HUNT VALLEY, MD, March 24, 2021 – Armatus Dealer Uplift, the industry leader in Retail Warranty Reimbursement, announced today that the Mississippi Automobile New Dealers Association (MADA) has named Armatus as the exclusive endorsed partner for Retail Warranty Reimbursement submission services for the MADA membership.

“HB-746 now makes Mississippi the 47th state where dealers can be reimbursed at retail for warranty work and it also gives Mississippi a stronger warranty reimbursement law than surrounding states,” stated Marty Milstead, President of the Mississippi Automobile Dealers Association, “Armatus Dealer Uplift assisted us in drafting this law and will be a valuable resource for our members.” HB 746 will go into effect on July 1, 2021.

Joe Jankowski, Managing Member of Armatus Dealer Uplift, states that his team looks forward to working with Mississippi’s new car dealers, “Retail warranty reimbursement can considerably boost the bottom line for the dealerships. We are confident that our experience, technology, and processes will deliver optimized results to our Mississippi customers.”

Armatus is committed to securing fair and reasonable market-rate warranty compensation for its clients and is the industry’s only fully outsourced retail warranty parts and labor reimbursement submission service. Armatus’ knowledge of statutes, manufacturer’s protocols and profit optimization are unequalled.

About Armatus Dealer Uplift
Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, Armatus Dealer Uplift is the industry leader specializing solely in Retail Warranty Reimbursement submissions with over 8,000 approvals in 50 states with 29 manufacturers. Armatus is endorsed/licensed by 16 state Automotive Dealer Associations nationwide and has been instrumental in consulting on new retail reimbursement legislation in 11 states. Learn more about Armatus at www.dealeruplift.com

About MADA
The Mississippi Automobile Dealers Association (MADA) is a trade association representing Mississippi’s franchised automobile, and truck dealers. Formed in 1941, MADA represents a collective voice for the dealers with advocacy, exclusive member benefits, and promoting the automobile industry. For more information, visit www.madaonline.com

Armatus Media Contact:

Joe Jankowski, Managing Partner, joej@dealeruplift.com

MADA Media Contact:

Marty Milstead, MADA President, marty@madaonline.com

By Jordan Jankowski

Every year, as dealers begin to work on their annual labor rate submissions, many are quick to grab their policies and procedures manuals to get started. For most, it’s a process that may involve filling out a competitive survey, producing a certain amount of consecutive qualified repair orders, or a combination of the two. Does this process yield as much of an increase as the dealership wants or is entitled to? Many times, the answer is no. 

Most dealers are surprised to learn that a factory submission isn’t their only choice. In fact, 48 states have some type of legislation in place that allows dealers to perform a statutory labor submission. The purpose of a statutory submission is for a dealer to achieve warranty labor compensation at its retail rate, which is a market driven rate based on its warranty-like customer-pay repair transactions. Any dealer who is submitting for a labor rate increase should be evaluating its factory protocol and its statutory protocol to determine which is most advantageous. 

Factory Submissions

The guidelines for a factory labor submission are different for each manufacturer and can typically be found in your policies and procedures manual. The process can be as simple as filling out a competitive survey or as arduous as producing 100 sequential qualified repair orders; most manufacturers will require a combination of a survey and a certain amount of qualified repair orders. In some cases, it's a quick and simple process to request your rate and wait for a response. While this process may seem enticing, there are some pitfalls to filing a factory submission. First, your manufacturer is not required to respond in a certain time frame; many dealers have told us they have waited months for a response, only to receive a significantly reduced offer. If this occurs, it is typically a “take it or it leave it” proposition. It is also possible that you’ll be afforded no increase, as to which you’ll likewise have no recourse. Although some factory protocols allow you to submit fewer total ROs than a statutory submission, following your state law may yield a greater increase for a variety of reasons.

Statutory Submissions

A statutory submission will give the dealer more control over the process and possible outcomes. Although a statutory submission involves more complicated protocols and can be more work than a factory submission, the benefits usually make the additional work worth it. Most states require 100 sequential qualifying ROs that have been closed in the last 180 days, and prescribe how the rate is to be calculated and what type of services can be excluded from the sample. Once the submission is complete, the manufacturer must respond within a specific time frame (usually 30 days), and most statutes will outline a rebuttal process, if the manufacturer approves a reduced rate or offers no increase at all. To further expound on the benefits, let’s focus on three reasons why a statutory submission may be more advantageous than your factory protocol, and what services are available to help dealers through what might be an unfamiliar process.

