TIRES & WHEELS
TIRES & WHEELS
RTA Interviews Women in Trucking (Part 2)
BY JEFFREY PARKS
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ast month we began an interview with Ellen Voie, President and CEO of The Women In Trucking Association (WIT). Ellen had so much good information that we wanted to continue it here. RTA: I’d like to ask you about perceptions a bit and what it takes to get people to consider new options regarding careers and opportunities in the transportation industry. WIT: Our biggest issue is that women don’t know they can do this job and
they don’t know they’re wanted. Our goal is to get to the non-driving, nontrucking industry people and say – this is a great career. You can get trained in a relatively short time and make a decent amount of money. Women make the same amount of money as men as drivers. Also, it’s not your grandpa’s driving job anymore, and things have changed so much. The equipment is so much more technology based. The work/life balance is so much better because carriers are working hard to get their drivers home. There are regional and local operations and the industry has really evolved. RTA: Yes, we at RTA also battle a lot of misconceptions. Many people think that retreads are still their grandfather’s retreads, but changes in retread tire technology have really reinvented the industry since
those times. WIT: We hear that regularly. In fact many times in our conversations (RTA past Managing Director) Harvey Brodsky used to get so mad, because of course when someone sees tread rubber or road alligators on the side of the road that was the first conclusion they jumped to. RTA: You know Ellen that perception still persists. I’ve been working with Harvey a long time, and my goal is to work on re-branding or shifting perception on that whole idea, that a retread is faulty somehow, which couldn’t be further from the truth. When I tell people that I work in the retread industry, most folks who are not participating in the industry say, “Oh, are they still making those?” or “those are reused tires that don’t last, right?” Given the strength and reliability of today’s retread industry
and our quality retread output that perception is completely unfounded and has to change. WIT: I hear that all the time. People say to me “Look at the retreads on the side of the road,” and my response is, “Those are probably not retreads, but just mismatched, or improperly maintained tires that failed.” But I can see that RTA has a long way to go on that one. RTA: Exactly. Changing someone’s perceptions or misconceptions about something can be a real challenge, but facts are facts. One has to look at the broad perspective of how does the public perceive things? I imagine with WIT it’s similar. These days, more and more people are
Girl Scouts. We created a Girl Scout Transportation patch with a curriculum. So young girls are learning about the transportation and trucking industry through schools, dealerships, or trucking companies, which are holding Girl Scout events. I’m extremely proud of the fact that we’ve got events going on all over North America. RTA: Ellen, WIT is such a positive influence on the industry. We at RTA are happy to promote other associations such as yours, and to spread the word that belonging to an industry group like WIT or RTA is a win/win for women, men, families and anyone with an interest in transportation as a career.
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MICHELIN NORTH AMERICA
New Regional Drive Tire
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reenville, South Carolina – Michelin Americas Truck Tires, a division of Michelin North America, Inc., has introduced the MICHELIN® X® Multi™ D, a regional drive-position tire, for use in less-thantruckload, pick-up and delivery, food and beverage and other demanding vocational segments. The MICHELIN X Multi D is a versatile tire designed with an advanced regenerating tread that provides water evacuation and traction throughout the life of the tire while full-depth Matrix siping allows for a biting grip as the tread wears. The tire features coextruded scrub-resistant rubber for first class mileage and cooler running rubber to help minimize heat build-up for increased casing life. “This next-generation regional drive tire offers first-class performance and is designed to excel in high torque applications and delivers all the key performance benefits
18 August 2017
sensitive to the needs of different gender issues and how it does not apply to ability. Even a physical disability of one sort or another these days does not mean that a person cannot do well at a targeted job that isn’t hampered by their physical challenge. For example, perceptually people may tend to believe that closed minds are pervasive in some of the more established trade industries like trucking or the manufacturing of retreads, but that is just not true. As we know, people are just people, we’re all mostly curious about doing our jobs better, and we all have our own ideas and ways of seeing. WIT: Exactly. So one way we reach out at WIT, as I said earlier, is through the
needed in a regional tire – traction, high removal mileage and scrub resistance – with no trade-offs,” said Adam Murphy, Vice President of Marketing for Michelin Americas Truck Tires. “With an aggressive open-shoulder design that contributes to outstanding water evacuation for an optimized contact patch in all-weather conditions, the new MICHELIN X Multi D delivers the maximum tread life, traction and casing durability fleets demand.” The X Multi D features a pass-through open shoulder that allows quick evacuation of water, mud and slush from beneath the tread surface area, and the biting edges of the tread allows the tire to grip onto surfaces right away, even
in difficult snowy conditions, where competitors are left spinning their wheels. More grip, less slip – the X Multi D tire gets up and running 80% faster than a leading competitor tire. The X Multi D tire will get 65% better mileage than the MICHELIN XDE® M/S tire. The sidewall also features TW6 OzoneShieldT technology for increased protection against weathering. The X Multi D performance is backed by a confidence guarantee. If the tire does not meet expectations for mileage, traction and driver satisfaction, then Michelin will reimburse any cost difference for a competitive drive tire. The tire is available in the United States, Canada and Mexico in 11R22.5 size in load ranges G and H, and 11R24.5 size in load range H, with additional sizes to follow in the coming months. To learn more about truck tires and services, visit www.michelintruck. com.
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