The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-11-04

tires by overlooking, improper in
 flation, driving too fast, inadequate repair. Every kind of pressure ha. been put on truckers, in the way oi campaigns, to make them conserve rubber, but the extra heavy de. mands put on the operators give them a problem, too, in maintaining service.
 DWINDLING STOCKPILE
 The truck tire shortage has been building up gradually but steadily over the past three years. In 194l II million truck tires were manu- factured, half going to new trucks and half 10 replacement. That serv- ed to build up fair dealer stock Tire rationing began in 1942 and a third of the Il million stockpile was released on certificate that year. but that third filled only small frac- tion of the apparent need.
 Another third of the reserve dis appeared in the first eight months of 1943 rationing, and the final third is being chewed up now at the rate of over half million tires month because tires in service with plenty of miles on them are wearing out faster and need replacement.
 In the meantime, the production of new truck tires isn't beginning to keep up with the demand. The tire industry admits that only 35 per cent of the new truck tire pro- duction is going to civilians. What that amounts to is 250,000 tires a month. With certificates being is- sued at the rate of 550,000 month consumption is at the rate of 300,000 tires a month greater than produc- tiOn.
 The only out in this situation of diminishing supply is to cut down on the issuance of rationing certi- ficates to buy new tires. These cer- titicates today are really nothing more than hunting licenses, for in many cases the truck operator who gets a certificate from his rationing board can't find on the market a tire of the size he wants. Closer scrutiny of applications to buy new tires will, it is hoped. cut the num- Der of certificates issued from 550,- 900 a month to around 350,000 a month, which is about what produc- ton will average in 1914, with luck. But even a total new tire production of four million tires in 1914 will only about half fill the demand, which the tire rationing division of OPA new estimates at minimum of be- tween seven and eight million tires, a 9 per cent increase over the total issuance of over six million new truck tires this year.
 PREDICTION
 Civilian truckers today are al- lowed a minimum of one spare for every four or fewer tires of each size on a truck. Emergency reserve operators doing war hauling get an extla 10 per cent in spares. In ad- dition, it takes over million tires to stock the dealers stores so that they can give good customer service. Taking these reserves into consider ation, Sparks Bennett, chief of OFA ClTe TdJlOIllllS NIFioAoAl, AAohCS the flat statement, We face short- age of IS million truck tires by Jan. l, 1914"
 Pile On top of that the apparent shortage of three or four million tires in 1914 and you get some idea of how bad the present situation is.
 Tie only hope is through recap ping and the problem is to force truckers to recap every carcass they can. For some reason, the truck operators have shied away from re- capping. In the first nine months of 1943, whereas there were over four million new tire certificates dis tributed, there were only some two million recap certificates issued-a ratio of one recap to every two new tires. The ratio should be at least one to one, and it could be one new tire issued for every two or three recaps. The grade A comeback sup ply is adequate and recapping equip ment, now able to take care of the demand. is idle half the time.