Guides
How to bundle tire shop services in 2027
Seventeen tire shop service package shapes, each with what it requires from the bay, who it is wrong for, and the disclosure it has to carry.
What to take away
- Every package below is a shape, not a price. What it costs depends on your bay hour and your parts cost, which nothing on this page can know.
- Each shape has a prerequisite. Offering one without the prerequisite is how a package becomes a comeback.
- The "wrong for" column is the useful half. A package sold to the wrong customer is worse than no package.
- Storage-backed packages are the only ones that reliably fill the quiet months, because they lock the next visit at the time of this one.
- Anything with a fixed price needs a written stop rule for the parts that vary by vehicle.
How to read the list
Seventeen shapes follow, sorted roughly by bay time. Pick three or four. A shop that offers all of them has a document nobody at the counter can explain consistently, and inconsistent explanation is what produces disputes.
Package Shapes and Bay Needs
Package shape
- Flat repair
- Written repair policy
- Rotation + check
- Lift and trained tech
- Two-tire fitment
- Stock depth or supplier
- Four-tire fitment
- Contracted disposal
- Fitment + sensor
- Sensor tooling
- Seasonal changeover
- Firm booked slots
Needs from bay
- Flat repair
- Refused casings
- Rotation + check
- Wear needing diagnosis
- Two-tire fitment
- Mixing across axles
- Four-tire fitment
- Customer keeps old set
- Fitment + sensor
- No same-day sensor
- Seasonal changeover
- Peak-week walk-in
Wrong for
- Flat repair
- Rotation + check
- Two-tire fitment
- Four-tire fitment
- Fitment + sensor
- Seasonal changeover
| # | Package shape | What it needs from you | Wrong for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Single flat assessment and repair where permitted | A written repair policy drawn from the manufacturer's instructions | Any casing your policy says must be refused, whatever the customer accepts |
| 2 | Rotation with a pressure and wear check | Nothing beyond a lift and a trained tech | A vehicle whose wear pattern already says it needs diagnosis, not rotation |
| 3 | Two-tire fitment, same axle | Stock depth in the size, or a same-day supplier | A vehicle where the manufacturer advises against mixing across axles |
| 4 | Four-tire fitment with disposal | Disposal contracted and priced, and the fee disclosed as your rules require | A customer who wants to keep the old set, which changes the whole job |
| 5 | Fitment plus sensor service | Sensor tooling and a technician who can relearn reliably | Vehicles where you cannot source the sensor same-day |
| 6 | Seasonal changeover, customer keeps the tires | Nothing extra, but firm booked slots | A walk-in during the peak week, which is what breaks the schedule |
| 7 | Seasonal changeover with in-shop storage | Racked space and a labeling system that finds a set in 60 seconds | A shop without the labeling discipline; unlabeled storage is a liability |
| 8 | New set with a road-force or high-precision balance | The machine and the technician trained on it | A customer who has not been told why it costs more than a standard balance |
| 9 | Wheel and tire package fitted as a unit | Space to stage and a policy on pre-existing wheel damage | Any wheel already curbed, unless the customer sees it first |
| 10 | Alignment bundled with a full fitment | An alignment machine and a technician who owns it | A shop with one lift, where this blocks everything behind it |
| 11 | Pre-trip or pre-season inspection | A written checklist and a record the customer keeps | Selling as a diagnostic promise; it is an inspection, not a warranty |
| 12 | Fleet rotation on a fixed interval | A named contact and paperwork simple enough to complete on a busy day | Fleets whose vehicles arrive unannounced; the value is the schedule |
| 13 | Road hazard or protection program | A tested claim process, because claim labor comes out of your bay | Any shop that has not run a full season and measured the claim rate |
| 14 | Mobile or on-site fitment | A service vehicle, torque discipline off-site, and insurance that covers it | Work you cannot do to the same standard as in the bay |
| 15 | Commercial or light truck fitment | Door height, lift capacity and the right tooling | A bay that cannot take the vehicle, which is a refusal, not a challenge |
| 16 | Used-tire fitment, where lawful | Certainty about what your state permits and a documented inspection | Any jurisdiction whose rules you have not actually checked |
| 17 | Annual tire review for a returning customer | Records from prior visits that are actually retrievable | A first-time customer, who has no history for the review to use |
Four prerequisites your packages depend on
Most failures in the list above trace back to one of four missing things.
