U-R-G On the Go
An informative podcast for the United Recyclers Group. Each week we will feature an entertaining guest that will share their knowledge and information with you, providing you with tips and tools to help you become a more profitable business.
U-R-G On the Go
Revolutionizing Automotive Recycling: Insights from Tom Bessler
What if the secrets to a successful automotive recycling business lay in a pharmacy background? Join us for an engaging conversation with Tom Bessler, a seasoned veteran of the automotive recycling industry who started his journey in 1985 alongside his brother Joe. You’ll hear how they transformed Bessler Auto Parts from modest beginnings into a thriving business, eventually transitioning to new ventures like Wrench-A-Part and Snyder Corporation in Texas. Tom offers his seasoned perspective on the contrasting full-service and self-service models in automotive recycling, illuminating the potentials and pitfalls each presents.
Our exploration doesn’t stop there. We delve into the importance of multilingual hiring practices, especially when catering to a largely Spanish-speaking clientele. By tapping into platforms like Facebook, businesses can revolutionize customer interaction and promotion. We unpack the crucial roles of general managers, who keep the wheels turning through strategic marketing and regular communication. A well-maintained inventory and efficient operations emerge as vital components of a successful business model, ensuring customer satisfaction and smooth workflows.
Finally, we shift gears to address the evolving perceptions of the automotive recycling industry. Tom discusses the vital components of marketing and employee retention, revealing how a positive company culture can lead to reduced turnover and enhanced customer service. Safety in self-service yards remains a priority, with companies like Wrench -A- Part striving for the utmost safety and environmental responsibility. As we wrap up, anticipation builds for the United Recyclers Group conference in Orlando, where industry experts will share their knowledge and innovative practices.
Welcome one and all to the URG On the Go podcast, the number one podcast in the recycling industry, the true voice of the automotive recycling industry. Every week we try to create a program for the pros that are on the go and have a need to know. I'm DJ Harrington, better known as the cardiologist, but the real host of the program today is the very talented Amanda Morrison, who is Director of Member and Vendor Relations for URG.
Speaker 2:Thank you, DJ, for that great introduction. I'm so excited to have Tom Bessler on the podcast today. He's been working with French Apart and we wanted to just discuss a little bit about the industry and his experience within the self-service world and how that's been. Thank you so much, Tom, for being on the podcast today. How's it going?
Speaker 3:Oh, it's going well. How are you all doing?
Speaker 2:Doing great, doing great. We just wanted to kind of talk to you a little bit about how you got started. Can you tell me when you started and what you were doing whenever you first started in the industry?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I started in the industry in 1985. I was working for my father in his pharmacy and my brother, joe, was actually in college planning on pre-pharmacy and he was working for a guy that had a salvage yard that he was working for part-time to earn extra money. And decided that working in the pharmacy wasn't for him, so he called and asked me if I was interested in starting a junkyard with him, and I I was. I was all over it.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I love that. I love that. So back in 1985, you said you started.
Speaker 3:Yep, Uh, yeah, the initial time when there was an existing junkyard. Back then uh and Joe actually fronted the money to get started, invited me to partner up with him to work for him, and he and his wife had the funds to get the business going and we bought part of the existing business, but it was only the import part at that time.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. And then how long did you guys own that business for?
Speaker 3:did you guys own that business for? Well, they owned it up until recently and then they got consolidated and sold out. And when I say they Joe did, he was the sole owner of the business. I left Bessler Auto Parts, which Joe and I started about five years ago to head south for fair weather and for a change of pace. So I was working with Joe from 1985 until 2019. So quite a few years.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, and so you moved down south. So where are you living now? I know Ranch Apart is near Austin, belton area, correct?
Speaker 3:No, we're south of Belton. I'm located east of. Austin, about seven miles from the Austin airport. And then I live a little further east out in a town called Bastrop which is another 15 minutes east. That's not too bad.
Speaker 2:There's lots of different, lots of different. You know, there's Snyder's, and I was thinking Snyder's main location, because they're over there, right.
Speaker 3:They're in that general region, they do have a self-service their first self-service in Belton actually. Their main facility is in Holland and the Snyder Corporation that is the parent company of the rental parts.
Speaker 2:Very cool, very cool. So how did you get to know Dan and get that kind of entry into the Snyder's world?
