ISSUE SECOND#12QUARTER 2022
G R E A T C U S T O M E R S A T I S F A C T I O N 60+ Team Members all with 1 Common Goal: 9 0 1 6 B l u e b o n n e t B o u l e v a r d , B a t o n R o u g e , L A 7 0 8 1 0 P h o n e ( 2 2 5 ) 7 6 9 - 9 9 2 3 | T o l l F r e e ( 8 0 0 ) 2 7 2 - 8 0 0 0 w w w . t h e L D S g r o u p . c o m LDS F&I Income Development TeamLDS F&I Income Development Team 2 www.lada.org
3www.lada.org CONTENTS CONNECT WITH US INDEX CHECKLADA.ORGITOUT ONLINE TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF YOUR LADA MEMBERSHIP 04 Message from the President 06 NADA State Director Address 10 Legal Corner 14 LADA Annual Convention 16 Membership Corner 16 2022 Events Calendar 18 Econominc Impact 19 2022 Regional Meetings 22 Staff 22 Advertiser Index 10 16 NADA STATE DIRECTOR ADDRESS LEGAL UPDATE: UPCOMING APR CHANGES LADA MESSAGEPRESIDENT’S 04 LADA CONVENTIONANNUALUPDATE 14 06
Will H. Green LADA LADA-SIFPresident/CEOFundAdministrator
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LADA has been at the center of these discussions because we know the only way to for this transition to succeed will be through America’s more than 16,000 franchised local automobile dealers. Along with the other new-car dealerships across the country, Louisiana dealers are embracing this challenge and are collectively spending hundreds of millions of dollars preparing for the shift to electric vehicles. Franchised dealers will be vital in addressing two of the biggest concerns consumers have in this transition: the cost of the vehicle and range anxiety. Dealers are responding to these valid concerns by building charging stations, educating employees, and in addition to that, building and updating their service centers. Until states get their infrastructure up and running, a lot of the charging stations in rural areas will likely be found at the dealership. We also know when dealers compete, it drives down the price of the vehicle. If a customer doesn’t like the price of the vehicle at one place, he or she can shop around until a price fits their budget. Franchise dealer competition is a win for the customer and their wallets. We have a ways to go before we complete this electric car transition, but LADA will continue to stay abreast with all leading industry experts in this and all matters related to our industry. We will always strive to carry out the objects and purposes of the association, including promoting the enactment of all such legislation that will benefit the automotive trade and the public and to oppose any discriminatory legislation relating to the trade.
Message from the President DEALERS ARE VITAL TO EV TRANSITION
Most, if not all, of the manufacturers have stated that within the next 20 years, they are committed to a goal of going all electric. Of course, this is a lofty goal, and I, as do so many others, wonder how do we get there? I am not alone in my thoughts as many legislative bodies, including Louisiana’s, have begun discussing what this transition will look like. Louisiana lawmakers have already filed bills laying the groundwork and settling the score of who owns the electricity and charging stations and what kind of tax incentives these vehicles may require. Additionally, the legislature will need to look at how our state would replace the gas tax to build the infrastructure to support the EV transition. There is legislation to set a hybrid/EV road use fee and to study other possible fees.
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MARK
HEBERT NADA STATE DIRECTOR
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The National Automobile Dealers Association and its dealers reached major milestones in what has been one of the most complex times in our industry’s history. Franchised dealers from around the nation are standing strong in the face of a global pandemic, volatile market conditions, the evolution of EV technology, and an onslaught of challenges coming out of our nation’s capital. NADA has been proudly holding the front lines, and we couldn’t do it without the support and engagement of tireless dealer bodies like the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association. As we look toward the year ahead, we must continue to gain ground on our most critical issues of 2022. NADA is helping dealers navigate a landscape filled with new federal mandates as we continue to move through the year. The amended Federal Trade Commission’s Safeguards Rule contains complicated new technical, procedural, and security requirements that dealers must undertake this year. NADA is developing comprehensive compliance guidance which we will publish in the coming months. Once published, I urge you to carefully review this information and reach out to your technology vendors to ensure you’re in Dealercompliance.advocacy and participation is more important than ever. We need your voice, your phone calls and your emails to your elected officials throughout the course of the year. NADA is working to improve a new EV incentive program as part of the massive federal spending bill— because dealers know that these programs must work in the showroom and at the point of sale. As always, we’ll be fighting against harmful tax increases that hurt the nation’s auto and truck dealerships. We encourage you to engage with everyone, especially your members of Congress because these are battles we must win together. Finally, when it comes to the EV debate, make no mistake that dealers are part of the solution!
