In one of the biggest meeting turnouts in several years, more than 170 shop owners attended the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers/New Jersey's (AASP/NJ) annual meeting Oct. 11 to learn about State Farm’s PartsTrader parts procurement platform.
Like this article? Sign up to receive our weekly news blasts here.Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) Executive Director Aaron Schulenburg discussed the program based on his research in investigating PartsTrader in trial areas in the United States, in New Zealand and Australia.
“There were a lot of shocked and angry people in that room last night,” AASP/NJ President Jeff McDowell says. “In all of my over 40 years in this industry, I don’t think I’ve seen this type of reaction from both shops and parts providers. It is apparent that this is an issue that will unite, in my opinion, the two most important links in the collision repair chain – the parts supplier and the collision repairer.”
“Aaron and SCRS were right on this travesty from the start,” AASP/NJ Executive Director Charles Bryant said. “And AASP/NJ was right behind them denouncing this program that could cripple our industry. I am so proud of the turnout last night. And I’m even more proud of the response we received after the presentation. We had several parts suppliers stand up and openly state theywould never even consider being a part of PartsTrader, and there was an overwhelming sense of anger from our shop members who are tired of insurance companies trying to cut into more and more of their profits. I don’t think State Farm had any idea of how this issue would unify the shops and the parts suppliers. Every day, we are making strides to stop this program. Last night was a major, major step.”
For more information on AASP/NJ, visit www.aaspnj.org.
For more information on SCRS, visit www.scrs.com.
