Last year at the ARA convention, I was speaking to a class and found out that these words: “Why are you the only one here?” made a big impression on one of my yard owner friends. I am telling you this story with his permission. Last month, out of the blue, I get a call … Read more
It seems that the pandemic is officially over. Now that things are getting back to normal, what do the next twelve months hold in store for us? What should we expect, and how should we plan for it? 2022 was a great year for Auto Recyclers. For most of us, it was our best year … Read more
Doing the right thing is not mutually exclusive from making a profit. Several events are coming up that remind us of our obligation to improve the quality of life and reduce the impacts of modernization and industrialization on our planet: REMAN Day (Friday, April 14), Earth Day (Saturday, April 22), and World Environment Day (Monday, … Read more
When was the last time you told an applicant or a team member that was thinking of going somewhere else to work, “WE ALSO HAVE SCHOLARSHIPS.” These past two months, I have been making phone calls to remind URG members about the URG Scholarship Foundation and asking owners of companies to send out an email … Read more
Trade show season is upon us! My calendar is quite full right now, and some days, I ask myself, “Are you really able to leave the yard for a trade show for 3 or 4 days, when you also should be doing inventory?” My answer is always, “YES!” (even though I really should be doing … Read more
I’m curious to know how popular pre-nuptial agreements were in the 80s; we might want to consider drawing one up with our inventory. Between what I have seen with my eyes and what I have seen doing deep dives on customer inventory records, we are clearly sitting on some OLD STOCK, which is, in many … Read more
I’ll see you at URG, or should I say, you’ll be sorely missed if you fail to attend the biggest Automotive Recycling Industry Conference, known to many as URG. This conference will be the largest turn out in URG history. There are reasons why. It’s about new acquisitions. How big is Incline Equity Partners? When … Read more
New Vehicles, Technology, Data, and Personally Identifiable Information: The Challenges of What’s Left in Salvage Vehicles and How Can We Protect Ourselves as Well as Previous Owners? Sandy, Scott Robertson, Shan Latham, Nick Daurio, Eric Wilbert, Shannon Nordstrom, and myself recently attended the NAATBATT conference on Feb 21st-24th,in Phoenix. For Sandy, Scott, and myself, this … Read more
This past week over two hundred members of a worldwide organization representing every aspect of the precious metals supply chain, from mining and refining to fabrication, recycling, and investment met in Orlando, Florida. The International Precious Metals Institute promotes excellence through education, research, and networking opportunities that drive innovation and advance sustainable practices. The group … Read more
There is no question that COVID has reshaped the labor pool in some not-so-business-friendly ways. Attracting and retaining qualified employees has become Job #1 for many recyclers, taking precious time away from acquiring quality vehicle inventory and running the business at peak efficiency. Somehow, through this timeframe, some recyclers have seen “cores” as an extra … Read more
New Vehicles, Technology, Data, and Personally Identifiable Information: The Challenges of What’s Left in Salvage Vehicles and How Can We Protect Ourselves as Well as Previous Owners? Vehicles are now all connected and store our personally identifiable information, (PII). This can be anything and everything. From storing your contacts, passwords, your shopping, where you have … Read more
Now that I have your attention, you know several people who will be speaking at the URG Annual Training Conference. These men want to help other recyclers. As good as they are, they’re not alone either. Joining this crew is none other than Dalan Zartman, an electric vehicle trainer that is known world-wide. It would … Read more
URG chose Limitless Horizons as the theme for the 2023 URG Educational Conference. Why focus on horizons? My team and I believe you can better set your organization up for success by focusing on the horizons that lie ahead and expanding those horizons to meet future business needs. Most commonly we think of the horizon … Read more
I HATE the cats. I hear this all the time. Or I hear, I wish the cats would just go away. Then I hear, I love the money, don’t get me wrong. I just hate dealing with the core guys, the collectors, the processors. It’s all become too much. I don’t even want to go … Read more
#1 Be Honest. Please stop putting 000 on ALL of your parts. The parts we see coming off of 2021 and 2022 vehicles may still have dings, dents, and scratches. Trust me, the body shop is going to find them even if you don’t. When we say a part is 000 this means to the … Read more
The best award is the one you weren’t expecting. And so, it was on a cold New England Night at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Warwick, Rhode Island, as the employees of RAS (Rebuilders Automotive Supply) gathered for their annual Christmas Party. RAS’s ownership and executive team have built a reputation for respect and gratitude … Read more
That’s right! You read it right. I want to give every reader of the Recyclers Power Source magazine who will pledge to give $11.00 a month to the URG Scholarship Foundation a two-dollar bill. Yes, a two-dollar bill just like the one my dad put inside my new wallet when I was young. Last year, … Read more