Despite what critics have said, franchised dealers are embracing the electric vehicle wave and we’re ALL IN. We are ready and eager to sell customers the vehicles they want. NADA has staunchly fought the conflation of electric vehicles and direct sales. Our goal is to present a solution to the government for its ambitions for an electric future, especially as these vehicles go beyond luxury and into the mainstream. NADA will continue to examine the internal and external challenges along the path to electrification, the motivations for prospective EV buyers, and how dealerships can best prepare for future EV sales with a data-driven approach.
LADA: We’ve become stronger and tougher from our experiences. No one knows this better than Louisiana’s dealership families who have worked so hard to re-build following Hurricane Ida. NADA is proud to support critical relief efforts through the NADA Foundation, and we stand in solidarity with all those affected by natural disasters.
7www.lada.org 2022 NADA State Director Address Dealers are process-oriented and we’ve always adapted our businesses through the winds of change. We’ve capitalized on a virtual world and have made the car-buying experience convenient and accessible for customers. Most of all, we’ve done a tremendous job protecting the health and safety of our employees, customers, and families. NADA has provided a constant stream of guidance and educational materials that have helped guide dealers since the pandemic began. I urge you to utilize NADA’s resources and visit our website often. Having been an auto dealer since 1997, I can say this is truly a unique moment in our history. But one thing hasn’t changed: Our franchise system is still the most efficient and customer-friendly way to deliver automobiles to customers nationwide. There is more to come in 2022 and NADA will be here for dealers through it all. Fellow dealers, it’s my pleasure to serve you this year and I look forward to our work together!
8 www.lada.org MEDICAL With BlueCare, you can have 24/7 online doctor visits • Effective for non-emergency health issues like sinus infections, cold, cough, bladder infections, pink eye and more • Less expensive than ER or urgent care • Available on any device with internet and a camera BEHAVIORAL HEALTH You can also schedule BlueCare online appointments with psychology or psychiatry providers. SIGN UP AND TRY BLUECARE TODAY! www.BlueCareLA.com 01MK7324 04/20 Powered by American Well. American Well is a vendor that provides the BlueCare telehealth platform for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and its subsidiaries. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Get care from anywhere! Medical and behavioral health visits available!
9www.lada.org SELF-INSURERS’ TRUST FUND 40 Years and Still Going Strong! BLAST FROM THE PAST! (1998) “The average price of a new car sold in the United States, including imports, was $9,370 in 1982, according to the National Association of Automobile Dealers. ” Many changes including the price of a new car have occurred since the establishment of the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association Self Insurers’ Trust Fund (LADA-SIF) 40 years ago. The LADA SIF continues to grow with the hard work and dedication of the entire team, which includes LADA-SIF Members, the Board of Trustees, Administrator, Will Green and Risk Management Services, LLC. This winning team allows the LADA SIF to continue to offer the member dealers a sound and cost-effective solution for their workers’ compensation coverage. Have questions or want more information about the LADA-SIF that was created by Dealers for Dealers, please contact Jean Robért with Risk Management Services, LLC at 1-800-351-7475 or by email (JRobert@RMSLA.com).
Why is it important to timely object in certain cases?
The following are but a few reasons:
• When a modification removes census tracts that are experiencing growth in your territory, and assigns them to a neighboring dealer, you will be foreclosed from relocating your dealership into that growth area in the future, and your ability to conduct certain targeted advertising in the area or display vehicles there will be impaired.
Dealers are bombarded with endless communications from representatives of numerous divisions of their manufacturers, including emails; bulletins; weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports; program updates and offers; warranty issues; recalls; factory promotions; inventory allocations, to name just a few. Some of the information is benign, but some communications contain substantive information that trigger specific contractual or statutory deadlines within which to respond. Failure to act within the deadline can cost your dealership money and lost opportunities. For example, all manufacturers are currently completing their analyses of population/ demographic data gathered by the 2020 U.S. Census. Their analysts are busy altering existing areas of responsibility to reflect shifts in the population in certain census tracts. A modification of one dealer’s area of responsibility will necessarily alter adjacent territories, and so on. Some of the changes will be insignificant, while other proposed modifications could cause unfavorable consequences. Be on the lookout for your notice and compare your current assignment of census tracts to the ones listed in the Whennotice. a manufacturer plans to modify a dealer’s area of responsibility, it must notify both the affected dealer(s) and the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission (“LMVC”) in writing sixty (60) days prior to the change. If the dealer objects to the modification, he or she must do so by filing a protest with the LMVC before the 60 days expires.
UPCOMING NOTICES ON APR CHANGES
• Removal of certain census tracts from your area of responsibility could take away your right to protest the addition of a new point or relocation of a competing dealer into the nearby, removed census tracts in the future.
