A recent survey has shown that almost half of drivers in the UK would be open to the idea of buying their tyres online, rather than calling their local tyre dealer.
Internet retailer Delticom questioned 5,000 motorists in the survey, and found that 47% of those surveyed would be prepared to buy tyres through an online store.
In recent times we have seen a number of big businesses looking towards selling tyres online, such as the AA and Tesco. Tyres are delivered to a local centre chosen by the buyer, and the tyre dealer is paid a mounting fee per tyre, although the profit from the sale of the tyre goes directly to the online retailer.
Statistics for other EU countries revealed that 77% of drivers in France would look towards the internet for their new tyres, whereas drivers in countries such as Germany, Spain and Italy are much more wary of this new online sector, with only 18% – 40% prepared to surf the web for new rubber.
One of the major questions for independent tyre retailers across the UK is how to compete with the prices offered by these online sites, or do we as an industry merely accept the inevitable move towards online tyre buying and adapt to make the most of it?
Figures issued by the Federation of Thai Industries have alarmed industry analysts as they show a major drop in production by 15 of Thailand’s domestic tyre manufacturers.
Thailand, which is a major centre for the rubber production and the tyre industry has seen around 30,000 workers in the tyre sector affected by the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and many of the countries tyre manufacturers are cutting production by levels in the region of 30% – 40%, with many also cutting overtime operations.
Reduction in the production levels of natural rubber in the region were also responsible for the recent rubber shortage which was one of the major causes of the many tyre price increases across the board from manufacturers in recent months.
Although the affects of this drop in production are not yet known throughout the industry, it is clear that the terrible tragedy which unfolded in Japan is having a huge knock on affect across this major rubber producing part of the world.
Tyrenet has achieved excellent first quarter fitment rates of Hankook tyres on the Hankook Truck Masters breakdown scheme for 2011.
Tyrenet has now operated the scheme on behalf of this major tyre manufacturer for two years, and has repeatedly shown its commitment to the scheme with its consistently high fitment rates of policy product.
These first quarter fitment rates are further evidence of Tyrenet’s can do attitude, which constantly means that we strive to go that little bit further for customers of both Tyrenet and Hankook Truck Masters in order to source the product the customer requests.
This effort has been further bolstered by the implementation of Tyrenet’s new call handling system over the past year, which now allows operators to log all calls made when sourcing a job, so that we can prove to customers just how many extra steps we have taken in order to source the exact tyre required.
With approximately 400 Hankook Truck Masters dealers up and down the UK, the network has excellent levels of coverage made up of highly professional independent tyre dealers. For those areas with reduced levels of coverage, Hankook Truck Masters customers can also rely upon the Tyrenet network which now has around 700 commercial tyre dealers across the UK making it one of the most comprehensive commercial tyre networks in the UK to date.