Competition is good for our business, but many wholesalers aren’t playing under the same set of rules!

This prior legislation session with the help of our Lobbyist, Greg Hubbard, LKQ’s lobbyist and DOTabill (AB625/SB588) was drafted to change the requirements to become a wholesaler in the state of WI.

Currently there is a loophole in the regulations that allow many wholesalers to comply with code and all be located under the same roof. These wholesalers aren’t using this office space and display lot, rather just renting it to get the wholesale license. In addition, nearly all of the wholesalers that operate under these arrangements are from out-of-state. There are sometimes over 100 wholesale licenses under the same roof. These wholesalers are then buying and bidding at the same wholesale auctions that we are, thus increasing inventory prices. In addition, the DOT has seen a significant increase in fraud that can be attributed directly to these operations. Two of the most popular wholesale co-ops are from Arlington and Elkhorn. When you see those names pop up on your auction screen you can be sure that one of these wholesalers is bidding you up.

Several CARS board members went to the Capital and testified in favor of the wholesalers bill and then talked with several of the Senators and Representatives. Everything seemed positive. Greg was on top of the issue and everything seemed to be going as needed to get our legislation passed. At the last moment the auction houses and the insurance alliance made a push (and put some money into the game) and our piece of legislation was blocked.

We are at a crossroads. Do we as members of CARS want to pursue this legislation to hopefully eliminate or reduce some of the bad characters within our industry?

If we press forward we need to invest some extra money towards this issue. There are several options that are being discussed to secure the extra funds. We can all donate some extra money that will be used during the next legislation period, have some fundraisers or raffles. This money will be used to have more lobbyist activity to make sure this issue is resolved.

Attached you can see some information that DOT put together for this bill. If you would like to learn more, have an opinion please respond back via email or contact someone on the board.

Jerad Jandrain- Bay Auto- jeradj@bayauto.com
Robbie Koepp- Morrision Auto- rob@morrisonsauto.com
Thomas Hermann- Cleveland Auto- clevelandauto1929@gmail.com