Welcome to the latest edition of CTD Online, Modern Tire Dealer's e-newsletter written exclusively for the commercial tire market.

Today, we report on April commercial order numbers, plus Modern Tire Dealer's parent company buys Heavy Duty Trucking.

You will receive the next edition of CTD Online two weeks from today. Meanwhile, for continual commercial tire news and updates, stay tuned to www.moderntiredealer.com.

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Americas Commercial Trucking (ACT) Research Co. LLC says North America medium- and heavy-duty GVW Classes 6-7 and Class 8 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders for April were down from March.

Bobit Business Media, the parent company of Modern Tire Dealer, has acquired Newport Business Media. Newport’s publishing properties include “Heavy Duty Trucking” (“HDT”) magazine.

Continental Tire the Americas LLC has added its Eco Plus compounding, the basis of Continental’s low rolling resistance, fuel saving medium radial truck tires, to the tire maker’s best-selling highway steer tire, the HSL2.

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. reported net income of $22 million on net sales of $984 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012. That compares to income of $16 million on sales of $902 million for the same period last year.

Yokohama Tire Corp. recently promoted two people within its Commercial OTR Division: Tim Easter and Mike Baggett.

Love’s Travel Stops has opened a travel stop in Jasper, Ala. It is the company’s seventh location in the state.

The Tire Industry Association now offers all of its 200-Level Basic and 250-Level Advanced Training Programs in a Web-based format at the TIA On-Line University.

MaddenCo has entered into agreements with 10 companies in the tire industry to use its ASP Tire Dealer System.

The 27th international Reifen trade fair will be held at Messe Essen, Germany, on June 5-7, 2012.

Domestic retreaders produced 15.3 million truck tire retreads in 2011, 7% more than they did in 2010. Based on the expansion plans of the “Top 100” retreaders in the United States, those numbers will go up this year.

The Tire Industry Association’s 57th annual Off-The Road (OTR) Tire Conference set an attendance record of 495 dealers, retreaders and suppliers. The conference took place Feb 15-18, 2012, in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Stop and think about this for a moment: Conventional wisdom tells us that a retail operation — your independent tire dealership — is designed for walk-in traffic. So you spend money as an owner or manager on building a great store experience, attempting to drive in traffic with advertising, promotions, merchandising and signage. And all the while you’re keeping the search on for the next winning location for expansion. All good. Continue those efforts,