#software for tractor dealership

[easyautomobile]

Why Easy Automobile is a Game-Changer for Automobile Showrooms

Managing an automobile showroom is no small feat. From keeping track of inventory to maintaining customer relationships, the tasks are endless and often overwhelming. This is where Easy Automobile steps in, transforming how showrooms operate and setting new standards in the industry. But what exactly makes Easy Automobile such a revolutionary tool? Let's dive into the details.

What is Easy Automobile?

Easy Automobile is an advanced software solution designed specifically for automobile showroom management. It integrates various aspects of showroom operations into a single, user-friendly platform. From inventory management to customer relationship management (CRM), sales tracking, and financial management, Easy Automobile covers it all.

Streamlined Inventory Management

One of the standout features of Easy Automobile is its ability to streamline inventory management. With real-time inventory tracking, you always know what’s in stock and what’s not. This feature eliminates the risk of overselling and helps in maintaining an optimal inventory level. Automated stock updates mean you no longer have to manually input data, saving you time and reducing errors.

Enhanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

In the automobile industry, customer relationships are crucial. Easy Automobile centralizes all customer data, allowing for more personalized interactions. You can easily access customer history, preferences, and contact details, ensuring that every interaction is meaningful and tailored to individual needs. This not only enhances customer satisfaction but also fosters loyalty.

Efficient Sales Management

Sales are the lifeblood of any automobile showroom, and Easy Automobile excels in this area. It provides robust sales tracking and reporting tools, giving you insights into sales performance and trends. The lead management feature helps you keep track of potential customers, ensuring that no lead falls through the cracks. With Easy Automobile, you can optimize your sales processes and boost your conversion rates.

Service Management

Easy Automobile doesn’t stop at sales; it also excels in service management. Scheduling and tracking service appointments become effortless. The software maintains a comprehensive service history for each vehicle, making it easy to manage recurring services and repairs. This not only enhances operational efficiency but also improves customer satisfaction by ensuring timely and organized service delivery.

Financial Management

Handling finances can be daunting, but Easy Automobile simplifies it with integrated billing and invoicing features. You can generate invoices, track payments, and manage expenses all within the platform. This ensures that your financial records are always up-to-date and accurate, helping you make informed financial decisions.

User-Friendly Interface

Ease of use is a significant advantage of Easy Automobile. Its user-friendly interface ensures that you can navigate through the system effortlessly. Customizable dashboards allow you to prioritize the information that matters most to you, enhancing productivity and efficiency.

Mobile Accessibility

In today's fast-paced world, having mobile access to your showroom management software is a game-changer. Easy Automobile offers mobile accessibility, allowing you to access the platform from any device. This is particularly beneficial for sales teams who are always on the go, ensuring they have the necessary information at their fingertips.

Data Security

Data security is a top priority for any business, and Easy Automobile takes this seriously. The software ensures secure data storage and complies with data protection regulations. You can rest assured that your sensitive information is safe from unauthorized access and breaches.

Integration Capabilities

No software works in isolation, and Easy Automobile is designed to integrate seamlessly with other systems. Whether it’s accounting software, CRM tools, or other business applications, Easy Automobile’s integration capabilities ensure smooth and efficient operations across all platforms.

Scalability

As your business grows, so do your needs. Easy Automobile is scalable, meaning it can adapt to your increasing demands. Whether you’re expanding your inventory, adding new services, or opening new locations, Easy Automobile can grow with you, ensuring you never outgrow your software.

Customer Support and Training

A tool is only as good as the support behind it, and Easy Automobile shines in this area. They offer comprehensive customer support options, ensuring you get the help you need when you need it. Additionally, training resources are available to help your staff get up to speed quickly, ensuring you get the most out of the software.

Conclusion

Easy Automobile is not just software; it's a game-changer for automobile showrooms. From streamlining inventory management to enhancing customer relationships, optimizing sales processes, and ensuring secure data storage, Easy Automobile covers all bases. If you’re looking to revolutionize your showroom operations and stay ahead of the competition, Easy Automobile is the way to go.

[mariacallous]

Today, the US Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against farming equipment manufacturer Deere & Company—makers of the iconic green John Deere tractors, harvesters, and mowers—citing its longtime reluctance to keep its customers from fixing their own machines.

“Farmers rely on their agricultural equipment to earn a living and feed their families,” FTC chair Lina Khan wrote in a statement alongside the full complaint. “Unfair repair restrictions can mean farmers face unnecessary delays during tight planting and harvest windows.”

