American and European tire industry representatives meet to discuss topics of mutual concern

Members of the Tire Industry Association’s (TIA) Global Council, representatives of several state tire associations and officials from BIPAVER – Europe’s largest retreading organization – are pleased with the results of a meeting held at the SEMA show in Las Vegas.

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They anticipate ongoing benefits from opening an international dialogue about issues of mutual concern.

Among the topics discussed were right to repair legislation, tire aging, rolling resistance, tire recycling and 4/32-inch versus 2/32-inch minimum tread depth.

The SEMA sit-down marked the first official confab between the two organizations. It was arranged as the result of a meeting that took place earlier in the year at the BIPAVER conference in Essen, Germany.

BIPAVER representatives and then-TIA President Peggy Fisher, TIA Executive Vice President Roy Littlefield and TIA Director of Government and Business Relations Paul Fiore agreed that future discussions would be fruitful.

“When Peggy, Paul and I attended the BIPAVER meeting earlier this year, we walked away with the realization that there were many issues involving tires that were common between the U.S. and Europe; thus, we decided to hold the meeting in Las Vegas,” Littlefield recounts.

“The meeting with the TIA Global Council and BIPAVER representatives is the first of what hopefully will be many future discussions where American tire industry professionals can exchange ideas, best practices and lessons learned with our international colleagues,” he points out.

“TIA will also look for outlets and opportunities to conduct similar dialogues with our fellow professionals in other parts of the world, as well,” Littlefield says.

BIPAVER was originally formed in Switzerland in 1954 to represent the interests of both tire retreaders and retailers. Five years ago it was restructured to exclusively cover the retreading industry and the organization’s headquarters was moved to the Netherlands.

Member nations include Spain, Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. BIPAVER, by the way, stands for the Bureau International Permanent des Associates de Vendeurs et Rechapeurs de pneumatiques.

The organization explains that “every opportunity is taken to raise awareness of the environmental advantages of retreading and remove any historical poor perception of the industry. Future plans include promotional campaigns to highlight these advantages and provide evidence of retreading’s contribution to tire recycling, not forgetting their high standards of quality and safety.”

For more information, visit www.tireindustry.org and www.bipaver.org.