California Dreamin’ Redux

Just a few months ago, I wrote a blog called “California Dreamin’” about the auto glass regulations that were being considered in an effort to reduce emissions in the state. Just last Friday, the California Air Resources Board voted to adopt these regulations. In the previous blog, I noted that at the time, awareness of the regulations seemed to be low, as did concern about what the legislation might mean for the rest of the nation. I wondered if other states (or even the nation) might consider instating similar regulations, and I interviewed several industry representatives who agreed for a separate news article. (CLICK HERE to view.)

Well, it seems that incidentally, on the very same day that CARB was voting to adopt these regulations, which go into effect in 2012—just two and a half years from now—the U.S. House of Representatives was voting to enact climate change legislation. The bill is aimed at many of the goals as California’s AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which called to return the state’s greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. Though specific numbers for reducing emissions from vehicles aren’t included in the House bill (which includes a variety of ways that emissions can be reduced), I couldn’t help but wonder if the California auto glass regulations could soon become a part of the nation’s efforts (if the bill is passed by the Senate and signed by the president, that is) to achieve this goal.

What do you think? Do you believe this to be in the future of the industry?

Also, everyone I’ve spoken with so far, since the California regulations were passed, has seemed to believe this to be a positive for the industry and for the state. Do you agree? What, if any, impact do you believe this will have on your business? Please e-mail pstacey@glass.com.

Mission Accomplished

Yesterday, I accomplished a long-time goal of mine—one I’ve had since I started covering this industry’s news almost nine years ago this summer. I was able to visit a windshield manufacturing plant.

It all started a few months ago when Safelite received a $30,000 grant from the state of North Carolina for its efforts to become more lean at its Enfield, N.C., plant. I had contacted Safelite/Belron US spokesperson Jenny Cain for more information, and she was kind enough to extend an offer for me to visit the plant in the coming months to see what was happening there firsthand. It turns out, Enfield is only about three hours away. So, yesterday, I set out bright and early for Enfield, N.C.—a small, rural town just south of Roanoke Rapids, N.C.

While the town may be small, the facility is not—and I was amazed at all that is accomplished there every single day. Though I’ll be covering my visit in-depth in an upcoming issue of AGRR magazine, I couldn’t wait to share three of the most surprising things from my visit with those of you reading.

One surprising part to me is that PVB is actually added to the glass by hand. The room in which this process is completed is a very bright (and obviously very clean) enclosed space. I would have expected everything to be automated, but such is not the case—as each piece of glass (and the PVB it requires) is so different.

The other thing that didn’t necessarily surprise me, but amazed me, was the amount of quality control that goes into the product. It is inspected at various times throughout the process not only for impact resistance, but also for distortion. I actually was able to observe this; the piece of glass is placed on a rack and placed in front of an image containing “zebra lines” that help them to check for distortion in the glass. At the end of the process, this is checked again before it is loaded onto racks for distribution.There was much more that I look forward to sharing about this visit, but couldn’t wait to share these details. Be sure to watch for the upcoming July/August issue of AGRR for more from the tour.

Boom!

Boom! That’s a sound we’ve been hearing around here a lot lately. Almost every night this week we’ve been having massive thunderstorms that have spread throughout the state, but have focused especially on our area. I’ve driven home through thunder and lightning several nights this week, and on Wednesday night, while eating with my family at a local Applebees, I saw more (and larger) hail than I’ve ever seen—about the size of a golf ball.

I know it’s June and hurricane season is officially upon us, but every year I’m surprised by the storms we see at this time of year. And it seems they keep getting worse. We lost power at our house for about 3 hours on Tuesday night, and keeping our television and cable unplugged has become a common thing.

And it seems our area isn’t the only one seeing such violent storms. This week, I’ve come across news story after news story about similar storms pounding other areas with hail—resulting in lots of broken glass. Two that stick out were a storm near Indianapolis and another near San Antonio. The WTHR story regarding the Indianapolis storm cited hail the size of a baseball. And, of course, they say everything’s bigger in Texas—in this case it might be true; My San Antonio compared the hail seen there to softballs. I can’t imagine the glass breakage this must have caused.

Even today, weather.com is calling for possible hail storms in the Midwest and West (CLICK HERE for full report). Our area seems to be the clear—at least through the weekend—though it looks like Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas while continue to endure storms.

