RACER Consulting Firm Formed to Guide and Inform Auto Dealers
The Scali Law Firm Partners with Southland Motor Car Dealers Association
Jun 21, 2017, 13:00 ET
LOS ANGELES, June 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Starting this month, auto dealers struggling to stay on top of a shifting and increasingly complex quagmire of regulations and rulings can get help and guidance from the RACER consulting firm.
"RACER was created by car dealers for dealers who face a longer and more complicated list of compliance issues than ever before," explained Christian Scali, founder of the Los Angeles-based Scali Law Firm (named one of the Top Boutique Law Firm in California by the Daily Journal), which formed RACER in partnership with the Southland Motor Car Dealers Association.
RACER (Retail Automotive Compliance & Ethics Resource) is not an outside auditor. For a flat monthly fee, it trains management on how to implement and manage compliance policies and procedures in the areas of human resources, F&I, OSHA, sales and BAR.
Specifically, RACER recalibrates a dealer's understanding of an effective compliance program and helps create an ethical culture that reduces problems and protects the business – which in turn, increases morale, increases customer satisfaction, and reduces lawsuits, turnover and customer complaints.
A RACER Compliance Driver works with each dealership to create a compliance team and will either become its Chief Compliance Officer, or help appoint one within the dealership. Once a dealership is set up on the RACER program, the Compliance Driver will periodically visit the dealership and facilitate compliance training, education and communications. RACER provides guidance on reporting and investigations, makes recommendations for discipline and incentives, and helps dealerships with monitoring and auditing outside services.
Although the need for such a service is nothing new, RACER is the first to provide a one-stop shop to implement, monitor and enforce policies and procedures and retool the dealership culture.
"Dealers have more regulations to stay on top of and are under greater scrutiny to follow those regulations," said Todd Leutheuser, Executive Director of the Southland Motor Car Dealer Association. "One of many examples is the recent FTC action against The Sage Automotive Group, which was forced to pay $3.6 million to settle charges of using deceptive and unfair sales and financing practices and deceptive advertising (also known as "yo-yo financing.")"
The Scali Law Firm educates its auto dealer clients on to how to avoid similar trouble. The firm's attorneys are thought leaders in the automotive industry, often called upon to provide their opinions on new and trending issues on auto distribution and franchise, F&I, employment and advertising issues. The firm also drafted the CNCDA's 2017 Advertising Law Manual, giving auto dealers practical guidance on advertising practices.
For more information, visit http://racercalifornia.com/.
SOURCE RACER