General

In our last blog post, we talked about how maintaining small, positive changes over a period of time can bring about solid returns.  The idea of achieving a goal doesn’t seem overwhelming when we look at it this way, and we are more likely to maintain our progress as we are not being asked for monumental, superhuman efforts every single day.

As we also pointed out, it helps to discontinue certain small, negative behaviours that, over the long run, add up to fairly substantial impediments or growth-negaters.  For example, if you are chronically late to work everyday by ten minutes and don’t make up that time anywhere else, you will eventually lose a sizable chunk of time.  Over the course of three months, you’re looking at 12.5 hours.  That’s quite a bit.  On top of that, you are probably not starting your day off with a clear mind because you are rushed, stressed, and the space in your brain is taken up with a whole range of negative feelings because you are late.  There’s not much space left for healthy, productive, positive behaviours.  If you turn this around, however, and start arriving 10 minutes early, then you will be giving yourself the gift of an easily-found extra 12.5 hours over three months PLUS a mind that is less-stressed and calmer, more able to start the day successfully.

With these ideas in mind, a challenge you can set yourself involves two things:

1.  Which behaviours, actions or improvements can you begin including in your day that might seem small but are actually important?  For example, I really don’t like looking at my bank balance on a regular basis (even when I’m doing okay) just because I dread finding out that I am in worse shape than I thought.  In the times that I have been able to get into the habit of checking my balance daily (ideally in the morning), I have been able to plan correctly and save myself from being overdrawn or slowly chewing away at my bank account through unnecessary transactions.  At times, I have been able to hold onto cash for emergencies that have arisen, or even invested it somewhere.  That is always a positive thing.
2. The flip-side of this is what kinds of small, negative, perhaps lazy habits can you eliminate over a period of time in order to end up with a positive result?  A classic example is take-away coffee.  Going to your local coffee shop every morning on the way to work and getting a latte starts to add up.  Take-out coffee on its own can easily reach an extra $100/month, and in order to eliminate this cost, you just need to set up the habit of making enough coffee for yourself at home before you leave the house.  Setting up a new habit and breaking an old one can seem like a tall order at times, but if we actually give ourselves that time to get used to things, we will be successful (and, in this case, a little bit richer).

In both of these cases, finding different things to change involves seeing where you are already doing something well, and adding one more positive behaviour to it, or, seeing where you’re doing something that ends up being a negative and eliminating.  In both cases, it’s just a matter of taking some time and analyzing basic behaviours.

With TPI, there are also ways that our system can help you, in small, incremental amounts to achieve greater profit and success.  Once you are up and running with the system and have gotten used to the different basic functions, you can start branching out and taking a look at some different features.  Here are a couple that are entirely beneficial when implemented as regular, rapid routines.

1.  Truck Model Profitability:  in the Sellers’ Account Settings, go to Profit and then Reports.  From there, you go to Inventory and then to Truck Model Profitability.  This report quickly tells you which models are selling the best and it is a quick visual snapshot that, if you look at it regularly, will help you direct your future purchases on a consistent basis.  
2. Missed Sales:  a technical explanation of how to use this feature is on our support site, but essentially it is a handy way to track what kind of items you might want to start including in your inventory if there seems to be a demand for them.  Like the Truck Model Profitability feature, Missed Sales can be easily fit into a morning routine to help orient the days and your purchases.
3. TPI is full of many different features, and most of them can be quick and easy to use.  Take a look at this blog post and this one, and you will have a handy set of twenty new ideas that can help you get where you want to go, faster.

Overall, using TPI is quick and easy, and even it’s most basic features will help you save time simply by being more organized and systematic.  Adding in any of the different features we have mentioned here will only increase your profitability as you maintain a closer relationship with what is actually happening and can make better decisions for the future.  We encourage you to implement features one by one, and you’ll start to see a difference in a very short period of time.

When we think about the changes we want to make in our lives, be it personal or business, we often think of the efforts required to achieve a goal as being of the superhuman variety. For example, we know that increasing our profits a certain percentage within 6 months is a really good idea, and when we think about the steps we need to implement to achieve that, we go and get out our superhero cape and extra-vision goggles and sit down and start planning.  After about 15 minutes or so of jotting down ideas, we end up with a massive amount of work staring back at us that seems to resemble a giant boulder.  Being human, we quietly say to ourselves, “Oh.  Wow.”  We put the cape and goggles back into the closet, and humbly go back to doing what we were doing before, convinced that we will never increase our profit in 6 months because, well, it’s just too hard.