Speaker 3:So Bethler Auto Parts was a full service and we opened our first self-serve in 1999. But we had a fairly large full service business with multiple locations and we traded a lot of business with the Snyder family through the full service.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:Dan and I had our initial contact through that relationship. Dan and I also were very active in the industry, putting together the groups that ended up consolidating to be a PRP group at large, to be a PRP group at large, working on different boards of directors for different groups and then also working together on the URG board for some time. So we spent a lot of time not only conducting business with each other but also working together on these boards and working for PRP and for the United Recyclers Group.
Speaker 2:I love it. That's awesome, that's perfect. So how long have you guys? I know you go to the URG conference. Often Did you guys go a lot whenever you owned the original location or whenever you were working at Bessler, the original location.
Speaker 3:Yes, I actually went every year since the founding of the United Recyclers Group and then, once I moved to Texas, moved into the self-service business, which is not so integrated as much as the full service is, as far as the self-service versus full service with URG and PRP, so a little bit disconnected for the last several years. I did, however, attend the last meeting that we just had and it was awesome, had a great time and was fun to see everybody again.
Speaker 2:Good, yeah, yeah, we're going to be trying to focus on some more self-service sessions here coming up for the next conference in Orlando, april 10th through the 12th, so mark that in your calendars. Everyone, we want to make sure you're aware and keep your eyes peeled for the registration e-blast that will come out here shortly too, but that's something that we're going to try to hone in on and that's why I wanted to invite you on the show today. It's just kind of discussing what the differences are between self-service and full service and what your aspects of what you like about it and what you're seeing for the future of the industry when it comes to self-service.
Speaker 3:Well, the full service is much more complex and there are a lot of aspects to it that in some regard, I believe, are more difficult. The self-service business, in my opinion, is easier, but not easy by any stretch. We process a lot more vehicles than we did in a full service. When I was at Best Solar Auto Parts, we were probably at that time full dismantling three to 450 cars, something like that. For full service maybe a few more. And then the cell service was, oh, $600 and $800 at the time, and then it kind of oscillated up and down depending on the market and the cost it gives to the vehicles the cell service world.
Speaker 3:here at Austin Rental Park which I run, we're doing around 900 to 1,000 vehicles a month at this facility, so that's a lot of vehicles that are being purchased, picked up, we do the depollution on them before we set them in the yard and it's a self-service. The customers bring their own tools and they do a lot of the work for us, versus the full service where we have employees that would do all the labor to get those parts ready and to be shipped out or delivered locally to the customer base that we had established. As well as the trading that we did through the PRP groups and other regional groups with transportation networks, self-service is more sustained locally and is supported by just retail customers Shade Tree Mechanics and we have a very diverse, interesting customer base, especially down here in Texas.
Speaker 2:I bet, I bet See lots of different people. Good people watching, right.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely so. The self-service business does serve a lot of customers who need us. Obviously, you want them to want to deal with you, so you do the best you can do with the customer experience and make sure they're happy, because there is competition out there in every market. So you're going to win those customers but we have a lot of fans of the Rent-A-Part model based on them enjoying dealing with us and us just having the inventory available with pricing that they can afford.
Speaker 2:Makes sense, makes sense. And so how long has the Rent-A-Part location been down there?
Speaker 3:This location, I believe, has been here for around 15 years. I think. The Belton location, like I said, was their first one.
Speaker 3:It's called Budget Rent-A Park, but it's in the town of Felton and I believe it was here at that location, I think for probably five years prior to opening this facility. And then they have also two facilities in San Antonio and one in Lubbock and they have a late model cell service that's attached to the full service, where they take the vehicles after they've served their time in the full service inventory and they move them to the cell serve in some regard to actually open up the yard to the retail and they have it set up up there pretty uniquely where people can go to different sections when they're ready. And then also we opened recently Primo Ranch Bar, which is next to the Austin location which I run, and we're focused on a little bit newer vehicle mostly, but really just high demand stuff that is a little more costly to get and we're paying about double for those cars and our prices are about 50% higher at that location than they are at Austin Ranch Apart. We're neighbors. It's working out really well for the Snyder family for sure.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Yeah, it sounds like you guys are expanding a lot down there and just really getting your reach out there. Okay, I think we're ready for a commercial break. We'll take a quick break and then we'll be right back with Tom Bessler. Thank you.
