When Charles Calise opened Signature Tire & Auto Care in Tampa, FL, he wanted to make sure his customers had a pleasant experience while waiting for the vehicles to be repaired. The waiting room features a kids-free business center, kids play area and picture windows so customers can watch their vehicles being repair. Calise invested approximately $45,000 into the waiting room and projects to get that back within a year or two.
Raybestos brand brakes – a member of the Affinia family of brands – gets behind technicians with a cash rebate and a business building sweepstakes program … then … four lucky grand prize winners get behind the wheel of a stock car, with racing lessons from “The King,” Richard Petty, and Marcos Ambrose.
Bosch, a major automotive manufacturer and supplier for more than a century, has launched into social marketing on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Canadian Tire, Canada’s most-shopped general merchandise retailer, has selected Rotary Lift as a preferred vendor for alignment lifts in its automotive service centers. Rotary Lift provides the Y-Lift (model YA12) alignment lift for many Canadian Tire dealers across the country. Canadian Tire and its Associate Dealers have 485 stores from coast-to-coast.
As fewer employers offer defined-benefit pension plans and more are using other savings plans, they continue to shift more of the cost burden to their employees. Other benefits offerings that have taken a hit include employee services, like mentoring programs and professional development opportunities, and housing and relocation benefits.
Blue Gavel Press has just released the newly updated Automotive Workplace Guide to EPA & OSHA, 18th Edition. Updated annually, the book addresses the hazardous waste and safety concerns of car dealerships with repair facilities, car rental agencies, paint and body shops, gasoline service stations, lube/oil change shops and other automotive workplaces.
The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) will offer the last of its written certification tests in November. The full complement of 40-plus certification tests for repair professionals and parts specialists will be offered over the course of three evenings on November 10, 15 and 17.
Content has been announced for the Automotive Service & Repair Week (ASRW) Industry Forum and Reception scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 5, from 4:30 p.m.-7 p.m. at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. The forum will conclude the first day of education at ASRW 2011, featuring the NACE and CARS events taking place Oct. 5-8, 2011.
