The Pilot - Tire Talk

Welcome to the pilot episode of Around the Bead, the podcast dedicated to tire talk across trucking, mining, agriculture, and beyond. Hosts Joe and Big John bring their deep industry experience to the mic to kick off conversations that blend technical insights, market trends, and the human stories behind the tire industry. Get ready for lively debates, expert guests, and a behind-the-scenes look at an industry that keeps the world moving.

Sponsored by East Bay Tire, keeping essential industries rolling forward.

🔧 Topics Covered:
- The vision behind launching the Around the Bead podcast
- Industry communication gaps and why tire talk matters
- Spotlight on material handling & forklift tires — a hidden industry gem
- Truck tire performance, fuel economy, and maintenance trends
- Mining & OTR tire technology and the financial stakes of tire performance
- Advances in agricultural tires, soil compaction, and European innovation
- The people of the tire industry — incredible human stories from the field
- Industry news: changes in tire distribution, Goodyear’s strategic shifts, market share trends, and the impact of tariffs
- Debates around retreading vs. new tires, and technology’s role in future tire management

Show Notes:

Episode: The Pilot: Tire Talk
Host: Joseph and John
Runtime: 34 minutes
Summary: Welcome to the pilot episode of Around the Bead, the podcast dedicated to tire talk across trucking, mining, agriculture, and beyond. Hosts Joe and Big John bring their deep industry experience to the mic to kick off conversations that blend technical insights, market trends, and the human stories behind the tire industry. Get ready for lively debates, expert guests, and a behind-the-scenes look at an industry that keeps the world moving.

Sponsored by East Bay Tire, keeping essential industries rolling forward.

What You'll Learn:
- Why communication gaps exist in the tire industry — and how this podcast aims to bridge them
- Surprising facts about how tire pressure and maintenance impact fleet fuel economy and costs
- Insights into specialized markets like forklift tires, mining tires, and agricultural tire technology
- How global economic factors, such as tariffs and market consolidation, are transforming the tire business
- Personal stories from tire professionals that highlight the grit and human side of the industry
- The debates and data that influence whether fleets choose premium tires, retreads, or cost-effective alternatives

Links:
Visit our website for full transcripts and resources
Subscribe to the podcast
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Transcript (Excerpt)

00:00:01 - 00:01:26

[Music] Around the bead podcast, tire talk for trucking, mining, agriculture, and more. Your home for fleet solutions. Aiming to inform, pioneer, and entertain the tire world in connected industries. Sponsored by East Bay Tire, keeping essential industries moving forward. Welcome to Around the Bead. The mics are hot. And you are listening to episode one, the pilot episode of the Tire Podcast. I am Joe, your resident tire guy. And I'm joined by my co-host, Big John. Big John, are you ready to kick

00:00:49 - 00:01:35

the tires? I'm ready. Let's get to kicking. So, I I never really thought we'd be here, and I wanted to ask you, how do you think we got to this point where we said, "Hey, it's podcast time." You know, I think it's really just there's there's a real lack of communication within the, you know, tire industry outside of our own organizations. You know, it's um, you know, what's really going on out there. I think people want to know. I think there's a lot of news.

00:01:12 - 00:02:07

There's a lot of just surrounding our entire industry that's really not talked about a lot. I I would agree. If you're listening to this show, you better expect opinions that you haven't heard before, maybe some that are conflicting, maybe some that are debatable, and we're going to have debates on this show. Um, but I really want to talk about what's happening in our industry and what's happening with customers and how we deliver more value to them. I like it. Okay, so uh what can you guys expect uh

00:01:39 - 00:02:37

tonight? And tonight is five episodes launching. We have five separate series for you to watch. material handling, truck, otr, agg, and people. Um, starting with material handling, logistics, we're talking about forklift tires and forklifts. It has to be the segment that gets the least amount of attention in our industry. Yeah, it might be a good thing for a lot of people. It's kind of the hidden um gem, per se. There's very few manufacturers still producing it. Um, but you're

00:02:09 - 00:03:00

right, it is a hidden gem, but it's a huge part of our economy. It's a huge part of the United States infrastructure, the global infrastructure. When we think about what warehousing has done over the last 20 years, it's going to become more important. Warehouses are popping up everywhere and and you know, just look how long it takes to get a forklift nowadays. Yeah, you're right. I' I've heard times over a year. Over a year. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we got Phil Janovic, who is borderline the leading expert in