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Speaker 2:Thanks everyone for listening to that commercial break. We are back with Tom Bessler from Runch Apart. We are listening to how he's gone through the industry and developed and also what his core roles are at Runch Apart.
Speaker 3:So I would love to kind of dig into what you do day-to-day and what your role at Runch Apart looks like. Well, I mean, if you ask my employees, they probably think I don't do a whole lot. I try. We are very busy. We have between 50 to 60 employees at any given time at this particular location.
Speaker 3:So we have a lot going on. Like I said, before the commercial break we were purchasing and processing 900 to 1,000 vehicles a month and that obviously attracts quite a few customers. We have about 15,000 customers that come in a month, not including the people that sneak in and also people that are returning cores or don't return things like that, so it's probably closer to 20. And we run quite a few people through our office and through the business. So it really it's fairly fun. If you come here on the weekend, it's really Some people, I think, just come to watch the show, because it's super interesting.
Speaker 3:I bet we have a very diverse customer base. We're, you know, semi-close to the border, and also in the auto recycling industry. When it comes to cell service, we're dealing with a lot of people that are used to repairing things, doing work on their own vehicles and customer vehicles too, and they come from other countries with that uh, habit of seeking great deals. So they're, they're here, and we have people from all over the world that come in, but our primary customer base really probably the majority of them, I think are coming from Mexico, either first or second generation, but not too far past that.
Speaker 2:So how do you train your customers? I'm sure you have a few Spanish-speaking employees. How do you train your customers to handle the diverse customer base that you guys get?
Speaker 3:customer base that you guys get? That's a really good question. So when we're hiring individuals to greet the customers as they come in, help them find the vehicle, they sign a waiver, they come in and they tell us what vehicle they're working on, what kind of part they're looking for, we use Hollander Interchange to generate a list of vehicles that will fit and then we provide them with a map and direction on how to find that car. So there's a need for Spanish speakers as well as English.
Speaker 3:So if they're not bilingual, when it comes to that position, we don't hire them. On the cashier side. It's definitely an advantage, but you can kind of get away with it. If nothing else, it's being courteous. We do hire bilingual buyers and the majority of our customers, I think, are actually more comfortable speaking Spanish, and probably 25% of them don't speak any English whatsoever. They've gotten here recently and I guess word of mouth or you know, we do spend quite a bit of money advertising and having people come into the location. And they come walking to the door.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've seen your Facebook posts. You've got quite a few likes on those. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have a pretty good Facebook presence at Austin Ranch Apart and actually San Antonio has the number one. They haven't been around here as long as this location has, but for some reason, people in San Antonio love social media. So they have the biggest following with any location, which is interesting.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That's awesome. How do you guys promote on social media? Are you a part of that at all, or do you?
Speaker 3:guys hire out. Yeah, we know, if I come up with some kind of crazy idea or see a picture I like or take a picture it looks cool, I send it to a young lady named.
Speaker 3:Amy, who does all of our advertising stuff and marketing and things for all locations, stuff and marketing and things for all locations. She does a really good job for us and participates in weekly meetings with all the owners and GMs as well, as we meet monthly to get our budget and we set ideas. We also have promotions that we run every week and she and I communicate a lot about what we're going to do. Plus, we also have manager specials and other things to kind of make it fun for the customer and also for them to get a really good deal, so they want to come back and visit us again. So the sales end of it is definitely something that takes some energy for all the GMs. Then, of course, we have to drain all those vehicles when they're coming in, but prior to that we we got to buy them first. So the buying department also I have involved it there. We go over pricing, whether or not our buying strength is enough to where we're going to buy enough vehicles for the month. And then I have to communicate with the general manager of Primo, because Austin Ranch Apart buys and hauls all the vehicles for Primo as well. So my location takes care of all that for those guys. But we're also communicating frequently on the number of vehicles they're getting, how's that look for their budget and what mine looks like. And then we're constantly tweaking and adjusting the pricing to make sure that we get enough vehicles but don't pay too much for them. So that's another big responsibility of the GM, especially here, because, like I said, Prima does not buy their own vehicles. San Antonio kind of has the same relationship with the other yard that's in San Antonio, which is Roosevelt, so they purchase their vehicles as well. So San Antonio and Austin have a very similar dynamic. So we have all the buyers. We also have to dispatch and pick up all of those vehicles, have them brought in with inventory of the vehicles and then, once they are inventoried, then we depollute the vehicles. After that they get set in the yard for the customers to be able to pull parts off of.