1. Dealers Are Better Protected

One of the biggest benefits of a statutory submission is the state laws in place that protect dealers from their manufacturers having unilateral control over the resulting labor rate. Although the factory protocols often require less work, it's often advantageous to submit statutorily to put the dealer in control of the outcome, not the manufacturer. 

If you disagree with the outcome of your submission, most statutes have a rebuttal process in place that allows a dealer to dispute a rejection or reduction of its rate-increase submission. Simply put, a factory submission is controlled completely by the manufacturer and ultimately gives them the upper hand, while a statutory submission is controlled by state law to help dealers obtain a fair market rate from their labor submissions.

2. States Exclude Certain Repairs

Many state laws have specific excluded repairs that are designed to eliminate from the sample non-repairs and non-warranty-like repairs to help you achieve your “true” retail rate. For example, the manufacturer’s rules may require that you include battery replacements or wheel alignments in your labor submission. This type of competitive routine maintenance work typically has a low effective labor rate, and does not represent what you charge your customers for warranty-like repairs. Certain state laws allow you to exclude this type of work, as well as other non-retail repairs such as those paid for by service contracts/insurance companies, or repairs for fleets or government agencies. All of these exclusions are placed in the law to protect dealers from having to include non-warranty-like work in their labor rate calculation. 

3. The Resulting Numbers Are Often Higher

As previously mentioned, you should be evaluating both a statutory submission and a factory submission every year when contemplating a labor-rate increase. In most states, a statutory submission will have different rules than your factory protocol based on a number of specific nuances in the law. We’ve often had dealers ask why they would complete a statutory submission when their factory protocol required less work. Let’s say a manufacturer requires 20 consecutive qualified ROs that have closed in the last 30 days, which is far less than the 100 qualified ROs that most statutes require. You may wonder, how can a dealer get a larger increase providing 5 times the amount of ROs? One answer is that you can use the last 6 months of data in most states, rather than the limited timeframe prescribed by most factories. The larger data set for a statutory submission makes sure that your increase is indicative of your typical retail pricing policies, while a truncated period of time may be far less representative, or be subject to an unfavorable work-mix. The extra work can seem daunting to a dealer who has only ever performed factory submissions, but it usually pays for itself.

How Do I Get Started with My Statutory Submission?

The next time you are due to perform a labor rate increase submission, think twice about automatically submitting your factory RO sample or survey. 

A statutory submission can seem overwhelming to already overworked dealership personnel trying to focus on selling and servicing cars, but that’s where a qualified and well-referenced third-party vendor comes into play. A third-party vendor that is familiar with statutory submissions can guide you through the unfamiliar process and perform it for you, seamlessly.

Before you decide to engage a vendor, you should ask yourself some key questions to make sure you are achieving the optimal result with the least disruption to your business: 

Exactly how much work will the vendor be completing for your submission? The process between a vendor and dealer can be very different depending on who you work with. If you’re working with a best-in-class vendor to perform your submission, it should be completing all the work for you. If the vendor is asking you to complete tasks like pulling thousands of repair orders, you may be better off completing the submission yourself.

Does the vendor evaluate which submission type is best for you? Many vendors simply provide one form of submission over the other, without much thought given into which submission is right for the dealer. However, other vendors have processes in place that allow them to review a dealer’s data in a way that can identify the most profitable submission type. Most often, this is a statutory submission, but it is possible that a factory submission could be better—you won’t know for sure unless your vendor evaluates both opportunities.

How is the vendor ensuring you get the best result? Working with a best-in-class vendor means it will have software built specially to ensure the best labor rate submissions, based on both state and manufacturer guidelines.  If a vendor says it can produce the best result, ask it how; get specific; there are lots of loose claims out there. Attempting to use spreadsheets or DMS reports may help avoid some unfavorable repairs but will make it nearly impossible to identify the optimal range to submit within the prior 6 months. Most of the time you can only submit one time per year, so missing the best possible rate will cost you for at least the next 12 months.