00:02:34 - 00:03:50

forklift tires, from making tires to selling tires. Uh he's our guy coming on the show. I'm excited to hear him. I'm excited, too. I can't wait to see what he has to say. Now, now truck is going to be probably our biggest segment. Um, it's most common in the commercial industry. And I brought a few stats on why that segment needed needed to exist. Every 10 PSI results in 1% less fuel economy for that truck. 20% less air pressure means 30% less tire wear. And a dual mismatch can cost

00:03:11 - 00:04:10

five to 20% of total tire wear. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's something that um you know we probably didn't think about a lot 10 years ago and with today's technology and and and tracking which you know some people do well, some people don't. Um it's becoming more apparent. It's an issue. Let let me ask you this. So you say that we didn't think about it 20 years ago. Were we better at it then? Were we worse at it then? If you were to if you do a fleet check 20 years ago on a random 100 power

00:03:41 - 00:04:41

unit fleet versus today, you think there would be big difference? Absolutely. I think you go back 20 years ago, people were still using clubs to check air pressure. I think a lot has changed. I think um we're more dialed in. I I remember when I first started in the commercial industry 26, you know, 27 years ago, um everything was pretty much the same air pressure. you know, you put 105, 100, um it it was pretty consistent and and the reality is, like I said, people were bumping tires. Um there's

00:04:12 - 00:05:05

still people out there, old school guys who believe they could tell the air pressure by bumping the tires. Uh we all know that's not the case, but um I think we've came a long ways. I think there's still some room for improvement um technology nowadays, especially with fuel. We never talked about fuel economy in tires even probably 10 years ago. Well, okay. So, I have two comments on that. But I mean fuel was cheaper 20 years ago, right? So less of a factor. Um and that's a good uh correlation to

00:04:38 - 00:05:41

Europe, right? Europe has basically two to three times the fuel costs we have. So that the way they look at applications are way more fuel focused than us. Um but 20 years ago, I would argue that drivers were checking their air and their maintenance overall on their truck a lot more than they are today. Um, and you have a lot you had a lot more people in the tire industry that were cognizant of air and their whole careers were built off of it. Yeah. Um, so I'd be real curious if if anybody had any data on that. I don't

00:05:10 - 00:06:04

think there is. But yeah, I would be too. It would be interesting. You know, it's funny. I, you know, I have family who were in the trucking industry for years. Um, retired from my dad his entire life and there is a sense of pride that they took in that truck they drove every morning. You're probably right. um you know the the pre-trip inspections. I mean now probably the majority of them are um are pencil whipped. Yeah. Yeah. Or digital pencil digital. Yeah. Yeah. Well, on that same

00:05:37 - 00:06:44

note, I I think we will see a lot of commentary on our earth mover and mining series. If you just take those same statistics that we talked about for truck and apply them to a $15,000 trip 7 tire, now you're getting into serious money. Serious money. Yeah. and and it's extremely critical for a lot of different reasons. And under air pressure tire on a trip 7 not only means, you know, tread wear issues, it could also be a major safety issue. Absolutely. When you when you mentioned treadware, I just saw these numbers last

00:06:09 - 00:07:20

week in a proposal that one tire on a 2749 for a trip 7 was on average, it was a harsh application for viewers out there, but it was getting 1,200 hours per the fleet. Another option was a 5,500 hour tire. I mean, that's huge. That that that'd be like Imagine that on a steer tire if you got 100,000 miles out of one and you got 550,000 miles out of another. Yeah. That'd be bananas. Bananas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm I'm looking forward to that segment. We've got my man Mark who has been with the

00:06:46 - 00:07:42

manufacturer. He's been on the dealer side. He's worked with a number of OEMs over the years. He brings a great deal of expertise to the show. I'm looking forward to it. You know, Mark's Mark's taught me a lot, you know, just over the last couple years really in in in the the the details of of really managing a um equipment for a mining operation. So, it's exciting to see what he brings to it. Whole different level. Yes. Whole different level. Whole different level. Yeah. Um and one that uh is dear to my

00:07:13 - 00:08:20

heart, A. uh that's going to be all over the board, but the biggest one seems to be tracks versus LSWS versus tires. We get to have that debate on the show and then we have a number of guests who have their own position on it. Yeah. You know, A's close to my heart, too. You know, I love it. And I think in maybe all all segments, it's probably um over the last 10 years in um introduced the best technology changes. I mean, VF, you know, air pressure, soil compaction has came so so far, you know, I'm really

