Last week during an interim hearing of the Utah Legislature’s Government Operations Committee, Representative Ronald Winterton (R-Roosevelt) expressed support for Right to Repair legislation specifically for farm equipment. Although no bill currently exists, the discussion was problematic because it reiterated misconceptions about access and availability of parts, tools, documentation and diagnostics for self-repair. The hearing also generated interest from other members of the committee who committed to supporting future legislation.
Several news stories covered the hearing. One of them included Utah Farm Bureau comments that were encouraging in their support of the farm equipment MOUs:
https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/utah-lawmaker-proposes-right-to-repair-bill
The last day of interim session is November 15th and there are no committee hearings scheduled between now and then. However, this is a strong indication we should anticipate introduction of a Right to Repair bill during regular session in 2024. To gear up for that, we will be conducting an outreach campaign to members of the committee and leadership of the legislature.
As part of the outreach campaign, we suggest reaching out to your state representatives and senators. Talking points include:
- Major Stakeholders on this issue have already agreed to Memorandums of Understanding that formalize the commitment to customer self-repair in a detailed document. The MOUs also have reassessments built in every six months to address problems.
- Owners and Independent Repair Shops already have availability and access to parts, tools, documentation and diagnostics from the OEM or dealer
- Farmers are not forced to use a dealer for repairs, in fact nearly 60% of all parts at the dealership are sold out the door, meaning someone other than the dealership is performing that repair (insert your own metric, but this is national average)
- The reason downtime exists is not attributable to access and availability of parts, tools, documentation and diagnostics, it’s primarily because of workforce challenges and the shortage of technicians.
You can access the MOUs and OEM repair offering information on NAEDA’s website. You might also find our infographic on Repair Done Right useful as well.
If you have any questions or make contact with any of your elected officials, please let us know. You can reach me at ewareham@naeda.com, or our Director of Government Affairs, Kipp McGuire, at kmcguire@naeda.com.