Why Is Tire Tech Still Decades Behind?
🔧 Topics Covered:
From Aerospace to Tires: Brian’s unconventional journey into the tire industry.
Transitioning from engineering to sales — mindset shifts and lessons learned
The surprising complexity and diversity of commercial tire applications
Technology gaps in the tire world: Why fleet management still relies on pen and paper
The future of tire tech — sensors, AI, and smart fleet data
Safety, standards, and the human impact of getting tire specs wrong
What makes the tire industry rewarding and exciting for newcomers
Show Notes:
Episode: Why Is Tire Tech Still Decades Behind?
Host: Joseph, Big John, and Brian Boucher
Runtime: 41 minutes
Summary: In this episode of Around the Bead, hosts dive into the story of Brian Boucher, a newcomer to the tire industry with an engineering background. From busting tires in high school to working in aerospace, Brian shares how he found his way back into the tire world—this time from a completely new perspective. The discussion explores the parallels between problem-solving in engineering and relationship-building in sales, while uncovering how surprisingly vast and vital the tire industry truly is. From safety and technology gaps to the daily life of a commercial tire rep, this episode highlights both the challenges and the excitement of an evolving field.
What You'll Learn:
How engineering problem-solving skills translate into sales success
The biggest surprises about working in commercial tires
Why technology adoption in the tire and fleet industries lags behind
The critical safety implications of choosing the right tire for each application
Where opportunities lie for innovation, efficiency, and smarter fleet management
Real-world insights into a day in the life of a modern tire professional
Links:
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Transcript (Excerpt)
00:01 [Music & Intro]
00:34 Mics are hot and around the beat is back. Today we are continuing our people series with a new to the industry Brian
00:42 Bouche along with my co-host Big John. Gentlemen, welcome to the studio. Are you ready to kick the tires? Let's get
00:49 it going. Hell yeah. Excited to be here. Brian, I don't even know why you're here. Um uh you're educated, you're
00:56 smart, you've done a variety of things. um how you got into the tire industry and what you think about it is why
01:03 you're here today. Um give us a little bit of background. Sure. Yeah. Uh it
01:09 it's kind of a sort of an interesting one I think in my head. Uh you know I was born in the East Coast, raised in
01:15 the Midwest, went to school in the Midwest and found my way eventually out here. But um so the first time I kind of
01:22 got into tires, well just a quick step back is like I always grew up loving, you know, motorized stuff, race cars,
01:30 trucks, dump trucks, you know, like all stuff, normal guy boy stuff. Yeah. Right. Um I rode dirt bikes, ATVs, all
01:38 that kind of stuff. And the thing that's kind of like universal that every one of those things has is tires attached to
01:45 them, right? Um, so one of my first jobs is I was busting tires all throughout
01:52 high school at a at a tire shop and kind of that was giving my spending money for myself to do things and throughout
01:58 college and stuff. But um, it kind of pointed me in that direction of what I wanted to do. So I became in so I went
02:04 to school for engineering. Um, I got my industrial engineering degree from University of Illinois and
02:11 eventually that made me find my way out to Seattle working for the aerospace industry. Um, doing manufacturing
02:18 engineering for for subcontractors with Boeing and stuff. So, it was pretty
02:24 interesting, right? You know, building airplanes, doing that kind of stuff. Uh, you know, really high level stuff. Um,
02:31 but eventually though, it kind of wears down in the sense it it gets boring. It's kind of funny to say, but if planes
02:38 aren't falling out of the sky, nothing's changing. And if it is a change, it is a
02:43 like 10-year change. Like for if you want to change a a bolt size or rivet size on a plane, it takes like four or
02:49 five years to implement it. So, it's like, you know, but that's and and there are fair amount of engineers in our
02:56 industry. I mean, it's it's uh it's interesting to see them come into the sales space and I I have a story on it
03:02 later. Um, but it's almost like you guys can fix things much more rapidly in our
03:09 world than you can in the aerospace world. Oh yeah. And and and that's for safeguarding, right? You can't change
03:14 things too fast because otherwise you you will get planes coming out of the sky. But it's it's kind of funny I say
03:19 that cuz like as soon as I leave that industry, that's when all the 737 it was all it was all you.
