Tire Rotation

By Tammy Williams
NOLN Staff Writer

What types of services do your customers purchase most often — those that can save them money or those that will keep them safe? Maybe it’s time to start offering them a service that can provide both benefits, like tire rotation.

Tire rotation has gained tremendous popularity in recent years. In 2007, 64 percent of operators offered this service, but in 2009 that number had grown to 78 percent. It can also be quite profitable, as the average charge is just less than $20 — but more on that later.

Quick and simple. These words describe tire rotation quite nicely.

	Pit lifts like these allow lube operations the ability to quickly and easily perform tire rotations without investing in larger full-size lifts.

“A tire rotation takes between five and 10 minutes,” said Eddie Allen, manager of Jiffy Lube in Austin, Texas. “All you need is torque wrenches, torque sticks and an air gun.”

Rick Anderson, operator of Jiffy Lube in Bradenton, Florida, said his shop uses torque sticks to ensure the tires are properly torqued. This also ensures the lug nuts are not over-tightened to prevent damage to any studs or the stripping of the lug nuts themselves. The tire rotation service is quite simple, as both operators said they usually don’t run into any technical difficulties.

“We don’t run into a problem too often, but if you do, that’s what your four-way lug nut wrench is for — to break them loose,” Allen said.

Anderson does note the fact that having an owner on-site at all times gives constant supervision if problems do arise.

One thing that technicians might need to watch out for are the tire pressure monitoring systems found in many of today’s vehicles. “We usually treat them all the same,” Anderson said. “But if the TPMS is specific, such as on GM vehicles where it (is programmed for) left front, right front, left rear, right rear, we will not rotate them. A customer might see on their monitor system that the left rear is low when it’s actually the left front. We don’t want to create confusion, so that’s something we refer to the dealership.”

Both operators have seen good success offering this service. “Twenty percent of our customers a month get tire rotations,” Anderson said.

Allen said they perform about seven tire rotations a day, which translates into a couple hundred a month. And he charges $19.99 for a rotation, most of which is profit.

“It’s all labor, so you’re not using any cost of goods at all,” Allen said.

Tire rotations are also a source of many benefits for customers. “Their tires have an even wear on the tread and a longer life in general,” Anderson said.

Because tires are the only things keeping your customers’ vehicles in contact with the roads they drive on, tire maintenance also adds to their safety. If operators are not offering tire rotations, Anderson has some advice: “Do them. You want to keep everything in-house as much as you can. Eventually, if you can’t do the services (your customers need), you’re going to lose the business.”