• When a modification will increase your territory to include areas from which you have not historically drawn customers, it can also cause problems. Regardless of actual distance, other dealerships may be more convenient to these residents than your facility. This typically happens when another dealer is more easily accessible by a direct highway, when there is a physical barrier that makes access to your dealership inconvenient, or when established traffic patterns lead these customers away from your location for work, entertainment, or shopping.
The chances of increased “Pump-In” registrations will increase, and certain manufacturers perceive these “lost” registrations as evidence of the assigned dealer’s underperformance.
10 www.lada.org Legal Corner MONITORING COMMUNICATIONS:
Finally,warranted.manufacturers set internal hard deadlines for a myriad of operations. For example, dealers are given a specific time within which to file warranty reimbursement claims, object to the findings of an incentive program or warranty audit, to qualify for various incentive programs, to participate in factory promotional activities, or to compete for certain inventory allocations. A great deal of money can be gained or lost depending on whether a dealer pays timely attention to the deadlines set by the factory.
Legal Corner
The LMVC takes special notice precautions when the manufacturer has approved a point that will enter or encroach upon your territory. When the LMVC receives an application for a license that seeks to add a new point in a same line make dealer’s existing area of responsibility, or seeks to relocate an existing point into this area or within 5 miles of the existing same line make dealer’s location, regardless of the territory, it must notify the affected dealer(s) of the application. Affected dealers have only 15 days after receiving the LMVC’s notice to file a protest about the planned encroachment. Failure to do so amounts to a tacit approval of the modification and the addition of a competing dealer in or near your territory.
The LMVC also sends your dealership many other notices that require timely responses, including licensing renewal notices, citations concerning possible violations of the various rules and regulations promulgated by the LMVC, consumer complaints, and notices for hearings. Each has a hard deadline by which you must respond. For example, if you have been notified of a hearing concerning a possible violation or on a complaint made against your dealership, you have only 10 days to answer the allegations made therein. It is important to comply with the LMVC’s rules, as it has the authority to assess fines and penalties to noncompliant licensees, and in extreme cases, it can even suspend or revoke your dealer’s license when
Jeanne ComeauxPartner Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, LLP
To manage pending deadlines and curtail lost opportunities and profits, you may consider assigning one trusted and diligent employee to be the “gatekeeper” of all communications with your manufacturer(s) and the LMVC. Ask that they include the gatekeeper on all communications with your dealership. That person should promptly calendar all deadlines and reminders of them, and immediately notify management and the appropriate personnel. Each recipient of the gatekeeper’s notices should reply to acknowledge receipt of the information. Finally, you all have conversations with your manufacturers’ local, zone, and/or regional representatives, during which they frequently make promising representations or approve of certain courses of action. They, however, are reluctant to put any of these communications in writing. In those cases, it would be prudent for you, or whoever had the conversation, to confirm the substance of the communication in a follow-up email to the representative. Although your written recap of the conversation is not a binding agreement, it is evidence of a contemporaneous understanding of the representations made by factory personnel. Pay attention. Do not let inadvertence cost your dealership money or lost opportunities, or cause you to forfeit your legal right to protect what you have built.
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r i a n B e n s t o c k , Pa r a g o n H o n d a N o t I n t o G o l f L u n c h e o n G o l f T o u r n a m e n t 1 : 0 0 P M S h o t g u n S t a r t D a y a t t h e B a y K i d s ' N i g h t O u t C h a i r m a n o f t h e B o a r d C o c k t a i l R e c e p t i o n C h a i r m a n o f t h e B o a r d & D e a l e r o f t h e Y e a r B a n q u e t F a r e w e l l B r e a k f a s t A G E N D A T H E A G E N D A I S S U B J E C T T O C H A N G E ; U P D A T E D A S O F 5 / 2 7 / 2 2 3 : 0 0 - 6 : 0 0 P M 4 : 3 0 - 6 : 0 0 P M 6 : 3 0 - 8 : 3 0 P M 8 : 0 0 - 9 : 0 0 A M 9 : 0 0 - 1 0 : 0 0 A M 1 1 : 3 0 A M - 1 : 0 0 P M 1 : 0 0 - 2 : 3 0 P M 6 : 3 0 - 9 : 3 0 P M 8 : 0 0 - 9 : 0 0 A M 9 : 0 0 - 1 0 : 0 0 A M 1 0 : 0 0 - 1 1 : 0 0 A M 1 2 : 0 0 - 2 : 0 0 P M 1 2 : 3 0 P M 1 0 : 0 0 A M 6 : 0 0 - 1 0 : 0 0 P M 6 : 0 0 P M 7 : 0 0 P M 7 : 0 0 - 1 0 : 0 0 A M W E D N E S D A Y , J U N E 2 2 T H U R S D A Y , J U N E 2 3 F R I D A Y , J U N E 2 4 S A T U R D A Y , J U N E 2 5 S U N D A Y , J U N E 2 6 LADA 83RD ANNUAL CONVENTION JUNE 22-26, 2022| THE GRAND HOTEL GOLF RESORT & SPA 14 www.lada.org