00:07:47 - 00:08:38

interested to see what some of our friends from Europe have to say about it because they seem to lead it. We do and we do have an international series. I should I shouldn't lead too much into that, but we've got some great guests from overseas. They're going to bring their perspective. Why do you why do you think a has had the most technology input out of every all of it? Um I think it for me I think it has a lot to do with just you know production on the in the fields. I mean I think we've really

00:08:12 - 00:09:07

learned a lot over the last 15 20 years on what soil capaction really means to the crops. Um you know how much how many more crops can you get? You know before I think you know really looking back years ago just in in in our you know central valley of California you know they're really you know two crops a year. Now now some farmers are doing four right? And I think a lot of that has to do with technology. soil compaction, not only with tires, but also fertilizer, ground work. There's so

00:08:40 - 00:09:36

much technology that has been able to increase that um production of of whatever crop they're growing and and really being universal on it, too. That that goes a long ways, too. I mean, we look at, you know, they might have broccoli one one crop and then switch to Brussels sprouts the next. Yeah. Um it's pretty interesting how that works. And a lot of that has to do with equipment, too. Yeah. Yeah. I I'd bring up the note that I think utilization is a key part of that. Um when you see how much rental

00:09:08 - 00:10:07

and leasing has exploded, some of these machines are operating 100% of the time. Um but then on the other side of things, uh you're seeing uh heavy equipment and expensive equipment sitting for more than half the year. Yeah. Um and then when it gets started up, rarely is it getting air checked. And so you need technology. you need more solutions to make sure that tire lasts three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Sometimes even these warranties are 10 years. I think that's a lot of marketing. Um, but still

00:09:37 - 00:10:25

that utilization has a huge variation. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you look at some of the the larger horsepower stuff in the Midwest. I mean, them guys have automatic inflators that could take their tires from 8 pounds to 25 depending if they're in the field or they're roing the equipment. Yeah. I mean, they never had that 20, you know, I don't know if they had it 10 years ago. No, they didn't. They were probably thinking about it. CTIS, central tire inflation system. We're going to talk

00:10:01 - 00:11:04

about it. Um, it certainly seems the way that everybody wants to move. Yeah. Yeah. And our last series is our people series, uh, which I'm probably most excited about. I can't believe we even got to this one. We we start off tonight with Waqen Marquez. um an unbelievable story that I first heard during a cling safety training um and tire tech training uh about how he almost lost his life underneath a loader. Yeah, I was blown away by that story, man. That's um you know, he's lucky to be here. It's um

00:10:33 - 00:11:29

I'm really excited about that one. Well, when you listen to it, uh I think you're going to be even more blown away. You're talking about a man who uh fought Andre Ward, was a professional boxer, and went to prison, came out to fight again, and then again almost loses his life underneath a loader. Yeah. Yeah. And now making a really positive contribution to the community with kids. Huge. It's it's it's a it's a great story. Um something that um I'm proud of proud of being, you

00:11:01 - 00:11:58

know, just knowing about him and knowing him and and I'm sure he's awfully proud about it. you know, our our service techs and service checks across the nation, they have so much to offer, you know, and and sometimes just sitting back and listening to their stories, um it's pretty cool. One one of the positions uh that I heard on tired technicians is that um it's time for them to be accredited. It's time for them to be licensed almost as a trade. Yeah. Um and I think we're going to

00:11:29 - 00:12:38

continue to have that conversation on this show. It was the first time I heard it a few weeks ago. And the way it was presented uh is if you have a plumber, an electrician at a at a bar and a tire tech, you know, which one has the highest skill set? Um, and we all have different opinions on it, but the point being is that fitting a tire, especially in a specialty application, is far more complex. Um, has inherent risks uh that often have severe consequences if not done correctly, like an electrician. Um, and are they being

00:12:04 - 00:13:00

accredited the way they should? Yeah, I agree with that statement 100%. You know, not only from that standpoint, we hit on air pressure earlier. I mean, how many service techs um, you know, throughout this country really know air pressures? Yeah. You know, and I think, you know, for me, I look at and I go, you know, what's the difference between a tire technician and a tire fitter? Yeah. And I don't think as an industry, we've made a a good enough distinct distinction between those two. And it's

