19 Auto Recyclers ToolBox® We may include your question along with Jim’s answer in a upcoming issue. Here is your chance to get an answer! Just send an email with your brief question to: AnswerMan@MikeFrench.com GOT A QUESTION? I am very much in favor of harvesting every profitable dol- lar from the vehicles we process. Having been around this industry for a very long time, I see recyclers swing from one extreme to another without doing good evaluation of cost verses income. So the above comments are made in the hope that you will take the time to get all the profitable dollars you can out of every vehicle. often is the paperwork mishandled, or not done at all, which further agitates the customers. When the core buyer arrives, we usually assign someone to keep track of what he or she owes us, which costs more money. All of this, because we only track the money coming in but not evaluated the money going out. Stop and think the process thru. Even with the increase in demand and price for surplus and core parts, we need to count the cost of what we sell. Make realistic decisions All of the inventory management systems allow us to assign a core charge to specific interchange numbers. Some of the systems actually have those fields automatically updated by URG as their values change. This allows us to make realis- tic decisions about the profit of handling the surplus parts. Don’t let anyone tell you they pulled XX additional surplus parts without spending any additional labor. If you have to remove the surplus part to get to the part you want to sell than the cost is extremely small. However, I have removed enough brake boosters to tell you the price of that part as a surplus item would need to be pretty high to pull it. On parts that are shipped to the buyer, don’t expect to get the core back, so include the core-charge in the negotiated laid- in price, or forget about it. Also if you ship container loads off to a buy expect to wait a month or so before you get your money. Include the core-charge Make a very few simple rules so the employees know which parts are worth the cost of handling them. Something like a minimum value, if it has to be pulled, and only put a core charge on what has net value. By net value, I mean that if the core value of a part is $50, than maybe put a value of something like $35 on the core charge. After all, do you really want the part back? You just want the net dollar value of that part. Final suggestion Thanks for the question and keep them coming and try to stay cool. - Jim Counts