03:27 Yeah. Whoops. Um so sorry guys. Um but eventually uh yeah so I found myself
03:34 coming down this way to San Francisco. I had a bunch of engineering friends in the software industries. So I did a
03:39 little couch surfing kind of found some random engineering jobs uh doing in the
03:46 um you know to find myself here. And then eventually kind of full circle, I went back to the company I worked for in
03:52 high school, Bustin Tires, but now doing um their newly launched product for
03:58 going into more fleet direct sales and service in the PLT space. Um so I helped
04:06 launch that in the NorCal region area here. kind of threw me back, you know, into
04:13 the tire world in which I always like tires in the sense of what they're a
04:18 part of. And that's like the motor industry again. It's the mechanical industry. It's like, you know, all the stuff that's infrastructure of America,
04:25 right? And then uh did that a couple years and then eventually came across
04:31 yourself. When when you went into sales for the first time, what was that
04:36 transition like? cuz you're you're coming from many of us as as tire techs
04:41 um then an engineer then you got to go sell tires for the first time. So that was that was definitely a culture shock
04:46 cuz I'm doing engineering which you know there's no sales it's that's what hey this is what it is here's my data this
04:53 is what we should do all right my job's done here. Yeah. Um sales is a lot more
04:59 uh you know you can have all that but there's got to be you know finesse of
05:04 delivery. there's there's relationship building. There's um you know a lot more
05:10 to it in the sense of building uh credibility to yourself instead of just
05:15 producing an answer. Um so that was a definitely and and being able to build
05:21 the confidence to go in somewhere randomly where they're not expecting you or wanting answers from you at all. Um
05:27 you know that was a huge confidence need boosting that I needed to do. So it was a huge shock of thinking it was going to
05:35 be easy from the standpoint of oh okay well you just you see something that a
05:40 customer needs and you go and try to give it you know present it to them and it's like you know people don't like to tell get told that they're doing
05:47 something wrong or something's not right with them right I mean you got to be able to it's a hard conversation to
05:53 tackle and we've talked about it on this show a number of times there's we're still trying to figure out how to do it
05:59 right right uh Um, so that that took some uh trial and error for a while of learning the
06:05 ropes on that. And luckily, you know, um my father and my stepfather, they're
06:11 they're both very seasoned salesmen um in their careers. And so I had some guidance of shifting into that kind of
06:17 life and um you know doing some you know reading some reading up on it a lot. did
06:22 some a lot of reading sales books and just you know what's the kind of the different literature and what you need
06:28 to know to shift to be able to get into that um and to use what you know really what engineering school I think any
06:35 engineer will tell you is like the biggest thing what that we go through that we learn is just problem solving
06:41 and how to critically think and so you can use that in just every aspect of
06:46 life and so when I looked at this as a challenge of all right how do I get good at sales it's just like I got to
06:51 critically think can problem solve to develop my skills.
06:56 You're now a commercial sales. Um you you sell truck tires, you sell
07:01 construction tires, mining tires, a very traditional role for for our industry.
07:07 Um what surprised you about it out the gate? Yeah. So coming from, you know,
07:13 the first fleet sales of stuff of just dealing with PLT is very basic, right? you have like three, four, five choices
07:19 of tires of what your vans or pickup trucks or service vans are going to be using. So when I came over to this side,
07:26 I was and that's how people view it. It's like there's it's there's different sides of the house. You're on the PLT
07:32 side or you're on the the other side, the fun side. Yeah. And I would call it the fun side because it's extremely
07:39 diverse. The most surprising part to me was finding of how diverse it was, how
07:45 many different sectors and pieces of equipment you're dealing with. And then on top of it, it just like how much more
07:53 s or not not so much um how much more like critical to success it is to
08:00 knowing your not like knowing the stuff and then the safety on top of it. like the prop plane versus 747. If you mess
08:07 it up, you're going to have a lot bigger impact. Oh, yeah. Right. I mean, you're you're talking like you could have like
08:13 you're working with a fleet of like um you know, for instance, on the PLT side of just like uh exterminators that are
08:19 driving, you know, Toyota Tacomaomas, you know, they need a good tire, sure, whatever. But I mean, you could put an
08:25 LT or a passenger and mix those up or whatever. It's not nothing critically crazy is going to happen. But you go on
08:32 this side and you put the wrong weight rating ply on a steer dump truck. Okay.
08:38 Well, now you got some real problems there where he could blow that. Yeah. And all of a sudden you got 80,000 lbs
08:43 flipping over down the highway. So there's a lot more stuff that you have to know and on top
08:49 of that be able to implement it and make sure it it gets done right. Um, so yeah,
08:54 my my biggest surprise for it is just how diverse and how many different areas of the infrastructure as you said that
09:02 we're involved in. And I guess I didn't really grasp that until I started working in it. Um, you know, one one day
09:10 I could be doing in the morning going to a forklift in a port to look at some tires there and offer advice there. The
09:16 next stop is at a hall truck on a 295 25 dump truck. Completely different worlds.
