The Tire Industry Association (TIA) hosted its Right to Repair Summit at the 2024 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show and invigorated its attendees to take action on the legislation.
“Our responsibility to our customers encompasses all aspects of tire and auto safety,” said Dick Gust, CEO of TIA.
“That starts with access to data software, replacement components, telematic system repairs, training and diagnostic tools. These resources must be made available to all independent repair facilities.”
Auto Care Association
Bill Hanvey, president and CEO of the Auto Care Association, took to the stage to discuss what the Auto Care Association is doing for the Right to Repair fight.
According to Hanvey, the Auto Care Association surveyed 700 independent repair shops and 51% of respondents said that they had to send up to five vehicles a month back to the dealership because they are not able to access the diagnostic information or maintenance information.
“The other statistic I want to talk about is that when the shop finally concedes the job to the dealer, the technician spends four hours trying to diagnose that vehicle,” said Hanvey.
He continued that the independent shops usually end up eating the cost of the time the technician took to try and diagnose the problem.
“And it’s just going to get worse as these cars become more technological and the newer cars come into the maintenance cycle – this is our fight,” said Hanvey.
Hanvey touched on what the association is doing at a state and federal level.
The automaker's lawsuit in Massachusetts is still unresolved and the association is still seeking a reversal of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration letter that was telling automakers not to comply with the already-in-effect Data Access Law in Massachusetts, noting it “conflicts with and therefore is preempted by” the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
Hanvey asked dealers to submit specific requests to identify cases where independent repair shops were not able to access data or information to fight this.
Last November voters in Maine approved the Right to Repair legislation with 86% of votes.
“We are actually further along in Maine because now we are forming a governing body that would put down the mandates of how this law is going to be implemented,” said Hanvey.
Hanvey said that the association needs some help at the federal level.
“We can’t go to all 50 states – the Auto Care Association would be broke TIA would be broke, so we initially wanted to put pressure on the automakers to find out how they are going to react to this,” he continued.
“So now, we unequivocally need federal legislation as a blanket so that all 50 states, all our members, all our customers and everyone in the supply chain can abide by one single law.”
That was started with the HR-906 Repair Act and over two years the bill received 56 bipartisan co-sponsors to support the bill.
This act was one of 6,000 bills introduced into Congress last session and it's about one of 10,700 types of legislation introduced to the House, Hanvey said.
“So, you can see starting out, the odds are against us,” he said.
“But politics got in the way and for reasons unknown, our bill was pulled from consideration from the committee – and we were crushed.”
However, Hanvey said that even though the bill was not considered by the House Energy in Commerce Committee, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers “threw us a bone” and said this is important legislation and to keep going.
Looking ahead
“Looking ahead, we do not have to start from the beginning,” said Hanvey.
“We have built tremendous political capital in Washington about this bill and issue, and we are going to continue to build on that momentum.”
Hanvey called on members of the industry to “double down” and amplify voices in the industry.
Roy Littlefield IV, vice president of government affairs for TIA, said that federal codification is the ultimate goal for this problem.
“Whether you’re a tire distributor, shop owner or a retailer we need to amplify our voice because that’s what got us to where we were, so we just need to turn up the heat,” continued Hanvey.
Hanvey said there are multiple ways to do this, like sending letters to local congressional representatives and hosting a representative at your place of business.
