By Mike Swift 22 Swift Talks on Industry Matters Owner, Swifts Trails End Auto Recycling, 1600 NE 44th Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50313 Mike Swift, ARA Past President mike@trailsendauto.com Auto Recyclers ToolBox® Changes in Auto Recycling! Tornado hits Action Auto Parts Last week we had 27 Tornados drop down in one day in Central Iowa. One directly hit one of our members, Action Auto Parts, in Marshalltown, Iowa. It completely destroyed their main office building. In a few seconds, at 4:35 pm, the way they did business completely changed. Thank God no one was hurt at their business. Believe it or not, in all of the 27 touchdowns, not one life was lost. Not only do the everyday operations at Action Auto Parts have to change, but they have to change on the fly. Just think of even selling a starter or a tail light which are shown on a particular shelf, but the employee goes to that shelf and it got swept off in the tornado. Now they have to search elsewhere, or broker out the part, to take care of their customer. I can’t imagine where I’d start, but they are hard working people. Today they sent out a notice that they are open for business. They may not like what they have been dealt, but, WOW, after 50 years in busi- ness and starting over, we wish them the best. Let’s hope that years down the road I’m sitting here and wondering about all the changes happening in the auto recycling industry, and about what it takes to buy and sell parts in today’s world. It seems like all we hear is doom and gloom. I have spoken about this myself. But life isn’t fair and the world keeps turning. We either turn with it or stop what we’re doing. Knowledge is power Sell for MRE electronic parts more difficult One of the things I see that could be good is more opportunities to sell MRE electronic parts. We need to be able to identify these parts on an OEM number level. This is an opportunity for our ven- dors to help us get to that point. I believe we will need interchange, but we can’t continue to speak a language that only we understand. We need to speak the OEM language. We need to be able to sell more parts and have a way for our employees to be able to have the knowl- edge at their fingertips. This is an oppor- tunity we either embrace or we will see our complete demise. Not only is our Industry changing, but like Action Auto parts, the way we do business in simple things is more difficult. A lot of auto recyclers have cho- sen not to even try to keep up with the change. With margins tighter, inventory harder to buy, and employees harder to get, they have just decided enough is enough. In our third generation business, this has been talked about time after time. they will see how this experience made them better. Doing business is becoming We have all heard it said that “knowledge is power,” but today, we need to have that knowledge more than ever. The customer knows more about OEM than we do. Especially when we We have a bill in Congress, HR2460, that would require OEM to pro- vide our Industry with the build sheet and last eight vin number information. This is powerful, needed information for auto recyclers. We, as recyclers, can help make this change. This is not a Trump thing, or a Democrat thing. This is a change we need to stay in business! Call ARA today and find out what you can do to help make this change. Living the dream. - Mike Swift We will all be even more thankful when we’ve been able to make this needed change for making vin numbers and vehicle history available. Please, call or send an E-mail to your congress per- son so we can make this change happen! For our industry to change and have a fighting chance in the automotive industry we need to have knowledge. We need the last eight digits of vin numbers so we can identify a part and know whether we have it. We need to know the OEM price so we can sell the recycled part to our customer at a more affordable price. We need to give our customers the confidence that we are selling them the correct OEM part to repair their vehicle. answer the phone! Most of the time an auto recycler is their second call. They have called the dealer and given them the last eight digits of their vin number. The dealer has told them how much it will cost and this is the infor- mation they have. Now, the customer wants to save some money and they give the recycler a call. They try to give us the last eight digits of their VIN, but we don’t work that way! We ask twenty questions to come up with some kind of answer. Most of the time we can come up with something. However, this isn’t going to work much longer. Why can the dealer ask for the last eight digits of the vin number and we can’t? A bill in Congress Today, when you are selling a part and go to get it off the shelf, think of Action Auto Parts, whose shelf is gone. Be thankful for what you have. “With margins tighter, inventory harder to buy, and employees harder to get, they have just decided enough is enough.” Are we ready?