Auto Parts Shortage Results in Months Delays

Due to the national labor shortage auto parts are taking a long time to come in.  ABC 31 News Joel Massey spoke to a vehicle owner affected by the shortage.

J.R. Brister said, “Being without the truck was miserable having to depend on someone else for a vehicle or riding my motorcycle if the sun was shining it was inconvenienced to say the least for me and a hassle most days.”

J.R. Brister was without his truck for more than 6 months while he was waiting for a bumper part to come in from the factory.  He is happy to finally get his wheels back after so long.

“It’s like having a new truck all over again.  I believe the auto body shop had it longer than I had brand new.  So it was like having a brand new truck again it was exciting.”

Lynne Hyde owner of Ray Hyde Body Works tells me when the problems started.

“A lot of the problems began around 2008 when there was a bailout of the auto makers and part of that was they were told to stop making some of the parts that were not profitable.” Hyde said, “We’d seen a few problems back then but then when Covid hit that’s when everything got chaotic.  A lot of our suppliers could tell what was coming down the pipeline.  So they bought a lot of parts and stockpiled them knowing that there was going to be some shortages.”

Hyde talked about the reason that many people are not coming to work these days.

“Part of it I would say is the atmosphere of the times they have been getting a lot of government subsidies so that does affect some people.  It’s probably for a variety of reasons.  Some were very scared of Covid so they didn’t come in and things have not been able to get back.  Some places they could not go to work because the government wasn’t letting them, the local governments and stuff. But I think it’s partly just the sign of the times where you can go into any place and there’s labor shortages. They’re short staffed and that affects us too.”

Brister also sees the problem as the government paying people to stay home.

“Folks were getting paid to stay home for a year, year and a half. Folks were getting paid not to work.  Because of Covid they couldn’t work.  And I believe during that time we got such a shortage on parts.  And now according to the hearsay nobody wants to work.”

Brister is glad to be back on the road after so long.

“I don’t blame anybody accidents happen.  Just thankful nobody was hurt and I got my truck back.”