00:12:32 - 00:13:35

probably time we do do it. Yeah. Yeah. We forget how young of an industry we are. Yeah. I I tell people all the time, construction has at least a 4,000year head start on us. Absolutely. At least. Yeah. I I've been to Egypt. It might be six or 7,000 years. Yeah. Exactly. Probably better back then. Yeah, they were. Yeah. So, uh safety is definitely going to be a topic we can improve on training. um we can improve on educating not just tire technicians but managers, customers, manufacturers what actually

00:13:04 - 00:14:12

happens in the field. Yeah, looking forward to it. Okay, well uh let's delve into our first ever news segment. Um we're going to kind of broadstroke this a little bit over the last uh year, but there have been a ton of changes in our industry that uh simply aren't being discussed, and I hope people discuss them in the comments. Um but let's start with distribution changes. Oh, tons of them. Yeah. So, uh over the last few years, TireHub is a joint venture between Bridgestone and Goodyear as they

00:13:37 - 00:14:55

build their own supply chain, take out a wholesale a wholesale level. Um NTW is part of Michelin. They have their own distribution arm. And the most recent news is the largest wholesaler on the planet, ATD, American Tire Distributors, went bankrupt this past year. And this is uh the second time, could be the third time uh that they've gone bankrupt. And that's not really the big news to me. The big news is that what I read is they bought all their assets back from themselves in quarter one and consequently Goodyear

00:14:16 - 00:15:22

and Michelin have canceled them as a distributor in the past two months. Yeah, I think it makes sense. I think it I think them going bankrupt was a perfect um segment into to being canceled. I mean, if you really think about it with NTW and and TireHub, do they really need them? You know, I I look back and I was thinking about this um a few days ago and you know, 10 years ago we had TCI um Goodyear commercial, you know, um everywhere. You had um GCRs and them things are, you know, closing up. They're getting out of the commercial

00:14:49 - 00:15:44

segment and they're getting into the distribution. Yeah. Um so it's it's it's not a surprise to me to see, you know, Michelin have the NTW, Bridgestone, um Goodyear. Surprising a little bit that they they teamed up. That was a little bit of a surprise. Sure. Uh but kind of controlling their own distribution. Um and I think with the struggles that ATD's had um is there really need is and what's what's ATD's move going to be? Are they going to be a third, fourth,

00:15:15 - 00:16:20

fifth tier distri distributor? Um let's see. It it'll be interesting to see where they go. Um for all of the major manufacturers is about how much market share can they get. Yeah. Um and it's not ATD isn't gone. ATD is still uh in operation. Um they still have a really great group of people there. Um a really great great foundation to work off of. But you're bringing up more inherent challenges with what is the future of tire distribution especially on the passenger and light truck end.

00:15:48 - 00:16:59

Yeah. Um which I I would expect some changes in that over the last 12 month or next 12 months. And part of that is looking at what's happening over at TBC and uh what Michelin has done really over the last 24 months, which is acquire a lot of cash. Yeah. Um and for what that is, I don't know, but uh selling off of Mus uh I think to Monroe and then uh liquidating Camso, at least a portion of that acquisition that they made years ago. They're stockpiling it for something. Yeah. It's got to be

00:16:24 - 00:17:29

something. Yeah. And it could be for entering back into a TCI. It could be expansion of TBC. Um, it could be expansion of a distribution element to fill that gap for from ATD. There's a lot of different areas. What would be most surprising to you getting back into the commercial segment or I No, that wouldn't be most surprising. Um because that uh would make a lot of sense for them. Yeah. Um they're starting to consolidate, you know, some of their network. Um, but I I could see them

00:16:56 - 00:17:56

trying to take a move into tech, right, when they look at uh continental. Continental to me leads in in the technology space. Absolutely. Um, and they're starting to gain some traction, not not in the United States, in the Americas, but overseas where fuel is more important, um, technology is more broadly accepted. um especially in commercial industries, Continental is is gaining market share and we're going to talk about that a little bit. Um but I could see them making the move into

00:17:27 - 00:18:22

tech. That would probably be the the best position, I would think, long term. But heck, you know, it's not our it's not our position to tell billion-dollar companies what to do and how to do it. You know, there's some pretty smart people working for them. you know, it's um we've doubted them in the past, but I would tell you the you know, one of the things I'm really interested in is just the the you know, the transgression from where manufacturers and how they handled the commercial business 15 years ago

