Going into 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic may have roiled some sectors of the aftermarket, but it failed to influence the Tire Industry Association's (TIA, booths #40067 and #41067) core mission.

"The pandemic didn't make tires any safer from a technician's standpoint," said Kevin Rohlwing, TIA chief technical officer. "The hazards of servicing tires are still present, even in a pandemic, so our mission hasn't changed."

In fact, the continued evolutions of tire technology prompted TIA toward several key initiatives at the 2022 Global Tire Expo (GTE) that have set the table for what Show attendees will see at this year's event. "We didn't stop updating our programs," Rohlwing noted. "The industry is changing, and our training programs need to evolve with those changes."

One of the changes TIA adopted in response to the pandemic was a new emphasis on producing outdoor training videos for use when indoor educational sessions weren't possible due to COVID quarantine and distancing protocols. For 2022, Rohlwing announced, all videos produced under the auspices of the TIA Online University would also include closed captioning.

"Some of our board members have deaf and hard-of-hearing employees, and closed captioning makes learning much more effective for them," Rohlwing said. "It costs us more money and it takes more time, but the board felt that it was worth the added expense."

Additionally, TIA announced updates for its Certified Commercial Tire Service program and for its Earth Mover Tire Service programs in 2022.

"We're going to keep these programs current and relevant," Rohlwing said.

In 2022, TIA also undertook a new partnership with Mohr Retail, a retail training and consulting firm, to launch a new educational initiative on the subject of management training.

"We don't have the staff to support something like this, so we've partnered with Mohr on a program we piloted last year," Rohlwing said. "It was a retail training program teaching managers to be better leaders. It also taught about conflict resolution and how to better motivate people."

The response to the program was positive, Rohlwing noted, "so we came up with a weekly program that's more aimed to the commercial side of the business. The response we've gotten has been fantastic. We're excited about the future prospects of it, and it's something that our members have been asking for."

An additional training program aimed at area or regional managers was in the works as well.

CEO Richard "Dick" Gust also offered his thoughts about the direction of the organization moving forward.

"My plan is to build on the great foundation that has been placed by Roy Littlefield [who retired last year] and the rest of the TIA leadership team," he said. "We've developed the most outstanding training program in the country, and it's all because our members are concerned about safety."