Along with updating members about insurance booklet legislation developing on Capitol Hill, the National Automobile Dealers Association announced the new mobile app for the 2013 NADA Convention and Expo is now available for download.

Officials said the app can help attendees maximize their convention experience with features that include:

—Up-to-the-minute updates on workshop sessions and events
—Creating a personalized schedule
—Company descriptions and booth locations on the expo floor
—Navigating the convention easily using maps
—Scheduling meetings with exhibitors
—Staying organized by creating custom notes
—Reviewing workshop sessions.

For iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android phones, dealers can visit the App Store or Google Play Store with their devices and search for “NADA 2013” to find the app.

For all other phone types, including BlackBerry and all other Web browser-enabled phones, dealers can visit www.chirpE.com/NADA2013.

NADA also mentioned that convention hotels are filling up fast, so dealers should register soon. Advance registration for dealers and managers ends Jan. 31, a $75 savings from the onsite registration rate. Hotel prices increase Jan. 30.

To register, visit www.nadaconventionandexpo.org.

Stay tuned to the Feb. 1-14 print edition of Auto Remarketing, which is the annual NADA conference issue. It will include a feature on incoming chairman David Westcott, an inside look at the used-car side of his Burlington, N.C., dealership and much more.

Dealership Insurance Booklet Mandate Eliminated

In other news from the association, NADA said franchised dealerships are no longer required to provide printed copies of the Relative Collision Insurance Cost Information brochure to car and truck buyers upon request.

President Obama signed legislation last week that repeals the outdated mandate and eliminates the $1,000 fine that dealerships face for failing to comply with the 1970s-era law.

“This bill removes a regulatory burden from dealerships that helps reduce our cost of doing business,” said Bill Underriner, NADA chairman and a multi-franchise dealer from Billings, Mont.

The booklet was originally designed to provide car buyers with information on the different insurance costs to repair vehicles, but apparently was not helpful to consumers in the showroom.

The Obama administration, in a 2011 submission to Congress, said that “a prospective buyer does not need a brochure from the federal government to obtain this information, since insurance agents are trained to provide advice on how model selection affects insurance premiums.”

Underriner added, “For all of the years I’ve been in business, I cannot recall that a customer has ever asked to see the booklet. Printing and mailing this booklet has simply been made obsolete by technology.”

In an NADA survey of its members, 96 percent of franchised dealers reported that none of their customers had ever asked to see the brochure in the 21 years dealers were required to stock it.

The federal government and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which compiles the data, can still make the information available to the public online or by other means.

Underriner commended the leadership of House sponsors Reps. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., and Bill Owens, D-N.Y., as well as Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who directed the bill through the Senate.

NADA also reminded dealers late last week that if they receive more than $10,000 in cash in a single transaction or related transactions, they have to fill out and file a Form 8300, Report of Cash Payments Over $10,000 Received in a Trade or Business, with the Internal Revenue Service.

Furthermore, they would also have to then inform the customer, in writing, by Jan. 31 that a Form 8300 regarding applicable cash transaction in 2012 has been filed.

More information can be found at www.nada.org/regulations.