09:22 Yep. you know, they both use rubber, but how they use it is completely different. So, that was like the most surprising
09:29 and interesting thing for me. There's a lot more variation than people think. People who uh are around me here all the
09:36 time, I feel like we we say that we sell tires, but the reality is that we serve a thousand different industries. Yeah.
09:43 Um and each one of those industries has different priorities when it comes to tires. Mhm.
09:48 So is there anything that you positively uh surprised you in the industry? I mean that's that's something that uh the
09:56 variation surprised you but from the process to the people um something you
10:01 expected that was true or isn't true. So the other surprise I would say would be
10:07 um not so much that we're we're it's primitive but you can say primitive if
10:14 you want. It can offend people. It's a podcast. It's just how like I guess um
10:21 yeah, how primitive the I would say not so much like the operations but just
10:29 the technology where you would think would be there is not there yet. Mhm. And you know just like give us an
10:36 example like you know you got you got many other industries using AI now to
10:43 develop you know streamline live processes or you know different things with their product but we're this not in
10:50 word but everyone in the commercial industry is still doing pen and paper on virtually everything and from fleet
10:56 checks to dispatch to yeah to orders to everything. So, and you you think about
11:02 like it's just like you're we're dealing with extremely heavy equipment,
11:09 very expensive assets, just like stuff that you would think the technology
11:15 would be there now dealing with like all the stuff to just because of how much things cost and it's just it's not
11:21 there. I mean, it's getting I mean, we're we're starting to go there, but I would just think that it would be
11:27 farther advanced. I mean, I I I hear you. I'm surprised to not hear you say tire pressure systems. I was getting to
11:34 there. Okay. I think you think like the DOT regulates that for PLT, right?
11:40 Starting in 2008, every single passenger light duty truck sold has to have a TPMS system and that is not the same for
11:48 commercial truck. You have you have much bigger tires, much bigger equipment, much much more expensive, much more
11:55 gains across the board. Bigger safety risk. Bigger safety risk. Bigger safety risk. Right. Um and yet it doesn't
12:01 exist. Yeah. What What do you think's holding the industry back um from going
12:06 to this next, you know, generation with technology? What What's the holdback? Why why aren't they jumping in with both
12:12 feet? Yeah. And I think there's a lot of pro there's I mean it's a loaded question because I think I if
12:20 if it would have been easy it would have been done right. I don't think it's an easy thing to do. Um you know I you know
12:27 Continental did a big thing with the sensors and the tires and they're you know still trying and it's it has not
12:32 caught on as much I think people thought it would. Um, I think it's way more
12:38 difficult in in the sense of just like a trucking fleet because of how many times they are swapping tires on a unit and
12:46 it's hard to I guess assign a sensor to a truck and
12:51 get the proper data the way the technology works right now to add into these systems where you know
12:57 you can go in and do a fleet check and you're changing 10 to 20 tires. all of a sudden you have to throw on top of this
13:05 sensor recalibration to these systems. I think that's where like the difficulty
13:10 has come is like how do you manage that and do that? Um and that's where I one
13:16 of the challenges has been. Um I think technology is coming with better
13:22 sensors to be able to do it. Um, yeah. I'm I'm surpris One of the biggest
13:28 things I'm really surprised with, and I know it's I think this is a simple, easy thing that I can't believe is not out
13:34 yet, is just a simple screw on sensor to the valve stem that connects Bluetooth
13:39 to the phone. Yeah. Just for air pressure. Just for air pressure. I mean, I think that would solve a lot of
13:45 problems. And it's, you know, think of a if a driver just driving down the road, all of a sudden, ping, his thing goes
13:50 off, you got a low tire pressure. There there's certain there's some out there. Um there's some screw on like Ki has one
13:57 now. I think there's two others. We need to do a whole segment a whole podcast on what pressure sensors are out there even
14:04 just by uh industry. Um we we on our last A podcast we talked about CTIS
14:11 which is all these systems that they're building into the back end of wheels now for tractors but that's going to come at
14:17 an OE level. Yeah. Um, as far as adding it to trucking fleets,
14:22 um, it's that brand agnostic portion that's holding everybody back, right? If you Conti makes it, but does it have to
14:30 come with Conti products? Well, that's again, and that's where
14:36 is where like that's where like it came in the PLT where DOT was like, all right, the manufacturers have to make
14:41 this from the get-go. So, does that mean now like if that regulates who's going to own it, right?
