A History of the Automotive Aftermarket

Road to AAPEX S2, E10: Where the road ends and the show begins

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Auto Care Association Shares Six Ways to Take Action for Right to Repair Awareness – CAWA Agrees!

The Auto Care Association’s Marketing and Communications committee is calling on the auto care industry to take action by making their voices heard in Washington. The association is urging industry-wide participation in spreading awareness about the importance of preserving Americans’ right to repair their vehicles and passing the REPAIR Act at the federal level.

The Auto Care Association makes participating in Right to Repair Awareness easy and accessible to everyone by offering six ways to take action right now. CAWA supports this effort.

What Members are Saying About CAWA

“Congratulations to Dave Simms, our NAPA store owner in Galt and Lodi, on his installation as Secretary on the CAWA Board of Directors. Dave Finley, a fellow owner, has long served on the Board as does our Division Vice President, Tom Skov. Their commitment involves participating in three meetings a year along with numerous other virtual meetings. They commit a substantial amount of their personal time to benefit each of us and our industry. I served on the Board for over six years and can count numerous other owners who have done the same. While a substantial time commitment, I am so pleased I was able to do so – great use of my time.

CAWA does so very much for each of you and our industry every day. Every owner’s membership in CAWA is critical to the strength and well-being of the association. I congratulate Dave Simms and point out the commitment made by others, so you keep that in consideration if you are not a member. I strongly recommend you join CAWA (see membership application here). Thank you for considering this most vital request”.

John Uhl

General Manager – Sales & Store Operations

Sacramento Distribution Center – NAPA

Mobile Repair Outpaces Traditional Repair in Annual Growth

Mobile repair has climbed at an annual pace more than 10 times faster than the overall DIFM light vehicle market in recent years. While mobile repair remains a small portion of the light vehicle Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) market, it has made strong headway in expanding its DIFM footprint. The number of full- and part-time technicians conducting mobile repair has increased significantly and product sales are growing even faster, according to the Lang Aftermarket iReport. And since most mobile repair jobs are ordered online, its growth indicates the rapid and much greater increase that o2o (online to offline) automotive repair can achieve nationwide. The following are key takeaways from the analysis (see here). Source: aftermarketMATTERS

The Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) is Filing Proposed Regulations with the Office of Administrative Law to Establish a New Vehicle Safety Systems Inspection Program (VSSIP)

It will replace the existing brake and lamp inspection programs, as required by Assembly Bill 471 (Low, Chapter 372, Statutes of 2021). Recall, CAWA and its coalition was the primary sponsor of this legislation.

The new program will include a more comprehensive inspection of multiple vehicle safety systems and an electronic certificate of compliance for vehicles that pass the inspection. Given the unpredictability of the regulation process, it is difficult to provide specific implementation dates at this time; however, with the beginning of the 45-day public comment period, we anticipate the proposed regulations will be adopted and take effect in the first calendar quarter of 2024. 

To make the transition from our existing brake and lamp inspection programs to the VSSIP as smooth as possible, we have developed a three-phase approach for implementation. The first phase will begin on the effective date of the regulations. On that day, BAR will make available and begin accepting applications for Vehicle Safety Systems Inspection Stations and Technicians. 

Additionally, BAR will no longer accept brake and lamp station and adjuster applications. BAR anticipates the second phase will begin in the second calendar quarter of 2024 when licensed stations and technicians can start performing vehicle safety systems inspections. This phase will allow the VSSIP to run concurrently with the existing lamp and brake inspection programs. It will help stations and technicians become familiar with the new inspection requirements and will give BAR time to confirm the new program is operating as expected. 

The third phase will end (“sunset”) our brake and lamp inspection programs. Six months after the effective date of the regulations, DMV will no longer accept brake and lamp certificates of compliance for registration purposes. At that time, BAR will begin the process of collecting and refunding unused brake and lamp certificates.

Source: Bureau of Automotive Repair

Are Salespeople Born or Made?

Are salespeople born or made? This is a question that comes up from time to time and, for some reason, has been coming up in my conversations a lot lately. It’s the old nature versus nurture. While most people are open-minded to both arguments, I’ve recently run into some people who are adamant about the subject, one in particular saying they are born, the other saying they are made. Here’s my two cents.

About ten years ago an acquaintance of mine was a guest host on a local radio station and asked me to come in and discuss sales and selling. After doing a brief introduction to the segment along with a short bio of me, he opened with, “So, I guess the consensus is pretty much that salespeople are born, huh?” He caught me completely off guard for two reasons, one, I’ve never had someone open a radio broadcast, podcast, or any other similar interview with that question, and two, and probably more significant, I don’t believe that at all. So, here I am on a radio show with my friend hosting and thousands of people listening and I’m hit with an assumptive statement about an industry I’d been involved with for almost three decades, that happened to contradict my beliefs. Yes, I’ve done three years of improv and I’m pretty creative, but there was more than a slight pause between his statement and the beginning of my response. 

See more discussion here. Source: John Chapin

Designed to Save Arizona CAWA Members Health Premium Dollars

CAWA Arizona Health Trust provides high quality, affordable employee benefits programs to employers in the automotive industry, headquartered in Arizona.

As a member of CAWA, groups may choose from several medical plan options underwritten by BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona. Ancillary benefits include mandatory $15K Life/AD&D through Equitable, dental coverage through BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona and vision coverage through VSP. Participating groups must have a minimum of 2 employees enrolled in the plan.

For details and who to contact, see here.

CARB Removes Fee for Refrigerant Canisters used to Fix Vehicle Air Conditioning Systems

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved an update to its regulation that controls emissions from refrigerant used for the repair of automotive air conditioning systems by removing a canister consumer fee and phasing in a transition toward recycled refrigerant. Prior to the update, consumers paid a $10 deposit for a canister with a self-sealing valve. Consumers who purchased the refrigerant for do-it-yourself repairs would receive the container deposit once they returned the container to a retailer. 

However, reporting data have shown a lower container return rate than expected, with consumers forgoing more than $5.5 million in unclaimed deposits annually, prompting a revision of the program that would address consumer needs while maintaining emissions reduction goals. The update will remove the $10 fee, maintain the use of a self-sealing canister valve and require a phased-in transition to the sale of recycled refrigerant by 2027.

See more details here. Source: California Air Resources Board

Exclusive CAWA Dental Program

Should your company have an interest in quality and competitive dental insurance look no further. This CAWA dental program was exclusively designed for Association members. Using the leverage and buying power of our whole Association, we are able to offer members 3 excellent benefit levels from a National A++ rated carrier. See details here.