Dealers and other companies are putting a focus on cutting down distracted driving in Canada. The Dilawri Foundation — the Dilawri Group’s non-profit branch — has launched an app that promotes putting the smartphone down while driving, and LGM Financial is once again holding its Auto Dealers Against Distracted Driving campaign.
LGM Financial’s campaign is in its second year and calls on dealers across Canada to commit to making roads safer by education consumers on the dangers of distracted driving.
So, how can dealers get involved? They just need to register at www.distractionfree.ca.
Once registered, dealerships will receive a free campaign kit with materials designed to help start the important conversation with consumers and help raise local awareness about distracted driving.
These kits include a campaign-branded poster, key tags, pens and mirror danglers. Each dealer will be assigned an LGM ambassador, as well, who will provide support and guidance throughout the campaign, which runs from March 1-31.
“As the first point-of-contact with customers, dealers play a crucial role in encouraging positive driver behaviors like using hands-free technology or pulling off to the side of the road before you send a text,” says Shelley Hendy, dealer development manager for the Lower Mainland region at LGM Financial Services Inc. “We were so thrilled with the level of dealership engagement we saw last year, and we want to build on that success for 2016 and increase the number of participating dealers from 433 to at least 700.”
Last year, nearly 3,000 pledges were made against distracted driving by customers at participating dealerships. This year, 200 dealers have already come on board for the event.
If dealers need convincing to get on board, statistics might change their mind. Take this, for example: LGM Financial cited research that shows 80 percent of collisions are caused by some form of distracted driving, and that drivers are 23 times more likely to be involved in a collision if texting.
“The touchstone of this campaign is really that dealers are banding together from across the country, even joining their competitors, to curb a problem that affects everyone coast-to-coast,” says Marc-Andre Lefebvre, vice president of sales for the Quebec region at LGM. “Dealers are given the creative control to reach out to their own communities, craft their own messaging and decide how they want to educate consumers about safe driving before they drive off the lot in their vehicle.”
To get involved, register here, and follow the national campaign on Twitter @LGMCanada.
Dilawri Foundation launches texi
The new Dilawri app, texi, is a free, interactive — and incentivized — mobile app that promotes safe driving by helping to minimize smartphone use while driving.
“In our connected culture, it is important for Canadian drivers to have access to well-designed apps which effectively fulfill their need to stay in touch while eliminating the risks that come with distracted driving,” says Kap Dilawri, co-founder of The Dilawri Foundation. “Our goal with texi is to take the driving experience one step further by getting drivers excited about using the app as soon as they get into the car and before they start driving.”
Created as a solution to curb texting and driving by the Dilawri Foundation, users who activate the app before they start driving earn one point for every minute they travel without using their smartphone.
Then, they are entered into a monthly content to win prizes, including gift cards, smartphones, travel vouchers, gas cards and more. And the more points users earn, the bigger the prizes get. For example, all drivers who use the app for more than 15 minutes are also entered into a draw to win a new Honda Fit.
The app also, available on Google Play and the App Store for free download, has a social feature to keep users interested. When the app is turned on, it will auto-respond to texts with memes on Android devices, and users can customize or choose from a library of memes.
Monthly prizes for the app are donated by partners of the Dilari Foundation, and recognized TELUS and Kernels Popcorn for their support, in particular.
Auto Trader, TireLink and Snap-On helped with the development of the app.
Scotiabank released its Global Auto Report on Wednesday, predicting that new-vehicle sales in Canada will end up roughly the same as 2015’s tally of 1.9 million units.
Looking closer at the numbers, Scotiabank’s predicted 1.9 million units to-be-sold for 2016 is slightly higher than the 1,898,000 vehicles that were purchased in 2015.
In the report, the company says that it expects the sales volumes to remain largely flat for the year “as diverging trends between the industrial heartland and commodity producing regions balance each other out.”
Carlos Gomes, Scotiabank’s senior economist, summarized some of the expected factors to be at play that will be a theme in 2016.
"Car and light truck sales will continue to be supported by low interest rates and stimulative financial conditions around the world," Gomes said. "Economic activity and demand for new vehicles will continue to be buoyed by the strongest advance in Canadian non-resource exports since the new millennium, as well as by strengthening U.S. demand and a currency which recently fell below 70 cents (U.S.) for the first time since early 2003.
"Diverging trends between the industrial heartland and commodity-producing regions are expected to balance each other out in 2016, keeping volumes unchanged. Stronger employment growth and economic activity in the export-reliant manufacturing provinces will lift sales in these markets, but deteriorating fundamentals and weakening demographic and income trends will continue to pressure volumes in other regions."