Next Steps

A statutory submission doesn’t have to be as complex as it sounds; that’s why third-party vendors immerse themselves in state laws and factory behaviors, in order to give dealers the industry knowledge and tools needed to get you the best labor rate increase possible. With no commitment necessary, there’s really no reason not to take a look at working with a third-party vendor to see just how much you could be adding to your bottom line. 

*****

Jordan Jankowski is the Director of Operations of Armatus Dealer Uplift, a Hunt Valley, Maryland-based firm specializing in retail warranty reimbursement submissions. Starting as an auditor, Jordan built his knowledge base from the ground up, and today is recognized as an expert in this highly technical arena.  Jordan manages a team of 45 people, which produce thousands of retail-warranty submissions each year.

By Joe Jankowski

The world is in crisis, and no one has escaped the financial and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone in the retail automotive industry understands the true impact that this virus is having on dealerships and just how crucial it is for stores to find additional revenue now more than ever.

Even as many are forced to furlough or lay off employees and juggle payments to keep a skeleton crew running, there is a solution that requires no upfront investment and barely any work on your part: a retail warranty reimbursement submission.

Some dealerships might be reluctant to undertake this, citing concerns such as the fact that they’re focused on finding revenue immediately and can’t wait 60 to 90 days, they have a hold on spending, or they simply don’t have the time. The truth is that none of these issues are show-stoppers in submitting your retail warranty reimbursement.  Let’s address each one.

Revenue Now: A Profit Plan for the Near Future

We understand that money is needed now—there’s no way around that. But unfortunately, there may not be a direct answer to that besides government-funded loans and stimulus grants. However, once the economy reopens and society begins to slowly meld itself back into a shape of what it once was, dealerships are likely to be the beneficiaries of pent-up demand. Cars are going to be rolling in for repairs, and business will rebound.

Expense Reduction Mode: Never Pay Up-Front Fees

Submitting a retail warranty reimbursement with vendors that operate with a win-win philosophy, means you don’t pay any of the cost of services until the manufacturer approves your submission. When you do pay, it is out of found money. Additionally, one way to determine whether a submission is worth your while is to request that your vendor provide you a no-cost projection of just how much more you could be adding to your bottom line if you were to move forward. There should be no strings attached—you should only have to provide a few labor and parts figures on your end, and you’ll immediately have a good sense of how much you could stand to gain.

This makes it easy to see how profitable a submission could be because you’ll have a good estimate of just how much you may be getting and how quickly your pay-back period is on all fees. Even before the reimbursement is in your pocket, you’ll have a projection of the profit number you’ve been looking for to start strategizing around your sustainability plans. Especially in these critical times, a vendor should ensure that their clients feel comfortable and satisfied by walking in the dealer’s shoes, and not expecting fees when the dealer can least afford it.

No Time: Let Others Do the Work for You

One of the most common objections to performing a retail warranty submission during a crisis, is not having enough time, and this is especially true now. Dealerships are scrambling to keep paychecks coming and maintaining any semblance of normalcy during the crisis, so where would they have time to prepare and submit a complex retail warranty submission? That’s exactly where a true professional services firm comes in.

A dealer’s participation should be limited to providing minimal access to the DMS and signing a pre-written letter; the vendor should do the rest. Dealers should be wary of vendors asking them to perform services, such as pulling potentially thousands of repair orders, in order to assist in preparing the submission. There are some true nightmare stories, where dealers have been forced to perform the work multiple times, based on lost shipments between the dealer and vendor, or even the vendor and manufacturer; in some cases approvals were delayed for months.. There should be limited distractions or side projects handed to your skeleton crew: With the proper vendor, all you’ve done is added a few no-upfront-cost team members to your arsenal.

A quality vendor saves you time, sure. But another great reason to have a competent third-party prepare and submit your retail warranty reimbursement is because of how well versed they are on every state’s law and the manufacturers’ requirements. Factory auditors jump at the chance to rebut or deny submissions, and drag out the reimbursement process because manufacturers don’t want to pay you more than their standard rate—a common fact of the trade. A top-flight firm knows how to follow submission guidelines to a T and make sure your reimbursement comes as quickly as possible and gives factory auditors no leg to stand on. Although no one can foreclose on all manufacturer tactics to reduce or deny a dealer’s submission, it makes sense to leverage industry insider knowledge to assure the best possible result.

