.
Every state in the union has a law making it illegal to run bald tires, but we find that one in eight are running bald tires, yet some find it unsafe to run used tires. I think that's exactly how bald tires became bald—by morphing from new to used, then to bald.
How did they become bald without going through the used state? Why is it the tire dealer's responsibility to keep their customers safe while providing them with the best quality, cost-effective used tires that we can provide—without x-ray vision—while at the same time, one out of eight of those customers value their safety (not to mention the law) so little that they run on bald tires?
Shouldn't legislation make some kind of sense and actually make a positive impact upon the consumer safety that it supposedly targets?
If a consumer is at all interested in how old a used tire is, that is precisely why that information is on the sidewall.
Tire dealers now having to keep records on used tire sales? Is this to save attorneys' billing hours researching that data while making it easier to sue the tire dealer?
That, to me, sounds like the driving purpose of this legislation.
Ted Weidenhaft
Owner
Farwest Tire Inc.
Coos Bay, Ore.