Stellar^® Podcast: Tire Safety Essentials with Matt White of TIA

07.24.26

For a recent podcast, Stellar^® Tire Truck experts Tom Formanek and Travis Glidden welcomed Matt White, the Tire Industry Association’s Director of Off-Road Tire Service. When it comes to insights on tire safety, tire truck selection and real-world applications, you can’t get a better group together. The three men in this podcast represent more than a century of combined tire industry experience. 

Join them as they discuss how tire safety training came about, review the importance of being proactive when it comes to tire safety, and share some anecdotes from their years serving the tire service industry.

Stellar and TIA: An Unbeatable Team

Stellar has been hosting Tire Industry Association (TIA) training for a long time, and White, Formanek and Glidden shared their thoughts. Here are some excerpts. View the video for the complete conversation. 

How long have Stellar and the Tire Industry Association been involved in tire safety training?

MATT WHITE: I would say about 20 years, and our relationship here onsite with Stellar has been going on for about 11 years, right? We’ve been partnering with the hands-on classes with farm, which we’re currently finishing one up today, and also off-the-road tires like earth movers, commercial tire trucks, industrial. It’s just such a good venue for us because everything is here. You guys make the trucks for the largest tires in the world, so I train on your trucks and how to do that safely.

TRAVIS GLIDDEN: In the ’80s, a farm tire truck was a fiberglass body, had a little pony compressor under the hood. Might’ve had a lift gate, might’ve not had lift gate because a big tractor tire was an 18438. So a lot of people just kneed them in with their knees and their shoulders and a lot of bar work, a lot of handwork. Now a farm tire truck at least has a crane. Some of them have a manipulator. These farm tires have gotten bigger and bigger and bigger.

What do tire technicians take away from safety training?

TOM FORMANEK: In the training classes, we have some people that are two, three weeks in the business and 20, 30 years in the business. And there’s always something for them to learn. This is a dangerous business and you want them to be able to go home to their families.

TRAVIS GLIDDEN: I stopped counting a few years ago, but we were at 700 students. So now we’re probably pushing a thousand, but at that time it was 37 states and five different countries had taken classes here at Stellar. Somebody might’ve been changing tires for 10 or 20 or 30 years, but there’s a tool out there they didn’t know about until they got here. But then they’re in a class with somebody that does that tire every week and they pick up little tips. These people become buddies by the end of the week and they connect with each other and they say, if you got a problem with that tire next time you’re doing it, give me a call.

MATT WHITE: Our mission is to improve safety through training. This is a dangerous business and I don’t think people realize how dangerous it is. My number one goal, and it should never change, is for our tire technicians, men and women, to go home at night. I always tell people, look at it this way. You invest in training, you’re investing in your business just like you would be in the stock market. 

TRAVIS GLIDDEN: Companies are seeing the value because every year, they’re sending four more guys. Next year sending four more guys. It’s the same company sending more people, new people, every year.

Register Your Team for Upcoming Tire Safety Training

Along with the classes held at Stellar’s facilities in Garner, Iowa, the Tire Industry Association holds sessions across the country. Check out the schedule and book a class for your team. 

Stellar Tire Trucks & Manipulators are available in a variety configurations to meet tire service needs of any size. Search our work-ready inventory, get selection help from our experienced team or request a quote today.