Some other highlights of the report, according to Scotiabank, include the following:
- Even with sluggish global demand, 17 out of Ontario's 21 manufacturing sectors posted double-digit export gains in 2015.
- Broad-based manufacturing export gains are also expected to lift economic activity and vehicle sales in British Columbia and Quebec in 2016. Strengthening exports are particularly evident in British Columbia, with nearly half of all manufacturing industries posting export growth in excess of 20% in 2015.
- In Alberta, new-vehicle sales declined 12 percent last year to 236,000 units. A further slide to 220,000 is projected for 2016, as oil companies continue to curtail their capital expenditures and the labour market weakens amid a large overhang in global crude oil inventories.
- Vehicle sales in the remaining provinces were in line with expectations last year. Volumes declined in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, undercut by the downturn in the energy sector, and were unchanged in Manitoba and edged higher across the Maritimes.
Click here to check out the full report.
The Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council announced Friday that it has issued a 450-day incarceration sentence to a dealer for two counts of curbsiding.
According to OMVIC, the dealer, Mehran Amini, was acting as a dealer without registration, contrary to the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act, and will serve the longest sentence of its kind ever issued in Ontario.
“This is the longest sentence handed out in Ontario for illegal vehicle sales,” said Michael Rothe, OMVIC’s director of legal services. “And it sends an important and strong message to those who would prey on Ontario consumers.”
OMVIC says that it charged Amini after it discovered he had purchased 30 vehicles, predominantly late-model pickup trucks with high mileage, in Western Canada and brought them to Ontario and rolled back their odometers before selling them to unsuspecting buyers.
“This individual is responsible for a great deal of consumer harm,” said Larry Edgar, OMVIC’s acting director of investigations. “When the true history of the vehicles became known, the purchasers found themselves with trucks worth far less than they had paid and many faced unexpected expensive repairs (due to the high mileages), some of which had crippling financial implications for the buyers.”
In court, the evidence shown against Amini included his ads placed in online marketplaces, where he posed as a private seller and used multiple aliases on top of telling some of the buyers that he was a dealer.
These are not the first curbsiding convictions issued to Amini – he has been charged and convicted by OMVIC on two prior occasions for the same behavior. His first conviction resulted in a $393,000 fine for selling 42 vehicles with rolled-back odometers, which Amini appealed. He is scheduled to appear in court March 21 for sentencing.
NCM Associates, a popular fixture in the U.S. for its dealer 20 Groups and more, is launching in Canada.
The company offers five core services for its clients: 20 Groups, education, consulting, business intelligence and travel solutions.
And as the originator of the automotive 20 Group model in 1947, the team at NCM has had a lot of time to hone their offerings and gain experience.
To get some insight into just what the company’s latest move means to Canadian dealers, Auto Remarketing Canada reached out to Trevor Robinson, NCM Associates director of retail solutions.
“We offer both traditional and dealer-internal 20 Groups, and have an exceptionally strong pre-owned consulting program and variety of pre-owned training courses,” Robinson said, further explaining the company’s offerings.
As for the reasoning behind entering the Canadian market, Robinson shared NCM has always had a group of Canadian dealers in the U.S. 20 Groups, showing a need for more similar offerings in Canada. In fact, the company launched its first Canadian 20 Group in 2007.
The reception was overwhelmingly positive, making way for the company’s continued growth in Canada.
“Last year, thanks to our unique relationship with dealers, we began partnering with Canadian OEMs to deliver consulting services to dealers,” said Robinson. “In 2016, we have expanded the number of OEMs we serve and are now offering services to individual dealers.”
As for why now is the “right time” to launch full-force in Canada, Robinson said it stems from a direct need, and he expects his knowledge of the Canadian market to aid in the expansion.
Before beginning his tenure at NCM Associates in February 2015, Robinson was dealer operations manager at Infiniti Motor Co., managing the overall performance of the brand in Western Canada; he previously served in Canadian retail operations and product development for Harley-Davidson Motor Co.
“As someone who came from the Canadian market, I understand the need for the services NCM provides. Dealer and OEM clients are requesting more in-depth operations analysis and educational support,” Robinson explained. “And while NCM has served Canadian dealers since 2007, we’re better positioned to serve our neighbors today, given my direct market knowledge and NCM’s proven operations expertise.”