Well, no, it’s not.  And here’s why:

We are human, and we like to be grand.  We also live in the present but so often project ourselves into the future, thinking, planning, scheming, imagining great things for our lives. The only problem with this is that the present, the only time we have to actually get stuff done, starts to slip away from us as we dream and plan away.  To make the problem worse, we also understandably become overwhelmed when we look at the steps required to achieve the goals we set for ourselves and so we end up not doing anything at all.  We sit and stew and feel bad and keep doing what we’ve always done, too discouraged to change a thing.

And that’s where the biggest problem lies:  we become too discouraged to change a thing.

But there are different ways of approaching this dilemma, and one of them actually seems kind of, well, easy. You see, there is a theory of change that is called the Aggregation of Marginal Gains which, in spite of its somewhat forbidding name, can make the process of change much easier to start.

The idea behind this theory is that if we can make a 1% positive change in our habits every day over a year, we will start to see a significant change at the end of this period of time.  The theory gained prominence when it was put into practice in 2010 by Dave Brailsford*, who was the new General Manager and Performance Director for Team Sky, Great Britain’s professional cycling team.  No British rider had ever won a Tour de France before, but Brailsford wanted to change that, and he gave the team 5 years to accomplish this goal.  They ended up achieving this goal within 3 years when Sir Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France in 2012.

How did they mange this?  Brailsford and his team focussed on making 1% positive changes in all aspects of their training, from the most essential to the least important, but bit by bit, gradually, they began to see changes.  The best part was, none of these changes felt overwhelming or difficult at the time because they weren’t huge.

And the same can be true for you:  making small changes and keeping with them on a regular basis can reap a larger change further down the road.  You just need to be consistent and stay on track, as much as possible.  On the days when you get lazy or don’t quite stick to your goals, you can shake it off and get back at it the next day.  A few days here and there won’t destroy anything, and that on its own is encouraging, as well as human.

Of course, the opposite is also true: the small negative habits we engage in on a daily basis, over a period of time, will eventually have a much larger impact than we realize.  The opportunity here, then, becomes stopping or changing these small habits, neutralizing them, and seeing where that leads us.  It can only be up!

In our next post, we will talk about some of the ways TPI can help you with the small changes necessary to create large results, and help the process of profitability become a little bit easier to manage.

(with special thanks to Brendon Gamblin, Sales Professional Extraordinaire at TPI, for suggesting this topic)

* The source for this information comes from this text:  http://jamesclear.com/marginal-gains

When customers call in to look for a part from the TPI inventory, we will often ask them for part numbers or other identifiers in order to make the search more accurate and efficient.  Other than a VIN number however (which is also included in registration papers), it is not always easy to find where these numbers might be found on the parts.  In this article, we will talk a bit about general locations and the types of numbers to look for.

General Information

In general, finding identifying numbers on a part is not an obvious task.  Each manufacturer will have their own place to put numbers, and this place will sometimes change between models.

VIN

As mentioned above, a VIN number can be found on registration or title papers for the truck.  If you don’t have these on hand, you will be able to find the number in one of several places, depending on the make of the truck. For example, a Peterbilt will often have the number under the lock on the side of the driver’s side door, or on a plaque underneath the steering wheel.  Alternatively, some trucks will place the VIN on the frame itself, not always the easiest place to get to.

Above:  VIN found on the door frame of a Peterbilt.

Above:  VIN found next to the steering wheel in a Peterbilt.

Engines

In addition to knowing the model of the engine you are looking for, it is always useful to have the serial number and CPL (Control Parts List) or ARR number on hand. Both of these identifiers can be found on a metal plaque called the engine data plate that is on the engine but, again, it is in a different place for each manufacturer and model.  In general, however, it should not be that difficult to find.

Engine data plate on a Cummins.

Transmission

If you have the VIN number, you will be able to find information on your transmission.  If not, then you can look for a code that is stamped onto the case or a tag that has been riveted to it.  If you can find neither one of these, then you can take a look at certain features which will help determine what kind of transmission you have. For example, what shape is it (square, like Louisiana or Texas, etc.)?  How many bolts are there? All of this information will help the parts dealer in the absence of any other identifying information.

If your transmission has a plate, it will be found on an area such as this one (there was a plate here at one point, but somewhere in its travels it fell off).

Axles

Again, different manufacturers will put the identifying numbers in different places. With Rockwell, for example, the numbers can be found on the front of the axle shaft cover and on the edge of it.  Take a look around the part to see if there is either a tag or embossed numbers.