R e g i s t r a t i o n L A D A B o a r d o f D i r e c t o r s M e e t i n g W e l c o m e P a r t y R e c e p t i o n B r e a k f a s t O p e n i n g S e s s i o n S e n a t e P r e s i d e n t P a g e C o r t e z S p e a k e r o f t h e H o u s e C l a y S c h e x n a y d e r M a r k S t r a n d , C o x A u t o m o t i v e N e x t G e n L u n c h e o n L i o n e l R a i n e y , L R 3 C o n s u l t i n g a n d P u b l i c R e l a t i o n s L A D A S I F T r u s t e e s M e e t i n g M i x & M i n g l e H o s t e d B r e a k f a s t A n n u a l M e e t i n g o f t h e M e m b e r s h i p A n n u a l M e e t i n g S p e a k e r B
BRIAN BENSTOCK Friday Annual Meeting
SEN. PAGE CORTEZ Thursday Opening Session
LR3 Consulting
LIONEL RAINEY, III Thursday NextGen Luncheon
Paragon Cars LIONEL RAINEY, III founded LR3 Consulting and Public Relations in 2013, following his service with the U.S. Coast Guard as a Tactical Law Enforcement Officer and Search and Rescue Team Member. In his role as a policy and communications consultant, Lionel has worked with dozens of high-ranking elected officials and executives and guided United States Senators, statewide leadership, and the President of the United States through crisis situations.
MARK STRAND is Director of Economic Industry Insights for Cox Automotive, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises. In his role with Economic Industry Insights/Research & Market Intelligence, Mark is responsible for tracking market trends that drive the shifts in the automotive industry and analyzing such trends to produce industry forecasts.
President of the Louisiana State Senate
15www.lada.org CONVENTION SPEAKERS
SENATOR PAGE CORTEZ was unanimously elected President of the Louisiana Senate in January of 2020. He has represented Senate District 23 in the Louisiana Legislature since 2012. President Cortez is co-owner and operator of La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries and Sofas & Chairs in Lafayette, La. Prior to entering the business world, he was a teacher and coach for several years.
REPRESENTATIVE CLAY SCHEXNAYDER, the 69th Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives, was first elected to the body in 2011 to serve District 81. Speaker Schexnayder is a graduate of the Allen Institute of Atlanta where he was certified in Automotive Service Excellence. He began his career as a race car driver and spent nearly a decade of work with Firestone.
REP. CLAY SCHEXNAYDER Thursday Opening Session
Speaker of the House of Representatives
MARK STRAND Thursday Opening Session
Cox Automotive BRIAN BENSTOCK is the General Manager and Vice President of the #1 Certified Honda and Acura dealer in the world, Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura. Benstock is on a mission to transform the nature of the automotive industry. Since his career began in 1982, he’s held every position in the dealership from sales consultant, to finance manager, general sales manager, and finally a partner within the organization.
16 www.lada.org Membership Corner THANKS FOR RENEWING! NOW, TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF YOUR LADA MEMBERSHIP Are you taking full advantage of your LADA membership? We offer a wide array of services to help carry out our mission of promoting the automotive trade and enhance the operations of our member dealers. From access to our on-retainer labor & legal counsel to staying connected with your industry peers to equipping your staff with our Accelerate Educational Webinar Series, LADA is here to be an extension of your dealership or company and help you grow and succeed.
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19www.lada.org LADA Events: 2022 Regional Meetings
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22 www.lada.org INDEXADVERTISER 8 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana 24 Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, L.L.P. 20 BTR Air Charter 12 Cox Automotive 05 Dealertrack Registration & Title 21 Fisher & Phillips 07 Hannis T. Bourgeois, L.L.P. 18 HUB International 23 KPA 02 Louisiana Dealer Services 09 Risk Management Services Will H. Green President wgreen@lada.org Katherine Carver Director of Events & Communications kcarver@lada.org Krystal Hudson Meador Executive Assistant & Membership Director khudson@lada.org Fermin Rodriguez Accountant frodriguez@lada.org 7526 PICARDY AVENUE BATON ROUGE, LA 70808 PHONE: (225) 769-5500 | FAX (225) 769-2085 EMAIL:WWW.LADA.ORGLADA@LADA.ORG LADA STAFF