The FTC’s main complaint here centers around a software problem. Deere places limitations on its operational software, meaning certain features and calibrations on its tractors can only be unlocked by mechanics who have the right digital key. Deere only licenses those keys to its authorized dealers, meaning farmers often can’t take their tractors to more convenient third-party mechanics or just fix a problem themselves. The suit would require John Deere to stop the practice of limiting what repair features its customers can use and make them available to those outside official dealerships.

Kyle Wiens is the CEO of the repair advocacy retailer iFixit and an occasional WIRED contributor who first wrote about John Deere’s repair-averse tactics in 2015. In an interview today, he noted how frustrated farmers get when they try to fix something that has gone wrong, only to run into Deere's policy.

“When you have a thing that doesn’t work, if you’re 10 minutes from the store, it’s not a big deal,” Wiens says. “If the store is three hours away, which it is for farmers in most of the country, it’s a huge problem.”

The other difficulty is that US copyright protections prevent anyone but John Deere from making software that counteracts the restrictions the company has put on its platform. Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 makes it so people can’t legally counteract technological measures that fall under its protections. John Deere’s equipment falls under that copyright policy.

“Not only are they being anti-competitive, it's literally illegal to compete with them,” Wiens says.

Deere in the Headlights

Wiens says that even though there has been a decade of pushback against John Deere from farmers and repairability advocates, the customers using the company’s machines have not seen much benefit from all that discourse.

“Things really have not gotten better for farmers,” Wiens says. “Even with all of the noise around a right to repair over the years, nothing has materially changed for farmers on the ground yet.”

This suit against Deere, he thinks, will be different.

“This has to be the thing that does it,” Wiens says. “The FTC is not going to settle until John Deere makes the software available. This is a step in the right direction.”

Deere’s reluctance to make its products more accessible has angered many of its customers, and even garnered generally bipartisan congressional support for reparability in the agricultural space. The FTC alleges John Deere also violated legislation passed by the Colorado state government in 2023 that requires farm equipment sold in the state to make operational software accessible to users.

“Deere’s unlawful business practices have inflated farmers�� repair costs and degraded farmers’ ability to obtain timely repairs,” the suit reads.

Deere & Company did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Instead, the company forwarded its statement about the FTC's lawsuit. The statement reads, in part: “Deere remains fully committed to ensuring that customers have the highest quality equipment, reliable customer service and that they, along with independent repair technicians, have access to tools and resources that can help diagnose, maintain and repair our customers’ machines. Deere’s commitment to these ideals will not waiver even as it fights against the FTC’s meritless claims.”

Elsewhere in the statement, Deere accused the FTC of "brazen partisanship" filed on the "eve of a change in administration" from chair Lina Khan to FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson. The company also pointed to an announcement, made yesterday, about an expansion to its repairability program that lets independent technicians reprogram the electronic controllers on Deere equipment.

Nathan Proctor, senior director for the Campaign for the Right to Repair at the advocacy group US PIRG, wrote a statement lauding the FTC’s decision. He thinks this case, no matter how it turns out, will be a positive step for the right to repair movement more broadly.

“I think this discovery process will paint a picture that will make it very clear that their equipment is programmed to monopolize certain repair functions,” Proctor tells WIRED. “And I expect that Deere will either fix the problem or pay the price. I don’t know how long that is going to take. But this is such an important milestone, because once the genie’s out of the bottle, there’s no getting it back in.”

[jouvernewyork]

Jouver

Dealership Management System

Jouver is an easy to use and affordable dealership management software to drive your daily operations. Join +5400 dealerships to manage your business on Jouver every day. Jouver helps you operate any type of dealership selling cars, vans, trucks, motorbikes, caravans, motorhomes, buses, trailers and tractors. Start free. No credit card required. No commitment.

Contact Info-

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[realbooksonline]

Shift your Business Gear with RealBooks Auto Dealership Accounting Software

The Indian auto sector has historically been a key determinant of the country's economic strength, generating both macroeconomic growth and technological innovation. Auto dealerships in India are faced with the problem of managing intricate financial transactions while maximizing the sector's growth potential as the automobile industry continues to prosper. A game-changer for navigating this unpredictable environment is specialist accounting software made specifically for auto dealerships. In this article, we'll look at how auto dealership accounting software, like RealBooks, gives dealerships the ability to optimize financial operations, take advantage of market trends, and embrace expansion in the booming Indian automotive sector.

