Winter tire storage

[Sun Dawg]

Winter Tire Storage, we are going to start this Fall. Have recently purcahsed some 50ft
trailers, have made up some forms, but I am looking for some idea's on how to tag the tires. Some will be on rims, some not.
any suggestions??

[saabman]

Dont start!!! We did this for years and it just got out of control. Processes need to be set up for:
who moves tires, parts or service
lost wheels/tires (gonna happen)
damaged wheels (notes on ro important)
what happens to wheels/tires abandoned.
when are they considered abandoned
who is responsible for loss/theft/fire/woodchucks? etc

We finally killed it(just before it killed us)

Bryan

[This message has been edited by saabman (edited 08-15-2008).]

[Stevenspeaking]

Have customers who will use the program have a specified day to get the tires swapped over. Trailer A day X , Trailer B day Y. That way you can deal with it as little as possible. Thats how we do our car storage. It works pretty well.

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Send me what I need not what I asked for!
We didn't write the rules just play by them.

[arnien]

First thing you know, sales will say, "we have these wheels and tires that we took off a new car, we want to store those in your trailer" I worked for a time at a Honda dealer that sold cars over the Internet. A customer bought a new Accord, flew in saw the car, and told the salesman that the wheels were not factory, and he wanted factory wheels and tires. Sales said that was not a problem, I will just go to parts and get the correct wheels. When that happened, I was glad to show him paperwork that showed parts did receive the wheels and tires, then since no credit was issued,and sales still owned the wheels, sales put those wheels on a used car that needed new tires.

Sales department bought the customer a airplane ticket back home, since he would not accept anything on his car that did not leave the factory as a part of it.

So be carefull, sales will try to use you, and all you will get out of it is another headache.

[topshop]

Tires are nothing more than big round rubber parts. The preferred way to deal with them is to have the parts department inventory them, orgnanize them, tag them, secure them, etc. They already have the fundamental systems in place...with a little modification they will work well for tire storage, also.

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Tom Ham
AutomotiveManagementNetwork.com

[scotstrong]

No offense, Mr. Tom Ham,

but you seem to have a slightly simplistic view of something that can and does often become very complicated and time-consuming.

The deal-killer to me is this: stored tires do not generate revenue. If you go into tire storage, you are tying up space that should have first priority given to items that actually generate revenue. It is the rare facility that has the extra space without some signifcant modifications (spelled EXPENSE). Most parts departments are already stuck with storing a whole host of non-revenue-generating supplies, records, office furniture, old computers, whatever. They are also tasked with more non-revenue generating tasks than every other department in the dealership combined (except office/admin). This would be similar to the service dept. losing use of a service bay for storage -- you would not stand still for that for one instant. The parts dept. was lucky(?) to make a lousy couple of dollars of gross (not NET) if they were lucky enough to have sold the winter tires. Service gets to make their gross every time the vehicle goes through the swap-out.

This is another example of the all-to-true perception that everyone is allowed to make a profit but the parts dept. (even the factories do this to us constantly). Pardon us if we have the good business sense to resist things that push us further and further toward a net loss. Being a "team player" does not mean continually bending over and taking it up the backside. If the service and/or sales departments choose to launch this venture, ALL storage logistics and responsibility should remain with them.

Scot Strong

[AKTOYPM]

My biggest gripe with tires is that there is at least 50% wasted space built in to everyone made (The hole in the center)

[Parts Guru]

A few dealers tire shops do it around here but on the average it is $50.00 a season for storage. So it can be a source of a little profit.

[Ted13B]

We got burned in the past, since we stored snows for free. No profit, no one took responsibility. The tire store across the street from us gets $75 a season for tire storage, so we'll be starting to store snows this fall for $99 a season. Service checks wheel/tire condition at check in, parts handles moving, storing, and tagging, and parts makes the profit. A copy of the RO is bagged and taped to the wheel/tire set to show ownership and the date of storage. It should also help with snow tire sales, since customers hate to lug snows back and forth twice a year.

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