00:17:54 - 00:19:08

versus today. So, I I wasn't going to get into the segment, but we might as well. This is an easy transition. Um and we're going to pop a chart up on the screen so that you guys can visualize it. But here are the figures from 2019 to 2025 on truck market share trends. So when we talk about tier 1 market share, we're talking about major manufacturers Goodyear, Continental, Bridgestone, Michelin. Tier 2 are the likes of Toyo, Handcook, Yokohama. Tier three is a huge huge segment that encompasses a bunch of

00:18:32 - 00:20:03

different brands that are basically just not tier one and tier two. Yeah. So tier one since 2019 has moved from 36 12% of the market share to 31.4. Tier 2 has moved from 22.4 to 21. And tier 3 has moved from 41.1 to 47.4. You know, I I I question where does tier one go over the next five years? I mean, is tier two, the new tier one, and where's tier four, and do we see a tier five tire coming in? It seems like the tires can't get cheaper, but they keep getting cheaper. So without talking about production, you

00:19:20 - 00:20:28

bring up a great point which is and and that will probably answer where does a a Michelin go with their stockpile of cash, right? If if tier one is getting eaten up by tier 2. I don't know that the numbers show that tier 2 has actually shrunk a little bit. Um but I don't think a a Michelin Bridgestone continental buyer is buying a tier three product. they're trying out a tier 2 product. Yeah. And so I I would agree with that statement. What I would say is that trucking as a whole,

00:19:54 - 00:21:04

truck industry as a whole in tier one is being held up by retreads. So there's roughly 28 million replacement truck tires sold in the United States. Yeah. And roughly a million uh retread units per month. So 12 million give or take in total. Yeah, and these are reported numbers via USMA and various other sources. Um, but I think you can go both ways on it. You can say, okay, almost every single tier one truck unit is supported by a retread requirement. So those that are retreading are using tier

00:20:29 - 00:21:47

one by the basis of that system. Yeah. Um, but you could also say, well, hey, they're getting 12 million replacement retread units on top of their 30% 31% replacement market share. So, you add that in and all of a sudden now you get into 40 50% market share. Yeah. So, um, it it's really held up by retreading on that end, which we're going to talk about on the show. Yeah. Um, I think the easiest way to debate it, I was thinking about this this morning, is what will retreading look like 10 years from now.

00:21:09 - 00:22:06

We bring a bunch of bunch a bunch of people on the show, have them share that perspective because that'll be telling. Yeah, I think so. I think there's, you know, it might not be 10 years from now. It might be five years from now. You know, I I hear a lot of people having uh pretty good success on on going with a tier three tire, replacing that wheel position from a a retread. And and my opinion is I'd be interested if there wasn't, you know, casin values on the premium casins. Where would it be today?

00:21:36 - 00:22:50

Yeah, the the casing value is uh the best way I could describe it is uh like an unknown crypto. Yeah. It's it's worth what somebody else says it's worth. It's worth nothing to somebody who doesn't want it. Yeah. Um but going on on on market share trends, um on this show, I'd like us to delve into otr is the same, right? And this kind of segus into discuss discussions about Goodyear. Um Goodyear divested of their otr unit uh last year to Yokohama. I think it closed early 2025. Yep. Um, and Goodyear,

00:22:14 - 00:23:36

Bridgestone, and Michelin really had a focus on ultraclass fleets. So, your your 100 ton plus uh uh uh hall trucks, um 992s and larger when it comes to loaders. Um, Goodyear divests of that and you're seeing a lot of tier 2 Maxim, BKT, uh, Continental enter that smaller what they would call infra infrastructure space. Um, so it' be very interesting to me to watch over the next year. Does that trend continue? Um, and what does Yokohama do with all of their Earth mover production now that they can go

00:22:55 - 00:24:00

top to bottom? Yeah, I agree. I mean, I I think, you know, in the infrastructure um segment of the otr, um I I think you've seen huge strides over the last five years with BKT, Maxim, and there's a few other outlining brands out there that have done really well on taking taking wheel positions. Um know the Yoko Hama thing is interesting to me. I mean, over the last six, seven years, we've seen Alliance get bought, um Trellorg, um now Goodyear otr. What's their long-term goal? Um, you know, I I I' I'd