14:49 Is it going to be is it going to be the tires? Is it going to be Peterbuilt and Kenworth? Is it going to be the
14:54 manufacturers that have to put it in the wheels or the And who really wants that compliance, right? It's very very
15:01 specialty niche industry. Uh that would be my comment on why some of the
15:06 compliance hasn't happened. We're getting more and more pressure to have standardization of technicians and their training. Um, but there's only so many
15:13 technicians compared to they can't even get drivers to to speak English in a
15:18 class A truck, right? How are they going to build compliance for tire technicians? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would
15:25 think too, like by now you would think that I mean, take weigh stations for instance and the in CHP checkpoints and
15:32 stuff is like you would think by now they would have sensors calibrated in
15:37 the in the machines to be able to tell you what exact weight you're at. And
15:42 when you drove through these checkpoints, it would just calibrate to the sensor, hey, are you overloaded or
15:47 are you loaded? And it would just say yes or no. And then you go pass through. But I mean, of course, that's not We're
15:54 not at that yet. It's you have to drive one by one through a scale. Yeah. And of course, fingers cross your fingers.
16:01 Yeah. And you don't get stopped and stuff like that. So, uh there's Yeah,
16:07 there's a lot. What's been on the positive side? I mean, you're you're an engineer. You're coming into sales uh
16:13 for the first time. You're starting to build relationships. What's been a positive surprise for you as far as like
16:19 for technology goes and like on that standpoint? I think
16:24 you know the the major the major brands I think are doing their part on making
16:29 an advanced product when it comes to the tire and the compound and advancing the industry there. Yeah. Um, you know, it's
16:37 I think you you guys said this previously like talking on a pod of like what innovations the tires are bringing
16:44 forth. And I think, you know, from a a chemical standpoint of them designing
16:49 these tires, they're they're making leaps and bounds, whether it's using, you know, you know, more reusable
16:55 friendly products to make, you know, this stuff and where they're getting it, how they're recycling the tires and all
17:01 that kind of stuff. I think it's it's it's that's going in a right place. Um,
17:07 but when it comes to like the the operational side of using the tires,
17:13 the the data that's out there to be captured is is very high. Um, and you
17:19 know, maybe that's something that's going to be, you know, AI is going to help with or sensors to be made to be implemented and
17:26 used will be helping out with. But um you're saying data from a fleet perspective to make decisions. Yeah.
17:33 Yeah. Yeah. Um, it is it's amazing to me that, you know, tires are the third
17:41 biggest asset charge or or cost for a fleet, but yet the amount that goes into
17:49 regulating that cost and managing that cost is, I mean, virtually non-existent
17:55 in the sense of making sure they're being ran good, making sure the tires are right, you know, at least for the
18:01 asset owner of the fleet. Sure, you could do a good job of like hiring, you know, our services and making sure that
18:07 stuff is really well done and we do a great job of it, but just, you know, throwing out just random, you know, a
18:13 random fleet owner, they don't have those capabilities unless they get it. I I I see that as a little bit exciting. I
18:20 mean, you come into it um uh and have that perspective. You could also say, well, that's opportunity, right? Like
18:26 that's that's incumbent upon the dealer, the tire dealer to show them the value.
18:32 Hey, what can we do for your fleet? Yeah. To to manage that cost better for you. Um the uh the the other side of it
18:42 that we we often battle with is that it affects so many other GL's on the uh on
18:48 the P&L um that we don't get to see. Right. If we if if we are a great tire dealer and you're maintaining that
18:54 fleet, you're going out there doing air checks, you're you're air bumping it. um you've got it all calculated, got the
19:00 right tire for the right application, you're going to improve fuel efficiency, you're going to reduce downtime, um
19:07 you're going to do a lot of things that don't necess necessarily affect the tire budget, right? Yeah. Yeah. And that's
19:13 something I think that we can improve on. Yeah. I mean, I'm certainly excited to see the sensors that are going to be
19:20 coming down, what they're going to be putting in the tires, you know, to make them more intelligent and stuff. Um but
19:27 all Yeah. Yeah, I mean I'm excited to see new products that come out that, you know, the the big five or three or you
19:33 know, however big these tire guys are going to call themselves tier ones or whatnot, you know, come out with in
19:38 sensor products and excited to see what comes down the line. Young Buck is not impressed. He's not impressed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know there in my
19:46 head there's there's like there's like 1A. Yeah. And that's probably Bridgestone and Michelin. And then
19:52 there's one B, which would be like good year in in Continental. Mhm. Um and then
19:59 probably everyone else kind of floats below that. But um it's exciting to see what they come out with every year in
20:05 the sense of technology wise and what they're working with. Um, there's I I'd probably say that the
20:11 change recently has been relatively slow. You know, when when John and I probably look back on it, we remember
20:16 when Linhal steer tires couldn't get above 100,000 miles. Yeah. So, I go, "Okay, today you can get 250K, right, by
20:24 maintaining it properly. That's huge." Yeah. Um, now years ago, they weren't even thinking about fuel economy. Yeah.
