Selling Winter Safety

Normally, I use this page to talk about industry issues on a broad scale, but as I write this rant, I’m mad as hell. I’ve just missed my Air Canada flight home from Winnipeg, and the weather is lousy. Blowing snow, cold, all the stuff that we in Ontario attribute to the Prairies in the winter. I’m not just late because of the weather, however. Driving to the airport represented a risk that was thousands of times greater than the jet ride to Toronto. Why? My rental car was wearing all-season radials, and lousy ones at that. I won’t tell you what the brand was, and it doesn’t really matter. What the hell are all-season tires doing on a car in Manitoba in December? And it wasn’t just the rental car. I watched cars and trucks sliding all over the roads, and I know that with the exception of Quebec, it’s the same story all over the country. Unless you live someplace like Victoria, British Columbia, chances are that you or your customers will drive on snow and ice this winter. Talk to any bump-and-paint shop and you’ll hear about the “ca-ching” of cash registers after every snowfall. Winter tires are mandatory for Canadian winters, but we continue to actively merchandise all-season radials as adequate for winter driving. Tire manufacturers have a lot invested in all-season tires, but let’s face it, their marketing systems are designed for all of North America, where the majority of their customer base sees snow infrequently at best. And with new generation ice radials, the “I live in Southern Ontario, it doesn’t snow much here” argument doesn’t hold water. Neither does the SUV/All wheel drive argument, as attested by the remains of an Audi I drove past recently. It had slid into the path of a snowplow, with predictable results. There’s no way to tell if better tires would have prevented that accident, but why don’t we take every advantage we can get? And they’re not even expensive! Setting up your customers with winter rubber on steel wheels is doing them a favour that they’ll hopefully never understand, as well as being a modest profit center for any shop. Quebecois understand, using winter tires at rates far greater that in other provinces. And how about this for a reason to drive winter tire sales: store your customer’s off-season tires and you have a guaranteed twice-annual comeback, where maintenance or repairs can be offered. Of course, if we’re following a safety argument, what about wipers and lighting? Are they prominently displayed at the point-of-purchase for winter? Have you considered road emergency supplies like fuses and bulbs, or maybe jumper cables or flashlights? Canadians travel in the winter, and a little gentle persuasion while they’re picking up their vehicle can do a lot of good when your customer is stuck on the side of the road someplace. I’d have paid ten bucks a day more to get quality winter radials on that rental car; let’s get safer winter tires on all our customer’s vehicles.