The company’s success thus far in Canada has been due mostly to referrals from its current clients. And NCM Associates will be making its first industry conference appearance in Canada at the upcoming Auto Remarketing Canada Conference, scheduled for April 4-5 at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto.
Robinson said one of his favorite questions to answer is, “Why NCM?”
In his opinion, the “why” lies in the unique value the company offers OEMs and dealers.
“NCM has the most and longest running 20 Groups in the industry — we created the model in 1947 and continue to offer the widest variety of 20 Groups in North America,” he said.
Supporting the NCM 20 Groups are the company’s moderators and consultants, as well as its industry-recognized composites.
“The NCM composite is unique in our ability to provide customized analytics that are created in-house. We never outsource our clients’ confidential data. We don’t require a contract; we believe that our clients choose NCM because they want to, not because they have to. Our moderators and consultants really make a difference,” Robinson shared.
The company touts a 30-member team, and the staff members each have a minimum of 15 years of industry experience, and many have owned dealerships themselves.
As part of the NCM Institute, an educational resource for automotive management teams, instructors provide classroom, in-dealership and virtual automotive training to all levels of management across all departments.
“Whether you’re in a 20 Group, engaged in consulting or attending a course, you just can’t get better data or support than what’s offered through NCM,” Robinson said.
General Motors Canada announced this week that it has been awarded a mandate to build a fleet of self-driving 2017 Chevrolet Volts at its Canadian Engineering Centre in Oshawa, Ontario.
This was confirmed by Steve Carlisle, the president and managing director of GM Canada, while speaking to the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa on Tuesday, specifying that the vehicles will be a part of a test fleet based at the GM Technical Center in Warren, Mich.
"Our Engineering Centre in Oshawa was a logical place to locate this important work and it is the next step in growing the new mandate of the Centre to focus on work related to the Connected Car," Carlisle said. "The Province of Ontario's leadership in allowing autonomous vehicle testing was a helpful support in securing this advanced technology work for our Canadian facility."
This announcement follows GM Canada’s recent address to the Canadian government, urging it to “act quickly” to ensure they have a “purposeful role” in the evolution of the automotive industry.
According to GM Canada, when the fleet of self-driving Volts are first deployed as part of a broader test at the GM Technical Center in Michigan, GM employees will reserve a Volt using a car-sharing application and select a destination. The GM technology will bring the vehicle to its destination and park it, serving as a rapid development laboratory to provide data and lessons to speed up GM’s technical capabilities for these autonomous vehicles.
In the statement from GM, the company said that the Conference Board of Canada has suggested that autonomous cars could save Canadians $65 billion per year by reducing congestion, consuming less fuel and producing fewer collisions and fatalities.
It’s often said, “I hope you make a truck load of bonuses as it means more profit for the dealership.” Truth be told, both dealer and used-car manager have a minimum and maximum expectation. The right pay plan may help you land the right person for more profit.
Managers now have to be hunters of inventory and price to market while still providing CPO programs and advantages. Manufacturer volume incentives for some are imperative, and stretching on trades is necessary.
Perhaps it is time to dust off your pay plan. Let’s look at five common pitfalls and five newer benchmarks that may help you improve you pay plan and profits.
Five pay-plan pitfalls
- Pay plan is to complex
No manager should have to strategize their pay plan. I like a base-salary guideline based on your previous yearly profit loss on front end of 7 to 10 percent. A complicated pay plan makes recruiting new talent difficult. No two stores are the same, but we talk transparency to customers and need to apply it to pay plans, as well.
- Year-end bonus too heavily weighted
This means bonus plans that come at the end of the year and are tied to the dealerships’ net. Your UCM’s have little control over many fixed and variables expenses and no way to truly validate them. This can lead to mistrust. Year-end really means when statements are complete, which can create anxiety. Holiday season can be tough, and weather can wreak havoc. I suggest a quarterly component and paying simple bonus’s more often. That way, managers are never out of the game.
- Base salary is too high
Don’t breed complacency. Anyone worth their weight will work to achieve a reasonable target. If they need the money and the goals are clear, good managers rise to the occasion.
- Too many variables
If a bonus depends on too many variables, it can leave a manager lacking incentive. Limit the variables to the items they have direct control or influence over.
- No clear pack or write-down policy
If you have a pack or write-down charge, you need a clear consistent policy. Don’t bring it in and help their bonus when it suits the dealer, and not when they are a few dollars short on bonus next time. It is departmental and used to make deals, move aged inventory, or apply as a write-down at year end. It’s not for use outside the department or the inventory category, if it is part of a pay plan. Be clear and consistent.
