Big Chair Fast Five Q&A – Rodger Nardi
CEO Australian Automotive Service & Repair Authority (AASRA)
- What is AASRA’s function within the automotive industry?
AASRA is the Scheme Adviser for the Motor Vehicle Service & Repair legislation. This is unique in that an industry body has been appointed for this role. AASRA core function is to deal with the day-to-day operations of the Legislation. We publish each car company's scheme offer, which is their pricing for manuals, wiring, repair procedures, diagnostic hardware, and software. Their scheme offer pricing is by day, month, or year. Much of our daily workload is assisting workshops with questions and problems or, where possible, assisting them in accessing scheme information.
- What role did AASRA play in the Right to Repair legislation?
AASRA was formed because of the legislation. Before then, we were a twinkle in the industry's eye.
- Some manufacturers are yet to comply with the legislation. What is AASRA doing about this?
Part of AASRA’s role is working with the ACCC and, where needed, referring car companies for investigations and penalties. These referrals occurred during 2023 and are made public by the ACCC once they have reached a determination. The main two areas yet to be fully resolved are diagnostic software pricing by day and month and J2534 pass-thru access. Key and immobiliser code access in a timely manner is a current focus.
- What support does AASRA offer its subscribers?
Nearly every car company page on the AASRA website has a 'Support Link' which is how a workshop can ask a car company any question. When the workshop doesn’t get a prompt answer from a car company, AASRA will make contact at a different level to help speed up the answer.
- Why should a repairer subscribe to AASRA?
The level of a workshop's profit is determined by how efficiently they complete jobs. A workshop's major revenue-producing stream is time. You could spend 30 minutes on Google trying to solve a problem at no apparent cost. Add those 30 minutes up over a month or year and multiply this by your hourly rate to see what googling is costing you. It's far better to buy a day’s subscription to access genuine information or run genuine diagnostic software across a problem car. The subscription fee is allocated to the job and the time saved allows you to move on to the next vehicle. The other important reason to join is technology. More and more the repair involves software (programming, re-flashing), which is now available to aftermarket workshops.
Read the full article in December's edition of Australasian Automotive.