BLACK BOOK’S ENTIRE EDITORIAL TEAM BECOMES CERTIFIED AUTO REMARKETERS

Gainesville, GA – Black Book is proud to announce that its entire team of vehicle value editors and data analysts has become Certified Auto Remarketers under the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA). There have been only sixty-four professionals in the industry to pass the twenty-course module, and this is the first time an entire guide book’s editorial staff has become certified.

Led by thirty-year industry veteran, Ricky Beggs, Black Book’s editorial staff report the wholesale market as it happens, with a team of editors working with field survey personnel monitoring sales activity at more than sixty wholesale auctions daily throughout the country. As Black Book’s senior vice president and editorial director, Beggs was the third person ever to become certified by the IARA in 2009 and recertified in 2013 as part of the program.

“Being CAR Certified tells the industry that Black Book editors are part of an elite group of professionals dedicated to being the best,” said Stephen Houston, IARA acting Executive Director. “This accomplishment shows that Black Book is committed to providing industry leadership and focused on helping their editors be the best they can within the remarketing profession.”

“Black Book has proven to be a very proactive company by engaging their team in the pursuit to become Certified Automotive Remarketers,” said Dave Sutton, Chairman of the CAR Certification Committee.  “Education and training comes in many forms but the IARA’s member-developed curriculum is the most comprehensive source of Automotive Remarketing knowledge in the world.”

Industry professionals who undergo the certification program must pass a series of twenty course modules, which can take several months to complete. Once certified, those professionals have a deeper understanding of the overall industry and tend to be more in tune with the unique needs of remarketers, dealers, fleet managers and auto lenders.

“This significant accomplishment is just the latest example of our commitment to continuous improvement and learning,” said Tom Cross, Black Book President. “The better our team of editors understands the industry, the more accurate we can report and interpret the market, ultimately helping our clients make the most profitable decisions possible.”

Every phase of remarketing is covered in the program, including consignment, auction selection, reconditioning, arbitration, and condition reporting. “I have been attending auctions and classifying vehicles for many years, and the CAR certification has provided me with an entirely new perspective of the complexities involved with remarketing,” said Terry Park, Senior Editor of Black Book.

“The process of becoming certified is designed to take up to three years to complete, yet we challenged our team to complete the program in ten months,” said Beggs. In response to the challenge, every editor completed the full course in six months, and one editor successfully passed all twenty modules on the first attempt during a five-week period. During the test phase, a proctor visited Black Book’s campus on fifteen separate occasions, spending three hours each visit administering the exams.

“The CAR program has really opened my eyes to all the auction processes and I now have a much better understanding of what happens before, during and after the physical and online auction,” said Josh Giles, Senior Truck Editor for Black Book. “The certification program has been extremely beneficial in my understanding of all auction processes, rules and terminology.”

Black Book’s reliability of data accuracy is a critical element in providing timely, independent vehicle pricing information to a variety of customers across the automotive spectrum. Published daily by National Auto Research, a division of Hearst Business Media, Black Book data is available to industry-qualified users through subscriptions to its website (www.BlackBookUSA.com) and through applications for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows 7, BlackBerry, Palm and virtually any other smart phone sold in the U.S.

Black Book data is also available to industry-qualified companies for license and sublicense through proprietary web services, APIs, and data feeds.