How early should a tire shop start preparing for winter?

About four to six weeks before the first expected frost. For many shops in Central and Eastern Europe that means September, with client contact starting in early October.

How many cars per day can one bay handle?

It depends on the work: changing mounted wheels is much faster than fitting tires onto rims. Time a few real changeovers in your own shop, multiply by working hours and plan at about 80 % of the result.

Should storage clients get priority over walk-ins?

They should get planned slots early, before the peak. That keeps your promise to them and leaves the peak capacity for walk-ins and urgent cases.

Can clients book a slot online in OrgLines?

No. There is no online booking calendar. Requests from your website forms and ads arrive in the Lead Center, and your team schedules them as tasks.

What should be recorded when a client's set goes into storage?

Tread depth, visible damage, photos, the production date where relevant and the exact storage location. Give the client a short intake note with the measured values.

Preparing a tire shop for the autumn changeover rush

When the rush starts

The trigger is the weather, not the calendar. Demand jumps when the first night frosts or the first snow appear in the forecast. A widely used rule of thumb says winter tires make sense once temperatures stay at around 7 °C or lower. In much of Central and Eastern Europe that happens in late October or November, but one cold week in mid-October can start the rush early. Plan to be ready by the beginning of October and treat the first frost forecast as the signal to switch to rush mode.

Estimate your real capacity

Capacity is the number that decides everything else: how many clients to invite per day, whether you need an extra fitter, how long the queue will get. Count it per bay, not per shop. Take the time of one complete changeover (wheels off and on, balancing where needed, torque check, paperwork), multiply by working hours and subtract a realistic margin for delays, cars that need extra work and breaks. Then compare the result with the demand you already know about: clients whose tires you store, fleet clients with agreed volumes and last year's walk-ins.

Worked example (illustrative numbers)

A shop has 3 bays and works 10 hours a day. Changing a set of mounted wheels takes about 30 minutes, so in theory one bay handles 20 cars a day and the shop 60. The shop plans at 80 %, which gives 48 cars a day, leaving room for seized bolts, late clients and cars that need tires fitted onto rims, which takes longer.

The shop stores 420 client sets and expects about as many walk-ins as last year. Storage clients alone need 420 ÷ 48 ≈ 9 full working days. If they all come in the two weeks after the first frost, there are almost no slots left for walk-ins. If the shop starts inviting storage clients two weeks earlier, at 25–30 a day, most of them are done before the peak, and the peak capacity stays free for walk-ins and urgent cases.

Contact storage and fleet clients first

Clients whose tires are on your shelves are the most predictable part of the season, and the easiest place to lose goodwill: they cannot simply go elsewhere, because their tires are with you. Contact them early, in batches that match your capacity, and offer them a time instead of asking them to call. Fleet and company clients need their own plan, for example a fixed number of vehicles per day agreed in advance, so that their cars do not compete with private drivers at the peak.

Check stock, storage and the workshop

New tires: check stock of the winter sizes that sold best last season and order early; deliveries slow down and popular sizes run out once the rush has started.
Used tires: record tread depth, production date and photos for each tire, so staff can answer buyers without walking to the rack.
Stored sets: count them and confirm that every set is at the location its record says. A set that cannot be found in October means a delay and an unhappy client.
Consumables: balancing weights, valves, mounting paste and wheel bolts in common sizes.
Equipment: service the balancer, tire changers and lifts, and check the torque wrench before the rush, not during it.
People: agree longer hours, extra shifts or temporary help now, and write down the intake routine so that everyone follows the same steps.

One queue for every request

At the peak, requests arrive by phone, website form, messenger and at the counter at the same time. If each channel has its own notebook, some requests get lost and some slots get booked twice. Keep one list: every request is written down and gets an owner, a planned day and a status. At the end of each day, prepare the list for the next one, including which stored sets have to be brought out of storage first.

How to prepare, step by step

In September, review last season: which weeks were busiest, which sizes ran out and which delays kept repeating.
Calculate capacity per bay and per day, with a realistic margin.
Order popular winter sizes and consumables, and service the equipment.
Count the stored client sets and correct every location that does not match its record.
Before the first frost, start contacting storage and fleet clients in batches that fit your capacity.
Collect every request in one queue with an owner, a planned day and a status.
Each evening, prepare the next day's list and bring out the stored sets it needs.
At intake, measure tread depth, take photos and record the storage location of the summer set you take in.

How this is done in OrgLines

In OrgLines warehouses are organised as zones, shelves and bins, so each client's set has an exact storage location, and moving a set to another bin is recorded as a transfer. A stocktake reconciles the system with the shelves, and for new tires you see suggested reorder quantities. Each used tire can be recorded as its own unit with tread depth, production date, condition and photos.

Before the season, automations and the AI assistant prepare reminders and task lists for your team, based on your client base. Requests from your website forms and Meta ads arrive in the Lead Center. There is no online booking calendar: your team schedules requests as tasks. Fitters do not need a computer for their part: the Telegram work bot lets staff see their tasks, change statuses and send photos, and a manager approves who can use it. Walk-in clients pay at the till, and fleet clients receive invoices.

Common mistakes

Waiting for the first frost before contacting storage clients.
Planning at 100 % of theoretical capacity, so every delay pushes back the whole day.
Keeping stored sets without exact locations, so staff search the storage area while the client waits.
Taking requests in several notebooks and chats, which leads to lost requests and double bookings.
Ordering popular winter sizes only after they have started to run out.
Skipping the intake check, which leaves you without evidence if a client later disputes the condition of the tires.

Checklist

Capacity per bay and per day calculated, with a margin.
Popular winter sizes and consumables ordered.
Equipment serviced and the torque wrench checked.
Stored sets counted; every set has a correct location.
Storage and fleet clients contacted in batches.
One queue for all requests, with owner, day and status.
Intake routine written down: tread depth, photos, location.

Try it free in OrgLines