Yudu - November 2015

President’s I

ARA Officers

Comments By Mike Swift, ARA President

Today is the Day to Get Involved!

want all members and non-members to know that the Automotive Recyclers Association and its staff and affiliate members and their staff are working every day to make this industry, yours and my industry, BETTER. We have just returned from a great ARA Convention in Charlotte and I was honored to be sworn in as the 72nd President of this Association, going strong since 1943. I am also proud that I am the third person from Iowa to be an ARA President. I am proud of what we have accomplished through the years – all of us that have given time and given back to our Industry. This year through the Iowa Auto Recyclers (IAR), we awarded a lifetime achievement award to John

C. Vander Haag Sr. He is the founder of IAR and the Past President of both the IAR and the ARA. As to being a member of the ARA, he said it had one of the largest impacts on his business. ARA is the voice. It is your voice. Help ARA help you. Get involved today. Do you realize the impact of what others can do to our industry, even to the point where none of our parts would have any value? This is why we need your help to get the message out now to unite. We need to call our colleagues and tell them to share our perspective with our legislative rep- resentatives, to inform them that auto recyclers are valuable in helping consumers save money on auto repairs, save the environment, and are the responsible parties in the careful disposal of end-of- life vehicles. Without us, where would those cars go?

Several years ago at the ARA Convention in Phoenix, JD Hayworth, an Arizona congressman from 1995 to 2007, was our keynote speaker. He referred to the elected officials in our respective areas and said, “If YOU don’t tell these people what you do, then SOMEONE ELSE will tell them and you might not like what they say.”

I hear strongly from auto recyclers that our industry needs help now! It would be nice to go to work, sell parts, and then go home to enjoy the evening, but that doesn’t happen in our family busi- ness. Besides selling quality recycled parts, we deal with regulators of all kinds such as OSHA, DNR, DOT, navigate healthcare mandates, and work through low scrap prices, limited capital from the banks, employee issues, Interchange, OEM numbers, recalls, price matching, consolidation, and the list goes on. The good news is that ARA is working on all of these issues on your behalf. As of this writing, recall data and build sheet data are the two most important things ARA is engaged in. Immediate access to this critical data is needed so recalled parts can be removed from our inven- tories. Yard Management Systems need this data so that if a part is recalled today, our system will tell us not to sell it tomorrow. A federal statute says we can’t sell a part we know is recalled, yet the process to learn what is on that list on Safercar.gov is cumbersome. Auto recyclers do not want to sell recalled parts. We want to be a part of the solution, but we need an easier system. The other part of OEM part data is the OEM number itself. At our facility, my brother and I still inventory vehicles. It is crazy what we have to figure out when we inventory, let’s say for example, an ‘06 150 ECM/590 with 56 different interchange numbers. Same truck Left Mirror, DMR/128, has 6 different choices, FDR/120 LEFT, 9 different choices. Some systems help break it down a little bit, but wouldn’t it be nice to have our customers give us the last 8 fields of the VIN to price a part, like the dealership or the OEM does?

In most calls for parts, I have found we are the second or third call, and that the person calling has more information than we do. They know how much the part is NEW/OEM/LIST and they are calling us to save money. We price a good Green Recycled Part, manufactured by the OEM, and we can sell it for less while we also save the environment by not having to produce another part. We must help consumers understand that we sell the OEM’s originally manufactured part. We often are misrepresented by the automakers. A senator from Kentucky understands our battle. He uses this analogy, “Think of the guy that grows watermelons. He planted them, he cared for them, he has an awesome batch of watermelons. Today is the day he is ready to sell. He sits on his porch and sees people slow down, and then drive off, one right after the other and not stop. He can’t fig- ure out what is going on. He walks down the hill looks up and sees a great bunch of watermelons. He looks off to one side and sees a sign that reads “One of these watermelons contains arsenic.” This one false statement ruined all of his sales, his reputation and future sales.” We have to protect this industry and all professional auto recyclers. Watch for an ARA Social Media Group to start in the coming months, and get involved today!

We need more auto recyclers to offer their guidance. I want to thank all of my family, and my wife Tracy, who made Charlotte memorable for me. I want to thank my family, that helps me out when I am away, and keep things moving along. ARA is YOUR association for all auto recyclers,

Mike Swift

Swift’s Trails End Auto Recycling Des Moines, IA

PRESIDENT Mike Swift

mike@trailsendauto.com

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT RD Hopper

Sonny’s Auto Salvage Jacksonville, AR rd@sasparts.com

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT/TREASURER David Gold

david@standardautowreckers.com SECRETARY

Standard Auto Wreckers Scarborough, ON Canada

jonathan@mmauto.com

Jonathan Morrow M & M Auto Parts, Inc. Stafford, VA

Young’s Auto Center & Salvage/Car Crushers Benson, NC