How do I work out what tire storage is worth to my shop?

Take the fees for the season, then subtract what the space costs you and what the handling time costs you. A set is handled twice a season — onto the rack in the autumn and back onto the car in the spring — so the labour is counted twice. What is left is the margin on storage.

What should I charge per set for seasonal tire storage?

Enough to cover the space and the time, and then whatever the service is worth where you are. This calculator shows the break-even figure for your own numbers: what one set would have to be charged to cover the space and the handling and nothing more.

Is the calculator free, and does it keep my numbers?

It is free, there is no sign-up, and the numbers never leave your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere and nothing is stored.

Tire storage fee calculator

What a season of storage actually leaves you, once the space and the handling are in the sum. Free, no sign-up, and the numbers never leave your browser.

Your numbers

Sets you store over a seasonFour tires is one set.What you charge per set for the season ($)Before tax.What the space costs you for the season ($)Rent on the unit, the container, or what the mezzanine would otherwise earn. Nothing if it is space you already have and would not use.Minutes of a tech’s time per handlingPulling the set, labelling it, walking it to the rack and putting it away. Counted twice a season — once in, once out.What an hour of that time costs you ($)Wage plus what you pay on top of it, not what you bill.

The numbers it starts with are a starting point, not a claim about anybody’s shop. Put yours in.

Your season

Storage fees: What the season brings in.
The space: As you entered it.
Time on the floor: 100 hours, counting both handlings.
What is left: Margin on the season · 33% of the fees

That is $26 a set. To cover the space and the time and nothing more, one set would have to be $54 for the season.

Why the labour is counted twice

It is the part most shops leave out, and it is usually the biggest line.

A stored set is handled twice a season. It comes off the car in the autumn, gets labelled and walked to the rack; in the spring it comes back off the rack and onto the car. A calculator that counts that once flatters the answer by half, which is how a storage fee that loses money looks fine on paper.

The other line shops leave out is the time spent looking for a set that is not where the book says it is. That one is not in the sum above, because it is not a number anybody can give honestly about their own shop — but it is real, it lands in the busiest fortnight of the year, and it is the reason Treadstock exists.

Questions

How do I work out what tire storage is worth to my shop?: Take the fees for the season, then subtract what the space costs you and what the handling time costs you. A set is handled twice a season — onto the rack in the autumn and back onto the car in the spring — so the labour is counted twice. What is left is the margin on storage.
What should I charge per set for seasonal tire storage?: Enough to cover the space and the time, and then whatever the service is worth where you are. This calculator shows the break-even figure for your own numbers: what one set would have to be charged to cover the space and the handling and nothing more.
Is the calculator free, and does it keep my numbers?: It is free, there is no sign-up, and the numbers never leave your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere and nothing is stored.

Track it free in Treadstock

If the storage is worth having, it is worth knowing where every set is. Free through March 31, 2027 for shops that start this season.

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How independent shops price seasonal storage →