Garagist Day: Focus on the future of the industry
PERSPECTIVES Swiss garage owners have a key role to play as consultants in the mobility of the future. How they can position themselves more strongly as their own brand was the focus of a symposium, the Day of the Garagist.
A good 600 people attended the event of the Auto Gewerbe Verband Schweiz (AGVS) in the Kursaal in Bern, including Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga as guest speaker. The head of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) emphasized the important role of Swiss garage owners.
Conditions for automated driving
Simonetta Sommaruga: "Without the daily commitment of the almost 40,000 mechanics, mechatronics engineers, mobility consultants and garage owners, the changeover to climate-friendly mobility would not be feasible. With the new CO2 law, the Federal Council also wants to promote charging stations for e-vehicles. And it will do so where they are still lacking - for example, in residential buildings and at the workplace."
And the Federal Councillor revealed to the 600 industry representatives that Switzerland is setting the framework conditions for automated driving through the partial revision of the Road Traffic Act.
Simonetta Sommaruga: "We want to make it possible in Switzerland as one of the first countries worldwide."
Continuous CO2 reduction in transport
Thomas Hurter, Central President of the Garagistenverband AGVS: "The visit of Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga underlines that she takes our industry and our concerns seriously and is just as interested in a dialogue as we are. The automotive industry supports the goal of continuous CO2 reduction in road traffic. 100 million passenger kilometers are driven by private passenger transport in a normal year. This means that private motorized transport accounts for 80 percent of the passenger kilometers performed, compared to 20 percent by rail."
The garage owner as entrepreneur in focus
In view of these figures and the growth in electromobility and other alternative drive options, the garage owner is becoming a mobility consultant. The garage owner as entrepreneur was therefore the focus of the Swiss automotive industry conference.
Walter Frey, owner of the Emil Frey Group and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Emil Frey Holding AG: "Making decisions and keeping the passion, that's important to be successful and why it pays to go your own way."
Conclusion of the symposium: The automotive industry has a future full of entrepreneurial opportunities, because the importance of motorized individual transport will continue to grow in the future.
Thomas Hurter: "The fascination for the car and its undeniably high benefits that individual mobility brings are not diminishing."