The Big Trends in Small Business newsletter on LinkedIn touched on a subject that is vexing many entrepreneurs, the labor shortage. The article featured a pair of San Francisco-based family restaurant owners who have had to close their pizzeria from time to time because of labor shortages. Their problems aren’t unique to their industry, they … Read more
Which economic and industrial factors affect the price of the Platinum Group Metals (PGMs), namely platinum, palladium, and rhodium, which subsequently impacts the price of scrap catalytic converters? A Hedge Against Inflation From an investment perspective, precious metals are non-interest-bearing assets. Investors will sometimes add precious metals to their portfolios as a hedge against inflation, … Read more
I want to talk about the importance of environmental and safety compliance, and its return on investment, as well as the cost and potential liabilities. Let’s start off with the question of what exactly does compliance mean for the Automotive Recycler? For this article, we will talk about two main areas of compliance, the first … Read more
An employer advertises for an Inventory person, and the job description says, “For this Inventory position, we need someone responsible”. An applicant replies, “I am the right person for this position. In my last inventory job, every time parts were missing or in the wrong place, they said I was responsible”. Many people might argue … Read more
Surprise, a New Year is here AGAIN! The years go by quickly, and sometimes we need to reroute ourselves so we’re ready for what’s up ahead. Recently, my wife reminded me that I needed to write an article on “A New Year, a New You” which would center around reinventing oneself in 2023. As maybe … Read more
As my term as President comes to an end, I would like to share some of my thoughts and talk about what we have accomplished as an Association, (Year in Review). I just want to talk about some of the challenges that we have faced, and how the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) has responded to … Read more
Business is complicated today and it’s certainly not for the faint hearted. Many of my friends say that the reason that I was so successful is because I was so creative, innovative and so willing to try new things. Of me, they have said, “Ron throws 100 things against the wall, and only five of … Read more
First, I promise if you’ll help me now that I will write about recycling topics that are specific to the Power Source readers. For now, these two precious people have been heavy on my heart for over a month. My neighbors, Kelly and her daughter, Madison were struck by a car in a hit and … Read more
You guys know I like to keep all of you posted on any new and cool information about what’s happening in our industry. But sometimes, I get to tell you about the complaints that I hear from other recyclers! Today I want to talk about a “bait and switch” issue that came up fast. Until … Read more
MANASSAS, VA – Professional automotive recycler Shan Lathem of Cocoa Auto Salvage in Cocoa, Florida was recently welcomed as the new President of the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA). Lathem was formally confirmed as President on September 23, 2022, during the Association’s 79th Annual Convention and Exposition held in Orlando, Florida. Lathem brings decades of experience … Read more
Know Your Customer (KYC) more important than ever. Who are you really doing business with? On November 2, the Justice Department took down a nationwide catalytic converter theft ring with forfeiture more than $500 million in assets including homes, bank accounts, cash, and luxury vehicles. The Justice Department News stated, “Federal, state, and local law … Read more
My obsession with inventory started when I walked into Bill’s Auto Parts in 1990 to help my In-Laws with their recently purchased business. Not having been in the business before, it was easy to recognize a mess when we saw it. It became a combination of cleaning out the old and organizing for the new. … Read more
From observations of how our country has declined over past years, I can’t stress enough the importance of reading three books. They need to be read by everyone within the auto recycling and recovery industry as well as all our families. I’ll list the third book first. I don’t think anybody should be allowed to graduate … Read more
The partnership will provide access to the pH7 non-acid based chemistry solution for the recycling of spent catalysts to North America. Vancouver, Sep. 15, 2022. pH7 Technologies and Noble6 are pleased to announce they have entered a North American strategic partnership, combining pH7’s leading technologies for the recycling of platinum group metals (PGM) with Noble6’s … Read more
Back in July, we summarized the 2022 outlook for Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) with excerpts from the Johnson Matthey Market Report. The report proved true on many fronts. Business conditions have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Industrial demand for Platinum has remained robust. The war in Ukraine has restricted Palladium supplies. Operational challenges have restricted … Read more
Recovering Cores – Five Contact Points Let’s go back to the basics of Cores: Identification, Recovery, QC, Packing. To delve further into the recovery of cores, let’s identify the five contact points for optimal core recovery within your existing workflow. Vehicle Inventory – Unlike in the past when your parts puller or dismantler was the … Read more
