some way or form ever since. In 2017, I was elected to serve as an Atlantic Canadian rep- resentative on the Auto Recy- clers of Canada Board (ARC), and I volunteered for ARA Re- gional Director in 2017.

One thing I hope the

industry does to help itself is to get a unified suggested price to list our parts.

The biggest positive change I’ve seen in the in-

dustry since 2002 is technology. As a sales guy, our orders were all printed on paper and given to the yard guys to remove. Now they are done electronical- ly over smart phones and tablets. For hard parts we used to manually flip through those old Hollander interchange books and compare part numbers and images. Now these diagrams populate 3D with the click of a mouse. The same philosophy applies in other aspects; all our cars are imaged, and specific part types have an image of that part flagged directly to it. When I look back to 2005, I see that these addi- tions have taken us so far.

My goal as Regional Director is to influence the ARA to adopt a policy where all its members have to be environmentally certified. It has worked re- ally well in Canada, and I think it only has larger potential in the U.S. For our respective boards go

to the OEMs or government agencies and say, ‘yes, all our members are independently audited to a higher standard’ really gives the association some clout. Maybe we can be heard more effectively on the

national stage with that stat in our back pocket. One thing I hope the industry does to help it- self is to get a unified suggested price to list our parts. A 2015 Sierra door to be the same price at all recyclers (negotiable, of course) would stop the trend of racing to the bottom on our parts prices. We all compete to pay the most for the car, and we compete to sell the parts for the least. This busi- ness model is not sustainable and a standard listing price would help. There are other possibilities that come from this idea including a healthier markup for our body shop customers, which could increase recycled parts usage in a lot of repairs. How can you get involved in my efforts? Get certi- fied, get audited, and as a group of over 1,000 third party audited members, we will have a much more respected voice with OEMs, government, and the general public.

AUTOMOTIVE RECYCLING • July-August 2018

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