Business View Magazine | June 2022

76 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 6 only, prompting many customers to start their shopping experience virtually. With companies like Carvana promoting online car sales, Maryland dealers have had to be proactive about offering potential costumers the same options. Kitzmiller emphasizes, “You can buy online from a Maryland dealer, as well, the flip side is that if you really want to test drive a car, we have that added benefit – you can come down and do that too. I certainly don’t believe that everybody’s going to buy a car online, but our ability to do that has been greatly enhanced. If you wanted to be in the game that’s what you had to do. One thing about car dealers, they’re very resilient people. They respond to change quickly, and they did that here for sure.” From an association standpoint, MADA continued to work for their members throughout the pandemic, helping dealers navigate the PPP loan system, and providing resources about conducting business online. “Every time you have a new technology, there are challenges that come up,” Kitzmiller asserts, sharing that the state introduced a new motor vehicle registration system during COVID. “It was a very difficult rollout. We had dealers who weren’t able to get tags for customers. We’ve spent a lot of time working with our MVA on that, and we’ve got that back to a kind of semi-normal now. As we go forward, as we do more and more online, there are other challenges that are going to be coming up, and we are going to be ready to help our members get through that.” Workforce shortages, although not new, have become more prevalent in recent years. “We’ve always had the issue, but it’s gotten more difficult getting new technicians, especially in the service department. It’s a shortage that is very significant, across the country,” says Kitzmiller. MADA, at the state level, along with associations at the national level, have been engaged in addressing this issue. He notes, “Our focus for workforce is working with community