20:30 I mean, fuel efficiency wasn't even in the vocabulary for tires. Yeah. Right. But I don't I don't know. I don't know
20:37 on the analysis side whether that those tires are also way pricier than they
20:42 used to be as well. So you're you're paying for those savings in a different form. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you've told
20:50 us you're really smart. You know everything. Um I I smarter than I am for
20:55 sure. Yeah. For both of us. Um anything humbled you since coming into the industry? Oh yeah. I mean, I think like
21:04 we we touched on it a little bit before just how um
21:10 how much more serious the these applications get and how much you have
21:16 to know and understand um what the tire needs to be for what
21:23 specific application um or rubber or the material or the compound. There's I mean
21:28 and you're you're not just dealing with the cost of a of a mistake that something would bring, but also the the
21:35 major safety factor that goes into these of why you need to have the proper tire
21:40 on a proper unit. I mean, anything from, you know, if if you put the wrong
21:46 forklift tire that may be solid, right? So, you're thinking to yourself, well, there's no, you know, load ranges on
21:52 like necessarily on a solid tire, but if it's not the right traction type or the right material type, all of a sudden you
21:58 can have 30,000 lbs rolling down a warehouse that doesn't have the right proper traction that's going to stop in
22:04 time or turn in time and all of a sudden you have a dangerous moving object. Yeah. that may be traveling only at like
22:10 four or five miles an hour, but you try to stop something that's that heavy, it's it does a lot of damage um and can
22:18 risk some life. And then you go to the the way other side of it, which you know, you go to a mining site with a
22:25 29525 and what that tire needs to be to operate safely there. Um you know, and
22:32 these customers are coming to you expecting us to know these things and we do. Um, but you got to know those
22:38 things. Yeah. Otherwise, you could put a lot of lives I learned, you know, at risk. So, that's something that has
22:44 certainly hil and and to get get that knowledge right.
22:53 Um, you know, from from literature, from the industry, veterans really taking in of like what
22:59 you need to know to be able to be, you know, right in this industry. I I'll give you a lot of kudos on that because
23:05 I I look back and um 20 years ago if you made a mistake on an Earth Mover tire,
23:13 that tire would legitimately blow up. I mean, we don't talk about it a lot now, but there were import tires that did not
23:19 they were still testing them. Yeah, they were getting sold during tire shortages. Truck tires were put on that couldn't
23:26 handle the loads. They didn't have standardized specs. bad actually
23:31 happened. Um, and today, okay, they build these things to such high tolerances. There's so much more
23:38 standards out there that really a lot of uh uh entrance into the business, young
23:43 bucks like yourself, hey, they could put on a 29525 on a on an articulated dump,
23:50 E3, E4, probably do okay, right? Sure. are you going to lose 50% where and
23:56 could you get a lot more? But something devastating isn't isn't chances are isn't going to happen, right? Um and for
24:03 you to have that mindset that hey, you still are putting a lot at risk by putting the wrong tire on and a lot to
24:09 gain by putting the right tire on, that says a lot. Yeah. I mean, load range is a real thing. You know, you put That's a
24:17 quote we're going to put somewhere. Yeah. It's you you can have, you know, a
24:23 16924 that's made for a, you know, just a simple light range backhoe,
24:30 you know, at a lower load range, or you can have the serious heavyduty upgraded one that goes on like a cat. Uhhuh. And
24:36 you put that on that one, all of a sudden you got some serious problems. Yeah. I've actually seen a a 16928 R1
24:44 put on a rear of a backhoe. There you go. Yeah. And sure, is it going to be
24:49 okay to drive around in? Yeah. But that thing's meant to, you know, go into some dirt or some really heavy gravel or
24:55 whatever and start picking stuff up and start moving around and all of a sudden you add heat into it and things can get
25:01 scary quick. Yeah, they can. Um, one of the uh question segments we have on the
25:07 show is BDE. What's your big dog energy? Do you have it yet? Have you found a
25:13 moment in your career where you went, "Yes, I want to continue pursuing this." Yeah, I mean, I think I have many of
25:19 them. It's a constant reminder, I think, every day. So, why I'm like, we'll take a few. I've been pleasantly surprised of
25:26 working in this industry just because of how every day has just been so it's one thing is different every day and
25:32 interesting of working with just a lot of different interesting machinery. So, but I think like one example would be um
25:40 a couple years ago, one of my first customers um they do big articulating
25:46 dumps um 29525s. It was like one of my first time like working with that kind of tire. Um and
25:54 so I had some help with me. Of course, you know, you should never go into that with not knowing things, but um you
25:60 know, the customer needed two of those tires. It was down on a mindsite. Obviously,
26:07 you can't go down on a mine site for long. I mean, it's a lot of moving parts and a lot of moving money. So, um I
26:14 myself, and this, you know, went to go get the tires in my truck, you know, and you kind of you feel that
26:21 energy when they load those massive tires onto your truck and you go, "Oh my god, those things are huge and heavy."