5 benchmarks to consider
- Age of average sale
The average age of your sold units is very important. Your gross is made on fresh stock, and aged inventory is consistently lower in gross and costly. Pay highly on 35 days or less, less on 45 days and a little on 60 or less — nothing payed beyond 60 days in stock. I like to take this from part of the gross component. Gross is important, but volume, F& I and lack of aged units will take care of gross to some degree.
- Wholesale packs
Most dealers do very similar things with wholesale and retail volume. Inventory packs protect payable gross but hurt pricing to market. Many think making money on wholesale is taking away from new-car volume and gross. Yet, wholesalers have been making money off new-car trades forever. They get history, and no auction or transport fees. Consider a smaller policy pack on retail, flat sales commissions and paying a couple points on wholesale profit and use their packs for write-down. U.S. exports are up, and the inventory is tight. Why leave money on the table because of an old pay plan? Event auction sales, online tools and a little post-sale lipstick will surprise you.
- Buy-in bonus
We need our managers to hunt down inventory and/or move aged within our groups. We have to mine our service, scope our lease returns, move aged amongst our groups and find new sources. Let’s pay a small buy-in fee.
- Simple retail volume
Good things happen all over the dealership every time a used car is sold. Keep it simple. Have a strict delivery deadline and pay on volume.
- Volume of appraisals and wins
If you have the ability to track appraisal volume and wins, pay on it. The more proper appraisals completed, the more won trades and more retail sales.
Dwayne Green — lead dealer results manager for Eastern Canada at DealerSocket — is a 35 year veteran of the automotive business. He consults for over 70 successful dealers in Canada. He specializes in inventory control, dealer process and digital marketing. He is a lifetime student of digital technology in one of the most important and evolving national industries: automotive sales! For more information, contact Dwayne at (416)347-3817 or dgreen@dealersocket.com
Editor's Note: As with any contributed content, the opinions expressed in this and other editorial columns are solely that of the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Auto Remarketing Canada or its parent company.
As CarProof continues its province-to-province campaign to disclose the lesser-known details of used-vehicles sold in Canada, some disturbing statistics come out of Alberta.
According to the company, nearly half of all used-car transactions in Alberta occur without proper disclosures. On top of that, roughly 20 percent of used vehicles listed online for sale in Alberta have an unfixed safety recall.
To put those numbers in perspective, CarProof says the number of vehicles on the road in Alberta operating with an unfixed manufacturer-initiated safety recall is close to half a million. Looking at vehicles sold, the company says that approximately 200,000 used vehicles sold annually by Albertans are sold without proper disclosure of the vehicle’s accident history.
“The number of unsafe vehicles on the roads and listed for sale in Alberta is alarming,” said Ed Woiteshek, president and chief executive officer at CarProof. “It’s a public safety issue and, as Canada’s gold standard in used car information, we are in a unique position to help do something about it.
“It’s clear the current system to notify consumers of recalls is broken,” he continued. “We hope giving away free CARPROOF reports will help be part of the solution to make our roads safer.”
These results follow the company’s announcement last month for Manitoba, which found that one in 10 vehicles registered in the province had open safety recalls.
In a recent correspondence with Auto Remarketing Canada, John Bachinski, the executive director of the Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council, laid out the guidelines provided to dealers in his province.
“In Alberta we require shoppers to be presented with a current and complete mechanical fitness assessment prior to buying or leasing a used vehicle,” Bachinski said. “We recommend potential buyers get used vehicles independently inspected and research the vehicle history before entering in to a purchase contract. The buyer may also want to check with the manufacturer to see if there are any outstanding warranty repairs.”
For more information on AMVIC and its regulations, visit its site here.
OMVIC announced today the beginning of its four-week campaign to spread awareness of all-in price advertising for car buyers in Ontario.
Terry O’Keefe, OMVIC’s director of communications and education, says there is a surprisingly low amount of awareness of the policy in the region.
“Only 29 percent of Ontarians know that if they see a dealer’s advertised price for a vehicle, that price must include all fees and charges the dealer intends to collect,” O’Keefe said. “This campaign is designed to further educate and inform, because better-educated consumers are better-protected consumers.”
As illustrated in the above video advertisement, OMVIC’s campaign message is “all-in pricing – it’s putting the fun and excitement back into buying a car … and, it’s the law!” OMVIC’s campaign includes online, radio and TV advertising across the entire province of Ontario, including all major television networks such as CBC, CityTV, CTV and Global.
O’Keefe, long an advocate for the policy, continues to explain the Ontarian policy as simply as possible.
