Truck Parts and Service | Heavy Duty Trucking, Aftermarket, Service Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/638172
12 HDAW News CVSN Partnering With NASTF The Commercial Vehicle Solutions Network and NASTF have made it offi cial, announcing at HDAW that CVSN has become a 2016 partner in the National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF). This partnership comes months after NASTF began integrating heavy-duty vehicle OEM technical and diagnostic information into its programs offered on the NASTF website following a historic Memo- randum of Understanding between the Truck & Engine Manufacturers Association and CVSN. "NASTF has been a big help with implementation of the Right to Repair National commercial vehicle service information MOU," says Marc Karon, president of Total Truck Parts and Chairman of the Commerical Vehicle Right to Repair Coalition, led by CVSN. "All of the OEM and supplier website links will be indexed on the NASTF site direct- ing commercial vehicle technicians easily to service information, tools and software." The website also features a Service Information Request tool, which NASTF says allows technicians to submit questions to OEMs when they are unable to fi nd diagnostic and ser- vice information. Each request is then evaluated by NASTF and, if valid, is forwarded to the manufacturer in search of a resolution. T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E | F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 6 Selling Your Business With Professionalism Economists think recession unlikely in 2016 The economy is enjoying its 80 th month of eco- nomic expansion and doesn't show any signs of slowing, at least through this year, says Bob Dieli, president and founder of RDLB, Inc. Dieli, speaking last month at the Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue, benchmarked Truckable Economic Activity (TEA) at $10.6 trillion, calling the odds for a recession through September of this year "very low." Class 8 truck sales, often an economic indicator, have fallen off dramatically in the past three months. But Bill Strauss, senior economist and economic adviser, Federal Re- serve Bank of Chicago, says he doesn't foresee an "economic event horizon" in the foresee- able future. "I continue to think you have to distin- guish between (OEMs)," Dieli adds. "There have been some issues on supply." Additionally, Dieli says it's logical to as- sume that buyers who have pushed truck orders over the past two years simply have all the trucks they can use. "The question becomes this far into the expansion, having had several strong years (of Class 8 truck sales), how many people are still out there that want to buy a truck," he says. "You can only sell them so many trucks." Dieli says economic expansion is always followed by a period of "boom," which he calls the area where the economy starts show- ing instability and is followed by recession. He adds he doesn't foresee a shift from expansion to boom in 2016. "We are getting into a position where we will have a boom," he says, "but I don't see it happening in 2016." TEA, Dieli predicted, will continue to expand this year at a pace similar to 2015, cautioning the industry not read too much into employee cutbacks from OEMs and the trucking industry as a whole. "The fact that economy is growing doesn't mean everybody is growing, fi rst, and growing at the same pace, second," Dieli says. Bob Greenwood wants the after- market to hit the delete button on "trade." Speaking for a second consecutive year at Service Opportunities Learn- ing Days (SOLD) before HDAW, Greenwood says the aftermarket of tomorrow will be defi ned by young people entering the industry today. And he says those youth have no use for "trades." Young people want careers. Greenwood says the aftermarket has that in spades, but marketing such positions as "trade" careers is actively turning off the very people the industry needs to hire. "Get that word out [trade] of your vocabulary. Stop using it," says Greenwood, president and CEO at Automotive Aftermarket E-Learning Centre. "We need to take the aftermarket from a trade to a profession, because that's what this is." He puts that responsibility squarely on business owners. An owner must remain "account- able to the company and to the team" for everyone to thrive, he says. And a thriving business requires talented and committed employees. "Never hire a person again who wants a job. Hire people who want a career," Greenwood says. And don't think of a new hire, or any employee for that matter, as an expense. Greenwood says that couldn't be farther from the truth. "Competent people make money for your business, so why would you consider them a cost?" he says. "A good staff is an investment in your business."