26:27 And then you go and you take those to the mind site and you're in these massive things are running around and um
26:33 you get to see all this really cool stuff happening at the same time of these things going on and everything and
26:38 then at the same time you're being a part of that and you're helping the customer and you're you're getting great gratification that you're getting this
26:44 guy back up and running. And I mean that was just like one of the first times where I was like this is really cool.
26:49 This is really cool Yeah. When when you're the solution to something bigger than you that's a moment. Yeah.
26:56 Yeah, especially when you because it takes you all the way back to when you're a little kid and you're playing with the dump trucks in the sandbox and
27:02 you're like, "Oh, now I'm doing this for real." Playing with tonka trucks. Absolutely. Yeah. So, uh, that kind of
27:08 leads me, you're talking about delivering tires to my next question, which is, what's a day in the life with Brian Boucher? Yeah. Um, obviously you're
27:15 on Zoom meetings all day. You look at your CRM, you check all of your notes,
27:21 um, you know, you send a few emails. Uh, it's it's like tech, right? Yeah. Yeah.
27:26 Yeah. I mean, honestly though, that's a that's a good first hour of my mornings typically. Um, you know, I I'll, you
27:33 know, obvious depending, you know, every day can be very different. You know, I could wake up and then at 4 in the
27:38 morning get a call or I got to go and help this one customer out cuz he's got a down thing and multiple layers of
27:44 systems failed and I'm on that last list of like, hey, come help me and do this and all right, I'm I'm up and running.
27:51 But yeah, typically on a day uh you know, I'll be up running in the morning
27:57 making getting collecting and doing calls that you know I'll have a planned route probably every day of where I'm
28:03 going and who I'm going to see. And then that first hour of the day is when it really can change of like, hey, this
28:08 person needs an emergency or hey, this person's canceled here. Yeah. Um, but yeah, uh, typically in the morning I'm
28:15 taking calls or checking emails, going through my CRM, maybe a couple meetings here and there, but I mean I'm on the
28:21 road certainly early morning going to my first stop, checking people's fleets, meeting with customers, you know, phys
28:28 physically going through their tires. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. I think that's a big part of the job to to go and look at
28:34 the stuff yourself, see how things are wearing yourself. Um, you know, it's a big part of the customer to see that
28:40 you're out there and you care as well. Um, you know, showing them like, hey, I'm I'm here for you. Um, and keeping
28:48 that face to face interference or interface with them. Um, I love that part to go see my customers. Um, you get
28:56 to see the day in the life of what they're up up against and what they're doing. Um, and then that allows me to
29:03 see how can I help you? you know what things in my toolbox and in our business
29:08 service there can make his life a little easier and it makes our relationship cooler and we become you know better
29:14 better friends I'd like to say so um I enjoy that part I enjoy helping people and trying to find ways to help people
29:20 and that's a big part of our job is going to their sites seeing what they're doing
29:26 um and that's and that's being being a partner in their business being a partner in their business is huge and um
29:32 taking my truck which I love to drive and go and picking up product and dropping product off and rolling tires
29:38 around and getting a little dirty. It's It's certainly better than sitting in a
29:43 office cubicle trying to design CNC programming sheets and double-checking tolerances on a on a same same part that
29:52 hasn't changed in 35 years. So, uh I I much more enjoy it. You got a favorite
29:57 tire yet? I actually Yeah. So, like I have like in
30:03 my head I have like a favorite tire because it looks really cool. Yeah. I think it's the coolest tread ever made.
