For this month’s member highlight Amanda, URG Director of Member & Vendor Relations, had the chance to catch up with one of URG’s longtime members, Greg Daurio of Daurio Auto Truck out of Pueblo, CO.
“In 1957, my grandfather was in the service station industry, and had a Texaco gas station. Ran that for probably about a year and then he went and he bought a tow truck. Shortly after he had the truck, Texaco came in for a franchise site visit and they told him that he wasn’t allowed to advertise for any other business, and he needed to either put John A. Dario towing in a different spot or put Texaco on the side of the tow truck.” Greg said. “So, he very politely told them they had about 48 hours to vacate their signage off of his property and he closed the service station down, purchased a quarter acre of land where we’re currently at today at 3701 East 8th Street here in Pueblo, and started towing cars.”
Greg continues, “He had contracts with the state and the city and the county and started to acquire a lot of vehicles, and then slowly decided to start selling parts off of these vehicles. It was just John A. Dario Auto when we first started, and one of the guys that was a competitor (here used to be about 13 salvage yards down here where we’re at), he came over to him one day, he saw a guy offloading a couple of trucks and he told my grandfather not to buy pickups. And he said he’d never make any money off him. Well, at that point there, he realized that by looking at that guy’s property, it was full of pickups and he didn’t want any competition. So, Grandpa went out and bought every truck he could get his hands on and added John A. Dario Auto and Truck, which then has morphed into Dario Auto Truck today.
My dad and uncle started, my dad started when he was in, I think like sixth or seventh grade, coming to work out here after school and went to college for a while and then things got busy here at the yard and just came to work full-time with his dad. My uncle, Mike, soon followed and he and my dad ran all the day-to-day operations for probably close to 30, 35 years. Then I started working out here full-time, as soon as I had a driver’s license, in the summertime and then prior to that you know I was out here pretty much every waking moment as a kid.
In 2013, I graduated from Colorado State University and decided at that point that I was going to come on board full-time with the business and have been basically taking care of all day-to-day operations since 2013. My dad and uncle are still here, they’re still around. My dad just finished his tenure as area president last year and he’s now taken a pretty big step back from the business. It was a good segue for him being involved with the EC to, step back more, but now he’s just trying to get to enjoy life a little bit more.”
We asked him about how he runs the day to day of the yard. “Running a salvage yard, is unlike anything else. There’s a million different ways to do it, and none of them are necessarily incorrect. Everybody’s kind of got their own unique way of operating, and they find their niche, and they run with it. I love it. So, I’ve worked in pretty much every position in the yard.”
When asked about hiring and retaining employees at the yard, Greg had some great feedback. “We are very fortunate that we have a very solid core crew here. Several people, one gentleman’s been with the family business longer than I’ve even been alive, he just celebrated his 41st year with us this year. So, wow, pretty, pretty impressive. And so, you know, when it comes to hiring staff, especially in today’s realm, we do struggle, obviously, in certain areas, as far as you know, your teardown techs, or your processors or delivery drivers seem to be the highest turnover areas in this business. I always encourage people, obviously, if available, if a position’s up and somebody shows interest from within the company, and you can promote within, to definitely extend those opportunities out. Obviously, since COVID and basically people were getting paid to sit at home and do nothing. It’s created a very different workforce, compared to what we had five years ago. We work closely with some of the local tech schools to see if they’ve got a good connection there to where it seems like we get a lot of good guys that have maybe just moved into town, have auto mechanic backgrounds. Hiring a Teardown Tech, it’s a perfect mechanic job because they only have to take it apart. They never have to put it back together. Mechanic’s dream, right? Yeah, exactly. The lost bolt is no longer a problem. I think the utilization of Facebook advertising on social media that you’ve got open positions if they’ve got somebody that you know is looking for a new job. Do you have a fit for that person? And if that employee vouches for that person and you bring them in, you get a good one every now and again.”
“JC Cahill and I were talking about some of the struggles that we recently have encountered in our processing side of things with turnover. He said, ‘take a $100 bill and staple it to the wall. And whoever brings in the guy that you hire next
gets the 100 bucks, and if the guy lasts for six months, he gets another 100 on top of that.’ Getting creative with it, I think is the best opportunity. Invest in your employees and knowing that they have an open door. This isn’t just a place that they’re coming in for a paycheck every day, right? This is where they’re spending a large majority of their life. And letting them know that, hey, when they’re going through stuff, we’re here for you, too.”
Amanda also asked about challenges they have seen at the yard. “We got a no-knock visit from our state health department, Colorado Department of Health and Environment, and as well, they brought some really nice people with them from the EPA. The ARA certification program and how URG is partnering up to create a gold standard. By us starting that process, five years ago, we were doing a lot of things right. We were doing certain things but not documenting them. And regulators, all they care about is documentation!”
“If you’re not documenting it, then they’re still going to come down on you. Five years ago, when we signed up with Liz from Vet Environmental, she came out, did our initial audit, and she is the one that brought that to our attention. I was sitting there looking at all of this documentation and records that I needed to keep, and I just thought to myself how
can we make this much more accessible and less of a pain in the neck to keep track of. So, we developed an in-house software here called Dismantle Pro which we are now reselling to other recyclers. What that has done is that’s allowed us to basically customize one, our dismantling process for our team. So it’s all laid out for them.”
“The certification program makes you go through your business and look at it with a fine-tooth comb. Things that you walk by every day or areas that you need to revisit more often that you may look over, it just brings it to the forefront, and it makes your operation better, it provides a better workplace for your staff, and it just brings you up to a higher standard as far as an operator goes. We’re all trying to get our name out there as automotive recyclers that have OEM parts that they can utilize.”
Amanda also discussed with Greg how important industry conferences are. “The URG Conference is one of the most engaging experiences. The training sessions that are there, the vendors that are there, and just the camaraderie of all the auto recyclers is amazing. One of the bigger pieces is the networking of recyclers. Some of my closest friends in this industry, I would not know if I hadn’t started attending these conferences. And just the information that you learn in the short time that you’re there.“
“I would make one recommendation to somebody if you’ve never been, or if you have been before and you’ve never done this, just take your list and write down everything that you felt was, you know, very beneficial towards your business and pick one item and circle it and put it up in front of your desk and accomplish it.”
“Make that your goal that you think that this is the most important takeaway that you got from the conference and go get it done. Then when you’re done with that one, go to the next one, go to the next one. And then between now and next April, when you’re going to go back, try to knock your list out. Make those changes within that 12 month time period. Some of them are going to be small changes. Some of them may be a vendor that you met that you want to try their out their product. All the vendors that are there spend a lot of time and money going to these conferences and trying to get their products in front of you and just really trying to teach you. And, you know, yes, they’re selling something, but you’re going to get something in return. Being able to see that ROI is key. Have action items after the conference to where you can see what the tangible benefits are from that conference and make a checklist.”
Be sure to listen to our full interview on U-R-G On the Go Podcast!
