Page 18 - On The Move - Volume 17, Issue 3

Auto Dealers’ New Challenge:

DISINFECTING

MOVING INVENTORY

By Jim Leman
(This article originally appeared June
4th, 2020 on the WardsAuto website)

the 18-store group Driver’s Village based near
Syracuse, NY. Both dealers have implemented
different solutions to this challenge.
ong after social distancing and the wearing criteria for use against SARS-CoV-2. The EPA
Lof personal protection equipment becomes a provides a list of COVID-19 disinfectants, but “Dealerships using sanitizing wipes, plastic
memory (soon, we pray), consumer alertness to many of these products “are for use on surfaces, steering wheel covers, door-handle covers, and
microbial dangers will remain active, redefining not humans.” similar entry-level solutions to protect staff and
how auto retailers and their customers view and customers are not doing enough,” says Joe Colucci
interact with inventory. Industry organizations have responded to of PermaSafe Protective Coatings, a manufacturer
pandemic risks to dealers. One such provider is of vehicle disinfection and long-term antimicrobial
It’s one thing to disinfect horizontal surfaces, The NADA Coronavirus Hub, which can be found protection products. He had written a LinkedIn post
another to clean vehicles every time one returns at www.nada.org/coronavirus. on the efficacy of various antimicrobials. It ran
from a test drive or a porter moves one off a just before the mid-February National Automobile
transporter. A dealer’s inventory now becomes a MOVING TARGETS Dealers Association convention and expo and
moveable risk. received 1,500 views. A few weeks later, “my
Not so easily sanitized and made safe for views jumped to 400,000,” he says, noting
It’s a safe bet no auto dealer ever thought he consumers is inventory. That task wouldn’t be the spread of the pandemic and the subsequent
or she would also be in the vehicle disinfection such a problem if the vehicles weren’t being moved interest in dealerships reducing COVID-19 risks to
and personal safety business, as the COVID-19 from time to time, which will be increasingly so as their employers and customers.
pandemic has forced upon the industry. But most state-by-state lockdown rules are lifted.
companies – and especially car dealers – are now
in it for the long haul. “That’s a great question, and one that concerns
me as a dealer,” says John Napoleon, dealer
Ensuring customers that the vehicles they sit in, principal for Carson City Hyundai in Carson City,
test drive and take delivery of aren’t COVID-19 NV. “I’m not so naive as to believe we’re going
carriers – or potential sources of other viruses and to be able to clean every vehicle every time
dangerous bacteria – isn’t as simple as stocking someone touches it.”
up on Lysol.
Carson City Hyundai sells 30 new and 50 used
Front-and-center of any disinfectant product cars a month. “We’re training staff on this
evaluation is the product must meet the EPA’s topic,” say Lou Bregou, director of operations for

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