30:09 Okay. And I would like put it on like any show car and that's going to be the Nitto 420. I think that tread just looks
30:16 Okay. We'll we'll put the the the editors will put that up.
30:22 But what does a Nitto 420 look like? PLT roots. Yes. Yeah. So, well, you know
30:27 that it that's going to go on a show car that that tire is actually made for like, you know, they 22 in on a What
30:33 kind of tire is it made for? I mean, it's a drifter. It's not 22. Or if it's 22, it's not a drifter. It's a Usually
30:39 people put them on like their like a like a lowered Chevy SS or like a
30:47 truck or your C10 just for cool tread wise. If you want if you want to ask someone back to raised white letters.
30:53 No, if you want to say what if you throw up a thousand different treads. No. Got it. Sorry. It doesn't perform like a
31:00 like a heavy duty truck. It's it's a it's a standard load non you know if but
31:07 you like lined up a 100 different treads and you ask anyone on the street, hey, what are this? What's the coolest tread?
31:12 I think 99 out of 100 are gonna say that one looks really cool. Fair enough. But that's just note to Joe. Clarify your
31:18 question next time. Yeah, let's we're going to clarify this in case customers are watching. What's your favorite tire?
31:24 That's just cool tread factor. Cool tread factor. All right, now you put that aside. I think we come back to our
31:30 industry and our world and what we're living with. Um, I think, you know, my favorite tire just as a universal tire
31:37 that you could almost put on anything in the sense of trucking is probably either
31:44 the Michelin Xworks or the uh I think it's like the XY3.
31:50 XZY3. Yeah. And just that that tread, the Xworks Z, the the hybrid tread, the
31:57 mix service tread position. Yeah. I mean, I think it's like a garbage truck tread. Yeah. It's a way taller truck
32:03 tire. Um, just because I love how beefy and media it is and how well it performs
32:10 of course, but how it can you could put it on really anything and it will
32:15 perform well um and do a a good job um you know may not be best to put it on
32:22 like a Greyhound bus to shoot it across the country, but I mean it would do it. Yeah. Um,
32:29 but it certainly does a really good job for what it's meant to do, and that's the tough jobs. You know, drive on a
32:34 construction dump truck or on a waste hauler truck or um it's amazing to see
32:40 what customers put that thing through and it comes out the other side pretty unscathed. You think that's what is a
32:46 priority for for fleets out there is the reliability just it's like it's not
32:52 going to fail. You think that's still a focus? I think that's the number one thing a tire needs to be is dependable.
32:58 I mean, it's the I think it's something that people need to be reminded of is the tires the only points that touch the
33:05 ground and keeps your vehicle I guess afloat on air.
33:11 So, uh that kind of brings me to probably one of our last questions is where does the c where does the industry
33:16 need to solve for the fleet? Where do we need to evolve to?
33:23 I mean, if you got it, it's a billion dollar answer. But yeah, I think, you
33:29 know, from an improvement factor, tires, I think marginally are only going to ever
33:35 I think improve like like you said, I mean, like the 250,000 mile mark on a long horse steer. I mean, that's incred.