Getting Started

Sometimes dealers’ reaction to retail warranty reimbursements is that it seems too good to be true—that’s certainly understandable. But the reality is that retaining the right vendor who can guide you through the experience, including what behavior to expect from your manufacturer, can make the process as painless as possible. If you take the time to consider all of the nuances involved, you’ll realize this is not the time to take this on yourself— it’s not always a walk in the park.

Now, in times of crisis, it has never been more important for dealerships to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The veil of uncertainty will lift sometime in the future—is your dealership ready with the revenue it needs to get a running head start?

Joe Jankowski is Managing Partner of Armatus Dealer Uplift, a Hunt Valley, Maryland-based firm specializing in retail warranty reimbursement submissions. Joe has been personally involved in consulting on 10 retail warranty statutes and is widely recognized as an expert in this highly technical arena. Previously, Joe spent more than 20 years as CFO, COO, and CEO of a large automotive group in Maryland.

HUNT VALLEY, MD, FERUARY 6, 2020 – Armatus Dealer Uplift, the industry leader in retail warranty reimbursement submissions, is now a Certified Opentrack Partner and integrated with Dealertrack DMS. Dealertrack provides industry-leading software solutions that give dealerships, lenders, and partners the confidence to thrive in an ever-changing automotive market.

“Earning this certification from Dealertrack further enhances the services we perform for auto dealerships throughout the US,” stated Joe Jankowski, Managing Partner of Armatus Dealer Uplift, “Securing access to  applications like Opentrack streamlines our retail warranty reimbursement submission process thereby creating the optimal customer experience for our clients.”

Armatus is committed to ensuring that its dealer clients receive fair and reasonable market rate reimbursement for their warranty claims.  It is the industry’s only fully outsourced retail warranty parts and labor reimbursement submission service. The company’s proprietary software and database tools extract critical data, and together with its industry leading audit team, ensures its clients will receive the best possible warranty parts mark-up and labor rate

Dealertrack’s Opentrack Partner Program provides its partners with improved workflows through seamless, secure data integration.

About Armatus Dealer Uplift

Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, Armatus Dealer Uplift is the industry leader specializing solely in retail warranty reimbursement submissions. The company has nearly 7,000 approvals in 49 states with 28 manufacturers and has been endorsed/licensed by 15 state dealer associations. For more information visit www.dealeruplift.com.

About Dealertrack
Dealertrack provides industry-leading software solutions that give dealerships, lenders, and partners the confidence to thrive in an ever-changing automotive market. The company’s integrated suite of powerful easy-to-use products and services helps dealerships and their lending partners grow by increasing efficiency and improving decision-making. Dealertrack is part of the Cox Automotive family, a company that is transforming the way the world buys, sells, owns and uses cars. Dealertrack—along with its unmatched network of dealership and lending partners—is improving the car buying experience by embracing the technologies that will shape the future of automotive retail. For more information about Dealertrack, visit www.dealertrack.com.

Armatus Media Contact:

Joseph Jankowski, Managing Partner

joej@dealeruplift.com

Dealertrack Media Contact:

Lisa Alosio

Lisa.alosio@coxautoinc.com

HUNT VALLEY, MD, October 17, 2019 – Armatus Dealer Uplift, the industry leader in retail warranty reimbursement submissions, today announced that the California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA) has named Armatus as the exclusive licensed vendor of Retail Warranty Reimbursement submission services for the CNCDA membership.

“AB-179 is amongst the most significant franchise legislation enacted for California’s new car dealers and is one of the strongest laws in the country. We are confident that our experience, technology and processes can considerably boost the bottom line for California dealers,” stated Joe Jankowski, Managing Member of Armatus Dealer Uplift.

“On January 1, 2020, AB-179 will take effect; it is a huge victory for all Californians, local businesses and consumers alike. This bill brings California’s new motor vehicle franchise laws into the 21st century by establishing a level playing field between local independently-owned dealerships and multinational vehicle manufacturers. Armatus Dealer Uplift has an impressive track record in retail warranty reimbursement and will be a valuable resource for our members,” said California New Car Dealers Association President, Brian Maas.