A Rockwell axle cover with numbers on the front…

…and on top.

Locating parts when you really need them is not always the easiest of tasks, but TPI makes it more efficient.  And, the more information you can have when you call in, the faster we will be able to help you find your part.

Holst Truck Parts of Ucon, Idaho has been in continuous operation for 85 years with at least one member of the family always at the helm.  James “Ted” Holst started a welding and repair shop in 1932, working on automobiles, farm equipment, trucks, anything that was mechanical.  The shop started in the early years of the Depression, and people were unable to afford new equipment, so repairs became common.  Then came World War II, and manufacturing was directed towards the war effort and people continued to repair and maintain what they already had.  Holst began to build up  a small supply of different parts as he went about his business, and, eventually, people began asking to buy them.  In this way, Holst’s salvage yard was born.

The business continued to grow and establish itself, and in 1972 Ted Holst retired.  The company was headed now by his son Jon and his wife, Shauna.  Under their stewardship, Holst Truck Parts grew from 2 – 3 employees to the almost 30 they have today.  As in many successful family businesses, this growth didn’t necessarily happen because someone went away to study theories and cases, returning later to apply this knowledge.  The growth that Holst’s experienced under Jon came instead from dedication, commitment, and hands-on-learning:  Jon Holst had worked with his father during childhood and adolescence.  When he took over the company, his strong work ethic saw him involved in every aspect of the business, from buying salvage to pulling parts off trucks to working at the counter and selling inventory.  His complete exposure to all aspects of the business paid off, and the company developed steadily.

Jon was also able to understand the need for adaptability and openness in running a business, and this was seen in particular in 1994 when the company first went to a DOS computer system.  Although Jon initially hesitated to take the step (everything was already in his head and in a catalog system), the investment paid off:  the organization and availability of the data made possible through the use of a computerized system made everything more efficient and easy-to-use.  After that, in 2014, there was the creation of a website and then advertising online.  With these last two innovations, Holst Truck Parts went from being a regional company to an international one, shipping not just within the United States but also to Canada and elsewhere.

In the middle of these transitions to a greater use of technology, Jon’s sons, Chris and Mike, began working in the company.  Like their father, they had grown up alongside the salvage yard, playing in cement truck barrels and climbing on top of school buses as children, and later, as teenagers, joy-riding in all sorts of new inventory.  Both of them developed a love for trucks and spent summers learning different parts of the business.  Now, as co-owners along with Jon and Shauna, they are completely involved and committed, bringing dedication and a desire to serve their customer well.

A key component of their business is just this:  customer service.  And not just in terms of answering questions well or being polite (although that is also extremely important), but in genuinely taking care of the customer.  Chris Holst considers the company to be a contributor to the industry and a solution to the customer’s needs.  He says that, for example, the “agriculture business is a major part of what we do, and with commodity prices flat and the cost of production up, we feel we ease the burden of a lot of our customers.  We owe it to our customers, it’s why we are here.”  For Chris, their customer base is exceptional, and he finds happiness in interacting daily with new and long-term clients.  He feels he owes it to their customers to do their best, because they are why Holst’s exists.

For Holst Truck parts then, excellence in their yard comes from commitment, dedication, and service, as well as openness to new ideas and ways of doing things.  The business is a family affair, and its sincere engagement with its client creates yet another family, that of return and happy customers.

http://www.holsttruck.com/

Holst Truck Parts in Ucon, Idaho has been shipping on a regular basis for a very long time, but until 2014, the majority of their activity was regional.  In late 2014, Holst started using Truck Parts Inventory, an online marketplace for heavy-duty truck parts, and since that time they have been sending parts all over the country as well as internationally.  All of this activity has given them solid experience in shipping, and so we asked Chris Holst, one of the co-owners, to share some of what he knew with us.  Here are a few things we learned:

1. General advice for those starting out in shipping internationally:  Shipping is not as hard as it seems, there are brokers out there who know the ins and outs of the industry and they will guide you.  Don’t get discouraged, it is possible to include it as part of your business, and after doing it a few times it does get easier.

2. A mistake they learned from: Holst once shipped a crate to Denmark, and learned the hard way that the Danish requirements for the wood used as crates were very specific, and they hadn’t researched this beforehand.  The shipment came back, and they had to re-crate it and re-send it, incurring more costs as well as some inconvenience.  Lesson:  when you are shipping, every country is going to have its own regulations, even down to the kind of wood you can use for the crating.  Do your research, investigate, and make sure you have learned as much as possible about the destination before sending that shipment on its way.

