CrossCheck Blog

The term “shoot the moon” means to attempt the near-impossible or to attain great heights per UrbanDictionary.com. Ironically, the daring 1969 Apollo 11 lunar landing qualifies as an ideal example and according to some experts, the promise of producing autonomous cars in the immediate future is not far behind. The top automakers from around the globe are individually committed to self-driving cars, and so is a U.S. advocacy group for the legally blind that longs for the day when its beneficiaries can attain self-determination or autonomy behind the wheel. Despite the widespread interest, pushback to self-driving cars became international news in March 2018 after they were directly involved in two fatal accidents within five days of each other.

“Anyone can make a pan gravy, but can anyone replace their power steering pump?” said one chef in the article, “What I Wish I’d Known Before Starting My Food Truck.” He and his peers provide insight into the efforts needed to obtain the necessary permits, prep the food, maintain the trucks, and promote the businesses. In another part of cyberspace, RoamingHunger.com outlined the three most common price points of food trucks:

If you hear yourself saying, “we’re an auto parts store, not a savings and loan,” more often than you like, then perhaps you’ll stick around long enough to discover five tools to increase sales. It’s no wonder you feel that way given the cost of card-terminal certifications in relation to time and money. Then there’s the problem with independent garages taking an extra 60 days to pay their monthly balances or even bouncing those checks. You’re in the business of moving auto parts to legitimate wholesale and retail customers, and you want to keep it that way.

According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), construction companies and housing currently contribute 15 – 18 percent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Those statistics and additional housing data are available via the organization’s website, including information about membership, blogs and publications, construction codes, educational opportunities and political advocacy. The NAHB is a federation of more than 700 state and local associations representing more than 140,000 members. Approximately 33 percent are construction companies in home building and remodeling while the remainder “work in closely related specialties such as sales and marketing, housing finance, and manufacturing and supplying building materials.” Furthermore, NAHB members are responsible for constructing about 80 percent of the new single-family and multifamily homes in the United States each year.

National Small Business Week (NSBW) was launched in 1963 to recognize “small business owners and the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs.” Those efforts continue today under the auspices of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) which claims that (1) “more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business;” and (2) “small businesses create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.” This year’s festivities were celebrated Friday, April 29 to Saturday, May 5 in all American states and territories. Events included the NSBW Hackathon, National Awards Ceremonies, NSBW Bus Tour, NSBW Twitter Chat, and a virtual conference.

Coverings ’18 takes place May 8 – 11 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, offering tile and stone dealers and installers ample opportunity to participate in free educational sessions, a tradeshow, meetings, live product and installation demonstrations, workshops and networking events. Organizers project 26,000 attendees and 1,100 exhibitors who are mostly represented by architects, builders, remodelers, contractors, designers, distributors and fabricators.

In or about the year 2030, a fully autonomous car will drive itself to a local auto body shop for repairs within minutes of being involved in a minor fender bender. Furthermore, the arrival of the vehicle will be anticipated because its onboard diagnostic (OBD) system and the shop’s computers belong to the same national network. Next, one or more human passengers will make their way into the repair shop office to touch bases with management, and if necessary, finalize repair authorizations or provide additional information. Thus begins a scenario that will be played out in shops across the country, but what happens in the preceding 10 years will determine if those shops will survive “the cut” of an extremely dynamic marketplace. We offer the key moving parts followed by evidence supporting cause for optimism in this important segment of the auto aftermarket vertical.

Coverings ’18, a monolithic conference for tile and stone dealers and installers, takes place May 8 – 11 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Other attendees and exhibitors include architects, builders, remodelers, contractors, designers, distributors and fabricators. Coverings 2018 offers educational sessions, a tradeshow, meetings, live product and installation demonstrations, workshops and networking events. Unlike other conferences, the tradeshow and all educational sessions at Coverings ’18 are free.

The PAYMENTS 2018 conference takes place April 29 to May 2 at the San Diego Convention Center, featuring educational workshops, meetings, keynote sessions and a variety of networking events for payments professionals. Produced by The Electronic Payments Association (NACHA), this year’s event is focused on faster payments and will be attended by payments professionals from all macro environments including mobile, retail and technology as well as payment processors such as CrossCheck.

While the new and used car sales departments stay focused on “getting tail lights across the curb,” the possibility of increasing parts sales at auto dealerships does not go unnoticed by 21st-century franchise administrators who look to generate more revenue from every channel. Part one of this series reviewed the ways that dealer management systems (DMS) can be used to increase parts sales with the strategic application of pricing, customer relationship managers (CRM), and key performance indicators (KPIs).