How Do Car Dealerships Protect Cars From Hail?
11.10.21
The weather can be highly unpredictable at times, and it can be hard to predict when hail will start falling from the sky. Ranging from the size of tiny pebbles to the size of baseballs or even bigger, hail can do severe damage to anything that it falls on. Car dealerships, in particular, can be at extreme risk in these situations and can experience millions of dollars in damages.
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Read the full article or jump to a specific section:
- Why You Should Protect Your Inventory From Hail
- Ways to Protect Car Dealerships From Hail Storms
- Benefits of Using VPS Hail Structures
Why You Should Protect Your Inventory From Hail
Car dealerships can have many concerns when it comes to safeguarding their inventories. However, harsh weather – and hail storms in particular – should be a priority. People on the hunt for a new car most likely don't want a car with dozens of dents and dings in it. Further, car dealerships need to avoid discounting their vehicles by thousands of dollars. Below, we will cover why protecting car dealerships from hail is so essential and how dealerships can go about protecting their inventory.
Avoiding Damage Costs
Protecting the cars in your dealership's lot from unpredictable and damaging hail will help you avoid unnecessary costs. Hail damage to vehicles, buildings, and crops has accounted for an average of almost $10 billion annually. Because of this risk, insurance for car dealerships is harder to maintain and is also becoming significantly more expensive.
A couple of years ago, a car dealership would pay $160,000 to insure $20 million worth of Cadillacs and Volvos in its lot. Nowadays, a dealership could expect to pay upwards of $600,000. Some insurers even stopped providing hail coverage to dealerships. With insurance being so expensive or even nonexistent, it is very important for you to take matters into your own hands and protect your car inventory from hail.
Keeping Your Profits Safe
Hail doesn’t have any mercy when it comes to car dealerships and can easily do a number on your profits. The average car buyer believes that car dealers make around 20% in profits when they sell a $30,000 car. However, in reality, data from the National Automobile Dealers Association in 2018 shows a number much closer to 2.2%. It is evident that profits may already be slim for car dealers, and just a little bit of hail damage can slim them down further and compromise your business.
Peace of Mind
Worrying about and accounting for hail damage can be a massive headache. Within any industry, it is always a great idea to eliminate potential problems in the future before they occur. Apart from helping you avoid unnecessary damage costs and keeping your hard-earned profits safe, proactively safeguarding your car dealership from hail storms can save you time, money, and energy.
If hail storms aren't as common in your area as they are in other regions, there are still a number of weather patterns that can damage your inventory. No matter your location, you should consider taking preemptive measures to protect your inventory. This consideration will provide you peace of mind and give you an advantage over your competitors, whose inventories may be left out as sitting ducks against the elements.
Ways to Protect Car Dealerships From Hail Storms
Now that we've discussed why protecting car dealerships from hail is essential, you might be wondering how your dealership can protect its inventory. Most dealerships will try moving their cars indoors or into a covered area. A potential issue with this method is that hail is very unpredictable, and moving the dealership's entire inventory of cars can take a lot of time out of the day. You could be using that time to focus on more productive tasks to help close a deal or gain a new lead for your business.
Hail Canopies
Luckily, there are solutions that help you save time, money, and energy while protecting your profits from hail damage. Car dealership hail canopies are a great source of protection that can provide you with much-needed peace of mind. With a hail canopy, there's no need to worry about when hail will occur and how to moving every car indoors to avoid costly dents or dings.
Along with protection from hail, these canopies provide a ton of other benefits, such as keeping customers and workers comfortable in shaded areas, allowing customers to stay dry in the rain, keeping cars cooler, and helping to prevent damage from the heat and sun. Hail canopies can also come with a multitude of styles and features, including mass coverings, covered walkways, solar protection, solid membrane, and cantilevers.
Solar Hail Protection
What if you could protect your car inventory from hail, save money, and make your dealership more friendly to the environment? Solar hail protection systems help you achieve that. For instance, a car dealership could face hail damage of around $11,000 on each of 600 cars in a lot. If the dealership proactively decides to shield its vehicles with solar panels, then the dealership will not only save money when another hail storm rolls in but also lower its electricity bill to $200 a year. Solar panels can produce up to 60% of a dealership's yearly electricity needs.
Solar hail protection is a great way to save money. It can help you decrease your energy bill and provide necessary protection for your dealership's inventory.
Benefits of Using VPS Hail Structures
We take pride in the quality of products. Our structures are built with a high-density polyethylene mesh fabric that can block up to 96% of the sun’s harmful UV rays. Additionally, our steel comes from our state-of-the-art fabrication facility, which has received certification from the International Accreditation Service. Our materials and products meet or exceed the highest standards in the steel fabrication industry.
We have a variety of hail protection options that not only protect your inventory from hail but also safeguard it from other inclement weather and harmful UV rays. Further, these structures are durable, maintenance-free, customizable, and attractive for your business. Your custom feature options can include color, logo additions, feature lighting to highlight your inventory, additional surveillance, and post pads.
