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Auto Aftermarket Challenged by Road Conditions & Driver Behavior

Posted by Tom Lombardo | Mon, Aug 25, 2014 @ 10:00 AM

Auto Aftermarket Tire ShopWhen people experience emergencies on the road it’s usually auto aftermarket managers and owners who end up looking like heroes, and given the myriad forces conspiring to create more emergencies, this won’t change anytime soon.

What may change is the nature of those emergencies and the way that people expect to deal with and pay for them.

Good News for Drivers

In 1967 there were 98.9 million vehicles on the road and 51,559 collision fatalities. In 2012 there were 253 million vehicles – but only 33,561 fatalities. That’s two and a half times as many vehicles but more than a third fewer deaths, a remarkable achievement made possible by brilliant automotive engineering, top notch infrastructure design, and relentless public awareness campaigns. Over that period of time seatbelts became mandatory equipment, and then using seatbelts became mandatory behavior. And nationwide we transitioned from tossing back “one for the road” to arresting drivers with a blood alcohol level they can barely feel, an especially important shift since even now about a third of those fatal accidents involve a drunken driver.

Bad News for Vehicles

But that grand trend has changed in recent years. In 2012 the injury rate per 100 million vehicle miles went up for the first time in over a decade.  And while 86% of people use their seatbelts, that obviously has no impact on what happens to the vehicle.

This does: over 300,000 miles of roads have a roughness rating of 95 or higher, with 110,000 of those miles rating higher than a bone-jarring 170, so simply driving a car today causes more wear and tear than it did when those roads were well-maintained. Given the current state of highway funding, and the fact that the average age of a vehicle on the road is higher than ever before, that situation is only going to get worse. 

Dealing with – or swerving to avoid – adverse road conditions may cause some accidents even for perfectly attuned drivers. But when 71% of young people admit to writing a text message while driving and 78% admit to reading one, and when at any given time one of every twenty drivers is focused on their phone, road hazards take on a whole new meaning. As it is, breaks, transmission and tire problems cause most highway breakdowns, so if highway conditions continue to deteriorate as Congress fails to act deliberately they will probably cause even more emergencies in the years to come.

Distracted Drivers and Crumbling Highways

Auto Aftermarket Tire Repair ShopTo prepare to serve these customers tow truck and tire stores might prepare to receive calls from distressed motorists dumbfounded to discover that their car has no spare tire. Many motorists never ask about it in the first place and most never look for it until they need it, which might be by the side of a broken-down highway in the middle of the night. Or worse, in the middle of the morning commute. Should you receive one of these calls, best to begin by finding out if the stranded motorist can find a re-inflation kit under a back seat and then walk them through how to inject the sealant first; if they can’t find one they probably have run-flat tires, but if you can’t ascertain that for certain – or if you’re worried that there may be more damage to their car given the condition of road they’re stranded on -- you’ll need to go to help them.

These encounters may increase if road conditions continue to deteriorate, and the impact may extend well beyond tires. In fact, repair shops might want to share these road maintenance statistics to help customers understand why their suspension needs unplanned maintenance or why their wheels and steering need to be aligned, while body shops might want to highlight their expertise in repairing damage caused by road debris.

My Car Has A Name, You Know…

No matter what the cause or the situation, when your customer arrives she will be at the tail end of a stressful, difficult and unhappy situation. Respect the fact that more than one in four people name their car, so no matter what you think of it or the extent of repairs required, remember that to your customer that dented, broken, or limping vehicle might be a dear friend with a soul. 

The last thing you want to do is make the situation worse. Since the beginning of the recession Americans have closed over 400 million credit card accounts, and today most people no longer consider their credit card a source of credit. Over that same period of time, one in five Americans increased their use of checks, largely because of the fiscal control they provide.

So it’s highly likely that your customer will want to pay with a check, so it is your responsibility to make sure you can accept it. Obviously you need to protect your business, so working with a check processing company that guarantees their verified checks might be a good idea. More importantly, you want to be sure that when you submit the check for verification your check approval company gives you the go-ahead unless there is a really substantial reason not to.

When a person tenders a check they almost always know it is good, but some check processing services look only at limited amounts of publicly available data to guess if it is or not. That cursory analysis can cause what we call a “false decline,” which can completely sour your relationship with the client and make their situation much worse.

Better to work with a check services provider who also uses thirty years of proprietary data and industry-leading analytics to produce the highest check approval ratio in the industry. We do everything we can to make sure you come out looking like a hero in every way possible. Learn how here.

 

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Topics: Auto Aftermarket

Written by Tom Lombardo