The IARA standards committee has begun exploring the idea of creating a set of unified pre-sale certification standards. It has begun putting together a survey that it will be distributing to IARA members in order to gather feedback as to whether there would be member interest in creating something like this.

The ultimate goal in creating a set of unified standards, Standards Committee Co-Chair Matt Arias noted, is to see if there is industry appetite for such a program.

There are numerous pre-sale certification standards and programs out there but they’re each put together by separate organizations and they each contain differences given that they’re tailored for their respective organizations.

“Do we just stick with the million [pre-sale certification standards] that are out there, given that they provide some headaches for buyers because they end up having to buy a Rosetta Stone for every auction that they go to in order to understand the lingo. We’re just trying to clean that up,” said Arias.

The Standards Committee is also working closely with the NAAA Standards Committee in order to see if changes will be made to the association’s arbitration policy and on any new initiatives that would require IARA participation.

Arias noted that last month, on Sept. 5, the flood policy for arbitration was changed. A notice of this change was sent out, however, he advised everyone to check NAAA’s website to examine the exact changes that were made.

On a related note, the NAAA will be holding a two-day training event at Manheim Riverside from Nov. 7-8 that Arias invites all IARA members to attend. The training event will cover topics such as damage analysis and arbitration best practices.

The Standards Committee also continues to support the title and key initiative to streamline the title process and to provide extra keys to buyers of vehicles at auction.

Recently Brad Bollman stepped down from his position as co-chair of the committee to concentrate on a new initiative at GM Financial. The committee is now co-chaired by Matt Arias and Doug Turner.

“Congrats to Brad for a new endeavor internally with his company, he’s shifting his focus to that right now and Doug Turner and I will be managing the Standards Committee going forward,” said Arias.

With Bollman’s departure from the committee, the Standards Committee is looking for other IARA members that would want to join the committee. There is an open invite to members that want to join and support the IARA’s initiatives through the Standards Committee.