Car Dealer mag

Sensitive subject this. I was asked by Car Dealer, a magazine for which I write a regular monthly column, for my view on whether it's time for the garage sector to have one unified code.

My view is that we need to demonstrate to all and provide the customers of garages with a consistent means by which they can identify who the good guys are. Holding this view means therefore that any garage must have immediate access to the same method of demonstrating their commitment to basic levels of customer service - an industry wide minimum standard of operation. That's what the Motor Industry Code of Practice for Service and Repair is, and furthermore - it exists as the government asked us to develop it.

So, if the government asked us to develop this code, that must have been because any other offering at the time wasn't felt appropriate to provide a minimum standard of operation for the entire sector - and that's the rub. There are different applications available for garages to buy into, some good, others not so - but none of them provide an industry wide solution.

So, for me it's not competitive, but we do need clear water ahead of us as an industry to make an industry initiative work - so do I think it's time to back one code? That's more a question for the administrators of the other schemes but 5,000 garage operators and rising think so and that's what's important.

All the best
Chris