So, is this a forbearer of what’s to come this summer? So far, though, have you seen an increase in business because of the storms? And have your own businesses experienced any damage, extensive lost of power, etc.? Please e-mail me at pstacey@glass.com if your business has been impacted in any way by the recent storms.

P.S. On another note, last winter, several readers sent me stories about the strangest ways they’ve seen customers try to clear their windshields of ice. Now that summer is upon us, what are some of your funniest or strangest glass breakage stories? I would like to feature these in a future blog. I look forward to hearing from you.

California Dreamin’

In recent months, I’ve been covering the regulations that the state of California’s Air Resources Board is working to implement that would require many changes to both new and replacement auto glass in the state. I won’t go into the details here (click here for those), but, I will tell you, it seems to be quite a change.

In summary, the goal of the changes is to decrease how hard the air conditioner in a vehicle has to work, and thereby reducing its emissions. The regulations originally were termed the Cool Paints and Reflective Glazing Regulations, but paint requirements have since been removed from the latest proposed rules, as those working on this initiative found that paint manufacturers weren’t quite prepared for the technology that would be required. Lucky for glass (or maybe not?), they found that glass manufacturers were ahead of the curve—and many are fully ready to meet what’s proposed. The regulations now are known as the Cool Cars and Reflective Glazing regulations.

What surprises me, though, is how little awareness of these changes there is—especially since the regulation specifically notes that it will affect both aftermarket replacements and original-equipment vehicles. I’d blame the lack of awareness on the media, but that might not work in this case—considering we’ve been covering this topic on glassBYTEs.com™ for several months.

So, you can imagine my surprise when a survey we conducted a month or two ago showed that 43 percent of participants weren’t even aware of the changes; and even fewer were concerned that the changes could spread to the rest of the United States.

Twenty-seven percent answered that they were aware of the requirements, but were not concerned about the potential of this. Ultimately, I realized it’s more of a product issue than a process one, but even the analysis notes that these changes will increase glass costs for vehicles.

Another matter to consider is one of relevance. Maybe this is just a California issue; but it seems that history often repeats itself, and other California regulations like this one have tended to spread to a national basis. For example, a couple years back, the state decided to implement regulations regulating the amounts of formaldehyde emitted from composite wood products; it was no big surprise when this year, this became a national issue (visit AGRR’s sister publication, DWM magazine, for more on this, by clicking here).

So it was no big surprise last week, when President Obama announced a new plan for increasing fuel efficiency, that the state of California is one of many groups involved in the initiative. Does that mean the fuel plan will include expanding these regulations throughout the United States? Only time will tell. Stay tuned to glassBYTEs.com™/AGRR magazine for more information on both of these as it becomes available.

And, in the meantime, please give me your take on this topic. If you’re in California, do you think the CARB regulations will have a major effect on how you do business? And, if you’re outside of California, what are your thoughts on the fuel efficiency policy? Do you think it will come to include new reflective glazing requirements? Please e-mail me at pstacey@glass.com.

Which Way?

It wasn’t very long ago that I started using a GPS system. A few weeks ago, I found myself driving to Bethesda, Md., without one, and I suddenly felt very lost. There were several instances when I knew where I was, but kept awaiting the voice of the reassuring lady who lives in my GPS to tell me where I was, or, better yet, what to do next. Each time this happened, I would quickly remember that I’d managed to leave my system at home (nice place for a GPS, huh?). And then I’d realize how completely dependent I’d become on this little system—and that I don’t even carry a good, ol’ fashioned map in my car these days.

The only thing that kept me from feeling completely lost was the fact that I had my cell phone and I knew if, worst came to worst, I could call someone with Internet access for directions.
Years ago, I drove great distances without either a GPS or cell phone—and obviously I was fine.

Yet now that I’ve grown accustomed to having such technological assistance, I hate to admit it, but it seems I’ve become dependent.

What piece of electronic equipment do you think has most revolutionized our lives? My usual votes would be for cell phones or the Internet—and honestly, I could make arguments for either—and only recently did a GPS unit enter my consideration. For some of you, this might even be the PDA—I’ve not delved here, so I don’t have any experience with this one, but I’m guessing this one might beat all.