00:23:28 - 00:24:34

have to think that the the play on the Goodyear was on the lar larger stuff, larger radio stuff where Yoko has kind of been a little weak um is just to buy the business. Yeah, they they just even last week uh completed a purchase, I think it was in Romania of Euro Tires old factory. Um I it's it's another thing we'd love to tackle on this show. Who owns what production? Yeah. Um because it seems like Yokohama has this massive massive inventory of production. What do they do with it? Do they start

00:24:01 - 00:25:02

consolidating some of the brands? Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh touching on Goodyear, I think anybody who's been in the industry has a affection for the brand, especially in the United States. I mean, it was one once one was the most valuable brand in the United States when it came to tires. one of the top brands really globally up there with Coca-Cola at one point. Um they've got a new CEO and they're making huge changes. I mean it's not just the getting out of the specialty business. So they've been out

00:24:31 - 00:25:28

of a now they're out of earth mover alto together. Um but they're changing their whole distribution model. Yeah. Um you're still they're still maintaining the commercial tire stores, but they're getting a lot of pressure from their private equity minority owner to get rid of those. and they're changing all of their models with their dealers. So now everybody has access to Cooper. They also own a Roadmaster brand if I remember correctly. Um I I think we're going to

00:25:00 - 00:25:51

see the biggest transformation, good, better, and different from Goodyear over the next two years. Yeah, I hope so. I mean, I still have a little soft spot for him. You know, you it's like you said, it's, you know, from at least standpoint from America's. I mean, it's it's a brand that you want to see do well. Um, you know, it seems like it wasn't that long ago where they were really leading the pack. I mean, they had, you know, some of the best a tires out there. Um, otr, um, truck, you know,

00:25:25 - 00:26:34

some of my favorite tires selling in the past were 159 and then 167. It's old classic. It worked great. Um, and just to kind of see the the last 15 years is um, I don't want to say disappointed, but it's kind of like, hey, what direction are they really trying to go in? Um, and and that's that's a a perspective that I think a lot of people have and I don't think we give enough credit to what globalization has done to tire manufacturing. Um, and uh, what America's compliance requirements and cost of

00:25:59 - 00:27:10

operations have also done. Um, you look at building a truck tire uh, and you go to enough plants, they do look very similar. I I I there certainly are ones that are better than others, but a lot of that tech to me comes down to compounding. It comes down to other than tire production. Yeah. And um I don't place all the blame on Goodyear operational decisions, manufacturing decisions, but producing truck tires out of the country became a lot lot less expensive than it did domestically. Um there's just a lot of reasons outside of

00:26:35 - 00:27:37

their control on where they're at. Yeah. Um so it'll be interesting to see them where they sit in 10 years from now, even two years from now. Yeah. Hopefully they pull it together. I'd love to see it come back a good year. That'd be pretty cool. Yeah, it would. Yeah. Yeah, it would. Um well, uh last on the list is talking about a current market, especially from a a fleet basis. Um, I read on Freight Caviar, which is a hilarious meme website, you know, it's got some data points, so I'll give you

00:27:05 - 00:28:10

one. They're claiming that 88,000 trucking companies have gone bankrupt or foreclosed over the last 18 months. Um, and when you think about 2 million class 8 trucks on the road every every year, um, that sounds like a reasonable number at this point, especially given where the market's gone. Yeah, I mean it's it's really, you know, it's scary. It seems like two three years ago the the freight business was booming, you know, then you see people parking um trucks, you know, in our own backyard. I mean,

00:27:38 - 00:28:36

you just look at the the a haulers. I mean, half of their trucks are parked. Yeah. I mean, they're chasing rates that they can't make money on. Sure. Um so it's u it's going to be interesting to see really, you know, especially with, you know, emissions and everything else going on in California. um which makes it you know really not friendly business for the truck you know for the truckers um and you know where's it go I mean do do we see a major consolidation some people go out um sell off equipment

00:28:08 - 00:29:20

we're already seeing that a lot um we had one of the you know top 10 freight carriers um just the last couple years go out overnight so yellow freight yellow yeah well I think it brings up the bigger question is are and and we're recording this one week before launch. This is uh first week of July. The impact of tariffs and globalization. Yeah. Um globalization over the last 20 years has absolutely skyrocketed freight and trucking specifically in the United States. And is that a trend that's going