“There should be no additional hidden fees or added surprise costs, with the exception of HST and licensing,” O’Keefe said.
For a complete explanation on Ontario’s all-in pricing protection legislation, check out OMVIC’s site here.
TRADER Corp. is launching a new education program to aid Canadian dealers in navigating the new digital marketing landscape and environment.
The new program is titled Fast FWD, and is a response to the increasing digitization of vehicle researching and shopping.
As a piece of the new program — which is being offered free of charge to the industry — TRADER is sponsoring a Web series for dealers called, "Pistons and Pixels."
The series, which can be found at www.pistonsandpixels.com, launches today and will cover an array of digital marketing topics and their impact on shoppers in the form of 4-minute episodes.
Each episode will feature guest experts from the industry “who will share insider tips and tricks to provide dealers with what they need to get that competitive edge,” the company said.
“It’s eye-opening knowing that, for every 2,500 people visiting your website, you’ll see only 100 in your showroom,” said Roger Dunbar, TRADER Corp.’s vice president of marketing. “While shoppers do go and see cars in person, it’s almost guaranteed not to be their first impression. The front line battlefield for car shopper attention is online, and every dealer must be there.
“No argument. We’re here to help dealers understand digital marketing tactics and strategies that they can apply to their everyday business, regardless of whether they are a small-, medium- or large-sized dealership.”
Besides the "Piston and Pixels" Web series, the Fast FWD program offers dealers access to instructional animated videos, whitepapers, how-to guides and top-10 lists, among other instructional material.
Dunbar explained that the program was born out of the realization that “specifically within the Canadian automotive industry, there was no go-to/authoritative source of information to help dealers with their digital marketing strategy.
“It was a huge gap in the market, and we thought that this would be a natural fit for us given that we have the knowledge and resources to provide dealers with this kind of information,” he continued.
The Fast FWD program will cover a variety of topics, including websites, SEO, lead conversion, social media and more — most importantly, all topics will be relevant to today’s digital marketing age.
Dunbar told Auto Remarketing Canada the first phase of the program can be viewed as almost an introductory program, where TRADER will give dealers the foundational knowledge to start their digital marketing strategy.
“The information is very practical and applicable to a dealer’s everyday business regardless of their lot size,” he said. “We also tried to make the content as easy to understand as possible, which is why we leveraged different learning sources including sponsoring a TV Web series ("Pistons and Pixels"), animated videos, whitepapers, checklists and more.”
Today’s consumers are increasingly digital savvy, and Dunbar pointed out the average car buying cycle not lasts only 2.7 months, and 75 percent of that time is spent online. The new TRADER program is designed to help dealers meet their customers where they are — and that’s on the Web.
“With consumers spending that much time online it’s so important for dealers to have a visible digital footprint. Simply put, it’s about being where your consumers are; they’re on social networks, they’re searching on Google and watching videos on YouTube,” said Dunbar. “If you’re not able to reach your consumers online you’re missing out on potential business and getting beat out by the competitor down the street.”
See the preview to the "Pistons and Pixels" series above.
The Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council proposed to its members in a recent bulletin an increase in fees to make sure OMVIC is adequately funded and able to administer the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act.
The three fees that generate revenue for OMVIC that are being considered for price hikes are the salesperson renewal fee, (currently $175 for two years), the base dealer renewal fee (currently $250 for one year) and the transaction portion of the dealer renewal fee ($5 per transaction).
That said, the board has expressed it prefers to leave the salesperson renewal fee at the current level, citing how hard the professional sales force works and wanting to “protect them from an increase.”
That said, the base dealer renewal fee of $250 has stayed consistent since 2000. The board is considering raising this fee up to $125, depending on changes to the transaction fee.
The transaction fee has stayed the same since 2008, and the board is proposing raising this fee from anywhere from $3 to $5.
OMVIC reported its preferred fee change would be to leave the base dealer renewal fee as is and add $5 to the transaction fee.
And though fee levels are decided by the OMVIC Board of Directors, the organization is also requesting its members fill out a survey, detailing their opinion of the proposed fee increases.
The board, who has ultimately authority in these decisions is made up of nine dealers and three public members.
“In the coming years, OMVIC is forecasting deficits where costs will exceed revenues. Clearly this is not sustainable and the board has determined that it’s time to review fees,” OMVIC reported. “Although it is the exclusive authority of the board to increase fees, the board wants to consult with its registrants as to the best way forward.”
All member feedback must be received by OMVIC by May 25.