33:41 I don't know how much farther that's going to get, whether we're ever going to really get to like I think we're
33:46 going to get to the the outer bounds of what, you know, we can produce as a
33:52 product there. So, I think what is going to be the big advancement in our industry that's going to become um and
33:59 we touched on it earlier is just to be able to be able to put sensors in tires,
34:05 make us make smart tires, be able to know when their life is up, be able to,
34:11 you know, tell customers like, "Hey, that my tread's getting low," or, "Hey, I have a I have a broken cord in me,"
34:18 or, "Hey, I have damage to me." And be able to alert that out to a system. without having a an actual human go and
34:24 check every individual tire all the time. Um, I think that's going to be probably the biggest and closest
34:31 advancement that we're going to see a gain in, at least in the coming future here. Yeah, that's an interesting
34:37 insight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got one for you, Brian. For the next new guy coming in who wants to be a commercial sales
34:43 rep, what advice would you give that person
34:48 or your former self? for your on day on day one for if this is the onboarding
34:54 video. Uh I mean I think it's it's it's expect the unexpected is a good way to to it's
35:02 one of those sayings. Uh you know you really you know don't be you know I think people look at tires as like a not
35:09 an indust industry like you guys said like we had to glamorize it to make it sexy that you want to work for it but it
35:16 does it you really doesn't need that. you keep a really open mind and expect you know I think it's an extremely
35:22 interesting and rewarding industry to come to work for um you know and I think in any other industry you got to know
35:28 your stuff be prepared to learn you know learn from veterans and stuff like that and
35:36 um you know I use my engineering skills that I used for my past role every
35:42 single day to help me to progress in this industry the same way I would be if
35:47 I was sitting down being, you know, as they quote unquote an actual engineer. If I didn't have that pass, I would be
35:53 severely um hindered in my abilities. And I think that's why this industry is
35:58 so in I mean you can come from a very high tenure, you know, major if you'd want to come work in this industry and
36:04 use those skills. Um so like I said, I think it's you got to
36:10 just keep an open mind on it because it is extremely interesting, at least for me. Well, I I see where you could you
36:16 could have that opinion and someone who's uh really influenced my life
36:21 shared that same opinion. Um I got a call from uh a major manufacturer and
36:27 they said, "Hey, you know, I've got a new sales rep that's going to manage, you know, your region." And I said,
36:33 "Okay, who is it?" And they said, "His name is Dave Demo. He's a engineer for us." And I'm like, "You guys are
36:39 freaking idiots. like you, there's no way an engineer is going to be able to
36:44 sell tires. Um, and this guy came in and
36:50 he kicked everybody's butt. I mean, he outworked everybody. He outcommunicated.
36:55 Even to this day, I bet if I called him and he missed the call, he would follow up with a voicemail, a text, and an
37:03 email. Hey, Joe, I missed your call. What can I do for you? Um, but that mindset that I guess is built into
37:10 engineers is the problem solving is invaluable. I mean, I you've been
37:15 incredibly successful coming into the industry. Dave Demo is another example, but that concept of I'm here to solve a
37:22 problem is unanimous across all industries with our tire. Yeah. I And I
37:28 think that's the part I left out on that is, you know, for anyone out there who's like, you know, looking for an industry
37:34 to come in and solve problems. I mean it there is a lot of problems to be solved in this industry and you get to do it
37:40 for people that really need your help and they will they will they will really appreciate the help that you give them
37:47 and that problems that you can solve for them. And you you don't get that same
37:52 gratification when you're when you're working, you know, on a rivet on a on a rivet or on an engineering line where
37:59 you solve a problem there and you reduce the the cost factor by this amount and you know, your manager just says, "Good
38:05 job. Go to the next problem." It's not the same at all. Um, and if me as a
38:11 problem solver, it's like the greatest thing to do is be able to one see these problems. you have the ability to go out
38:18 and solve them and then to be able to do it for my customer I think is the the greatest thing an engineer can ask for.
38:25 Yeah. Extremely rewarding. Keeping America infrastructure running. Yeah. Oh yeah. In probably that last two minutes
38:32 you summarized why veterans in industry are still here. Yeah. Yeah. You can see
38:38 why. Yeah. Yeah. I was that's what I mean coming to work for our company and you you we have all these veterans with
38:44 20 plus years here and it's that's a good sign you know when you come in as a new guy you're like okay a lot of these
38:50 guys are here and they're still here so that's a first good sign and then as you slowly start to jump into the you know
38:56 the pool and go deeper and deeper you go oh yeah this is this is why this is really cool the Kool-Aid's good looking
39:03 back four years ago would you ever thought yourself being in a tire industry what if someone told you hey
39:08 Brian you're going to have a successful career in the commercial tire industry. Four years ago, I don't think so. I think in
39:16 my head at that point in time, like I was thinking a little bit more narrow in the sense of like what an engineer in my
39:21 skill set could do. like I thought like sales was possible, but I would go down
39:27 like selling very complicated um uh assembly line systems or some type
39:34 of sensor, you know, system like in the engineering sales space like that. Um I would I
39:40 would really say that, you know, to sell our products and do it
39:45 really well, you got to be a a good sales engineer. I think it's it's fair
39:51 to say that um we are sales engineers in our in our position. Right on, Brian. Yeah. Any last words?
39:60 I'm pretty tapped out. Brian, thank you. I think you brought a
40:05 great perspective to not only those coming into the industry, but those that have been here for a long time. For now,
40:11 let's air this one up. [Music]
