In This Issue
- In Memoriam: Jack Pohanka
- Virginia Resumes In-Person Dealer Sales Licensing Exams
- NADA Chairman Peter Welch to Retire at the End of the Year
- Va. DMV Offers Some In-Person Services; D.C. Hopes for June Re-Open
- Latest Update on Stay-at-Home Orders in the D.C. Area
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It is with sadness and a profound sense of reflection that WANADA reports the passing of its longtime dealer member and past chairman, John J. Pohanka of Pohanka Automotive. He was 92 years old.
Words that first come to mind when thinking about Jack Pohanka's remarkably stellar auto dealer career are
innovator
,
pace-setter
,
industry leader
, and
Renaissance Man
. Clearly, Jack was all of these and so much more.
Building on the Oldsmobile dealership opened by his father, Frank Pohanka, in Washington, D.C. in 1919, Jack took over the business in 1960, moving the store subsequently to Marlow Heights, Md., where it operated for many years. Since then, Jack and his son Geoff Pohanka, along with partner Scott Crabtree, have grown Pohanka Oldsmobile into Pohanka Automotive, which today boasts nearly a dozen franchises in 16 separate dealership locations, employing over 1,600 staff, in Maryland, Virginia and, more recently, Texas.
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Tests will be administered on a by-appointment basis, with the anticipation that
MVDB staff
and field representatives will travel to dealership locations to administer the exams.
According to VADA
, up to two exams would be administered at one time, though the board will be flexible in accommodating all requests.
To request a licensing exam appointment, please contact Ann Majors at the MVDB at (804) 367-1100, ext. 3016#, or by email at
ann.majors@mvdb.virginia.gov
. WANADA thanks our friends at the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association for their work in helping the commonwealth re-start the certification process.
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The National Automobile Dealers Association
announced last week
that President and CEO Peter Welch will retire at the end of 2020. Welch has been with the association since 2013, following more than 20 years at the California New Car Dealers Association. He first joined CNCDA as their director of government and legal affairs, and later served from 2003 to 2013 as the association’s president and CEO.
Since moving across the country to work at NADA’s headquarters in Tysons Corner, Peter Welch helped amplify the voices of franchised auto dealers across the country, and worked to deliver several important legislative victories important to the members he serves. Under his leadership, NADA ensured that the 2017 tax reform bill
adequately protected
car and truck dealers, helped
ensure fair access
to GAP insurance products for active-duty military members and their families, and advocated strongly for auto dealers when meeting with Trump Administration officials on energy and trade policy matters, including the Administration’s decision to supersede California’s
CARB emissions standards
.
To that end, NADA fought valiantly to have the federal government declare auto sales and service staff to be “critical infrastructure” components during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency agreed, and auto dealer services were deemed to be
essential by the federal government
. Auto sales have been able to continue uninterrupted in most U.S. states throughout the pandemic, while other retail industries have seen their work restricted far more dramatically.
We at WANADA are grateful to Peter Welch for his years of service advocating on behalf of franchised new auto dealers. We greatly appreciate all he has done to enhance NADA’s influence as an advocacy group, and all franchised dealers have benefitted tremendously from his leadership.
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The Fredericksburg-area branch will be open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.;
you can make an appointment online at this link
. Available in-person services will include drivers license renewals and RealID requests, titling services, "vital records" requests, and knowledge testing for learners permits. For a full list of available services,
please click here
.
The DMV has said that more branches will open on a rolling basis throughout the late spring and summer. In the meantime, dealers can access many DMV services online at
dmv.virginia.gov/onlineservices
. As has been the case since the beginning of the year, manual titling and processing work can be mailed to the Manheim Auto Auction locations in Fredericksburg and Harrisonburg;
you can find those addresses here
.
As has been the case for the last two months, dealer transactions can still be processed via mail by submitting the paperwork to the DC DMV at 95 M Street SW Suite 300 Washington, D.C. 20024, though there are no expedited services at this time. You can also access many online resources through the
DC DMV Dealer Services Page
.
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The governors of both Maryland and Virginia have allowed much of their states to begin the lengthy and gradual re-opening process, but the D.C. area, where the majority of both states COVID-19 cases have been found, remains under the same status quo of the last two months.
While much of Virginia shifted to the first phase of the commonwealth’s
Forward Virginia
plan last Friday, Gov. Ralph Northam issued a
two-week extension
of “phase zero” in Northern Virginia, and later amended it to also include the city of Richmond and Accomack County on the Eastern Shore, which has been
ravaged by two outbreaks
at poultry plants.
The rate of positive tests continues to be higher in the densely-populated portions of Virginia just outside of Washington; in fact, the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, and the city of Alexandria together account for roughly half of the commonwealth’s
total COVID-19 cases
. Fairfax alone accounts for 25 percent of the COVID cases in the state, despite being roughly 12 percent of the state’s population.
Auto sales and service work is allowed to continue in both the Maryland suburbs and in Northern Virginia, under the same patron capacity and social distancing requirements that have been in place over the past few weeks at minimum. Workers in both states are required to wear face coverings while on the job; the facemask mandate has been in place across Maryland since at least mid-April, but the Virginia mandate just went into effect on May 15 as part of
Gov. Northam’s measure
allowing much of the state to begin the re-opening process.
In Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan began allowing counties to relax certain business restrictions and capacity limits last Friday at 5 p.m. However, none of the state’s seven largest jurisdictions implemented
Gov. Hogan’s “stage one” order
as written, with three counties in our region (
Montgomery
,
Prince George’s
, and
Charles
) extending their current stay-at-home orders for at least two more weeks.
Read More
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WANADA has created Memorial Day holiday hours signs for our members. Dealership personnel can publish special showroom and service department hours if they differ from your current operating status during the ongoing health crisis. To download the form,
please click here
.
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