Speaker 3:So with each one of those steps there's challenges. So you have wreckers that are out on the road and anything can happen. You have equipment. We have a lot of equipment here to handle and process the vehicles with, including large articulating loaders, which actually usually handle most things on the tail end of the business, which is the commodity side. So all those little departments have department managers and they work for me directly. They're direct reports to me, and then they have several people that work for them and you have to just have your pulse or your finger on the pulse of everything that's happening on a daily basis to make sure things just stay out of the ditches. That's something that Dan Snyder always says you just kind of keep it out of the ditches, and that's kind of what my responsibility is here too just to keep things rolling on, follow a good process that works, and try to make good decisions as the day rolls out on a daily basis. Yeah, yeah, and try to make good decisions as the day rolls out on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think that's one thing you know Dan is really good at. It's just that's kind of the company culture is follow the processes and you'll stay out of the ditches. You know he's good about laying it out and making sure that everyone's following those and those meetings that you have with everyone. You know having everyone on the call to be able to brainstorm for marketing, I think, is key as well. I feel like some people just don't realize how important the marketing aspect is of this business. You know, for just for customer base and just for you know shops as well to be able to find you. So that's awesome that you guys collaborate with her and are able to do so well on social media as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it works out great and each one of the GMs meets with her once a month and we have a marketing company that we use that takes care of all of our internet marketing, which I think most people understand now that organically growing on the internet is something that doesn't happen very often, you got to pay to play and you got to understand where to put your money or you can lose it really fast and not get the bank for your buck.
Speaker 3:So we have a really nice company that we work with, along with her, and then we uh, we go over the results from the previous month and then game plan this month. What are we going to do? Stay the same, up or reduce or or raise the amount of money we're spending in a different sector. So if we want to drive purchasing vehicles, we might put more money towards that. Or if we want to drive what we're calling a gate, which is anybody that comes into the facility is through the front gate, we will throw marketing money at that and use different types of ads to make that happen.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love that. So and I know that, dan, we had him on the podcast as well Dan Snyder, um and just creating the loyalty and the employee loyalty, how are you guys with um, retaining employees at the self-service locations and being in kind of East Texas?
Speaker 3:We have a really good core of people. I think at most of the locations maybe all the locations where you do have some positions that are more prone to turnover we actually do our best to try to keep people around by giving them some type of incentive to stay long enough to get to know us, because I think most people understand that each company has its own culture but to be able to really become immersed in that culture it takes at least 90 days to halfway get to know somebody, six months before they sort of get it and about a year before they fully understand kind of what this business is doing and what their job is and how they impact others and the goal of the company. So the longer you can have them stay around, the more likely it is that they are going to become part of that culture and or, if they decide they're not the right person, they probably leave on their own.
Speaker 3:But we do have signing bonuses and other a lot of different incentive programs to keep people around as well as honestly, you know, the motto of the company is treat others the way you want to be treated. So it starts at the top, that starts with the Snyder boys, down to the general managers of each of the locations and then down to the department managers and then down to the customer. One of the ways that we're measuring it is obviously turnover of employees.
Speaker 3:And then the other way you can measure it is are you getting a lot of good Google reviews or not? If you're not, why not? And what is that customer experience? What does it look like? Are we actively talking to our customers, filling them out, making sure that the experience that they have is good, and then how can we make it better? So those kind of go hand in hand. I think, first and foremost, you want to treat your employees with respect. If you do, they will treat the customers with respect and then you'll win those customers just by default. So that is kind of how I try to run this place, especially in the sales and the buying end. I try to run this place, especially in the sales and the buying end, is by instilling those values that the Snyders have into those employees and then them treating those customers that way. Then you get repeat business out of it and it's a win-win for the employees and the customers as well.
Speaker 2:I completely agree. Yeah, I feel like Dan's been really good about hiring, you know, general managers that really relay that message and it's amazing how he, you know, has his hands in, you know, all the different locations that you guys have and I feel comfortable, you know, as you know, not a normal person that would necessarily walk into a wrench apart or whatever, but I'm greeted, as you know, a friendly greet, and it's always nice to go to those places and feel comfortable and I think you guys really are good at providing that experience.
