News
“Right to Repair” legislation impacts on equipment dealers
The Equipment Dealers Association says unrestricted service of agricultural equipment could lead to safety and liability threats.
Will Rogers with the Iowa/Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association says “right to repair” agricultural equipment legislation has been introduced in several states, including Nebraska and Minnesota, and lacks elements to protect dealers and equipment owners. “We’ve seen a growing trend among state farm bureaus and farmers unions that are considering adapting policy statements in favor of ‘right to repair.’” He says, “Our concern is that these policies will be adopted without a thorough understanding of the current rights.”
General Council Natalie Higgins with the Equipment Dealers Association says as agricultural equipment technology continues to advance, modifications could cause major liability issues with EPA’s current Tier 4 emissions regulations and the advent of automated tractors. “We’re very concerned that the EPA would be enforcing fines or penalties against dealers who don’t proactively rectify a modification that was made by someone else that in fact is violating one of those EPA standards.”
Rogers says service manuals are for sale to dealers and service outlets, but access to the information does not mean repairs are done correctly.
Rogers and Higgins made comments during the Equipment Dealers webinar on the “right to repair” movement.
AUDIO: Equipment Dealers Association webinar
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Here is a link to several articles about “right to repair”. If a person does not have the right to repair their own vehicle no matter what that vehicle is then ownership means nothing. The so called authorized repair shops can charge what ever they want and do what ever they want. Just more govt control and so called licensing. http://www.bing.com/search?q=right+to+repair+vehicles&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IENTTR&conversationid=&pc=EUPP_
“Rogers says service manuals are for sale to dealers and service outlets, but access to the information does not mean repairs are done correctly.” So the dealers have exclusive access to manuals, but that doesn’t mean they’ll do the job right? There are both great and horrible dealers/authorized service centers out there. This has nothing to do with quality of service and everything to do with forcing a monopoly. All Farmers should have the right to service their own equipment/make repairs in the field. If someone makes an illegal modification, yes they broke the law. But that is a different issue than repair.