How Truck Dealers Can Prepare for Right to Repair

The road to wider data access for vehicle owners started almost a decade ago. Back in 2015, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the Commercial Vehicle Solutions Network and the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, with the Equipment and Tool Institute, the Auto Care Association, and Heavy Duty Aftermarket Canada signing on as well.

The MOU was designed to provide wider access to heavy-duty service information for model year 2010 and later trucks and buses over 10,000 pounds sold in the U.S. and Canada.

The MOU also aims to ensure that vehicle owners and independent repair facilities have access to OEM service information, tools and parts in order to properly repair vehicles.

REPAIR Act Introduced

Fast-forward to November 2023, when H.R. 906, Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair Act (REPAIR Act), was passed by the Subcommittee on Innovation, Data and Commerce of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Since then, there’s been some effort to remove heavy-duty vehicles from the legislation, but those efforts haven’t been successful.

According to a summary of the bill, it “requires a motor vehicle manufacturer to provide to a vehicle's owner certain direct, real-time, in-vehicle data generated by the operation of the vehicle that is related to diagnostics, repair, service, wear, and calibration or recalibration of parts and systems of the vehicle.”

More specifically, “a vehicle manufacturer may not impair an owner's access to such vehicle-generated data or impair an aftermarket parts manufacturer from producing or offering compatible aftermarket parts. A manufacturer also must make available to the vehicle's owner, and designees, vehicle-generated data through a standardized access platform. Outside of recall and warranty repairs, a manufacturer may not mandate the use of a particular brand or manufacturer of parts, tools, or equipment.”

The REPAIR Act is sponsored by Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Florida, and has the support of 56 cosponsors on both sides of the aisle.

Unlike the MOU, which only applies to Massachusetts and Maine, the REPAIR Act would create a federal law applicable across the U.S.

The Bill’s Supporters

Groups supporting the bill say that vehicle owners should have the choice of where they get their vehicles serviced. They believe the bill will help independent shops compete for fleets’ business on a level playing field. Unlike the MOU, which gives aftermarket little recourse if an OEM doesn’t provide information, the REPAIR Act would allow aftermarket distributors and repair garages to go to the Federal Trade Commission for enforcement or sue an OEM for not complying.

Those in favor of the bill say that it’ll ensure that vehicle owners have access to needed information and that data can be accessed both through the OBD port and wirelessly through telematics data.

Concerns of the Opposition

Truck and engine manufacturers oppose the bill, saying that because of the complexity and sophistication of today’s trucks, they need to be serviced by dealer professionals who are trained and certified to work on them. Bill opposers say that independent repair garages already have access to all the information and training. They’re concerned that security issues would arise from granting others the ability to send data to vehicles remotely. They also say the bill would require them to provide all information the vehicle generates, some of which is a fleet’s private information.

They believe H.R. 906 will force truck makers to provide proprietary information to aftermarket companies, which might allow them to copy products designed and developed by the OEMs, jeopardizing OEMs’ intellectual property.

What’s Next?

To date, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation, Data and Commerce has forwarded the bill to the full committee by voice vote. No action on the REPAIR Act has taken place since November of 2023, so there’s still time to contact your state representative or one of the bill’s cosponsors to share your views on the bill.

If the bill is passed, truck makers will be tasked with ensuring that information is available to heavy-duty vehicle owners and independent repair garages. However, truck dealers will likely be impacted as there’ll be increased competition for work that dealers have typically performed.

Dealers should begin developing a plan of action if the REPAIR Act passes. They may want to focus on the training and certification of their Technicians, which makes them better suited to work on today’s sophisticated trucks than their aftermarket competitors. Stress the close relationship dealers have with OEMs, which positions dealers as the best choice for vehicle repair, especially for complex repairs focusing on safety and security-related issues.

While it's unrealistic to deny access to all maintenance and repair information to aftermarket repair shops, the focus should be on limiting that access to only the information that’s needed to service vehicles while not adding risks to vehicle owners.