The Booming Indian Automotive Industry

The Indian automotive sector stands out for its dominance in the two-wheeler market, which is supported by a growing middle class and an increasingly young population. The companies' exploration of rural markets is another factor in the sector's expansion. The demand for commercial vehicles is also being driven by the expansion of the logistics and passenger transportation sectors. With India being the world's top producer of tractors, buses, and heavy trucks, the Indian market also holds a strong position in the global economy. With a stunning 22.93 million automobiles manufactured during the fiscal year 2022, India proved its dominance in the world's automotive industry.

The Role of Auto Dealerships in the Market

Auto dealerships serve as the driving force in the Indian automotive ecosystem, seamlessly connecting manufacturers to eager consumers and igniting a whirlwind of sales. However, amidst the rapid pace of this industry, navigating the intricacies of financial management demands a powerful solution. With the rising adoption of digital technologies, the need for specialized accounting software tailored for auto dealerships has become evident.

Embracing Efficiency with Auto Dealership Accounting Software

The landscape of financial management has changed dramatically with the advent of accounting software made specifically for auto dealerships. Integrated inventory management provided by these software systems enables dealerships to manage their large vehicle inventories effectively and reduce transactional errors. Efficiency and accuracy are increased by automating the sales and purchasing processes.

Multi-location, Multi-branch, Multi-GST

The worry of handling complex accounting responsibilities across several entities could occur as your vehicle dealership expands into multiple sites and branches. But fear no more, thanks to RealBooks! Our cloud based accounting software is made to manage many branches, locations, and GST needs without any problems. You have 24/7 access to your books, giving you complete real-time knowledge of your dealership's financial situation. With our online accounting software, you can say goodbye to repeated mistakes and duplication of labor because it reduces the likelihood of discrepancies and makes inter-branch reconciliation simple. Your growth process will be easier and more effective with RealBooks than ever before.

Chassis Wise Inventory Aging

Effective inventory management is crucial for auto dealerships, and RealBooks ensures you keep on top of it with chassis-wise stock maintenance. With the use of item or item group filters, our GST accounting software enables you to view the stock age on a chassis-by-chassis basis, further segmented by date for convenience of reference. You can tailor the age breakdown to your tastes for optimum flexibility, giving you the option to see reports however suits you best. Furthermore, RealBooks goes above and beyond by offering chassis-wise stock valuation analyses, empowering you to manage your inventory with knowledge. For the best possible business performance, improve your inventory management techniques and receive exact insights into your inventory aging using RealBooks.

Automation of the Finance Commission and simplified Receipt Tracking against Delivery Order

At RealBooks, our unwavering commitment is to make your dealership's financial management effortless and efficient. With our cutting-edge features, you can now effortlessly track receipts against Delivery Orders (DO) and automate the commission calculation process. Say goodbye to manual commission entries as RealBooks auto-posts commission entries for you. Embrace a world of convenience, productivity, and way more possibilities with way less effort, all powered by RealBooks. Experience financial management like never before, so you can focus on what truly matters: driving your dealership's success.

In the ever-evolving automotive landscape, RealBooks emerges as the driving force behind your dealership's financial excellence. With our state-of-the-art accounting software tailored for auto dealerships, we empower you to streamline operations, capitalize on market opportunities, and navigate complexities effortlessly. Say goodbye to manual processes and redundant errors, as RealBooks takes the wheel, allowing you to focus on accelerating sales and unlocking your dealership's true potential.

Unlock the road to financial excellence with RealBooks, your trusted partner on the journey to success. Experience ease, efficiency, and empowerment like never before. Embrace the future of financial management in the automotive industry with RealBooks, and together, we'll steer your dealership toward a thriving and prosperous future. Let's accelerate toward success - together.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How John Deere leverages repair-blocking into gag orders

John Deere is justifiably notorious for its campaign to block farmers from fixing their own agricultural equipment. The company is Right to Repair’s archnemesis, and no amount of misleading feel-good stories about how it keeps its heavy hand on farmers’ tractors forever can change that.

https://doctorow.medium.com/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors-bc93f471b9c8

There are many reasons to worry about Deere’s assertion of a monopoly over farmers’ ability to maintain their vital equipment. For one thing, Deere has terrible information security, and the defects in its software infrastructure means that much of the world’s agricultural machinery could be bricked or corrupted by attackers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john

Food security is so important, and Deere has such a comprehensive monopoly over the world’s food production, that agricultural right to repair is an absolute no-brainer. There’s a reason that farms have had workshops since the dawn of agriculture: when the storm is coming and the crops need harvesting, you can’t wait for a service-call:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#jon-tester

