by Brian Bachand – CEO of Westover Auto Salvage
Auto Recyclers are all too familiar with the industry’s changing landscape. We have continuously turned yesterday’s challenges into tomorrow’s opportunities. Remaining resilient with market swings, consistently compliant with regulation changes, and resoundingly resourceful when met with the unexpected or unknown. However, today’s uncertainty has spread like a virus, infecting multiple areas in which and how we do business. Here in the United States, where the political climate is in duress while regulatory agencies and the legislative bodies are in a stage of suspension. Markets are vulnerable, the EV shift is on the horizon, yet delayed in progress. And the trajectory of all these auto recycling influences do not look like they are the normal storm to weather. The scale of uncertainty in the industry and in the scopes of our business plans and models is unprecedented compared to the previous unpredictable and unimaginable changes that we have weathered. If we are to continue to control this narrative and foster the future of the auto recycling industry, then urgency is imperative.
The future is now and the present is yesterday’s news. Moving forward standardization, accreditation, and innovation paired with adaptability and the evolution of how we operate and what we offer is to be paramount. At the forefront of this movement is URG, the United Recyclers Group. And as a fellow recycler and URG Member, I urge those not currently members of this organization to join URG. This potential partnership offers benefits, resources and the tools to help in your path to success and relevance. URG is the catalyst for today’s automotive recycler, providing business solutions to transition its members from substantial to successful, from satisfactory to sought out and surviving to sustainable.
We are constantly trying to educate and re-educate the public that we are not junkyards. Junkyard is not how we operate or do business. For some the J word is an origin story and to others it is only a keyword needed in our SEO platforms to get more hits and lookups in searches. Joining URG helps in the fight to show that your business does not wish to be associated with that stigmata. There is nothing wrong with junkyards and there are plenty still in existence but the future of the automotive recycling industry lies here. Meeting the continual shifting demand of the public and our customers. Educating our own on the best practices and plans to hit these marks in every facet of our business. How we do business, how we present ourselves to the public, and how society perceives us are defining measures that gauge the quality of the Auto Recycler. Whether you have less than ten employees or up to a hundred or more. Big operation or small business, Selling a million or one hundred thousand in parts sales a month, or processing a thousand or thirty thousand vehicles a year, we all do the same thing just differently. Yet our industry is looked at through that same lens regardless that we are all in business for the same reason. Not only can URG help improve your status, but statistically speaking, it can also help to elevate revenue opportunities.
URG can help you streamline your business for maximum efficiency and increased profits. This is not just a trademark on its website, it is indeed a fact if you choose to buy into and implement what the organization is here to offer. The meaning of membership alone carries the weight of your commitment to excellence. A badge that showcases to all who look at your company, that you are a part of a group of recyclers dedicated to customer satisfaction, quality assurance and professionalism through transcendence within the recycling world. Take its training modules alone, free to members but absolute game changers when it comes to practicing what you preach. Videos of convention seminars and training session panels elaborate on real life recycler experiences with best and worst practices and their correlating scenarios. These tutorials empower the viewer to reach out and do better. Whether learning more on how to invest in your company’s culture while increasing profits or implementing sales coaching tactics of selling is a game. Even onto contacting one of these member yards or consultants to run your predicaments by. These tools for success are proven industry advantages that created some of the most profitable and proven recyclers to date.
How you want your business to run and the scope of the daily operations decisions lie with you but with the help of URG, you can look at your own processes through a different lens. URG provides access to powerful software and unique tools that only members can access. Through networking opportunities you can partner with other members to tier your parts. This is a tool that is unmatched anywhere else. Create relationships and become trade partners with some of the industry’s best. Through this platform you can choose to sell and buy parts from selected yards that are a part of this program. Meaning you can list their parts if you so choose or you can have them on standby to buy from when you do not have the part you need to sell. This program encourages commerce amongst its members but it also raises the bar for the quality of parts your business is buying and selling. Tier the recyclers to your discretion, whether it be ones closest in proximity or that you want to be able to broker the most from. This networking opportunity in itself may be worth the membership for you but if not take a look at their E-Commerce Solutions that can better boost your business.
E-Commerce is thriving and in the age of Amazon it is a necessary nuance that many recyclers invest in or are moving in that direction. Finding different ways to sell your parts and creating new revenue streams is a primary benefit URG can offer you. Allow for your parts to be pinged by Parts Trader and other search engines alike to sell more to the collision side. Or have you tailored your operations to be more liquid, and with less risk aversion? Then cores are the way to go. URG provides Core Pricing and Tiering to its members along with introductions to these buyers through its E-Commerce Network. This is a great opportunity to realize your buying and selling power potential. Seeing what these buyers will pay for a core allows you the knowledge of what you can spend on a vehicle or when to get back the core if you are not already in the habit. Being on this platform can influence your selling model to incorporate a more profitable core program. Another added benefit of a proven profitable prospect.
The auto recycling business for me is one defined by quality parts & service and customer satisfaction. It is about building relationships and taking care of those whom you serve. The kind of experience I hope my business can give our customers on our best day, is the type of experience I get with URG. I feel and am treated like I am important and my business, debacles and endeavors matter just as much to me as it does to them. This is an organization that goes above and beyond to taking immense care of each of its members while remaining focused on the bigger picture. A picture that currently is addressing the feelings of uncertainty within the auto recycling industry. Tomorrow may be unknown yet through leadership, standardization and innovation, URG is making moves to actively secure the validity and potential prosperity of the auto recycler’s future. I strongly urge those not members of URG to join up, and even more important, I urge current membership to explore, advocate for and exercise all the invaluable tools, resources and benefits URG has to offer.
