Million-dollar idea
MIDDLESEX TWP — It's a story that could happen only in America. One that attests to individual entrepreneurship and free enterprise.
It's about a hardworking, ordinary guy with an idea, and the freedom to pursue it.
From the humble setting of an auto repair garage in Middlesex Township, Bernie Elder has created a million-dollar business — one that has made life simpler for many and safer for countless more.
It can be argued that Elder's venture, Compuspections, is as American as mom, baseball and apple pie.
“I never would have thought it would turn out like this,” he said. “I mean, ‘Who am I?' Just a little garage owner in Butler County.
“I had an idea that was pretty simple. It was so simple that I couldn't believe no one else had thought of it before me.”
What Elder has created in Compuspections is the largest automated inspection system in the United States.
His light bulb moment 10 years ago grew from a frustration with the volumes of governmental paperwork required of safety inspection stations.
Back then, Elder's lone business was his small, nuts-and-bolts garage on Route 8. He repaired cars and trucks — his favorite pastime since a young boy.
Like some 17,000 shops operating in Pennsylvania, his garage was a state-certified safety inspection station.
“Paperwork and record-keeping is the most time consuming part of the job,” he said. “It doesn't seem to end.”
And the mother-of-all forms is the MV-431 — the lengthy report that garage owners and technicians are required to complete with each inspection.
A litany of information must be logged on the state-mandated forms. Along with the owner's and vehicle information, shops must record insurance information and document all data checked as part of the typically hour-long inspection.
“You have to check all four tires for tread depth, all suspension components, the exhaust, fuel system, glazing (windshield and side windows) and mirrors,” the 57-year-old Elder said.
“You have to check all the lights, latches and take off the brakes to check for wear. You have to check the odometer reading and record the inspection number and the charge.”
The inspection is a time-consuming and tedious process. Documenting the inspection is worse.
Before Elder's brain child that led to Compuspections, every shop owner recorded inspection information by hand. For many, the meant handwriting hundreds and hundreds of records a year.“That's a lot of work,” Elder said. “That's a lot of writing.”For inspection stations, the MV-431 is like death and taxes — unavoidable.And the forms had to be completed without error. No easy task when running a garage where there are tune-ups to be done, transmissions to overhaul, engines to rebuild and payrolls to meet.“Where a lot of shops fall short,” Elder says, “is they don't document this (MV-431) paperwork right away. The car's gone, maybe a week, and when they to do the paperwork, it's not documented right.”And like the taxpayer who messed up his 1040, there's hell to pay for the garage owner who messes up his MV-431.Each year, a state Department of Transportation quality assurance officer comes knocking.“The quality assurance officer comes in and goes through paper records. He's checking to make sure you've documented everything right,” Elder says. “He's checking to make sure all your inspection stickers are accounted for.”Mess up and you risk losing your license.What jeopardizes many shops are the inherent problems that come with handwritten records. Quality assurance officers often can't make heads or tails of garage owners' or technicians' chicken scratch.“I couldn't read my own records after a year,” Elder admits. “I couldn't even tell you what I wrote.”
After years of writer's cramp and that sick-to-his-stomach feeling that came with the annual visit of PennDOT's auditor, a thought hit Elder like a ton of bricks.“Isn't there a better way to record inspections?” he wondered. “Can't something be done to fix the sloppy record-keeping and the problems with recording information by hand that's not legible?”The lightning bolt struck him in 2001. Why not computerize the MV-431?He sought out a friend, Anita Ziemba, a computer programmer from Washington County.“I went to Anita and asked, ‘Can you devise some type of spreadsheet?'” Elder recallsThe spreadsheet, in his mind, would transform the handwritten MV-431 into an automated, typewritten version.“Pretty simple,” Elder acknowledged.Too simple, he thought.“You think, ‘OK, why didn't somebody else do this?'” he said.But they came up with an application and did a trial run. It worked to a T. It was complete, accurate and fast.“First off,” Elder says, “the time involved to write all that takes about 7 minutes. You can record a safety inspection in our automated system in 45 seconds.“The second advantage, you don't have to worry because the quality assurance officer will be able to read it. It's going to be in order.”The computer program he and Ziemba came up with was based on a basic work-order system. Text boxes for the customer, his vehicle and specific inspection information would appear on the main computer screen.The safety inspection data is saved as a work order onto the computer's hard drive.When completing the inspection, the program verifies the information for any errors, ensures compliance with all PennDOT regulations, registers a sticker number and spits out an easy-to-read, computer printed MV-431 form.“I thought I'd died and gone to heaven,” Elder remembers of seeing his idea come to life. “With this, I would never have to worry about an audit again. Never.”But now came the hard part, convincing PennDOT he had built a better mousetrap.
