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LATIN AMERICA SHOW
Kevin Rohlwing, Senior Vice President of Training speaking during the conference programme at the Latin American & Caribbean Tyre Expo
enquiries from the show to send an instructor to conduct a class,” he adds.
TIA was approached by the fair organisers to deliver a presentation on tyre safety, which proved to be an undoubted jewel in the seminar programme crown. The Senior Vice President went into further depth about the speech, “the organisers
approached us to carry out a tyre training seminar, given that it was a subject that they wanted to address at this year’s show. Therefore, we felt it was appropriate to highlight the safety techniques we stand by and to back this up with the statistical evidence that acts as a good reflection of what is going on in the industry.” One of the core messages which the TIA consistently transmits is that of consistency. TIA continuously tries to drive home to its members the importance of
following a level of consistency across their dealerships, as any inconsistency it terms of service and process looks extremely unprofessional, especially in the case of an accident.
Rohlwing detailed this more, “The key here is to make sure that all of your dealerships are working to the same standards. Every McDonalds
works in an identical fashion, meaning it is no surprise that the final output is the same.”
“Part of our success at the TIA has been tied to the fact that we can take 1 store and make it the best in the market. However, simultaneously we can take on board 600 stores and guarantee that they have the same level of consistency in how they are realising the work to get the same result,” he enthused.
In terms of market penetration, the TIA has performed well in the Automotive and Commercial tyre sectors, with their members clearly understanding the cost and value involved in training employees in the same way to the same standard, as well as the incurred costs in retaining these employees. Rohlwing spoke about their actions in the commercial tyre sector, “TIA has managed to change the culture through the training programmes. How can we prove this? It’s evident in the fact that we now see less claims. The commercial market has figured it out due to their safety conscious nature and obsession and now realise that fleets expect you to deliver a full service.”
“People need to value the cost of training an employee against the cost of a possible claim further down the line. Considering the fact
that the force of air escaping is enough to crush your chest and skull, a claim could be very very costly indeed,” he substantiated. Lately, TIA developed their Commercial & Earthmover tyre training programmes one step further by translating them into Spanish with the initial help of Michelin and Bridgestone. Initially, the idea behind the translation of these programmes was to provide on additional layer of service to the existing American market where there is a huge number of Spanish speakers, but thoughts soon turned to extra opportunities for which this product could serve.
With no safety regulations in much of Latin America, dealers themselves are left to their own devices to initiate training, which ultimately can result in injuries and therefore production losses. Both of these factors essentially result in financial costs. Hence, this has resulted in the organisation looking to expand in both Latin and Central America.
Rohlwing commented, “Following the seminar programme yesterday, we saw a large influx of people to the stand to learn a little more about our training programmes, especially the Spanish language offerings. Obviously, this seminar was critical for our promotion, but