You wouldn’t choose to launch a business amid a pandemic, would you? That was the farthest thing in my mind, too, when we started working on my dream website a year ago. Who would have thought that we’d finish the work and be ready to take off at a time when the world comes to a near-stop?

Not the Best Time? Think Again!

It’s a crisis never before seen in ages, sending governments scrambling for solutions, industries shutting down, and populations in panic. By all accounts, it's not the best time to start a business. But is it? 

The auto industry is one that has been good to a lot of us for decades, putting food on our tables and keeping roofs over our heads. I’m proud to be a member of this one big family. I know it has been heartbreaking to see the COVID-19 crisis forcing a few wrecking yards to shutter their doors and, in some cases, shut down indefinitely. 

Yet, the industry has repeatedly shown through time its resilience in the face of calamities and hardships. It continually adapts and innovates. It is from this perspective that I see the relevance of this website. It has pretty much come to life at a time when it would probably serve the industry most. 

By facilitating the interaction between car owners and repair shops, buyers and parts suppliers, we hope that in our little way, we can help keep businesses going while observing and improving social distancing. 

The Auto Business is Essential Business

In this global fight against the coronavirus, the automotive industry helps mobilise the essentials and move the country forward. Vehicles make it possible for health workers to go to hospitals and save lives. It’s our industry that brings medicines and medical supplies to patients, delivers food to people, and transports essential workers to their jobs. We are, no doubt, a major player in this new normal. 

Under Stages 1 and 2 COVID-19 restrictions, auto repair shops and parts suppliers are deemed essential businesses. With Stage 3 being implemented now in Victoria and Western Australia, more closures have been ordered. Still, we don’t see the automotive sector being required to shut down. 

However, as the threat to health intensifies and the ‘flattening of the curve’ continues to evade us, we may need to consider shuttering our stores or adapt to new ways of doing business.

Coming Together as We Do Social Distancing

While the government may not order us to a lockdown, our better judgment will. Our sense of responsibility to safeguard our employees and customers will eventually force us to close our doors to the public. Fortunately, we can continue to do business - not half as vibrant as in normal times. Heck, not even a quarter of how it had been pre-coronavirus, but it will tide us over the coming months.   

In this digital age, we have various resources at our disposal. What we are offering is the Parts Request function of our website. When a buyer needs a car part, he or she may request the part from us through our auto part finder tool. We will then send the request to suppliers nationwide. The buyer waits for quotations from various suppliers and chooses the one with the best offer. It is an easy and effective referral way to support all of us, especially when social distancing is forced upon us. 

For all auto parts suppliers out there, referring people to this website when you do not have the part or cannot help them would be the biggest compliment you can give, and we would really appreciate it. One referral to this website goes a long way. It will give every seller or shop in Australia a chance to increase their sales at a very difficult time. 

My Pledge – It’s Free

I've been a part of this industry for 20+ years, and I pledge that this service will be provided to everyone as long as needed to overcome this assault on the Australian way of life. The parts request feature will be absolutely free to use until the restrictions are lifted – whether that’s two weeks, two months, or two years. 

Times have never been tougher. Carpart.com.au will do what it can for as long as it can to restore normalcy to our health and our industry by providing a way to buy auto parts from anywhere around Australia.

Our website is offering all of you front pages ads for free right up until the coronavirus has left our country for good, free online leads, and as many single parts advertisements as you desire. 

You may create an ad, email the ad ID or name (use this to advertise your business) as well as the parts you’re selling to hello@carpart.com.au, and I will manually put your ad on the front page of the website for free as long as the COVID-19 restrictions are applied to us.

As we comply with the government’s self-isolation and social distancing measures, I encourage you to try and go digital. We believe in helping each other out. Seeing each other through this pandemic is crucial because we want to come out of this together. When this plague is over (and I’m saying ‘when’ not ‘if’), we need to be there to do a herculean job – get back to work and power the industry back to its feet. So let’s get together and hang on! For more about this, you may send an email to hello@carpart.com.au or visit our website and try out the tools yourself. 

- Franky