This year’s springmeeting was held in France on May 21st. Biggest news is the withdrawal of Paul Fox as chairman. Being no longer active as a dismantler, he felt he was no longer fit for being EGARA’s chairman. In his goodbye he stated to really have enjoyed being chairman and to see it as a privilege. EGARA was happy to have him as a chairman for so long and thanks him for this and of course wishes him all the best in his new activities.

Other topics worth mentioning are VAT issues in some countries, waste status spare parts which means in some countries selling parts is equal to selling waste (based on a very wrong national interpretation) and the latest issue is parts that can only be used once and cannot be reused.

CNPA had organised a field trip to one of their biggest dismantlers Surplus Auto 81. They are part of the Carreco chain (50 participants) and live from selling salvage cars and parts from accident vehicles only. They work in 2 8 hours shifts from 06:00 – 22:00. The surface is 7 acres and 1000 meter is building. They buy about 8000 cars a year. Cars stay in stock only 3 months and they try to have as less stock as possible. All fast movers are sold as quickly as possible and in the last month cars are in the pick ‘n pull section before they leave.

We also got a demonstration about the automated system from ETAI, the French dismantlers can work with. The idea is to have a digital dress window in which each participant can display his parts. The part is described in year, mileage, region, warranty and a picture. Behind the system even an operational interchange data system is active so dismantlers can see which parts fit in which cars and vice versa. Per vehicle a fee is asked between about € 5 – 7,- for data. We were very impressed.

We thank our French hosts from CNPA for taking good care of us and for the interesting programme.

Next meeting will be the Fall Meeting Brussels on November 18th 2016. Next Spring meeting will be in Finland on May, probably 19th -20st