How dealers in Canada are adapting and operating during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Spring is in the air, and with some provincial government restrictions being lifted with the aim of progressively restarting the economy, the beginning of May has already differentiated itself from the past two months.
While automotive retail sales were down in March and appeared to be decimated in April, according to data from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC), May is showing signs of life. Dealerships in certain provinces are now able to open their service and/or showrooms to customers, or welcome more business after implementing and updating health and safety measures.
“The traffic has picked up substantially. There are more people on the road driving around the city. Our service appointment business is up quite a bit,” said Alberta dealer Perry Itzcovitch, whose Mercedes-Benz Downtown Calgary dealership has seen an uptick in activity since Canadian auto dealer last connected with him at the end of March.
“We’ve recalled a number of technicians back to the dealership, we’ve recalled a few people up front, everybody is multitasking more than ever before,” said Itzcovitch.
However, maintaining the 6-foot or more social distancing in Alberta has meant that the dealership cannot recall more technicians than they already have. Still, it is one downside to the many upsides Itzcovitch has experienced over the past month.
New car sales are coming along, even as traffic is limited in the showroom (as it is mostly being done online). Plexiglass screens have been added, yellow lines placed on the floor, gloves and hand sanitizer stations setup, shift work has been altered, keys are placed in bags, furniture was removed from the waiting room, and steering wheel and seat covers have been added to vehicles, which are being sanitized regularly. These are among the many measures taken to help improve the situation.
“It’s just been a matter of adapting,” said Itzcovitch. “We are basically going to be providing great service, safe service, safe sales, but the speed will be at COVID speed.”
Photo credit: Perry Itzcovitch, Mercedes-Benz Downtown Calgary
Groupe Park Avenue, QC
In Quebec, the situation has improved drastically from mid-March — first with dealership service departments opening on April 15, followed by showrooms in May.
It was a big win for dealerships in the province and it comes in large part thanks to the Quebec Dealers Association (CCAQ), which created a small task force, developed a protocol for service and sales, and had it approved by the provincial government. Norman Hébert Jr., President and CEO of Groupe Park Avenue, was among the people on the CCAQ’s task force.
“We developed quite a strict protocol, and we had seen the grocery stores starting with plexiglass dividers and things of that nature,” said Hébert Jr. “We worked with suppliers to be able to develop those products for dealerships — for service advisors and eventually sales people, (with things like) markings on the floor for the 2-metres (social distancing).”
The protocols were just becoming a reality when Hébert Jr. decided to close his dealership around March 18. Hébert Jr. said he created a crisis team composed of senior management, HR and communications people, and then made the decision to reduce the number of staff in the dealership. At the same time, the provincial government was reacting to the pandemic, and by the third week of March they closed their operations and laid off 1,150 employees to focus on the financial part of the business.
Then came the CCAQ’s service protocol, of which many of the details were covered by Canadian auto dealer in April. They begin the moment the employee is getting ready for work to the moment they arrive at the dealership, and then return home from work.
The most recent protocol for the sales department includes measures for everything from installing new equipment needed to disinfecting objects and areas in the showroom. It outlines what employees should do during breaks and lunchtimes, what social distancing measures they should take, and how to make appointments and welcome customers.
It also covers areas such as the rules for vehicles in the showroom and outside the dealership, measures for test drives, evaluating (and taking back) vehicles to be exchanged, vehicle delivery, and signing documents — the last of which includes ensuring social distancing rules, the use of a protective (plexiglass) screen, and providing the customer with a single-use pen, among other things.
“Let’s be safe and make our places of business a healthy and safe environment for our employees, and for our customers,” said Hébert Jr. “Let’s focus on the recovery. Let’s be proactive.”
Groupe Vincent, QC
Elsewhere in Quebec, Maxime Vincent, President of Groupe Vincent in Shawinigan, had to lay off 90 per cent of his employees in March and retain only 10 per cent for administration, sales, and essential services for the service department. At the time, they were operating as one of the few essential services in the province available for emergency needs.
For about six weeks, Vincent said they watched the situation evolve and had to be very strict and meticulous with their hygiene measures when it came to dealing with employees coming back after a period of confinement. He said this was important in ensuring the health and safety of his employees and customers.
“It’s a matter of feeling safe doing our things, for both our customers and employees,” said Vincent. “We had to fight with a lot of different information, whether from the media or social media, not everyone was in the same place regarding the COVID-19 situation.”
But after a couple of weeks of going through the motions of the measures, Vincent said employees were back in the fixed ops and sales departments and that everything was moving along. “We can see that things are pretty good — that people understand.”
Vincent is one of the dealers in the province that created a protocol before the CCAQ protocols were released. He said it was based on information from the Minister of Health, from conferences, what the grocery stores were doing — all things he considered to be his GPS in managing the current situation.
“In the end, we can follow 800 pages of protocols, but at some point, in social situations you need to wash your hands. Everything you do has to be aligned with that,” said Vincent. “So we prepared our protocol around that.”
The dealership was already disinfecting vehicles coming in for service around March 23 or even before. Keys were being placed in ziplock bags, and papers to be reviewed and signed were being delivered 24 hours in advance to customers, along with an explanation via video conference. So when the CCAQ protocol came out, he said the adjustments to his own protocol were minor.
“At the base you have to be very meticulous, which is what I said earlier and will probably have to repeat about 20,000 times during the month of May to all my employees: we wash our hands and respect the 2-metre distance,” said Vincent. “If people follow those rules, I can’t see how the situation would not improve in other domains.”
S&B Keswick Motors, ON
In Ontario, as of writing this article, dealerships are open on an appointment-only basis.
Jim Baiden, Dealer Principal of Chrysler dealership S&B Keswick Motors, said the last six weeks (March and April) have been tough on the business. And even though their service department is open, the hours have been reduced.
“As much as service has been open, it has been different in that our hours have been shortened. We’re used to being open until 9 o’clock at night — we are only open five days a week now, and Saturdays we’ve been closed,” said Baiden.
To help their service technicians, Baiden said they elected to go hourly during this timeframe. “It’s difficult for our technicians to be able to make their flat-rate hours,” he said.
Baiden has also had bad luck with a large fleet order for 33 Grand Caravans, as the COVID-19 situation resulted in a capital freeze. The deal is currently pending, which means the frontline of the dealership currently features those 33 white Grand Caravans.
Furthermore, there were plans to build a new facility — plans that are likely to be shelved if the situation does not improve quickly enough. But while Baiden, like many other dealers in Ontario and across Canada, has had it rough during the pandemic, there is light at the end of the tunnel and the situation is slowly improving.
“We are adhering to the policies of doing things by appointment as well as putting in a lot more sanitization that’s going on at the dealership than maybe what happened before all this,” said Baiden. “I think that’s a good thing — maybe bringing things to the forefront that we did not always realize were that important in the past.”
As provincial governments continue to lift certain restrictions, dealers will need to continue to keep every precaution they are taking in place and not let up. Doing so may be key to reaching a recovery phase, or surviving long enough to see a vaccine made available for the general public.
Photo credit: Perry Itzcovitch, Mercedes-Benz Downtown Calgary
