February 15, 1958
Page 5
OUR DEALER FRANCHISE is more attractive and more valu
able than ever before, because of the many profit opportunities pro
vided by our complete line of tires for all types of vehicles and our
extensive line of products for home and farm, for cars and trucks, for
work and recreation. Firestone stores continue to maintain their high
standards of service.
missile; we are making and designing missile launchers for the Regulus
and other submarine-launched missiles for the Navy; and we are modify
ing launching elements for the Terrier, the Marine Corps antiaircraft
missile.
Distribution of our products has always been basically through inde
pendent tire dealers. Today, our dealer franchise is more attractive and
more valuable than ever before, because of the many profit opportunities
provided by our complete line of tires for all types of vehicles and our
extensive line of products for home and farm, for cars and trucks, for
work and recreation. As a result, our dealers have been strengthened, and
their ability to sell and serve has been greatly improved. Firestone stores
continue to maintain their high standards of service to the public and to
our dealers, for whom they serve as sources of supply and as outlets for
testing new products and new advertising and merchandising techniques.
* * *
FOR YEARS OUR company has called nationwide attention to the
necessity for building better and safer highways, pointing out repeatedly
that until an adequate highway system is provided, the loss of life and
property will mount every year.
During 1957, one of the company’s strongest efforts to promote high
way safety was made through the Inter-Industry Highway Safety Com
mittee. This committee works at the community level to reduce traffic
accidents through organized vehicle inspection and driver education in
public schools. This nationwide effort received our financial support and
the assistance of our personnel.
To the men and women of Firestone in our plants, offices, stores,
warehouses, branches and plantations throughout the world, we extend
our thanks for their contributions in making the past year the most
successful in Firestone history. Their experience, skills and loyalty are
among the company’s most valuable assets.
The continuous service records of employees in our Akron plants,
for example, reveal that thirty-three per cent of our factory and office
employees have been with the company twenty years or more, and eighty-
five per cent, five years or more. The service records of all our employees
in the United States show that twelve per cent have been with the
company twenty years or more, and sixty-six per cent, five years or more.
* * *
OUR MILITARY SERVICE Bureau is in contact with 475 Firestone
employees who are on leaves of absence while serving our country in the
armed forces; and we sent a gift box to each of them at Christmas time.
In the field of industrial safety, the company had its most outstanding
year. For the ninth time since 1945, the National Safety Council honored
us on a company-wide basis with its highest citation, the Award of Honor.
The accident frequency rate for the fiscal year was 1.1, the lowest in the
history of the company and substantially below the 1956 rubber industry
average of 3.3.
The Pottstown, Pa., plant has established a new world safety record
for tire plants and set an all-time Firestone record. As of midnight on
January 15, the plant had worked 8,958,000 man-hours without a lost-time
accident. Thus, Pottstown became the fourth consecutive Firestone holder
of the world title for tire plants, the previous ones being Memphis, Plant
Two in Akron and Des Moines.
Two other Firestone plants, Des Moines and Bombay, completed more
than 6,000,000 accident-free hours of work during the fiscal year.
Among many other honors won by the company in the field of in
dustrial safety were Awards of Honor, on a plant-wide basis, given by the
ONE OF THE COMPANY’S strongest efforts to promote high
way safety was made through the Inter-Industry Highway Safety
Committee. H. D. Tompkins (right), vice president of the company
and chairman of the committee, presented the committee’s certificate
of achievement to the Post Office Department. Accepting is Post
master General Arthur Summerfield.
r
TO MAKE POSSIBLE testing of tires under conditions of road
and load much more severe than would be encountered in normal
service, the world’s largest tire proving ground was completed,
including an oval track more than seven and one-half miles long, at
Fort Stockton, Tex., as an addition to already extensive tire testing
facilities.
FOR THE 34TH CONSECUTIVE time. Firestone tires were on
the winning car in the 500-mile Indianapolis sweepstakes, for the 29th
consecutive time on the car which won the Pikes Peak Climb and on
the winning car in the first international 500-mile race at Monza,
Italy. Here a Firestone test car speeds around the track at Monza.