Guest Editorial Control At Point-of-sale Is Not About Leveling The Playing Field
by James L. Busch It's about time for the serious players in the collision repair industry to take a good look at environmental issues. Control at point-of-sale will not make the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) go away. As a 30-year veteran of this industry, I can offer some insight as to what we can expect. To solve the current problems facing us, we need to look to the past and we must prepare for the future!
Environmental responsibility starts with wanting to do the right thing. As an industry, we are entrusted with the responsibility to promote the safe handling of the hazardous materials we use. We must address our concerns about worker safety. As a shop owner, manager or employee, we all need to demand the use of personal safety equipment. As residents, we must appraise and address our pollution potential. As citizens of this great country, we need to support regulations that will ensure a safe environment in which to work and play. Manufacturers have an inherent responsibility to guarantee that their materials are environmentally safe and to provide training or resources to mitigate hazards. Regulators have the capacity to fairly assess the impact of their directives and acknowledge the larger issue of who must ultimately be held accountable. Consumers, unfortunately, must absorb the increased costs.
In a simpler time, shop owners were preoccupied with repairing vehicles within cost figures acceptable to consumers. We traded worker and environmental safety for cost control ... we didn't know any better! The body shop has always been a cottage industry and little attention was paid to sound business practices. Commonly accepted procedures are now considered fraud. The insurance industry willingly participated and often promoted these abuses by cost shifting.
Lack of business sense by shop owners led to unacceptable tradeoffs. Excuses such as, "We aren't being paid to do this," and "My employees would quit before wearing a respirator," were standard operating procedure. That behavior failed to spawn an industry where resources were dedicated to environmental education or protective equipment. It did, however, create our current technician shortage.
In the past five years, every legitimate repair shop has had to make major adjustments. The volatile organic compound (VOC) issue has raised public concern to a new level. This thrust came as a result of government pressure to limit the release of VOCs into the atmosphere. Auto refinishing was targeted to receive regulatory focus. The guy with the spray gun was identified as the "pollution source." We failed to recognize the proper use and disposal of these hazardous materials, even though we accepted "cradle to grave" responsibility. We ignored personal safety risks and failed to promote safe working environments. We really need somebody's help.
The EPA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandated that our industry address two related, but separate, environmental issues: worker safety and environmental compliance. Chemical manufacturers recognized these problems many years ago. By labeling their automotive refinish products "for professional use only, not for resale," they sought to limit their liability. With this warning, the burden of responsibility is passed to the purchaser. We need to define the "professional use only" criterion, as these materials are necessary to the continuation of this industry. If manufacturers are expected to honor their expressed concern of professionalism, we need to respect our commitment to "professionalism." Today's workforce must be retrained and we must make a commitment to the education of our future workforce. Alliances need to be forged with manufacturers to promote safer use of these hazardous materials. The leaders of this industry require a clear mandate to direct regulators.
We can not be expected to shoulder this burden alone. The government and chemical manufacturers have committed substantial funds and resources to address these issues. The EPA is asking our input on the "National Rule," the control at point-of-sale issue and the product stewardship program.
Many paint manufacturers are leading the way with new compliant products and comprehensive training programs. The Automotive Service Association (ASA), the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) and the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) are instrumental in providing training and certification. As an industry, we need to respond with a commitment to worker training, vocational education and political activism.
Control at point-of-sale is not about leveling the playing field. It's about safety and the future of this industry. The safety of personnel exposed to chemicals labeled "for professional use only, not for retail sale;" the safety of all people exposed to the hazards generated by collision repair. The legitimate collision repair industry needs to demand that the issue of "backyard shops" be resolved. These unregulated users are creating the perception that legitimate shops operate the same way we did 20 years ago. Automotive refinish materials have been identified as dangerous for as long as I have been in this business. Government studies show as much as 40 percent of these hazardous materials are used outside legitimate collision repair. It's time the regulators and manufacturers address control at point-of-sale.
This is no longer an issue of saving a buck by dumping the thinner in the brush. The excuses don't count anymore. This is about the future of our industry and we're all in it together! To quote Winston Churchill, "This is not the beginning of the end; this is the end of the beginning."
James Busch, owner of Busch Collision, Issaquah, Wash., has been a member of the ASA Collision Division Operations Committee since 1993. Busch has served on the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) board of directors and has been the chair of ASE's Collision Repair and Paint Committee since 1989.
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Regulatory Compliance -- Turn A Pain Into A Gain
Low-budget Marketing Ideas For Big-dollar Results || How To Handle Low VOC Paints
Mechanical Shops Are Going Green || Election Year Impact On The Aftermarket
Guest Editorial -- Control At Point-of-sale Is Not About Leveling The Playing Field
Tech To Tech || TechTips || Stat Corner || News Briefs || News Briefs Extra || Taking The Hill || Directions || Around ASA || Chairman's Message
AutoInc. Magazine ®, Vol. XLIV No. 10, October 1996