Contributed by KATIE STARK and PAUL D’ADAMO
Congratulations to the auto recycling community in the U.S. and Canada. We have reached a milestone in the recovery of Defective Takata Airbags – the successful recovery and destruction of 500K airbags. We don’t know how many of that amount could have resulted in death or serious injury. More importantly, it recognizes the efforts our industry has put forth to ensure the driving public that auto recyclers are aggressively identifying and removing these dangerous airbags from circulation.
As the primary contractor for automakers, Rebuilders Automotive Supply (RAS) takes its responsibilities very seriously. RAS has committed massive resources in people, facilities, technology, marketing, logistics, support and leadership to lead this project. Providing the tools and systems to allow recyclers to effectively and safely remove these airbags from inventory has been paramount. We have enhanced our original desktop software with a new mobile platform for the processing of physical airbags, as well as our recently introduced Mobile App (nicknamed the YAPP -Yard Airbag App), allowing Recyclers to capture bounty for “deployed” airbags without ever removing them from a vehicle.
A more significant number you might be interested in is 250K. That is the number of defective Takata airbags projected to be processed in 2019. That represents half of our total recovered bags to date, which means our path to 1,000,000 airbags will be that much quicker.
We are grateful for the following partners that have led the way with integrations in their software that make identifying and recovering Takata airbags more efficient. Hollander, Buddy Innovations, and URG deserve praise for their willingness to invest precious dollars in development to provide data and tools to their customers; the Auto Recyclers. Car-Part and eBay have blocked the posting of airbags that fall into the general make, model, and year ranges on their on-line platforms providing protection for Recyclers.
What’s next? ARA and other industry leaders are looking to the major industry yard management systems to step up to the next level of “recalls” by developing new technology for identifying and tracking recalled parts as part of their inventory process. Not all recalls will have a bounty attached to it, but Federal law provides stiff penalties for selling recalled auto parts and our yard management systems are our first line of defense.
For more information on how you can help us reach 1,000,000 recalled airbags or how to capture bounty for “deployed” airbags, call Paul the Recall Guy at 401-458-9080 or e-mail pdadamo@coresupply.com for more information.
Published in the November 2019 Edition
