Current Economic Factors & Risk Relative to Auto Transport and Indie Dealer Business Practices
Transcript
Sean:nHow has the current economy impacted the overall vehicle transport industry like from an independent dealer standpoint?n
nBob :nIndependent dealers are having to look farther afield to get inventory. Inventory is tight for everyone. And so they’re looking farther from their normal market. You know, many of them come to the DFW area, because they’re looking for pickups, or four wheel drives or cars without rust. And then they have to get those back to their market. And that’s where Acertus comes in Trent’s a rock star. I know him from my previous role. So, so as the dealers look farther afield for vehicles, and they’re competing more against the new car stores for those vehicles, because there are no new cars, or there weren’t new cars. That’s why transporting those vehicles back to the dealership becomes so important. Yeah, I said, andn
nSean : nYou’re so knowledgeable in the auto transport arena, as it relates to looking for a great transport partner, what should a dealership avoid and what should a dealership seek out as it relates to a partnership, a good vendor partner in the transport industry.n
nBob :nSo whenever anyone causes a motor carrier to be on the road, when you’ve hired a motor carrier, you need to and that includes auto transport, whether that’s, you know, one of the big 18 wheels with the stacked cars on it, or the guy with a pickup truck and a gooseneck trailer behind it with three cars on it or two cars or one car, when you cause a truck to be on the road, you need to make sure that that motor carrier is properly licensed, does not have an unsatisfactory safety rating, and is properly insured. And you have to do all of that at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website fmcsa.gov. And their system there is called safer sys. n
nMany of our dealers today use services where they can, you know, they can look and hire a motor carrier transport. That service is just a dating service, they’ve done nothing to vet those carriers. They’ve done nothing to make sure that carriers are properly licensed, have better than unsatisfactory safety ratings, and are properly insured. Acertus is a third party logistics company that is looking at those things and making sure that the motor carriers they hire are safe to move that vehicle. n
nSo what happens if you hire an auto transport, and they have an accident and hurt someone, the federal government requires that carrier to have $750,000 in liability insurance. Most motor carriers carry a million. That doesn’t go very far in a lawsuit. So then they go looking for the deep pockets, which could be the dealer that got that truck on the road. And there’s a whole bevy of case law building around this. And that’s why I say dealers who hire motor carriers directly need to have a written system and they need to follow it every time. They have to check that license, they need to check the safety rating and they need to check the insurance every time or they opened themselves up to liability.n
nSean : nI would have never thought that there was so much potential exposure, legal exposure at the transportation level. And it’s interesting how many dealers focus around red flags or the financial compliance side of things. But on the logistics side, maybe don’t pay much attention to it. So this is great info. If you’reu2026 2n
nBob :nIt’s just because there haven’t been lawsuits in this sector yet. But in a downturn economy, even lawyers have downturns and they start looking for new areas to sue or expand into . You know, as you drive around the country and you look at billboards, you’ll see lawyers advertising, been in a truck accident, call me. That’s what they’re doing. They’re suing the trucking company, their insurance company and the people who caused that truck to be on the road.nn
nBob :nIndependent dealers are having to look farther afield to get inventory. Inventory is tight for everyone. And so they’re looking farther from their normal market. You know, many of them come to the DFW area, because they’re looking for pickups, or four wheel drives or cars without rust. And then they have to get those back to their market. And that’s where Acertus comes in Trent’s a rock star. I know him from my previous role. So, so as the dealers look farther afield for vehicles, and they’re competing more against the new car stores for those vehicles, because there are no new cars, or there weren’t new cars. That’s why transporting those vehicles back to the dealership becomes so important. Yeah, I said, andn
nSean : nYou’re so knowledgeable in the auto transport arena, as it relates to looking for a great transport partner, what should a dealership avoid and what should a dealership seek out as it relates to a partnership, a good vendor partner in the transport industry.n
nBob :nSo whenever anyone causes a motor carrier to be on the road, when you’ve hired a motor carrier, you need to and that includes auto transport, whether that’s, you know, one of the big 18 wheels with the stacked cars on it, or the guy with a pickup truck and a gooseneck trailer behind it with three cars on it or two cars or one car, when you cause a truck to be on the road, you need to make sure that that motor carrier is properly licensed, does not have an unsatisfactory safety rating, and is properly insured. And you have to do all of that at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website fmcsa.gov. And their system there is called safer sys. n
nMany of our dealers today use services where they can, you know, they can look and hire a motor carrier transport. That service is just a dating service, they’ve done nothing to vet those carriers. They’ve done nothing to make sure that carriers are properly licensed, have better than unsatisfactory safety ratings, and are properly insured. Acertus is a third party logistics company that is looking at those things and making sure that the motor carriers they hire are safe to move that vehicle. n
nSo what happens if you hire an auto transport, and they have an accident and hurt someone, the federal government requires that carrier to have $750,000 in liability insurance. Most motor carriers carry a million. That doesn’t go very far in a lawsuit. So then they go looking for the deep pockets, which could be the dealer that got that truck on the road. And there’s a whole bevy of case law building around this. And that’s why I say dealers who hire motor carriers directly need to have a written system and they need to follow it every time. They have to check that license, they need to check the safety rating and they need to check the insurance every time or they opened themselves up to liability.n
nSean : nI would have never thought that there was so much potential exposure, legal exposure at the transportation level. And it’s interesting how many dealers focus around red flags or the financial compliance side of things. But on the logistics side, maybe don’t pay much attention to it. So this is great info. If you’reu2026 2n
nBob :nIt’s just because there haven’t been lawsuits in this sector yet. But in a downturn economy, even lawyers have downturns and they start looking for new areas to sue or expand into . You know, as you drive around the country and you look at billboards, you’ll see lawyers advertising, been in a truck accident, call me. That’s what they’re doing. They’re suing the trucking company, their insurance company and the people who caused that truck to be on the road.nn