Oct. 22, 2013—The Automotive Service Association of Arizona (ASA AZ) announced Tuesday the results of a survey given to a number of vendors in its collision repair network about State Farm Insurance’s PartsTrader program. And, the ASA AZ said in a statement, the results were conclusive: Vendors strongly oppose the program.
The survey was issued to new car dealership parts departments following an August meeting of more than 130 of ASA AZ members. PartsTrader’s Dale Sailer and State Farm’s George Avery spoke at the meeting in an effort to answer questions about State Farm’s mandated use of the electronic parts procurement system for shops in its Select Service direct-repair program. Two Arizona state legislators were in attendance as well.
More than 30 parts vendors returned the survey, said ASA AZ executive director Luz Rubio.
"The results of our survey do not seem to support Mr. Sailer's claims that PartsTrader has been well received by many of the vendors using it," said Rubio, who also took the opportunity to reinforce the ASA AZ’s position statement opposing PartsTrader issued on July 27, 2012.
According to the ASA AZ release_notes, one of the returned surveys stated, “We have not seen a value in the program. We pride ourselves on relationships built with repairers throughout the years and find PartsTrader to be an unnecessary part of our business. There are a lot of unanswered questions as to who will pay for the PartsTrader program and how that will affect established relationships and pricing models."
The August meeting coincided with the rollout of PartsTrader in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.
Arizona was the first state in which Select Service shops were required to locate and purchase all parts through the PartsTrader procurement system. Select Service shops are now only allowed to purchase parts from vendors that agreed to sign a PartsTrader agreement.