Naturally, farmers understand this. They have a front-row seat to Deere’s ugly, extractive practices. Farmers are some of the Right to Repair movement’s most eloquent, best-organized activists — even though Deere’s lobbyists has so many statehouses sewn up that they manage to kill agricultural right-to-repair laws:

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article261738957.html

This won’t last forever. The idea that farmers are too stupid to maintain their own tractors is belied by Deere’s own long history of improving its products by sending field engineers to identify and copy farmers’ own modifications to their tractors:

https://securityledger.com/2019/03/opinion-my-grandfathers-john-deere-would-support-our-right-to-repair/

But the anti-repair axis — led by Apple, and incorporating Big Car, Big Ag, and Big Appliances — are determined to milk their monopoly over repair for as long as they possibly can, and this is one area where their innovative genius can’t be denied:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/30/80-lbs/#malicious-compliance

Here’s one way that Deere can extend the life of its repair monopoly: they can refuse service to farmers who complain about Deere’s behavior. That’s what happened to Jared Wilson, a Missouri farmer and vocal repair advocate:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3vaqm/farmer-says-dealer-wouldnt-repair-his-tractor-until-he-filed-ftc-complaint

As Matthew Gault writes for Motherboard, Wilson’s tractor’s AC stopped working, which meant that he would have to bring in the harvest under sweltering conditions — stuck in a glass box under direct sun for hours a day. Wilson only has one dealership within range: Heritage Tractor, whose manager refused to service his tractor.

The manager said that Wilson was “not a profitable customer” because he had complained about Heritage to Deere corporate. The dealership told him that his practice of complaining to “outside people” about repair meant that his business was no longer welcome. Which “outside people” has Wilson been speaking to?

The Missouri legislature:

https://youtu.be/C_56RBqy4ww?t=1530

NBC:

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/new-senate-bill-farm-equipment-right-to-repair-rcna13961

And the Federal Trade Commission.

Wilson is a fifth-generation farmer, whose forebears also used Deere products. He seen the number of Deere authorized service centers in his region dwindle from three to just one in under a decade. That drawdown occurred even as Deere was abusing the law to make it illegal for farmers to fix their own tractors, or source repairs from third parties:

https://www.wired.com/2015/04/dmca-ownership-john-deere/

For Wilson to get his tractor fixed anywhere but Heritage, he’d have to haul it 80 miles. Luckily, Wilson eventually got Heritage to fix his tractor.

All it took was a complaint to the FTC.

Deere says that today’s farmers lack the modern skills needed to maintain their own equipment. They imply that the skills deficit here is an inability to maintain electronic equipment. It turns out that the real vital skill for the modern farmer is the ability to complain effectively to federal regulators.

[Image ID: A WPA portrait of an Arkansas dust-bowl farmer in overalls, standing in front of a gas-pump. He is wearing a faded green John Deere cap. His mouth has been erased and replaced with a zipper. The zipper pull bears the John Deere logo.]

[deadlock]

Deadlock, you are a sad, sad, wayward soul. Rise above the hatred and drama and join me in the Sun. Together, we can remake this online corner of the world, lift it to new heights.