3. How has this substantial increase in shipping affected the business: it has had a very good impact.  The company has grown to the point where it is now no longer regional, and there are customers all over the world.  For Holst Trucks, shipping is a natural extension of a value they consider important:  customer service.  If a potential customer is far away, and shipping is necessary to get them the part they want, Holst’s commitment to taking care of the client’s needs means that shipping the part to the customer is what they do.  It’s not just about doing more business, it’s about doing business in alignment with your values and seeing increases that way.

When a company is just starting out with shipping that goes beyond regional, there are always doubts and hesitation as the topic can seem big and overwhelming.  However, as Chris Holst so rightly points out above, there are professionals out there who are a part of the process (Customs Brokers) and they will help you on your way.  In general, shipping is a task that can be learned as you go, and, again, as Holst says, doing it on a regular basis brings experience, and soon enough it is just another part of your business, another way of ensuring that all of your potential customers are taken care of.

You have decided to start exporting from Canada to the United States, but the whole prospect seems just a little bit overwhelming (okay, a lot overwhelming) and the idea of sifting through all the paperwork and figuring out the basic steps is a job you just don’t want to tackle. Well, in order to help you, we have put together some pointers here with an overall look at who does what, and how to get from A to Z without losing your mind.

Before getting into the specifics, it should be mentioned that when you first start out, you will need to be talking to people with previous export experience, asking questions, and generally being open to gathering advice from different corners. If you take a look at the websites of different Customs Brokers, you will find sections on exporting to the United States along with the requisite forms. Government websites have a lot of information, and are necessary resources, but they can seem overwhelming. That being said, the US Customs and Border Protection Agency has two well-laid out and informative pages on exporting to the United States, and they are good to look at once you have an idea of how it all functions. These websites are here and here.

You also need to keep in mind that the learning curve can seem steep, but eventually you will have enough experience to know what you need to do and what can be left out, depending on the part you are shipping.

Our First Shipment
So, let’s get started. We are going to use a scenario where we have a fictitious Alberta company that is selling an $8000 engine to a company in Montana. Let’s see what we need to do to get this going by looking at who will be involved where, and the documents:

Who

Seller in Canada
Buyer in the US
Shipper (probably originating in) Canada
Customs Broker (on the American side of the border)

Key Documents

Commercial Invoice
NAFTA Country of Origin Form
Bill of Lading
Bill of Sale
Packing List
(keep in mind that most documents have instructions on them for filling them out correctly, and if you have questions along the way you can ask your Shipper and/or Customs Brokers for help)

Before Shipping
We need a Business Number from the CRA that will allow us to obtain an import/export account (free of charge). If you don’t have a Business Number or have one and want to set up the import/export account, you can call the CRA’s Business Window at 1-800-959-5525, or visit the CRA’s Business Registration Online link here.

Determine the Country of Origin for the goods we are exporting: this information is key, and will be needed on an essential document later, the NAFTA Country of Origin Form. With this information, it can be determined if the parts being shipped are eligible for preferential tariffs under the NAFTA agreement. The information can usually be found on any original paperwork obtained when you originally bought the part, or by calling the manufacturer and finding out.

Certain goods can’t be exported from Canada (i.e. black bear claws and counterfeit money), and while our engine might seem to be a safe export, we can still look at the Government of Canada’s website here.

We might want to determine if our shipment will be subject to any permits, restrictions or regulations by the Canada Border Services Agency or other departments. The link to go to is this one.

Also, when we are dealing with vehicles and automotive parts, there are often times environmental regulations involved and the website to look at is from the American Environmental Protection Agency, here. With engines in particular, because they emit pollution, there are certain regulations they have to conform to, and this form has to be included in the shipment.

In terms of shipping costs, if our Buyer is using their own Shipper and Customs Broker (see below for information on both), we don’t have to worry about it as the bills will go to them. However, if we are providing the Shipper and Customs Broker, we will need to contact them with details on the shipment so they can give us a quote which we will include in our estimate to the Buyer. Once the Buyer accepts this estimate, we can go ahead with the next steps.

During Shipping
The Shipping Company
Now that we have figured out we can send our engine to the United States without too many problems, and our Buyer has agreed to the sale, we need to determine who the Shipper is going to be if the Buyer is not supplying their own. We choose between road, train and air depending on the urgency of the delivery and the amount of shipping a buyer will pay. The Shipper will put together a Bill of Lading, which is a detailed list of our shipment in the form of a receipt from them to us. The Shipper will give us a copy, and the document will accompany the shipment through Customs and to the final destination.