For years, PennDOT had toyed with the idea of automating the inspection program records; but the bureaucracy always got in the way.Elder went to his state representative, Daryl Metcalfe, for help in getting his idea an audience.“I told him, ‘Daryl, I have this idea,'” Elder recounted.The lawmaker was impressed. “Daryl said, ‘You're going to Harrisburg.'”Metcalfe got Elder a meeting with PennDOT officials in the Capitol building.The verdict? “They told me, ‘Knock yourself out,'” Elder says.There was no ticker tape parade or standing ovation but he got want he wanted. Permission to put his idea into use.Conceived as a way to make his own life as a garage owner less problematic, he knew his invention would benefit colleagues.“I believe in the poor guy that's trying to work on cars, gets everything done, makes a living and he's got a whole bunch of stupid paperwork to worry about.“And here I had an idea that would make his life easier.”Two days after the PennDOT meeting, he sat down with Ziemba and Joe McGuigan of Wexford, a businessman with legal expertise.The trio formed Compuspections and drafted a plan to sell its software package that would automate the state's safety inspection records.A natural salesman, Elder hawked his software at every occasion.He pitched his creation to industry groups like the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Pennsylvania. and the Pennsylvania Automotive Association, which represents new car dealers.He recalled the excitement and skepticism he countered at first.“You'd walk into a room and you'd say, ‘I have PennDOT's permission to do this. We've now automated the MV-431,' and everybody's jaw would drop,” he says.“And they'd say, ‘Finally, somebody's done it.'”Still, many potential customers thought Elder's product was too good to be true.There was apprehension. Would PennDOT really accept it?“It was a hard sell,” Elder remembers. “It was a new idea. It was something new.
In 2002, for the first time, he installed the software at two garages in Butler County.Word got out and acceptance grew.That first year, Compuspections signed up 100 customers.“My fear was in the software,” Elder recounts. “Is it going to hold up? Is it really going to do what it's supposed to do? Is it going to jeopardize anybody's records. Did we get it right?”To that last question, the answer was a resounding, “Yes.”The next year, there were another 100 new customers, including Butler County Ford, a loyal customer to this day.”It makes it easy to keep track of our inspections,” said Marshall Thompson, Butler County Ford's service manager.“It's neater because it's computer printed and there's no hand writing. It's accurate and organized and the logs are ready for the quality assurance officer.”In 2007, the company had a banner year, with 300 additional customers. Most of the buyers that year were new car dealers.But Compuspections' selling point is not just its software.The company, which has four full-time employees and nine sales representatives and operates out of a no frills office building behind Elder's Auto Repair, offers customers 24/7 tech support.“We take a lot of questions, not just on the software but basic questions about safety inspections,” Elder says. “Customers know they can call us any time and we'll help them.”Mining dataAnother feature Compuspections offers is the analysis of data collected electronically from millions of records.“From the data we collect we can tell you which car is going to require more repairs,” he says. “We can tell you when a component is going to fail at 60,000 miles.“Why do we know that? Because we watch the repair of each vehicle of the model years, and what's going to be done at that particular mileage.”The data is shared with customers and helps gauge which shops are neglecting specific safety repairs and which ones may be doing unnecessary work.From Compuspections independent data, which far exceeds PennDOT's records, Elder knows on average that 30 percent of vehicles fail inspections.He says his data benefits public safety.“A lot of times there's talk about coming up with legislation to abolish the safety inspection program, based not on data, just the feeling that it's not working in Pennsylvania,” he says.“But we now can point to millions of records that say one out of three cars need repair when they're presented for safety inspection.”Elder's commitment to maintaining the inspection program seems well founded, according to a 2009 study by Cambridge Systematics of Chicago.The study, commissioned by PennDOT, found that 127 to 169 lives are saved each year because of inspections.“Pennsylvania's vehicle safety inspection program,” the report concludes, “is an effective program that reduces fatal crashes and saves lives in Pennsylvania.”The study's results don't surprise Elder.“Is the program working? You're darn right it's working.” he says. “It's keeping people safe.”Meanwhile, Elder continues to look for more customers in hopes of automating more inspection stations in the state. His company now has 800 customers from one end of the commonwealth to the otherToday, 75 percent of all dealerships in Pennsylvania are running Compuspections software.And his company recently began selling its software in Virginia. Already, it's signed up 20 inspection stations there.All in all, not bad for a little garage owner from Butler County.
<B>Age:</B> 57<B>Address: </B>Penn Township<B>Family:</B> Wife, Kathi; children Nicole, 38, Kyle, 25, and Chad, 21<B>Employment:</B> president, Compuspections; owner, Elder's Auto Repair<B>Interests:</B> Cars<B>Quote:</B> “I had an idea that was pretty simple. It was so simple that I couldn't believe no one else had thought of it before me.”