Farmers of course still own their tractors (unless they lease them or similar) the same way that you probably own your car or your computer. What they don't own is the software running on those tractors. If you have a computer that came with Windows installed, you own the hardware but you only have a license to use Windows on it. The Software itself is still owned by Microsoft. The same goes for the software that is running on those tractors. The problem is that in the 90s many businesses pushed through some new very draconian copyright and intellectual property laws. among them the DMCA. At that point few people understood what this would do, but a lot of the ones who did could tell that this was going too far and was generally a bad idea. Nobody listened to them. Among these rules are the so called Anti-circumvention laws which basically says that you can't do things to software that the owner doesn't want you to, like removing encryption or copyright protections measure. These laws have been interpreted very broadly to mean that the farmers can't hack into their tractors software. John Deere makes farm equipment. A lot of that gear is automated by computers. When you buy a John Deere, they want you to buy John Deere accessories. They don't want a third party company to sell you a pesticide applicator or a seeder, they want you to buy the John Deere one. One of their competitors made a software patch to make a John Deere tractor interface with a non-John Deere towing part. John Deere is calling it 'hacking', saying that the operating system on their tractors should be treated like any other computer program. I can't sell an addon for Microsoft Office without Microsoft's permission, so they argue that their competitors should have to pay a licensing fee to alter the John Deere operating system. Its more akin to buying an iPhone and only being able to use Apple branded earphones and chargers and cases. An earphone is an earphone, not complicated, but DRM software only recognizes expensive Apple branded earphones. A battery charger is just a charger, but it'll only charge with an Apple charger. Funny thing is if the software that "John Deere owns" goes on the fritz, they won't pay to fix it. It suddenly becomes your issue even though they "own" the software. And yes, software misbehaves sometimes in tractors, usually requiring a tech with a computer to come out and fix it. Most everything on a modern tractor is electronically controlled. JD dealers think these copyright rules are stupid, farmers think they're stupid, and everybody reading that article probably thinks they're stupid too. Yet here we are, thanks to greedy higher-ups who have never worked a day on an actual farm in their life. I work in Ag broadcasting in the heart of farm country. I've asked a few people their thoughts on this. A lot of JD dealerships that are for the "Owners Right to Repair" say the software copyrights could create unnecessary traffic during harvest season. This is not a huge issue yet, because a lot of farmers haven't upgraded to newer equipment since corn prices have dropped significantly the last few years. However dealers are already swamped during harvest time, and this won't improve that at all. That 56 year old farmer who has been wrenching on tractors since he was a kid is more than capable to do some of his own basic repairs. There's no reason why they should have to send a mechanic out to a field to do something the owner is more than capable of doing. Sure, they will make money off a service call, but eventually that farmer is going to realize that this is a joke, and they'll lose him as a customer.

An example of that: Recently a multi-million dollar farming operation around here quit buying new John Deere equipment because of this copyright issue. This ended up being a huge sales loss for the locally owned JD dealer. The owner of this larger farming operation said that he "felt betrayed." The last two generations of his farm had purchased JD equipment, and now they "are pulling a fast one" on him, and trying to get more money out of him with all of this even though he has been a loyal customer. Many others say they need to be able to repair their own equipment. I grew up on a corn and soybean farm. I remember dad's small wooden shed would be stocked with replacement parts of all kinds. He would be out in the field well into dark until the beans got too tough to harvest. Afterwords he would be out in that shop fixing things well past midnight. That's the big issue with all this copyright stuff. Most farmers only stop their equipment during the late hours during harvest. Dealers aren't open at this time. Many are also doing tillage work in the fields into midnight. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to have something go wrong on the tractor at 11:00PM, and having to wait until tomorrow to get it fixed. No dealer is going to come out to fix it at that time, but yet many are out in the field still working. They can't afford to wast a good working day to deal with it. Farmers are a stubborn bunch. (In a good way.) They will fight this, and I stand with them. Sorry for the rant, but nobody is going to gain anything from this. Another thing I'll add is the fact that everything is spread out in the mid-western US. We had to get our parts from a dealer that was 70+ miles from where we lived. Can you imagine what a nightmare it would be if we had to get them to come out every time we needed to fix something? There's no way we could have afforded that. When DMCA is abused to the point of ensuring manufacturer lock in, something has gone terribly wrong. When you buy something, you should own it. This does not mean you own all the IP and distribution rights to everything that went into a product's development. But fixing your god-damned tractor is not about distributing pirated content and should not be a prohibited activity. This really isn't anything new. The commercial trucking industry has been moving toward this for several years. Cummins engine controllers require an encrypted handshake before they will allow any of the diagnostic test commands and before any parameter can be changed. Only the basic diagnostic codes and diagnostic reset (per SAE-J1939) can be issued without this handshake. We really need a comprehensive right to repair law that covers most consumer good. Everything from your leaf blower to cars need to be user repairable without special tools and software if you have the knowhow.

[kalianos]

So some people may not *okay a lot of people* know about how the ability to fix your own things are constantly under attack.

For the last few years, I have had to refer farmers to a ukraine software piracy site to get a piece of software.  

Why?

Because if you try to fix something on a some (most) John Deere tractors, the entire thing will stay shutdown untill someone from the dealership comes out, does the same thing, and updates the damn thing to say “yeah this is fine, you can work again.” and then pay the dealer to do that.   

I work to repair laptops and pc’s.   I hate working on macs and phones in general. Apple has made it an artform to make it so that if you replace something on an apple device you will then have a brick.   