Four Prerequisites for Packages
- Written refusal policy from manufacturer instructions
- Measured bay times before printing prices
- Stop rule for variable partsstop, show, quote
- Stock or supply for implied sizes
- A written refusal policy.Where damage sits, how a tire was run, and what its manufacturer instructs decide whether a casing may be repaired. Write your rule from published industry repair guidance and the manufacturer's instructions, so a technician under pressure applies a rule instead of a mood.
- Measured bay times.A fixed-price package on an unmeasured job is a guess with your money on it. Time the work for a month before you print anything.
- A stop rule for variable parts.Sensors that fail on removal, seized hardware, wheels that turn out damaged. The rule should be the same every time: stop, show, quote, let them decide.
- Stock or supply for the sizes the package implies.A package advertised for a size you have to order, sold as same-day, is a promise the rack cannot keep.
Here is the card text for parts that vary, to be read aloud at the counter. Stop. This wheel needs a variable part, typical range 40 to 90 dollars depending on the vehicle, plus added bay time of 0.2 to 0.5 hour. No work continues until the customer says yes or no.
Write the same card for seized hardware and for a wheel found damaged after removal. Set a written ceiling for the parts a technician may authorize alone, so the script does not turn into a negotiation at the counter.
Disclosure, in one paragraph
An advertised package price covers the job it implies, and disposal, valve hardware and shop supplies sit inside that number or appear plainly outside it, per local rules. The FTC's advertising guidance for small businesses, published as Advertising FAQs: A Guide for Small Business, defines what a claim must support.
Disclosure and Safety Rules
- Package price covers implied job
- Disposal, valve hardware, supplies inside or outside
- FTC advertising guidance supports claims
- Safety rules from vehicle and tire makers
No package changes safety rules. Sizing, load and speed markings, aging, registration and recall handling come from the vehicle and tire manufacturers. Federal rules add more: FMVSS No. 139 sets the performance standard for new light-vehicle tires, and 49 CFR Part 574 covers tire identification and record keeping.
49 CFR Part 575 covers consumer information duties, including the Uniform Tire Quality Grading Standards. Both are set out in the federal tire safety guidance. Read the current version.
Choosing three or four packages
Rank candidates by contribution per bay hour, using the arithmetic in the piece on which services actually pay, then apply two filters. Drop anything whose prerequisite you do not have today. Drop anything only one person in the building can do, unless you are willing for it to disappear when they are out.
Choosing Three or Four Packages
Does it rank well by contribution per bay hour?
keep candidate
drop candidate
Contribution per bay hour is the package price minus the parts and consumables that change with the job, divided by bay hours.
Worked example, using numbers you replace with your own. A four-tire fitment takes a typical 1.0 bay hour. Price it 140 dollars above the variable parts cost and the contribution is 140 dollars per bay hour. A storage changeover takes a typical 0.5 bay hour and clears 80 dollars over variable parts, which is 160 dollars per bay hour.
The changeover wins on contribution per bay hour. The fitment still has to run, because it is the base the other shapes attach to.
What is left should cover base fitment, one seasonal shape, and at most one long-bay-time service. The counter wording for those is set out in the guide to packaging services for customers. How those fit into the wider range of services the shop runs is covered in the services and packages guide.
Two of the shapes above need equipment before a price. A working bay needs the equipment and setup guide. A new site's shorter buying list is set out in full in the equipment checklist.
Job times, inspection records and claim history are ordinary business records. The IRS guidance on what records to keep covers how to hold them.
Common questions
Which of these should a brand new shop start with?
The base fitment shapes and one seasonal shape, if your market has a season. Everything with a machine attached should wait until your miss log shows you are turning away enough of that work to keep the machine busy.
Can I offer a package for a size I do not stock?
Yes, as an ordered job with a stated date. What you cannot do is sell it as same-day and hope the delivery arrives, because the customer is already in the waiting room by the time you find out.
Is a road hazard program worth it?
It can be, and it is a cost center rather than free revenue. The claim labor comes out of your bay and whoever administers the program sets the rules. Measure a season of claims before committing to terms.
A typical program runs between 2 and 6 claims per 100 packages sold over a season. A rate well above that points to the terms, the tire mix, or the sales pitch.
What makes a storage package work?
Labeling and retrieval. The target is 60 seconds from plate number to the set on the floor, tested by timing ten random pulls once a month and writing the result down. If the monthly average passes 90 seconds, or any single pull passes three minutes, fix the labeling before you sell the package again.
How often should the list be revisited?
Once a season, against the miss log and the measured bay times. Both move, and a package that made sense last year on a longer job time may not now.