Speaker 3:Well, you know the parts business in general is really not the most customer service oriented. You know I talk a lot about. You know dealership groups that spend millions of dollars marketing annually to have that phone ring or to have that person walk in, only to get a really poor experience in the parts department. The typical experience you get a really poor experience in the parts department. The typical experience you get any parts place is you know parts hold is where they end up. And then, what do you want?
Speaker 3:basically, and if we can just be kind and friendly and helpful, then we'll. We'll do better than the competition, because people come into our business with some preconceived notions that it's not going to be a good experience. And you know I use this a lot. I talk about what does the general public know about the automotive recycling industry? First of all, they don't even know what that is, because they call it junkyard.
Speaker 3:Yeah, number one Google search for a junkyard is junkyard. So the general public still views us with using that terminology, which is fine with me as long as they find us, but I always say nothing good ever happens in the junkyard you know, watching a movie, it's usually, you know, somebody's getting murdered in the junkyard, thrown into a car crushed or something crazy like that.
Speaker 3:there's drug deals going down, you know, there's all these, you know gang related things and or mafia, or whatever the case may be, and that's the way we're depicted in the public eye. So, they have an idea in their head that it might be scary. So when you come in and you feel comfortable. You're like wait a second, they're not going to kill me. We're like we hardly ever kill people.
Speaker 2:It's funny. It's funny that you say that because kristen and I started right when making a murderer came out on netflix and that was our introduction to, you know, automotive recycling. We're like, oh my gosh, we're gonna have to go to these yards. We were nervous. But then the first yard we went to was the snyders was the main snyders location in holland and we were just blown away because it was just pristine, just beautiful, everything was super organized and you know, it's just such a different. It's a different whenever you actually go and see these great facilities. It's just totally different than what the junkyard view is, and I think that's one of our jobs as automotive recyclers and NURG is changing that mentality with our customers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I completely agree, and we want that to be, whether it's the full serve and we're dealing with insurance companies. Body shops and dealerships, and then you know how our trucks look and how our employees act and behave and dress and things of that nature, not only in the full service but also the self-service. So ultimately, the retail customer is the one with the money, so they're always the one that are spending money, whether it's a vehicle that's newer and they need to have it repaired.
Speaker 3:and they say we're going to source recycled parts for your vehicle If they've had a positive experience at any point when they've interacted with a auto recycler or a junkyard or whatever, then the probability that they're going to be cool with using those parts and not push back super hard to the repair or to the insurance company.
Speaker 3:It really does help the overall industry and the perception that the customer has of who we are and why we're here. So I think we all have a duty and a responsibility to do the best, like I said, to erase those stereotypes that are really very difficult to overcome without them meeting you and figuring out what to do.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, I completely agree. All right, I think it's time for one more commercial break. We'll be back right after this break. Thanks guys, thanks guys after this break.
Speaker 4:Thanks, guys. The URG Scholarship Foundation was founded in 2014 in honor of individuals who give their talent, time and, very often, their own finances to ensure the growth and success of the automotive recycling industry. We understand college is not for everyone, so each year the foundation offers substantial financial scholarships to auto recycling employees and the children of employees that are attending four-year and technical or trade schools, to assist with their education. Don't leave money on the table. If you have a child or if you're interested in attending continuing education, this money is available to you. Go to u-r-gcom and click on the Scholarship Foundation tab. Urg keeping our industry strong through education.
Speaker 2:All right, we're back. Thank you guys so much for listening to that commercial break. We are here talking to Tom Vester from Wrench Apart and I kind of wanted to dig in a little bit more about your customer safety. With self-service yards it's a lot more of the customer base going out into the yard and doing the parts pulling. How do you keep your customers safe and what do you do and put in place for making sure that they're doing the right things out in the yard?
Speaker 3:Well, safety is at the forefront of our thoughts. Like you know, I was saying about treating others the way you want to be treated, and we do have core values. The very first core value we have is safety, not only of our employees, but the customers as well.
Speaker 3:You have a business you want to protect, because we feed a lot of families and we take care of a lot of customers who really need us. But it is really important. If you're going to treat others the way you want to be treated, then you've got to take some measures to keep those customers safe and do the best you can do. So we have wheel stands that's what we call them and they're made out of. A spare tire is usually the base and then a steel wheel is then welded to it and we make a stand that is very stable. We put each one of the vehicles on four-wheel stands and we test to make sure that it is safe and we have the standard operating procedure that we train by that says this is the proper way to do it.