This is a small part of that.  I like how the rep. for John Deere outright states, “We do not want people fixing our tractors”

[dontletmeontheinternet]

John Deere Hit With Class Action Lawsuit for Alleged Tractor Repair Monopoly

A class action lawsuit filed in Chicago has accused John Deere of running an illegal repair monopoly. Motherboard reports: The lawsuit alleged that John Deere has used software locks and restricted access to repair documentation and tools, making it very difficult for farmers to fix their own agricultural equipment, a problem that Motherboard has documented for years and that lawmakers, the FTC, and even the Biden administration have acknowledged. The lawsuit claims John Deere is violating antitrust rules and also alleges that Deere is illegally "tying" farmers to Deere-authorized service centers through arbitrary means. "Farmers have traditionally had the ability to repair and maintain their own tractors as needed, or else have had the option to bring their tractors to an independent mechanic," the lawsuit said. "However, in newer generations of its agricultural equipment, Deere has deliberately monopolized the market for repair and maintenance services of its agricultural equipment with Engine Control Units (ECUs) by making crucial software and repair tools inaccessible to farmers and independent repair shops." Forest River Farms, a farming corporation in North Dakota, filed the recent antitrust lawsuit against John Deere, alleging that "Deere's network of highly-consolidated independent dealerships is not permitted through their agreements with Deere to provide farmers or repair shops with access to the same software and repair tools the Dealerships have." "As a result of shutting out farmers and independent repair shops from accessing the necessary resources for repairs, Deere and the Dealerships have cornered the Deere Repair Services Market in the United States for Deere-branded agricultural equipment controlled by ECUs and have derived supracompetitive profits from the sale of repair and maintenance services," the lawsuit, which repeatedly cites some of Motherboard's reporting on the issue, continues. [...] The lawsuit alleges that, though Deere has made some types of software and repair parts available to the public, they are "insufficient to restore competition to the Deere repair services market," and notes that "there are no legitimate reasons to restrict access to necessary repair tools."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from Slashdot https://ift.tt/3foxV2n

[shirlleycoyle]

John Deere Promised Farmers It Would Make Tractors Easy to Repair. It Lied.

In September 2018, a trade group that represents John Deere and a series of other tractor and agricultural equipment manufacturers made a promise intended to stave off increasing pressure from their customers and to prevent lawmakers from passing what they said would be onerous repair regulations. They vowed that, starting January 1, 2021, Deere and other tractor manufacturers would make repair tools, software, and diagnostics available to the masses.

This "statement of principles," as it was called at the time, was nominally designed to address concerns from farmers that their tractors were becoming increasingly unrepairable due to pervasive software-based locks that artificially prevented them from fixing their equipment. As Motherboard repeatedly reported at the time, farmers were being forced to go to "authorized" John Deere dealerships and service centers to perform otherwise simple repairs that they could no longer do because they were locked out of their equipment and needed special software to unlock it. To get around this, some farmers had begun hacking their tractors with cracked software from Ukraine.

A host of states were considering "right to repair" legislation that would have compelled Deere and other manufacturers to abandon these artificial software locks, to make repair tools and guides available to the general public, and to, broadly speaking, allow farmers to fix the tractors they owned. 

Deere, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (the lobbying group that represents Deere and several other large manufacturers), and the Equipment Dealers Association announced this "commitment" to farmers in order to prevent any of this legislation from passing; the thinking was that if manufacturers like Deere provided some of the things that right to repair legislation would have required, they could explain to lawmakers that these bills (which provided more consumer control) weren't actually necessary.

This was a big deal in the farm world. In California, The Far West Equipment Dealers Association (which represents authorized dealers in seven western states) signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" with the California Farm Bureau that enshrined this statement of principles, printed out a giant poster of it, and then displayed it in a signing ceremony and photo-op. It was seen as a grand compromise, and farmers were the winners. 

California Farm Bureau Federation President Jamie Johansson, left, and Far West Equipment Dealers Association President and CEO Joani Woelfel, right, sign a “right to repair” agreement as Assembly Member Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, watches. The memorandum of understanding says equipment dealers agree to provide manuals, service guides and other information needed to help farmers diagnose and fix machinery. Image:Dave Kranz

“This agreement says a lot about the relationship between dealers and their customers,” Far West Equipment Dealers Association president and CEO Joani Woelfel said in a 2018 press release. “It is especially important because whenever we can resolve issues that concern us without passing laws, everybody wins."

It is now three years later. The agreement is supposed to be in effect. No right to repair legislation has been passed. Deere, the dealers, and the manufacturers got what they wanted. And, yet, farmers are still struggling to get anything promised in the agreement.