How can you get the most for your converters with a process you can trust? At United Catalyst Corporation, we believe in the benefits of assay-based selling. Since no two converters are the same, and each converter must go through the same refining process, it makes sense to us that recyclers sell converters based on … Read more
Now that things are back to normal, or so they say, let’s take a look at the employment market in this post-pandemic world, as well as what is next. Earlier in the spring, things started getting back to normal, and the biggest thing that we all realized, besides the supply-line issues, is that now we … Read more
We are proud to announce that the URG on the Go podcast keeps growing every week. No doubt, the good information in each episode keeps our listeners coming back for more week after week. If you’re one of these listeners, thank you for spending your valuable time with us. If you log on, you’ll hear … Read more
Many people have heard of pay by the delivery (delivery stop), but most people do not really understand how it is correctly computed or what the hidden value is. The simple explanation is the rate per delivery or attempted delivery (dry run), times the number of deliveries or attempted deliveries completed is route pay. Route … Read more
Having been in the industry for 32 years, I have been blessed with many long-term friendships. It’s crazy how some of these relationships began. I’m going to tell you about a gentleman I met this weekend while on a trip to Indianapolis for the Tri-State Summit and Expo. While I only visit Indianapolis once a … Read more
I recently took a trip to the UK to attend the ATF Professional Vehicle Recycling conference in Warwick, UK. It was a great convention, very informative and the speakers were awesome. Wish some of them could come to the United States and speak at our conventions. When I got back home, I started thinking that … Read more
We believe in demystifying the catalytic converter recycling industry and strive to do so by providing useful resources to prospective people looking to sell their catalytic converter, so whether you choose to work with us or not, we can at least provide you with the tools you need to make an informed decision. How Automotive … Read more
“CANI” is a phrase that I hope all my regular readers remember. It’s been over 28 years since I wrote my first article for the Recyclers Power Source magazine. The magazine went to press in 1993, and I started writing articles for the Power Source in 1994. Many years ago, I wrote an article about … Read more
To compete in today’s environment, you’re going to have to learn to do more with less. One of the most important skills you can learn is how to organize better. It’s a complex subject with 100 different opinions about how to do it best, but I will try to hit the hotspots. I encourage you … Read more
My goal for 2022 was to hit the road and participate in State, Regional, and National Conventions and Trade Shows to promote the concept of QC for Cores and Converters. What started as a simple campaign is now a traveling road show for Core related companies. It has been a pleasure to share the stage … Read more
Platinum Group Metals When you recycle your scrap catalytic converters on recovery or assay, you are selling physical metal into the market. It is no different than selling aluminum or copper, it is a commodity. Each catalytic converter contains some or all of three precious metals, called Platinum Group Metals (PGMs): Platinum, Palladium, and Rhodium. … Read more
Let’s face it your single biggest expense is cars. Your second largest expense is labor. It’s important that you have all your people on pay for performance so that you can get more performance with fewer people, and we’ve discussed this point in prior recent articles. I know it’s hard to implement, but it’s imperative … Read more
As I travel the Trade Show circuit throughout the US and Canada, recyclers say that parts sales are off the charts! While the news is very exciting, I’m also hearing that labor availability and labor costs have skyrocketed, while scrap prices have turned in the other direction. Compound the labor situation with record inflation, and … Read more
With the rising costs of fuel and wages, among other things, how do we effectively pass these costs to the customer? First, let’s look at what our true cost to deliver is. Have you thought about, or do you know, what your cost to deliver really is? To find your true cost to deliver, you … Read more
Even though I’m in my mid 70s now, I continue to work in the podcast center two days a week completing podcasts for URG’s “On the Go” as well as four other towing and recycler-related podcasts. If you are wondering what I do with the remaining three days of the week, I’m proud to say … Read more
MANASSAS, VA – The Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) today announced that professional automotive recycler Shannon Nordstrom of Nordstrom’s Automotive, Inc. in Garretson, South Dakota has been nominated to join the Association Executive Committee as Secretary for 2022-2023. Shannon is the Vice President and General Manager of Nordstrom’s Automotive Inc. He and his wife Tamie are … Read more
I talk to a great many people who are trying to borrow money to start a business or expand their business. Most don’t have a business plan competed. If you’re going to borrow money to try to start or grow a business, you must have a business plan which includes a pro forma financial analysis … Read more