On June 6, 2012, the Automotive Service Association of Arizona (ASA AZ) hosted a town hall meeting at the Hilton Airport Hotel in Phoenix to discuss the controversial PartsTrader program, which is currently being piloted by approximately 125 State Farm Select Service shops in four test markets around the country. In attendance were 109 representatives of collision repair shops, dealership parts departments, recyclers and industry suppliers from all over Arizona. The Arizona Attorney General’s office and the Department of Insurance were invited to attend but both declined.
David Priest, parts director for Brown & Brown Chevrolet in Mesa, Ariz., talked about his company’s experience with PartsTrader. Brown & Brown is the largest General Motors parts distributor in the southwest and sells a large quantity of parts in the Tucson market, one of the areas State Farm chose to pilot the program.
"We were not able to find any benefit that PartsTrader provided to either our parts department or the shops that we do business with every day," Priest told the crowd. Brown & Brown dropped the program several weeks ago due to what they said were inefficiencies it created in both their business and their collision repair customers’ businesses.
After Priest finished taking questions from attendees, everybody was invited to offer their opinion on the effect PartsTrader might have on both the collision and parts industries. According to ASA AZ, the majority of those who spoke stated their belief that insurers should not be involved in any way with the parts purchasing process, and allowing this would be bad for both collision repair shops and parts vendors. ASA AZ reported that a common sentiment shared was that relationships and trust between vendors and repairers would not exist under this program.
Another speaker was David Wattel, a founding member of the law firm
Wattel & York. Wattel briefly spoke on his support of consumer
rights.
ASA AZ also reported that nobody seemed to be able to find any benefits for the consumer or repairer, only for State Farm and PartsTrader. Some expressed their belief that if PartsTrader is implemented, it would only be a matter of time before other aspects of repair, such as paint material purchasing, would also be affected.
Luz Rubio, executive director of ASA AZ, invited everyone to submit questions and comments, which were compiled and sent to Denise Caspersen, manager of ASA’s national collision division.
"It was great to see so many attend," said Rubio. "There were a lot of questions and comments throughout the evening. And the feedback I’ve received about the meeting itself, from those in attendance, has all been positive."
ASA AZ will be issuing a statement on behalf of its membership in the near future stating the position it will take on PartsTrade.
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