Pub. 8 2019-2020 Issue 3

SPRING 2020 13 • Disinfect all payment portals, clip boards, pens, styluses, car keys, and other items between uses. • Sanitize desks and work surfaces between each customer or employee. • Station an employee with disinfectant towipe clean all door handles at entrances. • Make tissues and trash receptacles available in all locations where people congregate. Adopt Additional Social Distancing Practices All dealers should consider adopting additional prevention measures, no matter which operating framework they adopt, to demonstrate seriousness to regulators and customers, as well as to limit liability for potential claims related to an employee or customer contractingCOVID-19. All dealers should adopt a face covering policy. Neither version of the current prevention protocols mandates this, but it is now a statewide mandate. The dealer must make face masks available to the employees. Dealers should also consider requesting that customers wear face masks while in the store and make face masks available to any customer. In the service department, dealers should implement specific measures when handling customers’ vehicles. These include: • Ensure the AC heater and fan is off in the vehicle at all times. • Keep windows down for natural air circulation. • Sanitize all touchpoints before and after working on the vehicle, including: door handles, keys, steering wheel, gear knobs, seats, and seat belts. • If a surface inside the vehicle cannot be sanitized, cover the surface with paper or plastic while inside the vehicle. • Minimize time inside the vehicle when possible. • Service techs should wear personal protective gear while inside a vehicle, including a mask and gloves. • Sanitize all vehicles returned by customers including test-drives, trade-ins, loaners, and rental cars. • For loaner and rental vehicles, dealers should do the following: • Prior to providing a customer with a loaner or rental vehicle, sanitize all touchpoints including: door handles, keys, steering wheel, gear knobs, seats, and seat belts. • If a surface inside the vehicle cannot be sanitized prior to providing the vehicle to the customer, cover the surface with paper or plastic. • After the customer returns the loaner or rental vehicle, sanitize all touchpoints including: door handles, keys, steering wheel, gear knobs, seats, and seat belts. • In the sales department, dealers should also implement the following measures: • Encourage customers to conduct as much of the vehicle purchase or lease process remotely as possible. • Encourage customers to make appointments prior to arriving at the dealership. • Discontinue test drives accompanied by a dealership employee. If your line-make supports extended test drives, offer those as an alternative. • Offer off-site delivery of vehicles (please see off-site delivery guidance below). Look to the Future COVID-19will continue to be a risk to the public for the foreseeable future. Dealerships should therefore prepare their showrooms by investing in sales and safety practices that will allow for social distancing over the comingmonths. Dealers are likely to find that local or state laws continue to mandate the kinds of social distancing protocols described above, and that the public will expect such practices. In addition, customers may expect expanded options for remote vehicle purchases and leases. California law allows offsite contract execution and vehicle delivery. However, there are special legal hurdles to conducting a remote sale or delivery of a vehicle offsite. Dealers should therefore be sure to consult with competent counsel prior to implementingwide-scale offsite delivery, and make sure they are addressing the following issues: 1. Conduct all sales and negotiations for the vehicle, lending terms, and ancillary products at the dealership, over the phone, or over the internet. Only licensed salespeople may engage in vehicle sales and negotiations. No sales activity should take place at the customer’s residence, workplace, or other location that is not the licensed dealership. 2. Ensure that all legally mandated disclosures, such as the GLB Notice and CCPA Privacy Notice, are provided to the customer at the correct time. 3. Be wary of the potential that remote sales and offsite delivery can lead to increased identity theft. Dealers should complete additional Red Flags checks to help prevent fraud. 4. Train staff to conduct deliveries in a legally compliant and safe manner, including following social distancing protocols, avoiding any sales activity, and ensuring correct execution of all legally required documents. Contributed by Scali Rassmusen | Scalirasmussen.com Recognized as California’s top boutique automotive law firm, their auto- motive industry clients include: franchised dealership groups, independent auto dealerships, auto dealer associations, automotive internet marketing companies, automotive advertising agencies, finance companies &providers of after-market automotive products and services. All dealers should adopt a face covering policy. Neither version of the current prevention protocols mandates this, but it is now a statewide mandate. The dealer must make face masks available to the employees. Dealers should also consider requesting that customers wear face masks while in the store and make face masks available to any customer.