Wichita, Kan.--"The first day the computer system was set-up in my recycling business, it created a lot of confusion," said Paul Davis, owner and president of A-Plus Parts & Salvage.
"The fateful day I put in my computer system was Dec. 1, 1988," Davis said. "Gosh, when we started back then, it was a 256 clock speed computer with dumb terminals and wires running everywhere. Now, we have a server with a wireless network and access points in every building with laptops all over the place. About the only things that we are not using are laser tags plus bar coding. We are right at that magic size that we don't need it, but if we get much bigger, it will become a necessity."
Four people work in the shop, Davis said, while he does all the purchasing of vehicles through Internet auctions or by attending auctions, and he and his wife, Darlene, work the sales desk. "All dismantling is done inside one of five buildings, and the parts are recorded and entered into the inventory system as we take them off the cars," he said. "That night, it is loaded into a national data bank so we can sell them over the Internet or out the door."
Davis said he keeps his high-volume parts in his warehouses and the only parts stored outside are basic shells. Motors, transmissions, rotating electric, and wheels, along with sheetmetal and body parts, are inventoried, he said. Then those parts have interchange identification numbers attached and are stored in appropriate places. There are special tanks for hazardous liquids, and the batteries are kept in a secured area, he said.
Davis said the majority of his sales goes to independent used-car lots, independent repair shops, and body shops, with the balance of sales to retail customers, other yards, new-car dealers, and over the Internet. The average car at the yard is 6 to 10 years old, he said. "I like to buy a car that drove to the scene of the accident," Davis said. "I am not thrilled with cars that are out back in the wholesale lot of a dealership.
"The insurance cars are a better quality for the types of parts we sell," Davis said. "We buy cars from insurance pools and over the Internet through auctions. The challenge is that many of the cars that are being sold on the Internet are being priced out of our reach. It seems like there are people in other countries that enjoy some sort of financial advantage (and) can just beat us to death on those cars pricewise.
"In the last few years, since the metal prices have gone up, I have seen an increase in theft," he said. He has had to make some changes with his security and integrate it with his computer system, which has seemed to solve the problem, he said.
As for sales, Davis said, he likes it when customers contact him for a part through the Internet because he can send them a picture of the part. That helps prevent mix-ups, he said.
Davis said he has been in business since 1954. "The first actual paying job I got was when I was 14 years old," he said. "The owner of a gas station had to go to the bank and asked me to watch the station, and he said he would pay me a half-cent for every gallon of gas I sold. Then, they had an old car beside the station and the easy way to get rid of me was to let me go out there and tear it up, and I have been tearing up cars ever since. I did a stint in the Navy. I think almost every other job I ever had was in the automotive business."
Davis said he opened his own business in 1981. He operates a 5.5-acre salvage business. He said the majority of the vehicles he recycles are domestic but includes some foreign automobiles. He said he buys cars he likes because he feels they sell better. "Probably the only exception to that is that I dislike Saturns, but they are good vehicles to have and are good for business," he said. 
Davis is a member of the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) and the Wichita Automotive Recyclers Association, and is president of the Kansas Automotive Recyclers Association. He said he is on the nondeployed airbag committee of ARA, which is looking into how to make nondeployed original equipment airbags a viable repair parts.
"The single most important issue that is going to face this industry in the next five years is the availability and accessibility of salvage," Davis said. "If you can't buy product, you can't make sales. If you can't buy the raw materials with the margin that offsets overhead, you don't have a viable business.
"I think the part that our legislators and our regulators--the people that would like to tell us how to run our business--to some degree do not realize what it is that we do," he said. "If we all leave, what are you going to do? All the good parts that we can put back into the market, save people money--insurance companies, consumers, whoever."
Davis said he is also working with ARA on a bill in Congress that would create a national totaled-vehicle VIN database.
Davis said auto recycling saves 85 million barrels of oil a year, based on ARA figures.
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