THE Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC) is in close negotiations with the Andrews government to allow the opening of automotive showrooms for all automotive dealers.

The chamber has provided the Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and other senior bureaucrats with a detailed scenario of how the retail motor industry in Melbourne would proceed with a carefully managed process to reopen if the health department were to grant an exemption to the Stage Four Retail Business closures mandated across Melbourne.

The “very managed opening process” would include new- and used-car dealers, commercial vehicle, motorcycle, tyre, car rental and farm machinery dealerships.

VACC CEO Geoff Gwilym has already engaged with the government and will seek further meetings and provide more detailed guidance to the government over the next week.

“We are hoping to get some action from the government because we are concerned about what’s happening right now, this morning, in some dealerships across Melbourne,” he said.

“Management is sitting around tables or on screens discussing which staff are going to go and which staff are going to stay.

“That’s happening now in some dealerships that don’t qualify for JobKeeper or because JobKeeper payments have been reduced. That’s a massive thing. That’s unfortunate that they’ll start doing that from today. Today is D Day for a lot of dealers.

“We know of one dealership group in Melbourne, who has multiple franchises who doesn’t qualify (for JobKeeper), and they will start winding people back and standing them down because they have very little income coming in and that is unsustainable,” Mr Gwilym said.

While the VACC’s proposed exemption could be implemented immediately after a decision from Spring Street was made, a bulletin to members is warning that the discussions between the VACC and Spring Street were part of an ongoing process and that they should not expect immediate exemptions.

“To manage your expectations, VACC is not expecting any concessions from the government in the very immediate short-term future,” the bulletin said.

It said the information and suggestions made to the government on how the openings could be managed were “phase one of VACC’s strategy to get dealerships open”.

The chamber said the plan is “over and beyond what dealerships have in place with their own Covid-19 Safe Plans.

“This plan has been created to demonstrate the commitment and sophistication of the Victorian dealership network in eliminating the transmission of Covid-19.

“The plan hopes to provide confidence to the Victorian chief health officer and premier Andrews to permit new- and used-car, motorcycle, commercial, tyre and farm machinery sectors to open in a limited retail capacity during the Stage Four Restrictions.

“The initiatives and implementation measures contained within the VACC plan (see below) are over and beyond the current Covid-19 Safe Plans that this sector has in place.”

Mr Gwilym said the VACC was encouraged by the easing of restrictions on real estate agents made at the weekend.

“Real estate agents can now have private property inspections and display homes with one agent and one prospective purchaser which is no different to what can be achieved in a dealership environment.

“We have said one customer with one support person per time and a maximum of two customers in a dealership for a maximum of 30 minutes,” Mr Gwilym said.

“That’s pretty much what we want; make an appointment at the dealership, have a look at the car, do whatever you need to do with the cars outside, not inside the showroom.

“In the showroom there are no customers walking around. You don’t offer the customer a cup of coffee or a seat in a waiting room. That is not the point of it.

“The point of it is they’ve seen something they want to buy, they’ve got the funds, they can get in and look at it and get out quickly. They deal with one person the entire time at the dealership.

“So all it’s about is mitigating or limiting the contact to people, even for the staff. The staff protocols have tightened up. We have put in protocols on staff about what they should and shouldn’t be doing: for example no stopping at the supermarket on the way to work.”

Mr Gwilym said that the VACC was also encouraged by the government allowing manufacturers to significantly increase the percentage of employees within the one factory.

“People working in manufacturing are going to be far more concentrated together in a factory than any people would be in a car showroom. Even in normal times, you go to a dealership and the chances of you coming within cooee of another customer is pretty low,” he said.

“It’s all about demonstrating to government that dealers have been doing Covid-safe plans from the get go. They’ve been practicing safe processes before a Covid-safe plan was required.

“The very size and acreage of the dealership premises makes them low risk. And we know there’s only been one VACC-reported case of Covid from an employee at a dealership. So we can safely say that we’re very, very low risk.

“People need to come in and look at cars because a car is a pretty crucial product to be purchasing without inspecting it first; particularly a used car.”

The VACC said that it has consulted with its franchise dealers and created a new level of Covid-19 Safe Plan measures for the consideration of health officials.

This new level includes:

1. Limiting retail staff to a maximum 50 per cent of current staff level per dealership (including admin)
2. Customers to make a designated appointment to view a vehicle and complete the required paperwork. Maximum appointment time to be 30 minutes.
3. Limiting dealerships to two customers at any one time
4. Viewing of new and used stock in dealership forecourts (i.e. no showroom viewing)
5. Consumers to deal with the same person from end-to-end
6. Test drive of vehicles limited to one customer with a support person if required
7. Strict vehicle sanitisation processes to be completed after each interaction with a consumer
8. VACC Covid-19 Hotline number for emergency or extraordinary dealer queries
9. Contactless handover of vehicle or freight delivery to consumers’ addresses
10. Implementations of protocols for staff journey/travel to and from work

The VACC said it would support any exemption granted by the chief health officer or the premier with an extensive media campaign.

“VACC will continue to assist the Victorian government in all areas to help eliminate any further harm caused by the scourge of the coronavirus. VACC dealer members operate safe and healthy workplaces and support efforts to stimulate economic activity, recovery and jobs for all Victorians.”

By John Mellor