"Right now, the situation is quite bad," Nathan Proctor, the campaign director of Right to Repair at U.S. PIRG, a nonprofit consumer advocate group working on right to repair issues, told Motherboard. "Three years ago, John Deere offered a half measure that was going to take three years to implement. It seemed like a stall tactic at the time. But there was some wait-and-see going on in the farm world. We’ve waited and now we see—it’s not just a half measure, it's Kabuki Theatre. You can't get it."

U.S. PIRG Right to Repair advocate Kevin O'Reilly published a report Thursday that claims dealers and manufacturers have not held up their end of the bargain, and that it is still extremely difficult, if not impossible, for farmers to get diagnostic software, tools, or parts from dealers as was promised. Posing as a customer, O'Reilly called 12 John Deere dealerships in six states: "Of those, 11 told me that they don't sell diagnostic software and the last one gave me an email of someone to ask for the tools. I sent an email two days ago and haven't heard anything back." Motherboard called nine dealerships in seven states and was told by representatives there that the things promised by manufacturers are not available. We tried three in California; two said no immediately, a third offered to help. "We don't sell those parts to the public," one said. "You have to be a licensed dealer, we're not allowed to sell them to anyone," another said. 

Kerry Sheehan, iFixit's head of US policy, points out that currently, the "only John Deere repair tools we can find" are these children's toys.

David Ward, a spokesperson for the AEM, the manufacturers' lobbying and trade group that often represents John Deere, told Motherboard that "Equipment manufacturers support farmers right to repair their equipment. Comprehensive repair and diagnostic information is now available for the vast majority of the tractor and combine market through authorized dealers. While we do not track it, specific information on pricing varies based on manufacturer.” A follow-up email from Motherboard that asked if he could point to a single instance where this is actually the case, or a single manufacturer that explains to farmers where they can get this information or these tools, was unreturned.

John Deere did not respond to a request for comment. But John Deere customer support manager Aaron Vancil insisted at a meeting about right to repair with the Florida Farm Bureau last week that much of this information is readily available, according to a recording obtained by Motherboard.

“Many of these manufactures, ourselves included, we provide diagnostic tools, repair manuals, parts. Diagnostic and repair information for you, the producer has always been around, you've always had parts, you've always been able to get manuals, paper and such,” he said. “You have the right to repair your own equipment.”

The Equipment Dealers Association did not respond to a request for comment.

New sensors and software in tractors have led to this problem. For decades, many farmers did their own repairs. By-and-large, they can no longer do this: the proliferation of onboard computers and fancy equipment in newer models of tractors and combine harvesters has made it hard for farmers to repair the tools they need to keep the country fed. 

“Farm equipment, much like all of the devices and gadgets in our lives, is increasingly driven by software,” the PIRG report said. “While this software has increased the efficiency of some tasks, it has also allowed manufacturers to take increasing control of the repair process.” 

Like cars, farm equipment is increasingly controlled by an elaborate and complex web of computer sensors. When one of these sensors notices an error, no matter how small or serious, it puts the machine into “limp mode.” This allows farmers to move the machine slowly but not operate it fully. When the problem is diagnosed and repaired, the error code is cleared and the machine can keep working.

The problem is that farmers often don’t have access to the diagnostic software and repair tools they need to make the fix. According to U.S. PIRG, the John Deere S760 combine harvester has 125 different computer sensors in it. If those sensors start throwing an error code, the combine won’t run and the farmer doesn’t have immediate access to the tools they need to fix the problem.

"It doesn’t matter how industrious they are, what their planting window looks like, or if their tractor goes down right as weather threatens to destroy their crop—modern farming equipment is designed so that farmers need to call the dealership to repair their machines," O'Reilly said.

At a town hall meeting of the Montana Farmers Union on February 8, Farmers Union president Walter Sweitzer shared a personal story about how a broken tractor affected his farm. Last summer, he was having problems with his new tractor. He didn’t have the hardware and software he needed to figure out the error code and fix the tractor on his own so he had to send it back to his dealer for repair. 

“It was a simple fix,” Sweiter said. “It was a fuel sensor, it only cost about $800 to actually do the fix. But when it was all said and done, when you paid for freight, when you paid for the hours that it was there, my bill was about $5,000….if I could have just bought that software, I could have known right away my problem and either fixed it or had the dealer come out with the part to fix it. When I shared my story, I heard from farmers all over the state that they’re having the same problem.”

“If we are making the tools available to empower farmers with the tools they need to service and repair equipment, why are R2R laws that cover farm equipment necessary at all?”

Sweitzer is one of the few people who in recent weeks has seemingly been able to at least get information about how to obtain the things promised by the manufacturers' commitment. A dealer near him wanted $8,000 for software, equipment, and training before it would give it to him.