The Documents
The Bill of Lading needs fairly exact information on it, and this will come from a Packing List. While a Packing List is not necessarily the responsibility of the Seller, we are going to put it together as we know our product well and will probably make fewer mistakes than a third-party. The Shipper could do it when they arrive for pick-up, but we can do it as well.

The Shipper will arrange for a pick-up at our facility and we will provide to them a Commercial Invoice as well as the NAFTA Certificate of Origin Form. The Commercial Invoice is a standard document for international shipments and it identifies the goods being shipped as well as the Buyer, Seller and details on the actual shipment (date of shipment, etc.). For the Commercial Invoice, we also need the Harmonized Code (or HS, the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System) for our engine. The HS is a 6-digit number that comes from the World Customs Organization (WCO), an independent intergovernmental organization. The HS numbers classify and identify products in an internationally standardized system in order to facilitate international trade. You can find a listing of the codes here.

The NAFTA Certificate of Origin Form will ask for much of the information above in addition to tax identification numbers (your CRA number, the Buyer’s IRS number) and country of origin for the engine (as the name of the form implies) as well as the HS number. This form will determine whether or not your shipment will qualify for tariff reductions under NAFTA.

Once the Shipper has the previously mentioned documents in order, they will send the information through a third party to the US Customs Border Agency for a pre-clearance which will make getting through the border must faster. These documents plus a Bill of Sale will also be sent to the Customs Broker we have at the border (more on that next), who will then later receive the pre-clearance approval number which will allow admittance of our shipment to Customs.

The Customs Broker
To import a commercial shipment into the United States, American law requires that we have a Customs Broker on the American side of the border to provide the paperwork to the US Customs Border Agency, pay immediately for all duties and taxes and generally take care of clearance. Our Buyer might have a Customs Broker of their own if they import often enough and they will deal with the relevant fees on their own. If our Buyer does not have a Customs Broker, we can find one ourselves (preferably one who also has an office in Canada to make things easier). If we are not sure how often we will be exporting, we can set up a one-time account which will allow the Broker to act for us with this one shipment. If we think that we are going to export more frequently and would like to offer the service to future clients (they would be billed for this, obviously; we don’t pay for brokerage fees or duties and taxes unless it somehow seems necessary and still leaves us with a profit), we can set up a permanent account. This would require a Customs Power of Attorney (to allow them to act for us), some sort of a bond depending on the estimated value of exports in one year (this bond is filed with US Customs to cover all fees, duties, etc.) as well as a credit application. There might be other forms to fill out depending on the Customs Broker we go with.

To go back to the shipping: with the pre-clearance number, the Customs Broker will send the documents to the US Customs Border Agency and be available at the time of the shipment’s arrival for any questions. If all of the paperwork is in order and the Customs officials approve the shipment, the truck will be allowed through and our part will be on its way to the Buyer.

The Buyer
Because exporting to an individual can be tricky, we are going to normally be selling to businesses or, at least, individuals who can act through a business. If we are delivering by truck, we need to keep in mind that the truck needs to have a proper space to unload the shipment and have it received.

After Shipping
Once our shipment has been received and all is in order, the only thing we have left to deal with is filing our paperwork and then any accounting. We’re done! (until the next shipment, that is).

Businesses have personalities, just as people do, and these personalities take shape in different ways.  Certain businesses develop through their products, others are known for their leaders, and still others are formed out of the circumstances of a place.  Busbee’s Trucks and Parts belongs to the latter group, and its connection to the town of  Wagener, South Carolina is a deep and abiding one which owes much to its owner, Doug Busbee.

The town of Wagener, South Carolina is a small town with a population that generally hovers around 800.   Its first organization as a settlement dates back to 1887 when it was known as Pinder Town.  Later, it became Guntersville, and then, eventually, Wagener, from the last name of George Wagener, an important Charleston citizen who had helped bring the railroad through.  The family of Doug Busbee can trace its roots in South Carolina all the way back to Charleston in the 1780’s.  They have been in Wagener from the beginning and are an essential part of the town.

