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‘Fax-Only’ Parts Ordering Option will End by September For Shops Using PartsTrader 2.2 PartsTrader held a webinar on Aug. 1 to discuss several changes to the parts ordering application, including the end of the “fax-only” ordering option. In the new 2.2 release, which went live on August 1, PartsTrader has made several changes that will affect users of the electronic parts marketplace developed for State Farm’s Select Service DRP. Lucy Smith, Product Manager at PartsTrader, said that—with this release—the option to place orders through PartsTrader by fax will no longer be available in the Tucson, AZ market effective immediately. The
change was made in preparation for the full state rollout of PartsTrader in Arizona beginning on August 12, according to her statement. The fax option will remain in the other pilot cities of Grand Rapids, Chicago, Birmingham, and Charlotte until the end of August or September 1, Smith said. The fax-only option was originally added to the PartsTrader system so that Select Service facilities could still place orders with their preferred vendors, even if those vendors refused to participate in the PartsTrader program. If a See Fax-Only Ending, Page 13
State Farm & PartsTrader Meet with Industry As Program Rolls Out in the Southwest
See PartsTrader Rollout, Page 47
P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018
Shop and vendor concern and unhappiness about State Farm’s mandated use of PartsTrader was evident at a packed Automotive Service Association (ASA) of Arizona meeting in Phoenix in August, the same week the program was being rolled out in that David Priest market. We feel you’re using your size and intruding into our business through the
shops with PartsTrader,” David Priest, parts director for Brown & Brown Chevrolet in Mesa, AZ, told State Farm’s George Avery at the meeting. “You’re asking me to pay a fee for a program that will probably decrease OEM part usage. How do you perceive that PartsTrader for an OEM dealer is an effective tool?” Dale Sailer Dale Sailer of PartsTrader, who also spoke at the
Change Service Requested
by John Yoswick
VOL. 3 ISSUE 6 SEPTEMBER 2013
AASP/NJ Reacts to PartsTrader’s Ending of Fax-Only Option, Criticizes CIC Leadership The following article comes directly from a post on AASP/NJ’s website
As PartsTrader and State Farm continue to roll out their parts procurement program across the country, the announcement of the removal of the shops’ option to order from any vendor they choose comes as no surprise to the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of New Jersey (AASP/NJ). From day one, AASP/NJ has been one of the country’s biggest opponents of the program. “Are we surprised by this?” AASP/NJ President Jeff McDowell asks. “Hell, no. We have been expecting these kinds of changes from the start. This program is all about control and money and taking both of those things away from the shop owner. What we are surprised about is how quiet the industry has gotten since this was first implemented. Back then, there was widespread outrage, but State Farm
waited it out like we knew they would. Now, with what seems like little resistance from our industry, they are steamrolling through states and changing the rules in their favor as they go. It’s only going to get worse.” According to Collisionweek.com [subscription only], the fax option was originally added to the PartsTrader system so that Select Service facilities could still place orders with their preferred vendors, even if those vendors refused to participate in the PartsTrader program. If a parts vendor chose not to sign up for the online quoting system, PartsTrader would generate a fax order and forward it to that vendor on the shop’s behalf. With that feature no longer available, Select Service shops using the fax option have just two choices: Encourage their preferred suppliers to sign up for (and use) the PartsTrader application, or find a new parts supplier for State Farm repairs. In an See AASP/NJ Fax Only, Page 9
See Correction to July 2013 Article on Felder’s Collision Parts v General Motors et al. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 3
Avery v State Farm is Back in the News, as a RICO Case making the Judge the Issue A sitting Illinois Supreme Court justice, Lloyd A. Karmeier, may have been compelled to testify under oath about allegations that he voted in 2005 to overturn a $1 billion verdict against State Farm because the company secretly funded a multi-million dollar campaign to help him get elected to the state supreme court. The 2004 Illinois Supreme Court race was the most expensive campaign for a single judicial office in U.S. history. Lawyers whose plan to depose Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier became public now say they will do it later or maybe not at all. On Aug. 14, they told U.S. District Judge David Herndon that they would not rush into it if he lifts a temporary stay
on discovery in their fraud and racketeering suit against State Farm. In 1998 in the Avery v. State Farm case, the original plaintiffs won the largest verdict ever against State Farm for requiring the use of “imitation” crash parts in its auto repairs. After years of appeals, the verdict was reversed. On May 29, 2012, three plaintiffs from Avery v. State Farm filed a new class action lawsuit, claiming that the insurance company acted as the hub of an enterprise designed to defraud millions of policyholders out of a $1 billion judgment. Mark Hale, Todd Shadle and Carly Vickers Morse, all of whom live See Legislation Affecting Shops, Page 14
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