00:28:44 - 00:29:43

to continue or is that a trend that's really going to change? Um I don't I don't I'm not educated enough. I would be following uh Warren Buffett's moves to know whether or not there where the trend is going to go there. But um it's it's hard to say that we're going to go back to that peak. Um and if and trucking is supply and demand. There's however many trucks, however many drivers, and how much demand to move freight. And that's what changes the pricing. Yeah, it's it's

00:29:13 - 00:30:03

interesting. You know, I was just having a conversation with another colleague um just on Friday about all these massive warehouses that they're putting up. It seems like every week you drive down a different freeway here in California, there's another million square foot warehouse and they're empty. Yeah. You know, my thought is these are some of the smartest people in the world, definitely the richest, right, that are behind these. They have to know something. I mean, they're not just

00:29:38 - 00:30:31

building things to build them. And um if there's warehousing, there's there's trucks. Yeah. Um, so I mean what are they gearing up for? You know, it's um it'll be interesting. They're gearing up for us all buying stuff online. That's for sure. Yeah. The day of the the strip malls and the malls. Go to a mall in your your backyard and see how empty it is these days. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh I don't think we can have this show without talking about tariffs. Um I

00:30:05 - 00:31:10

saw a post uh as soon as the tariffs came out that the whole world turned into global economists uh overnight. Yeah. Um but in the tire industry, we kind of feel that way. We've been through it uh two separate times already. Um and what I thought was interesting, so you had a certain amount of tariffs hit May 1st. Yeah. And uh I don't think anybody really knew what to do. It wasn't as planned out as it was previously. Hey, there's six months lead time and we're going to backdate it.

00:30:37 - 00:32:08

We're not going to backdate it. it was, hey, is this really gonna happen? Um, and uh, what we saw and what was posted out there is the same thing that we've seen in the two previous, which is importers took a small increase and domestic manufacturers took a maximum increase. And I I I find some humor in it too, obviously. Um but if you look at the market share trends um you can point to that and say well if every time there's a tariff and uh premium products increase substantially more than economical or mid-tier

00:31:23 - 00:32:24

products who do you think is going to gain the market share over a long long period? Yeah, I mean it's we've seen it happen multiple times as you said. This is this is the third round of them and and um you know the the major manufacturers the domestic m manufacturers they like that big gap u but where's that gap get so large that someone can't afford a a set of Michelin or bridge no steer tires anymore um when do customers start saying hey this is these acquisition cost on tires are so

00:31:53 - 00:32:50

great now I have to look at a tier 2 or even a tier three tire and once they do and they perform then what Yeah, and that's something I think we got to talk about on this show as opposed to just making the statements. Uh we're going to cost per hour, cost per mile, cost per hour, every single tire. We've got a full-time data team looking at this stuff, and we'll bring head-to-head battles. You know, this tire versus that tire, how does it perform on a mileage front, on an hour front, and factor in

00:32:22 - 00:33:19

cost. Um, but we can't argue with the results. Uh, if you're a major manufacturer, their their financials are posted. They've done better than they've ever done the last five years, even with reduced market share. Yeah. So, uh, give some credit where credit's due. Those guys know what they're doing. Yeah, absolutely they do. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see next week if the tariffs change again. Yeah. Yeah. You never know. We might we might get out of this u this this podcast and go out there and and

00:32:50 - 00:33:36

have to re reil it. We got plenty of stuff to talk about, John. That's for sure. Oh, yeah. It's been an interesting last um 60 90 days. That's for sure. Yeah. And in the next 60, 90 days will be the same. We'll always have something. It's kind of fun, though. It's kind of fun. Yeah. I mean, this is like what we used to do. We just ride in a truck, calling customers, talk about tires the whole day. Talk about tires all day. That's right. All right. Yeah. Well, um I want to leave it at that with

00:33:13 - 00:34:35

our viewers. Uh you got five episodes coming to you tonight. Um you want to see something, you want to see a factory tour, you you want to us to talk about something, bring a debate on the podcast, tell us in the comments. Um, John, you ready to air this one up? Let's air it up. Looking forward to it. Until next time, enjoy tonight. Thanks. [Music] Around the bead podcast. Tire talk for trucking, mining, agriculture, and more. Your home for fleet solutions. Aiming to inform, pioneer, and entertain the tire world in

00:33:57 - 00:34:13

connected industries. Sponsored by East Bay Tire, keeping essential industries moving forward.

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