When he first opened in 1987, Busbee had a two-bay body shop which then grew into a slightly larger paint/body shop as well as a small auto salvage yard.  The town was sufficiently prosperous for him to rely on local traffic for business, and Busbee’s experienced a steady growth.  At that time, Wagener, like so many other places in the South, was dependent on the textile business for its survival.  The cotton business had come to South Carolina in the late nineteenth century, its factories and mills dominating much of the state’s manufacturing.  For Wagener, it was during the 1920’s that cotton became an important part of the town’s economy, and the town website states that “huge bales lined the streets awaiting departure via train.  The children of Wagener frolicked among the hay bales during their games of hide-n-seek.”  (http://www.wagenersc.com/content/wageners-history).

In 1949, the Wagener Manufacturing Corporation came into existence, starting out with the  manufacturing of shirts.  Over the years, it added other items to its product mix, including robes, sleepwear and swimwear.  At its peak in the mid-1980’s, it had about 450 employees, including many local Wagener residents and others from communities close by.  In 1999, bowing to the economic pressure of lower-cost overseas manufacturing, the company closed its doors.  The effect this closure had on Wagener was significant, and many people suffered.

For Busbee, this meant that his once reliable local market shrunk considerably.  Between the years of 1998 to 2004, there was a struggle to stay afloat.  Those were lean years, he says, and there were moments when making payroll was difficult.  The body shop eventually closed, and the scrap yard became the main source of income.  In 2006, he entered the Medium Duty Truck market, specializing in Mitsubishi FUSOs, Isuzu, and UD trucks.  He decided to slowly phase out the car salvage portion of his business, and eventually, the yard became just trucks.  Now, in 2017, Busbee has over 2000 parts trucks available for customers, and his business is solid.  This growth and stability, however, haven’t come just from deciding to focus on medium duty truck parts alone.  There was another factor that came into play, starting in 2004, that really changed everything.  And, just like switching to medium duty trucks was a risk, this second factor also involved risk, as well as seeing the need to change and adapt to new conditions.

In 2004, Busbee was introduced to the idea of putting his salvage inventory onto a website for advertising, and this first appearance on the internet was the beginning of a mighty transformation.  Almost overnight, his customer base was different.  Gone were the days of a local shop existing within the local economy.  Now, the majority of his new customers were from out-of-town and out-of-state, and his business began to grow again.  Then, more decisively, in 2008 he listened to the advice of a good friend and built his own website.  Suddenly, his business was international, and he hasn’t looked back since.   Today, in 2017, he no longer has customers in Wagener itself, and the closest one is 30 miles away.  International sales are a main feature of his business, and he even has several Spanish-speaking employees in order to serve that market better.   His ability to recognize the need to do something differently, as well as to adapt to a new way of doing things, is what allowed the strength of the internet to flourish in his company and provide a market he could not have imagined possible.

But how does this expansion into out-of-town and foreign markets fit into the image of a company that is firmly of its place and its people?  First, this foray into other markets was partly prompted by the state of the local economy, and was a response to it.  Secondly, employment.  When I asked Busbee what the main motivator was for him now as a business owner, he said simply, “Poverty.”  After the loss of the textile business, Busbee saw a deep decline in Wagener as many people lost their livelihoods and families struggled to get by.  His business was one of the few in town that managed to keep its head above water and provide some employment, but as we have seen, he suffered as well.  After 2004 however, with the growth provided by the new American markets, Busbee needed more people, and today he has 20 full-time employees and 3 part-time.  His company is one of the main employers in town, and his expansion has benefitted not just him, but the people around him.  He has also shared his experience with other businesses in Wagener, and the town has seen a growth based on opening up to other markets online.  For somebody so fully from a place, this positive influence is a fine accomplishment indeed.

Finally, Doug Busbee is not just a businessman, he is a family man, and his business practices reflect this.  Before every major holiday, there is a dinner at work. There are weekly devotionals where everyone can take a  turn delivering the message.  He encourages his employees to spend time with their families, and turnover in his shop is low because people feel connected and necessary.  Busbee has also employed students part-time over the years, mentoring them inside and outside of working hours, taking them camping, fishing, etc.  Some have become full-time employees since graduation, remaining with the company.  Doug Busbee’s main product might be truck parts, but one could say that what his company actually produces is the best of what one can find in a place, and in a family:  belonging, stability, and purpose.  His integration of work, family and town is no surprise given his connection to Wagener:  who better than someone with deep roots to respond thoughtfully and organically to the needs of the town?  Busbee’s Trucks and Parts is not just a business, it’s an integral part of the town of Wagener, adapting to changes and helping to create a better future.