Speaker 3:We inspect those wheel stands frequently and we check them for stress, cracks and any kind of damage from equipment and things like of that nature. If they're not suitable or they look like they could pose any kind of risk, then we'll take those out and we just go ahead and scrap them and then we'll make new ones. We keep our customers safe in that way. We do inspect the vehicles, the way their place is set, frequently. So the manager of the yard where the customers are allowed to go. It's his responsibility at this location and I don't know if they have any women that are doing it as far as that particular position.
Speaker 3:But anyway the guy that does it for us goes around and he looks to make sure that the environment is good, that there are no trip hazards, that there's no jagged metal sticking off of a wrecked vehicle that might catch somebody and cut them. There's no chance that a vehicle is going to actually fall off of the stands and someone get hurt, or heaven forbid that they were killed. We really take that very seriously. So, we really take that very seriously. We do that as well, as we have a full-time inspector who goes around and inspects the quality of the work of the drain technicians that defluid the vehicles. He's also making sure that those vehicles are placed and set properly, that they're safe, that they're a specific distance apart from each other, there's enough room for the customers to access at the front and the rear of the vehicle, based on certain parameters that we set up. And he also does a, an inventory verification frequently uh, at this facility it's one to two weeks. He goes through the whole entire inventory we have somewhere between 1600 and 1800 vehicles on the ground and he verifies that they're all where they are supposed to be. Our inventory accuracy at this location is 98 as typical. Um, getting much better than that is very, very difficult because there's a time period in between when the vehicles are pulled and new vehicles are placed out there that they haven't been deleted out of the system yet when he's doing this verification.
Speaker 3:So that 2% is about the margin difference between vehicles that are kind of in flux, which means that the vehicle is being ready to be pulled out and sent to the commodity side of the business, which for our location and many of the wrench part models it's usually about 50% give or take of the business is retail and commodities.
Speaker 3:Which commodities are metals and things that we sell. We separate all that stuff aluminum, copper, steel and things of that nature, aluminum wheels, radiators and then we sell those things by the truckload. But the vehicles that are pulled out are torn apart using an excavator with an attachment on it to try to get as much wiring as we can. So we get the copper and any other parts that we would consider uh higher value commodities, not just steel, which brings a little less money, and we do crush the car body that also goes out and it goes to the strider. We sell our stuff locally in texas and uh is my understanding that they make rebar out of the cars that we're selling to them at the place we're selling to, and that stuff is sold primarily in the United States, and a lot of it, I'm sure, is going to build all the many roads that are under construction here in Texas.
Speaker 3:So they're using a lot of our cars to build the new roads, so don't blame the construction on us, but the good roads were built with wrenched apart steel. How about that?
Speaker 2:Very cool. That's awesome. Be part of the Texas legacy forever.
Speaker 1:There, you go.
Speaker 2:Very cool, that's awesome. So what else do you kind of see for the self-service industry and what's going to take us into the future with technology and what's going? On with self-service in general.
Speaker 3:Well, as long as they've been selling vehicles, whether they were Model Ts or whatever from the beginning there have been salvage yards around. There's been junkyards. Auto recycling has been around for years and years and years and in a lot of ways we consider ourselves the first recyclers. The vehicle is very recyclable. The majority of it we are able to recycle and reuse, whether it's the fuel, the oil, the antifreeze, all those things, the Freon, all those things can be recycled and reused, and then the parts off of the vehicles.
Speaker 3:So you think of the natural resources that are being saved. So if you have a white Camry and I bring one in and it's white and it's hitting the front, and we have one that's not hitting the front and it's got a good hood and a bumper and fenders on it, and those are all white, and they take them off our vehicle and put them on theirs, then there's really no impact to the environment at all. We save that customer a significant amount of money. There's nothing that needs to be mined or manufactured, no chemicals that are used, anything like that. So the purest form of recycling is reuse, and that is something I like to point out to our employees as a point of pride and also to our customers, to let them know that we are really environmentally responsible and we're doing a great service to the environment by doing what we're doing, I think, as we go to the future, and I think the younger generation is really that is what's important to them.