Armatus is committed to securing fair and reasonable market-rate warranty compensation for its clients and is the industry’s only fully outsourced retail warranty parts and labor reimbursement submission service. Armatus’ knowledge of statutes, manufacturer’s protocols and profit optimization are unequalled.

About Armatus Dealer Uplift

Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, Armatus Dealer Uplift is the industry leader specializing solely in Retail Warranty Reimbursement submissions with over 6,000 approvals in 49 states with 28 manufacturers. Armatus is endorsed/licensed by 15 state Automotive Dealer Associations nationwide and has been instrumental in consulting on new retail reimbursement legislation in 10 states.

About CNCDA

For more than 95 years, CNCDA has represented the interests of California’s franchised new car dealers. CNCDA members are primarily engaged in the retail sale and lease of new and used motor vehicles, but also provide customers with automotive products, parts, service and repair. Our members sold more than 2 million cars and trucks in 2018 and employ more than 140,000 Californians, significantly contributing to our state’s economy.  As the nation’s largest state association of franchised new car and truck dealers—with nearly 1,200 members—CNCDA serves its members by providing legal compliance and legislative, regulatory and legal advocacy. For more information, visit www.cncda.org.

Armatus Media Contact:

Joe Jankowski

Managing Member

joej@dealeruplift.com

www.dealeruplift.com

CNCDA Media Contact:

Jenny Dudikoff

Director of Public Affairs and Marketing

jdudikoff@cncda.org

HUNT VALLEY, MD, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019 – Armatus Dealer Uplift, the industry leader in retail warranty reimbursement submissions, is a participant in the CDK Global Partner Program. As a member of one of the largest third-party partner programs in the industry, Armatus Dealer Uplift is part of a marketplace of applications and integration that CDK Global, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDK), a leading enabler of end-to-end automotive commerce, developed to help automotive dealers succeed.

“Becoming  an approved CDK Global Partner is a great addition to the services we perform for auto dealerships nationwide,” stated Joe Jankowski, Managing Partner of Armatus Dealer Uplift, “This ensures access to applications that will streamline our retail warranty reimbursement submission process for our CDK dealer clients.”

Armatus is committed to ensuring that its dealer clients receive fair and reasonable market rate reimbursement for their warranty claims.  Armatus is the industry’s only fully outsourced retail warranty parts and labor reimbursement submission service. Its proprietary software and database tools extract critical data and together with its industry leading audit team, ensures its clients will receive the best possible warranty parts mark-up and labor rate

“Armatus Dealer Uplift is a welcome addition to our vibrant program that provides dealers with a range of partner choices and the assurance that their programs can be seamlessly integrated with our applications,” said Howard Gardner, vice president and general manager, CDK Data Services.

The CDK Global Partner Program provides its partners with access to a diverse CDK ecosystem through the ability to integrate with a range of CDK applications, as well as with CDK dealer websites.

About the CDK Global Partner Program

The CDK Partner Program now numbers more than 430 partner companies and 600 unique applications auto dealers can use to run their businesses. As part of the CDK ecosystem, the CDK Partner Program provides data and workflow integration to a wide range of third parties, OEMs and dealers. For a full list of partners and applications available through the program, visit cdkglobal.com/us/partners-list.

About CDK Global

With more than $2 billion in revenues, CDK Global (Nasdaq: CDK) is a leading global provider of integrated information technology and digital marketing solutions to the automotive retail and adjacent industries. Focused on enabling end-to-end automotive commerce, CDK Global provides solutions to dealers in more than 100 countries around the world, serving approximately 30,000 retail locations and most automotive manufacturers. CDK solutions automate and integrate all parts of the dealership and buying process from targeted digital advertising and marketing campaigns to the sale, financing, insuring, parts supply, repair, and maintenance of vehicles. Visit cdkglobal.com.

About Armatus Dealer Uplift

Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, Armatus Dealer Uplift is the industry leader specializing solely in retail warranty reimbursement submissions. The company has nearly 6,000 approvals in 49 states with 28 manufacturers and has been endorsed by 14 state dealer associations. Armatus’ proprietary software guarantees the highest quantitative reimbursement available. For more information visit www.dealeruplift.com.

Armatus Media Contact:

Jordan Jankowski

Director of Operations

jordanj@dealeruplift.com

Roxanne Pipitone

roxanne.pipitone@cdk.com