Groups Fine-tune Grading Guide for Recycled Parts

By Troy Sympson, Automotive Body Repair News, www.abrn.com.

The Automotive Service Association (ASA) Salvage Subcommittee was formed to work closely with other organizations, such as the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) and the United Recyclers Group (URG), to strengthen the lines of communication and improve the process of using recycled parts. With that in mind efforts are being made to fine-tune a grading system for recycled components.

The ARA started its Parts Grading Guide so that all individuals involved in the repair process would have a consistent and uniformed guide for grading recycled parts. With different Internet search sites becoming popular and so many of those sites using different grading systems, ASA felt it was in the collision industry's best interest to be a part of the Guide and endorse one easy-to-use, uniform standard.

"The ARA Parts Guide is a tremendous tool for the estimator, the insurer, the counterman at the yard and the parts manager in the shop to be on the same page for describing recycled parts," says ASA Crash Parts Subcommittee Chairman Ron Nagy.

Recently, the ASA Salvage Subcommittee decided to broaden its scope and is now called the ASA Crash Parts Subcommittee, which is composed of ASA collision members interested in crash parts issues, be they recycled, aftermarket or OEM surplus.

In the past, the Crash Parts Subcommittee worked behind the scenes to improve the industry. For example, under committee Chair Harry Moppert, they were able to work with CCC to add the drop-down menus for LKQ parts.

"Through the use of the Guide, the collision repair industry has the ability to uniformly know the condition of the part being priced and know upfront of any damage or cleanup time needed," says Nagy, of Nagy's Collision Center, Doylestown, Ohio.

The ARA Parts Grading and Description Guidelines are intended to improve communication between automotive recyclers and their collision repairer, mechanical repairer and insurer customers. Many customers cannot decipher the codes used to describe the conditions and options of a recycled part. As a result, the part sale goes to another vendor or the recycled part is returned because it did not meet the customer's expectations.

This document brings standardized part descriptions and terminology to the parts inventory process. It identifies common parts and terms used to describe part conditions and part options. By standardizing part descriptions, the recycling industry can more easily set customers expectations and increase sales of recycled parts to companies in the repair process.

According to ARA Electronics Committee and E-Commerce Committee Chair David Gold, who's also the owner of Standard Auto Wreckers in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, the Electronics Committee is responsible for establishing the ARA Parts Grading System and Damage Codes, and the E-Commerce Committee is consistently analyzing additional ways of standardizing the parts grading process.

Gold says recycled OEM parts currently occupy 10 percent of the marketplace. The issue of clarity when it comes to the exact condition of the part, while important for a customer coming into a facility to pick up a part, is absolutely crucial for someone buying a part online to know exactly what they are putting their money down on.

"Because we are dealing with a used product, we do need to be very diligent in how we grade our parts, because they aren't going to be perfect. But if we describe them effectively that's pretty much all we can ask for." says Gold. "Kind of like the eBay philosophy, you've got to highlight all the negatives so that there are no surprises on delivery and that's kind of our whole mantra with parts grading."

The ARA has developed its own language, which is accessible to everyone, including insurers, collision repairers, auto mechanics and the general public. For example, an "A" grade body part has one credit card sized unit of damage or less, a "B" grade part has two units of damage or less, while a "C" grade part has more than two units of damage and an "X" grade part does not contain enough data for the information provider to grade the part.