Growing Popularity in Storing Tires - Heavy Duty Pallets for Truck Tires

There has been an increased interest in the tire storage business as laws regarding seasonal tire change have passed (Quebec) and are accruing interest in other provinces of Canada and in the United States. This is not the only factor contributing to the growth of this sector, it also has a lot to do with time and space management on the customer’s part, and knowing what pleases your customers.  

Storing tires can be a welcomed service as your customers might not want to bring back bulky dirty tires. This service is well viewed by both urbanites and women, and has added benefits like requiring that those same customers come back to you for at least the next tire changeover.  This service is becoming a must for most garages, and even if they don’t have a warehouse, they can still offer it through affiliate companies and get the loyalty benefits.

 

Warehousing Rules

Best practices in warehousing state these three elements as the most important aspects: Picking process, warehouse layout and finding the products. These practices are key success elements that enable you to be able to offer both a great service and make money, while being efficient and effective. 

To store as many tires as possible within your allocated storage space, and be able to provide the best service possible, like finding needed tires quickly, and without loss, it means you need to have good control of your storage space, through good planning and operations.  Minimizing the amount of times employees do repetitive work is a must, not only for saving on wages for work done, but also for health and safety concerns.  

Your warehouse layout should be done taking into consideration the picking method, for the width of the alleys and the movements that will occur around them.  Your layout should have a flow that is short and that people can navigate easily.  Finding the products relates to having a system where you can easily locate each product that you have stored and limit the time needed to find them.

 

Tire Storage Conditions

Tire manufacturing companies have guidelines for storing tires, these guidelines are meant to prevent ageing of tires and damage through environmental conditions.  Note, environmental conditions doesn’t mean outside.  The main elements are the following:

   1. Protect from sunlight or high ultraviolet light source;
   2. Store in a cool environment;
   3. Avoid agents like oil, grease and humidity;
   4. Store in an aerated area, while limiting ozone exposure: ozone level of 0.08 ppm or less* this                   requires that you verify your lighting source so that it doesn't produce ozone;
   5. Deflate the tires to half normal pressure.

 *recommendation by Yokohama Tires

Tire Storage Specifics

There are 3 common ways to store tires in a warehouse, they are: stacked on the sidewall, on tread or laced.  While there are debates as the best way to store tires on the client side, for the seasonal tire change, unless the storage is for a prolonged period of time, the storage method won’t impact the tire too much, as it’s to be used within a limited time frame and the tire’s life will likely be over before any deformations occur due to the method used, sidewall or on tread.  

On a logistic standpoint however, storing tires on tread makes more sense as the storing solutions for this method are better suited to suit a higher efficiency level.  Storing on tread allows for owner/specifics visibility, individual tire access and easy retrieval of each tire.  With shelving like the MTS series, you can double up the shelves and keep access to the tires on the second row, making it possible to have 4 shelves wide in an ally with access to the second row on each side.

The laced method is used for new tires, and allows for a bigger amount of tires stored per square feet as the middle section of a tire gets filled by another tire in a lacing or weaving way, hence the name of this method.  This is great for storing large amount of tires of the same SKU.  While there might be some damaged goods over a prolonged period of storage, the damaged units represent less than one percent and is greatly worth the economies of space, as the tires take up to 25-30% less space in this fashion.  Companies storing tires in this fashion would consider the following products: the MLTFD or the MLR.

 

Warehouse management

If your company is a 3PL and you shift around your warehouse space due to cyclical changes in market demand, you could benefit from having flexibility at your fingertips.  Having an easy way to restructure parts or your total warehouse could bring about new business opportunities.  Foldable racks, or steel pallets with removable posts could give you the flexibility needed to cover a rising opportunity like tire storage, and you should consider products that suit your needs, should you target light truck and tourism vehicles or heavier industrial tires, like for buses, trucks and so on.