Busbee’s Trucks and Parts:  http://www.busbeetruckparts.com/

Town of Wagener, South Carolina:  http://www.wagenersc.com/

Busbee’s Trucks and Parts

Doug Busbee started Busbee’s Trucks and Parts in 1987 as a small paint and auto body shop, and has seen his business through changes both great and small in his home town of Wagener, South Carolina.  Wagener, a small town with a population that seems to hover around 800, was once busy with work provided by the Wagener Manufacturing Company.  In the late 1990’s, however, the Manufacturing Company closed up shop and left, like so many other companies forced out of business as textile manufacturing moved overseas.  The town lost employment as well as the overall economic activity generated by having a large facility in their midst, and everyone suffered, including Busbee’s.

In 2004, things started to turn around at Busbee’s, not because manufacturing had come back, but rather because Doug was able to see the benefit of change in two different ways:  he started uploading his salvage inventory onto a website on the internet and greatly increased his potential audience.  He also took a chance in 2006 and expanded into medium-duty trucks for his salvage yard.  Now, in 2017, Doug has 20 full-time employees and 3 part-time, up from 6 full-time and 3 part-time in 2004.  Over the past few years, he has been sufficiently confident in the stability of his company to enter into local politics, working to protect the health of the river he has known since his childhood, the Edisto.

Within these 30 years, Doug has seen a lot and learned a lot, and if he were to give advice to someone starting out now in the salvage business, he would say this:

1. Surround yourself with good people and then take care of them:  In return, they will take care of you.  Certain things are simple:  if you want respect, you must show respect.  (if you take a look at the Busbee website, you will see in the company profile that there is a certain longevity to the employees who are with him, many for at least 5 years and others upwards of 25).

2. Keep things clean:

• Your yard: seriously, on a very practical level, keep your yard clean on a consistent basis.  When your trucks come in, drain them as soon as you can.  Keep things organized and manageable, don’t let things pile up or get out of hand.  It’s always easier to get things done right in the beginning than having to go back afterwards and clean up a mess that just expands;
• Your records: keep your financial records straight and clean.  If you get behind or do things inconsistently, it will catch up with you and it won’t be fun.  This also relates to having good people on board:  whoever is in charge of your records needs to be organized and on top of things.

3. Embrace change: you will have to change at certain points along the way, and you need to accept this.  If you are resistant to change or don’t see it as a necessity, you won’t progress.  When Busbee took a chance on the internet in 2004, for example, it changed everything.  At the very moment he needed to find a different customer base, the internet gave it to him though his website.  Had he not had the internet, his company would not have survived.  Same thing with taking on the medium duty truck market in 2006:  had he not diversified in this way, he would not have grown the way he has.

If you have been in business for 30 years, you’ll learn a few things along the way, and Doug Busbee is certainly an example of that.  The advice he has to give is solid and based on reality and will steer you in the right direction.

http://www.busbeetruckparts.com/

Before I started working for TPI, I would drive by salvage yards and stare at the heaps of gutted vehicles piled high into the air, and think that all of those heaps could only mean one thing:  bad stuff for the environment.  I mean, the equation generally looks like this:  vehicle = environmental problem.  Am I right?  Well, not exactly.  Now that I have more experience with what salvage yards do and how they can function, I know that they can actually be considered environmental stewards when they are doing things correctly, as well as being involved in the largest recycling industry in the United States, the automotive one.  The answer to my question, then, is ‘yes,’ salvage yards CAN be green.  Let’s take a look at how that can happen.

When we think of vehicles in environmental terms, we tend to think of them as being less than green.  Their carbon footprint is large, and the majority of this impact comes from the manufacturing process and  the subsequent use of fossil fuels in their running.  However, at the end of a vehicle’s life, this carbon footprint can be reduced in a variety of ways, and the environmentally responsible management of salvage yards can help make a necessary industry (vehicle dismantling) a green one.  We will start by looking at some of the ways salvage yards implement the 3 R’s, reduce, reuse and recycle:

1. Gas tanks and batteries: Gas tanks are punctured, emptied and removed, and then shredded for scrap metal (se no. 4 below).  The fuel is then reused by recyclers or sold for re-use.  Batteries are tested and ones that are in good condition are sold for re-use.  If they are not in good shape, they are sent out to be rebuilt or recycled.

