Dear campaigners,
The year has started off at a furious pace. We are excited about the progress we see on the cards for the Right to Repair Campaign this year and appreciate your continued support.
If you missed it, there was a thrilling victory for the Australian Right to Repair campaign in December.In essence, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Final Report into The New Car Retailing Industry was released on 14 December 2017. The ACCC’s Final Report recommends a mandatory scheme that will compel all car companies operating in Australia to share the same repair and service information that they currently share with their dealerships, with independent repairers on fair and reasonable commercial terms.
The Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA) Executive Director, Stuart Charity, said, “This is a David and Goliath story. A group of small independent repairers spread throughout the country with limited political skill and very limited resources, took on the might of the multinational car companies. The car industry leveraged their financial, lobbying and marketing power to criticise the skill and credentials of our industry, telling Government that all vehicle repair and service information was being made available but independent repairers didn’t have skills to use it. The ACCC has refuted those claims and the evidence supports our seven-year Choice of Repairer campaign.”
For us, this is great news as it highlights what is happening in other countries where the Right to Repair campaigns have been active. It also proves that the objectives of the R2R campaign in SA are nothing unusual and are being successful adopted in other countries.
We also touched base with Aaron Lowe, Senior Vice President, Regulatory and Government Affairs, Auto Care Association, on how the Right to Repair campaign has come into effect in the US. Lowesays that since the Right to Repair agreement with the manufacturers went into effect in 2014 car companies have been required to make available, at a reasonable cost, the same information, tools and software they make available to their franchised dealers.
With the recent introduction of the model year 2018 vehicles, new requirements have come into effect that require car companies to maintain all of their repair and diagnostic software in the cloud and make it available for download on a subscription basis. Independent workshop technicians must be able to access the vehicle utilising a standardised interface meeting industry standards.
These new requirements mean that a workshop should have the ability to repair nearly any vehicle that comes in without having to purchase proprietary tools that cost upwards of $10,000 to $20,000. “While we believe that aftermarket tools will still be the choice for most shops, this will provide increased options for independent shops in repairing late model vehicles,” he says. With a few exceptions, he says the vast majority of vehicle manufacturers claim they are fully compliant.
We believe that these case studies are great benchmarks and will continue working with the Competition Commission to ensure the industry code takes these international learnings into consideration.
Once again many thanks to the sponsors who have already pledged their support. We will continue to need support this year so if you are interested in joining the campaign as a sponsor please email the campaign’s executive assistant, Elizabeth Le Roux on elizabeth@r2r.org.zaor call 087 110 0848.
Spread the word by liking our Facebook page and joining us on Twitter:
https://www.facebook.com/Right-to-Repair-SA-888881121278103/
Twitter: @Right2RepairSA
For more information visit our website:https://www.right2repair.org.za
To meet the steering committee – click here
For a snapshot of media coverage – click here.
Right to repair – it’s your choice!
The R2RSA committee