So, I’m wondering, which of these items is most useful to you? Which most has revolutionized the way you do business? If you’ve forged into the areas of GPS units or PDAs, which ones have worked best for you? What features are important—and what features do you find unnecessary?
In the July/August issue of AGRR, we’ll be including a look at these devices and systems. Please e-mail me at pstacey@glass.com if you wish to discuss this topic for the article, or if you have a particular handy item you’ve discovered that might be helpful to others.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Protecting Pedestrians

I’m all for safety. I’ve always worn my seatbelt, I use my headlights when it’s raining and I have written about many innovative safety features in vehicles. But a few weeks ago, I started hearing about a coming vehicle safety feature that I’m just not sure about.

I first saw a story about it a few days after April 1—and, to be honest, I thought it was a joke. When other publications started running similar stories about it, though, including renowned newspapers such as London’s Guardian, I began to question whether it might actually be real.
You’re probably wondering what this safety feature is; well, it’s an airbag that pops out of the front of the car when a pedestrian is struck. Seriously? (If you don’t believe me, you can read about it here.)

Right now it’s just an idea that hasn’t come to fruition, but will it ever?

Again, I’m all for safety and I don’t want pedestrians to be harmed. But isn’t there a point when the driver needs to take some responsibility? Here’s a much simpler idea than spending lots of dollars on research on something like this: maybe drivers should pay attention and not hit pedestrians. And perhaps pedestrians should heed traffic signals, walk in crosswalks and make sure they’re aware of their surroundings.

What do you think?

So, I’ll be honest, I haven’t been able to verify that the “front-of-the-car” airbag is real—and I kind of hope it’s not. One real, similar technology that has come to fruition, though, is a system that Volvo has created in which the vehicle senses when it is following a vehicle too closely and automatically slows/stops in response to this.

I know this is a great idea (and unfortunately have rear-ended a vehicle in my past), but I think many of us would admit that if we had this technology, wouldn’t we become less conscientious drivers? Would we start to depend on the car to think for us?

What do you think? And, do you think the above pedestrian-protector is real? Do you think it will ever come to the United States? Please e-mail me at pstacey@glass.com with your thoughts.

From Auto Glass to Pistachios

A few weeks ago, a massive recall was issued on pistachios. When the recall was announced, all the reports warned: "Don’t throw away your pistachios; we don’t know all the details yet, but there are definitely some bad ones out there."

(Ours are still quarantined on the top shelf of our snack cabinet as the investigation seems to be on-going.)

But as I read about the original recall, something caught my eye; unlike many recent recalls (such as the spinach one from a couple years ago, and the recent peanut scare), no one got sick from the pistachios. Fortunately, they caught the issue before this became a problem. In fact, Kraft Foods, the parent company of the pistachio company in question, apparently has a rigorous food testing program that made this apparent.

This problem brought about much talk about our nation’s food system—and that little testing is required in this area.

One story on Fox News quotes a Congressperson from Colorado, Diana DeGette, who notes that it’s fortunate Kraft caught this—because really the nation doesn’t require this.

"We're relying on companies to find the contaminated foods on their own, and since there [are] no national standards for this, some companies don't bother to test at all," she is quoted as saying. "What if these nuts had been distributed by a company that doesn't test? We wouldn't have found out until people got sick."

As she mentioned, some companies don’t bother to test at all—and normally food contamination issues aren’t discovered until someone is ill. Unfortunately it’s the same with auto glass; often companies don’t find out they’ve made a mistake until or unless an accident occurs and the windshield hasn’t played its correct role in the structural integrity of the vehicle. But, as I mentioned, I can’t help but salute Kraft for finding this; even though there was a problem, it makes me feel better that they found it before I ate a bad pistachio (or any other type of food).

And isn’t it exactly the same with auto glass companies? Of course, I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir, as they say—most of you reading this are doing so because you care about your work. But what about those who don’t? Don’t you want to be the Kraft of our industry?

In a recent interview with Glass America president David Rohlfing (CLICK HERE to view), he indicated that the greatest benefit of AGRSS registration to his company has been the ability to promote this commitment to customers. Because, really, what consumer isn’t after safety? Price is an issue, but the majority of consumers also understand the importance of safety in all facets. For example, when I go to a store now and am deciding between Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and some other off-brand—I think I might just be a little more willing to pay for the Kraft, knowing it has been well-tested and won’t cause any harm to me (or my four-year-old niece when she comes to visit).

Are you taking advantage of this way to market your company? Do you promote your company's commitment safety on a regular basis? And, have you considered AGRSS registration—so that in a few months you can be a part of the group's third-party validation efforts?

Please e-mail me at pstacey@glass.com to tell me about your success with promoting safety to your customers—or particular methods you’ve found helpful.