The Auctions Representing Dealer Cars at Auction Salesperson Licensing Issue Is Now a Live Issue at the PA Vehicle Board.

Here is an update.  You better read this and think for a second..or a few about the ramifications. 

PA Vehicle Board Discussed Auctions Representing Cars for Dealers at Auctions. (So handling checks and titles isn’t enough, they want to be car dealers also…pay attention dealers, this is the entity we built through our patronage…pay attention.  They are petitioning in lambs disguise to eat our lunch and legitimize the 100% illegal activity that has been overlooked for the past couple decades, curbstoning at the auction, acting like a dealer, a seller for a pimp fee to cut a legitimate dealer OUT)

The Pennsylvania Vehicle Board is the government entity that licenses Dealerships, their Salespersons, and Auctions in Pennsylvania.

At the Tuesday January 8, 2013 Pennsylvania Vehicle Board meeting, the Vehicle Board discussed whether a salesperson license should be required of Auction Staff representing cars for Dealers (does anyone know why this is the LAW and why it has to stay the LAW?  I’ll explain later)

Most of the PA Vehicle Board Members said yes (thank the God you worship), a salesperson license should be required in order for the Auction staff to be placed on a level playing field with the Dealers whose staff are required to be licensed salespersons in order to be allowed to buy and sell vehicles in Pennsylvania.

Decision by Vehicle Board is not finalized yet.  More discussion will occur at the next Vehicle Board meeting on February 5, 2013 in Harrisburg.  Now let me tell you why there is a law.  Prior to the mid-1980s, when clocking cars in Pennsylvania was a totally expectable practice and the majority of cars that went through auctions were indeed clocked, it was not a real issue as auctions and dealer, in fact 100% of us, knew it (period). 

But by the time subpoenas were flying around like a bad cold in 1984 it started to be a real issue.  Who sold the car?  How did he pay for it?  Who was the previous 37 owners (as titles frequently looked like text books with more reassignments than chapter 19 of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. It was impossible for the Attorney General to prosecute do to the “who struck John” investigations. 

There are reasons for this law and they are excellent.  They are called accountability, professionalism, reputation trust for your customers, expectations and so on.  It’s why there is a licensing board to begin with.

Imagine this.  I want to be a doctor or a lawyer or any other profession that requires a state license.  But I don’t want to have an office, and I don’t want anybody to have to be accountable to, and I don’t want to have expertise, and I don’t want to pay for insurance, worker’s comp, vacations, sick days, health insurance, keep records, be available for a call back for someone that pays for your services, that is there 5 years later to answer for mal-practice.  And I really want to eat the business of the doctor or the lawyer that are located in commercial insured real estate.  I really just want to set up our front of their office (on nice days, not in the snow, on Holidays, or when I don’t feel good and since I have no overhead it’s better for me) and advertise that I perform better services for less, way less.  And look, I am right here on the corner in full visibility so I am sure there are enough unsuspecting clients to prove I can gaff them for my “services”  I’ll dress up like a doctor, robe and all, and tell anybody I can cure cancer for next to free.  Just give me the license so I can legitimize the claim.  I will even defend you in a court that has accused you of murder for cheap money and give you the expectations that I’ll get you off the hook.  I have no overhead so you have to pay me under the table though.    So since they control who gets what number at the auction, once this law is passed, you the dealer, are very deep, under the bus…dead…gone.  The numbers they pimp to the newly found “rep” customer pushes you into industrial waste land way after the auction is done.  Sound healthy to you?

Are you getting the picture?  And if you aren’t, can I start lobbying to be a Lawyer, Dentist, Veterinarian, Real Estate broker, Teacher (Professor actually, I’m too old to deal with children)?  I think it will help the confidence of my customers on the auction block.  I’ll sell cars in between doing root canal surgery (pull the wrong tooth, who cares, can’t find me anyway), neutering your dog (just one side, you won’t know till you have an immaculate conception and a litter of puppies, meantime I’ll be dust), selling you a house (with termites and radon by the way with zero recourse), and hand out doctorate degrees ad nauseum in public administration, Government policy and a minor in Curb Stoning, a new and highly profitable profession that fits amazingly well on Craig’s List.

This is what is on the table in Pennsylvania right now:

Auction itself or thru an affiliate obtains a Dealer License.  Salesperson must be an employee. ( What is that definition?  It is real or a fake to get past the law?  In other words with or without worker’s comp paid, and vacation paid, and liability for their actions, and unemployment benefits and payroll taxes paid…or it’s a fagaazy, exactly like curb stoning  cars, is that something we should license as well because someone has the ability to lobby for it?).

Auction staff who rep cars are to become licensed as Salespersons under the Dealer license of the Auction or the Auction’s Affiliate Dealership (that it has already or that the Auction may form).  Such An Auction Employee who obtains a salesperson license (after Auction obtains a Dealer License Itself or for the Auction’s new or existing affiliated company) MAY REP CARS FOR OTHER DEALERS. 

 ( BUT DO THEY BUY THE CAR?  DO THEY OWN THE CAR?  ARE THEY ON THE TITLE OF THE CAR?   Are they going to Flip the title to generate monet for Penn Dot?  (I do, and generate about $500,000 per year for Penn Dot flipping titles which I could very easily bypass as well by moving my “license” to another state.  Say goodbye to that revenue Penn Dot, they will bypass you on that little issue, with the same lack of disgrace they show trying to cut their customers out with, none.  DO THEY JUST PIMP THE NUMBERS AND TAKE THE PLACE OF PROFESSIONALS THAT BUILT THE AUCTION INDUSTRY?  Do they take responsibility for the car when it turns up salvage two years later?  OR are they doing what is needed to make curbstoning formal and legal?  Is the “rep from the auction” going to get a paycheck with worker’s comp paid, and vacation paid, and liability for their actions, and unemployment benefits and payroll taxes paid).   Please don’t forget or get confused, we are the auction’s business.  Without us, they do not exist.  Try to argue that fact, and please include me.  I’d like to hear a different point of view.

Dealers we need to pay attention and think about your sons and daughters that want to follow your footsteps in this business, like the sons and daughters of doctors and lawyers.  . 

The statutory language requiring a licensed salesperson to be licensed only by one licensed dealer does not prohibit “Courtesy Rep’ing” or “General Rep’ing for Other Dealers”.

These positions are confirmed by the PA Vehicle Board’s Chairman this week.  And they need to be changed and enforced or make me a Doc-Lawyer-Vet-fessor-Accountant

The PIADA Executive Committee and full Board of Directors are aware of and will be discussing this issue at their upcoming meetings.

We need to be heard or don’t get pissed off when a Car Carrier runs you over when you are laying  in the middle of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  . The checks in the mail, Honest. 

Robert Hollenshead

Founder and President