Speaker 3:So that is what's important to them. I think that they're concerned about what is the world going to look like and you know what are my kids going to be dealing with when we're older, and things of that nature. I would like to say that the automotive recycling industry has improved significantly since 1985 when I got into it. Significantly since 1985 when I got into it, we've always been very environmentally responsible. At Bessel Auto Parts and I know the Snyders are the same we believe in being good stewards of the environment. God gave us this plan, it's the way we look at it and we're here to take care of it. We also we do charge core charges on everything. And some of our customers will say you know, why do you charge me a core charge on a, you know, a plastic bumper cover or reinforcement or something like that off of a car? Because they know, kind of inherently, it doesn't have any scrap value.
Speaker 3:Well as much business as we do. If we weren't getting those parts back and handling them in an environmentally responsible way, there would be litter all over the countryside around here for just the parts that we sell. So we want to get it all back so we can actually get the stuff recycled and handled properly from cradle to grave. So from the time we get it to the time we're done with it, we want to do the right thing and do the best for the environment. So I think that the future of the recycling industry is bright and I think that people start to recognize that we're not the junkyard you see on Breaking Bad where somebody's getting killed. We're an automotive recycler who is here that is serving the community, providing good employment for our employees that work here. They get paid well and the future, I believe, is very bright. Does that answer your question?
Speaker 2:It does. Yep, yep. And I love that you guys educate your customers as well. A lot of people don't understand why there's court charges or what that means, and being able to educate the customer, I think, is huge in getting the word out there that we are environmentally friendly and that we're, you know, doing the right thing by reusing these parts rather than letting them, you know, just go to waste. So that's awesome that you guys are able to do that and educate the customers.
Speaker 3:Do you have your employees? Then kind of go through that each time that you have a customer. We are very busy. I would say when there's downtime they'll have a little more time to engage the customer and kind of tell them those kind of things. I think the managers are good about it. I communicate that to our employees regularly, and you hope that they'll get in the habit of doing the same.
Speaker 3:So, whether or not we are here, at work or out at the grocery store and I have a Rent-A-Part shirt on. We have customers, so we have fans. People really love us and they say, hey, do you work at Rent-A-Part? You know you do this. Or hey, do you have parts for that, or can I sell you my car? And then sometimes we'll get into deeper conversations about what is it that you guys do over there? And I always see a parking lot that's full of cars and I can get into that and explain to them what we are, who we are and what we're doing for the environment, for the customers and the benefits of actually having us around. So I'm kind of always doing the best to represent the industry in a positive light and earn as many customers as I can for not only Austin Ranch Apart but the other Ranch Aparts as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you guys are all very recognizable with those shirts on. I love seeing you all at conference the URG conference and all of your neon shirts and representing the Sniders and Wrench Apart. It's awesome to see the group that comes. You guys are coming to URG this year right in Orlando.
Speaker 3:That is the plan. Looking very forward to it. Good URG is always, in my opinion, the best conference. I've been to lots of them over the years Like I said, I've been since 1985, whether it be state association meetings or any other. The United Recyclers Group for me has been the best as far as learning new things about the industry and also interacting with rubbing elbows with people who are doing a great job in the industry, and it's always a great place to to improve what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think my favorite part is the you know networking and even just you know, meeting new people that are in the industry and starting out new. It's, it's cool and I think you guys are really good about you know getting out and networking with a lot of different people that you haven't necessarily met, and Dan's always willing to give information, and I think you are too, you know, just willing to talk to anyone about their processes and helping them out, and I think that's what. Urg is about.
Speaker 3:It is, and I think that the industry is better for it, and I think that the conference really does help not just the people who are participating, but the industry as a whole. I think, it's something that people who are not participating don't really know what the benefit is or see the benefit fully, but it is having an impact and looking very forward to it.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, we look forward to seeing y'all. And yes, if anyone has any questions regarding URG member benefits or the URG conference that will be in April in Orlando, April 10th through the 12th, Mark it in your calendars. But we just want to thank you so much, Tom, for your time today and coming on. We love hearing about your story and what you've done in the industry and feel free to reach out to let us know if you want to hear any other industry experts. If you're listening, we want to hear what you have suggestions for for any kind of speakers. So we're trying to get a little bit more, like I said, self-service on here, because we want to make sure everyone's being seen and heard. So again, thank you so much for coming on today, Tom.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks for having me. It's been great and appreciate your time.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.