Simplifying the Auto Parts Recycling Process

Family-owned Bionic Auto Parts & Sales Milwaukee Inc is a proud TEAM PRP member. Read on to learn more about how this can benefit you!

Several years ago, the United Recyclers Group was formed by over 300 of the most progressive recyclers in the country. The objective of the group was to improve their businesses by sharing resources. The Premium Recycled Parts program grew out of the realization that the URG philosophy of sharing resources could make a huge improvement in the way members could serve their customers.

The Premium Recycled Parts program now has seven regional alliances operating in the U. S. Each alliance is independent but has adopted the minimum standards of the URG PRP program. Alliances consist of between six and 18 recyclers with several hundred thousand to a million parts in inventory. Warranties, quote guarantees, delivery guarantees, and other business practices are the same within each alliance. Each recycler remains independent, however, thus guaranteeing competitive prices.

The objective of the Premium Recycled Parts program is to sell more parts by helping insurers and repairers reduce claim severity and cycle time. With this in mind, PRP planners developed three specific goals:

• Make it easier for customers to find and buy recycled parts.
• Improve the quality and consistency of recycled parts and customer service.
• Gather the necessary information for insurers, repairers, and recyclers to manage increased recycled parts use effectively.

To make it easier for customers to buy recycled parts, a regional organization structure was adopted to match that of most insurers. Recyclers in each region electronically combined their inventories so customers could access all of the alliance’s parts by contacting one salesman. These combined inventories are quite large. Delivery is convenient because of the regional concentration of customers and recyclers.

To improve the quality of parts and service, URG has created a set of standards called URG 8000. These standards are fashioned after the ISO 9000 certification program.

All members of PRP regional alliances must adopt the URG 8000 standards. PRP standards include guaranteed quotes, guaranteed delivery times, a policy of “no supplements”, the best warranties in the industry, no fees for returned parts, as well as other policies to ensure that using PRP recycled parts will reduce costs and claim cycle time.

To gather the necessary information for customers to manage their use of recycled parts effectively, PRP members use their computer systems to track every part request and purchase by their customers. This information is used to report information, such as how many parts were requested, how many of those requests were successful, and how many of the parts found were actually used. This information can be sorted by the estimator, the repair shop, or the recycler.

Contact URG or any PRP recycler to learn more about reducing claim severity and cycle time by participating in this free program.

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