So for those of you that are having a hard time understanding what's going on with shipping your Blackwings and dates and status codes changing, maybe I can provide a little insight - I'm not sure how much it will help.
Most of you know I deal mainly with Corvette.
The last couple of weeks Corvette production and shipping has been...odd to say the least. The actual production of the car at Bowling Green has been fine. However, there's been a delay in getting some cars invoiced for whatever reason.
What I'm seeing is that some cars are getting picked up by Jack Cooper while they're still sitting at status code 3800 (not 4200) and those cars haven't even been invoiced. In some instances, the cars are getting invoiced right before the truck shows up.
As for LPOs - suddenly Chevy dealers are having LPOs dumped on them - again - even before the car is invoiced.
This causes an issue for dealers because a dealership stock number is assigned to a vehicle at the time the vehicle is built AND invoiced. If the car isn't invoiced - the dealership business office has no notice that the car is on its way - therefore a stock number isn't assigned. According to GM's system - the car still shows at 3800 - built - not shipped. The only way the dealership knows what's coming is, first the invoice - and then the pre-delivery notifications that the Jack Cooper Transport company sends the dealer - which usually gets emailed to a sales manager and/or whoever is on the contact list for the dealership.
LPOs can't get assigned a stock number until the car is invoiced and the business office generates a stock number. In order to find out what cars those LPOs go to, you have to look for the car's order number in GM's Order Work Bench system and pull up the customer's name that way - then you can at least assign a name to the LPOs.
Jack Cooper Transport is shuffling its trucks and drivers around from different offices because "things are slow". Example - a driver and truck who works out of one office that only ships Cadillac XT4s to one part of the country, may get pulled to pick-up Corvettes from the BG plant and bring them to a different part of the country because XT4 production is on hold.
This all goes back to plants being down and certain automotive platforms at a standstill due to supplier issues....semiconductor chips...etc.
Long story short - it's a giant shit-show like I've never seen before. GM is doing the best they can to re-position or re-strategize it's shipping methods to maximize the number of vehicles that are being shipped - rather than wasting money shipping just one or two vehicles on a truck or a rail car.
Their intent is good. Their efficiency - I question.
I understand that for the end consumer - this is extremely frustrating. It's also extremely frustrating from a dealership point of view because all it takes is for one cog in the wheel to crack, and the whole wheel crumbles like a deck of cards causing the dealership to have to jump through hoops to get extra work done to try and keep it all together and running on their side.
There is A LOT more small details that I could add to the bigger picture of how all of this is a mess right now, but I won't bore you with the details.
Suffice it to say - I can't predict how this is all going to turn out.
The Delta and Omega variants of the COVID-19 virus are proving to be more insidious. Now, I'm not here to get into politics or he said - she said BS, but before I got into the automotive industry, my degree is in Biotech and I worked in immunology and virology. I'm well aware of how viruses and the immune system work - but this damn pandemic has been so over-politicized - it created a massive degree of doubt in common sense and raw science - enough so that a crucial percentage of the population has refused to get vaccinated.
As a result - some parts of the country are going back to locking down and at least here in New Hampshire, Home Depot and Lowes have announced that all staff and customers are to mask-up once again.
Nobody can predict how far these variants will be able to progress, but looking at things right now - it's not good.
I mention all of this because - it's too easy for all of us to focus on the tiny things - like when are we going to get our Blackwings - when, it's important to take a step back and look at the really big picture at what's going on here.
Most of you know I deal mainly with Corvette.
The last couple of weeks Corvette production and shipping has been...odd to say the least. The actual production of the car at Bowling Green has been fine. However, there's been a delay in getting some cars invoiced for whatever reason.
What I'm seeing is that some cars are getting picked up by Jack Cooper while they're still sitting at status code 3800 (not 4200) and those cars haven't even been invoiced. In some instances, the cars are getting invoiced right before the truck shows up.
As for LPOs - suddenly Chevy dealers are having LPOs dumped on them - again - even before the car is invoiced.
This causes an issue for dealers because a dealership stock number is assigned to a vehicle at the time the vehicle is built AND invoiced. If the car isn't invoiced - the dealership business office has no notice that the car is on its way - therefore a stock number isn't assigned. According to GM's system - the car still shows at 3800 - built - not shipped. The only way the dealership knows what's coming is, first the invoice - and then the pre-delivery notifications that the Jack Cooper Transport company sends the dealer - which usually gets emailed to a sales manager and/or whoever is on the contact list for the dealership.
LPOs can't get assigned a stock number until the car is invoiced and the business office generates a stock number. In order to find out what cars those LPOs go to, you have to look for the car's order number in GM's Order Work Bench system and pull up the customer's name that way - then you can at least assign a name to the LPOs.
Jack Cooper Transport is shuffling its trucks and drivers around from different offices because "things are slow". Example - a driver and truck who works out of one office that only ships Cadillac XT4s to one part of the country, may get pulled to pick-up Corvettes from the BG plant and bring them to a different part of the country because XT4 production is on hold.
This all goes back to plants being down and certain automotive platforms at a standstill due to supplier issues....semiconductor chips...etc.
Long story short - it's a giant shit-show like I've never seen before. GM is doing the best they can to re-position or re-strategize it's shipping methods to maximize the number of vehicles that are being shipped - rather than wasting money shipping just one or two vehicles on a truck or a rail car.
Their intent is good. Their efficiency - I question.
I understand that for the end consumer - this is extremely frustrating. It's also extremely frustrating from a dealership point of view because all it takes is for one cog in the wheel to crack, and the whole wheel crumbles like a deck of cards causing the dealership to have to jump through hoops to get extra work done to try and keep it all together and running on their side.
There is A LOT more small details that I could add to the bigger picture of how all of this is a mess right now, but I won't bore you with the details.
Suffice it to say - I can't predict how this is all going to turn out.
The Delta and Omega variants of the COVID-19 virus are proving to be more insidious. Now, I'm not here to get into politics or he said - she said BS, but before I got into the automotive industry, my degree is in Biotech and I worked in immunology and virology. I'm well aware of how viruses and the immune system work - but this damn pandemic has been so over-politicized - it created a massive degree of doubt in common sense and raw science - enough so that a crucial percentage of the population has refused to get vaccinated.
As a result - some parts of the country are going back to locking down and at least here in New Hampshire, Home Depot and Lowes have announced that all staff and customers are to mask-up once again.
Nobody can predict how far these variants will be able to progress, but looking at things right now - it's not good.
I mention all of this because - it's too easy for all of us to focus on the tiny things - like when are we going to get our Blackwings - when, it's important to take a step back and look at the really big picture at what's going on here.
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