2. Tires: Tires that are still in good shape (with lots of tread life) are sold for re-use, and those that are no longer safe can be sold to recyclers and processed in different ways.   Tires represent a problem in terms of landfill due to their non-decomposability, size, and shape.  As well, when they are sitting around in landfills, they collect rainwater and become breeding grounds for insects and the diseases they carry.  Because of the need to get them out of landfills, recycling them has become an important industry.  Currently, recycled tires can be transformed into playground and transportation surfaces, garden mulch, shoe treads, and a whole lot of other useful things, including a type of fuel.

3. Usable parts: as the vehicle is dismantled, usable parts are removed, inventoried and put up for sale, thereby providing an alternative to the purchase of new parts.  A reduction in the demand for new parts equates to a reduction in the environmental impact caused by their manufacture.

4. Unusable hulk (shell of the vehicle): This portion of the vehicle is crushed and sent to be shredded into small pieces for recovery.  The metals are divided up into ferrous (iron) and non-ferrous and sold to scrap-metal recyclers.  By using scrap metal in different products (including new cars), we reduce, again, the damaging effects of manufacturing from new.

5. Fluids: automotive fluids (anti-freeze, washer fluid, Freon and other refrigerants) pose a significant risk to the environment, and government bodies normally encourage strict standards of drainage and storage (see below for more information on storm water).  With these standards followed, there is a much lower risk of ground and water being contaminated.  The ARA (Automotive Recyclers Association) estimates that each year the industry collects and reuses or recycles:

• 8 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel
• 24 million gallons of motor oil
• 8 million gallons of engine coolant
• 5 million gallons of windshield washer fluid
• 96% of all lead acid batteries

The amount of fluids and oils safely recovered is equivalent to 8 Exxon Valdez disasters.  That’s quite the figure, isn’t it?

The recycling and reuse of automotive fluids brings us to environmental stewardship, which is defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as “the responsibility for environmental quality shared by all those whose actions affect the environment.”  While there are still salvage yards that fly under the radar so to speak, most serious ones will adhere to the recommendations proposed by government bodies and industry associations.  In following these recommendations, the salvage yards increase their environmental responsibility substantially.  A major way that salvage companies can exercise this responsibility is by implementing preventative measures in their actual physical yards.  Storm water management is a great example of this.

Storm water is “water that originates during precipitation events and snow/ice melt” (Wikipedia).  As run-off, this storm water can soak into the ground or be carried into lakes, rivers or other bodies of water, and will pull pollution along with it.  The dismantling of vehicles can release different types of toxins (our example of fluid draining above is an example of this) which are then absorbed into storm water if certain precautions aren’t taken.  The repeated release of pollutants into storm water causes cumulative damage that is costly and difficult to correct retroactively.  This is where storm water management comes in.

In storm water management, a general idea to follow is that “only rain is in the drain.”  In other words, no other fluids or pollutants should be allowed to mix in any way with storm water or seep into the ground.  Some of the ways these preventative measures can be accomplished are as follows:

• Prevention of spills and leaks: work with basins under any identified leaks or when you are removing fluids;
• Clean up of spills immediately: if you see a spill, contain it by wiping it up, surround it with rags, socks or pillows, or put an absorbent material like kitty litter on it.  Discard the clean-up items responsibly in a designated container;
• Handle fluids properly: this means storing fluids in easily identifiable and adequate containers, which also have some sort of secondary container (i.e. steel drum) to prevent a larger spill.  Also, make sure not to mix fluids as this can create hazardous waste and is difficult to dispose of afterwards;
• Items stored outside: any items stored outside that also contain oil need to be covered so that they don’t have contact with rain or snow.

Many of these measures are common sense and require just a few extra implements and some adjustments to a yard’s routine.  Others might be a bit more time-consuming and complex, but the end result is well worth it as the impact on the environment is lessened to a considerable degree, and the need for cleaning up toxic messes later on, at much great cost, is greatly reduced, if not eliminated altogether.

Far from being environmental monsters, then, responsible salvage yards actually provide a highly necessary service in a world that relies on automotive transport to such a large degree.  It is estimated that up to 75% to 90% of a vehicles components can be reused or recycled, and if yards follow recommended dismantling procedures in their work, there is also important stewardship being practiced.  After learning all of this, I see the salvage yards on the sides of highways in a different way now, and appreciate the contribution they make to a cleaner, healthier world to live in.

Useful links:

Environmental Protection Agency (The United States) https://www.epa.gov/

Automotive Recyclers’ Association (The United States)  http://a-r-a.org/

Canadian Environmental Protection Act  http://www.ec.gc.ca/lcpe-cepa/

The Canadian Auto Recyclers’ Environmental Code  http://carec.ca/