"There’s farms where $8,000 is not that big of a deal, but this isn't being advertised and it's also not widely available," Proctor said. "This is example 1A of why repair monopolies are bad."

The problem with new machines is so bad that farmers are taking drastic action to repair their own equipment. Some have become hackers, using software and tools they’ve found online to diagnose and repair their equipment. Others are buying 40-year old tractors because they still function and they’re more repairable than new models.

As the problem has become more pronounced, legislators are trying to pass right-to-repair laws that would help farmers repair their own equipment. LC 1562 in Montana is one example, a simple piece of legislation that would make it easier for farmers to access the information they need to make repairs. 

“What the bill does, overall, is give the owner the ability to purchase the diagnostic tools to make repairs themselves, saving time and money,” Katie Sullivan, a Missoula area state representative said during the town hall. “It supports farmers who don’t have the time to wait for mechanics or have the extra money to spend just to fix a small issue.”

It was the explicit intention of Deere, the manufacturers, and the dealers to kill the right to repair bills with their 2018 promise. At the time, Motherboard wrote that the agreement was a half measure, and that the California Farm Bureau sold out farmers by agreeing to it. Soon after that article was published, Michael O'Brien, a spokesperson with the AEM wrote to Motherboard to tell us they believed the article was unfair, and said, at length, that right to repair laws (specifically one that was being proposed in Nebraska) were now "unnecessary."

"What farm equipment manufacturers have agreed to do is to make available a comprehensive suite of electronic service tools that allow a dealer or independent repair providers who want to acquire those tools and training on how to use them to make repairs on farm equipment," O'Brien wrote. "We oppose any legislation that would provide access to source code for the reasons (safety and environmental compliance, and IP) we’ve discussed. We view the proposal in Nebraska–and the other states where different, though similar, right to repair laws have been proposed–as overly-broad and unnecessary in light of the tools being made available through the statement of principles."

"If we are making the tools available to empower farmers with the tools they need to service and repair equipment, why are R2R laws that cover farm equipment necessary at all?," he added. "It keeps coming back to this: If a farmer wants to repair the equipment, and we’re making available the tools to do so in a good-faith effort to address their code needs, then why do we need to pass these Right to Repair laws covering farm equipment?"

Deere has claimed that it can’t allow farmers access to the computer system at this level because it’s a security risk and might lead to farmers breaking federal law. “Sometimes, these modifications can be altered and now the machine is not functioning as it was intended,” Vancil said at a webinar about right to repair with the Florida Farm Bureau last week. “It also starts getting into some areas, if you're talking about emissions, that get into the area where you start having federal topics being introduced from an emissions standpoint.”

The problem is that no farmer is talking about hacking their tractor to bypass emission standards or steal John Deere’s source code. No pending right-to-repair legislation mentions source code or calls for farmers to be able to access farm equipment’s embedded software beyond what a dealership already has access to. 

It would not be difficult for John Deere and other manufacturers to comply with a right to repair law, or, at the very least, to abide by its own promise. Europe has had some right to repair regulations which require "standardized access to repair and maintenance information (RMI) systems to provide repair and maintenance information for vehicles used in agriculture and forestry" since 2013, and manufacturers comply with those.

And so the solution in the United States seems like it's going to have to be the same. Not a promise from manufacturers and dealers, but legislation with the force of law. 

"The best recourse is that states pass right to repair legislation given that Deere pitched this as a way to avoid or delay or defer states passing right to repair laws that would impact ag equipment," Sheehan said. "Well, you didn’t do what you promised you’d do. We’re back to legislating."

John Deere Promised Farmers It Would Make Tractors Easy to Repair. It Lied. syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[ourlife20]

George Russell, Agritech

An 8th generation Vermonter, a farm boy, Harvard graduate, and farm equipment industry professional, George Russell has worked for 24 years for equipment manufacturers. His career has included several global positions and postings.

George’s interest in agricultural technology started on the farm and continues today. With the advent of the Apple II, Radio Shack TRS-80, and the personal computing era, he founded a startup company that sold computers, software, and data management services directly to farmers. That company was later sold to its employees.

Later, as product director for large combine harvesters, he helped Case IH, a leading manufacturer, to become the first company to offer its customers factory-installed yield monitors and GPS receivers – both important tools that formed the foundation for precision farming.

Since 2007, George has been Executive Partner at Currie Management Consultants (https://curriemanagement.com/), a consulting company that advises farm and construction equipment dealers on how to integrate machines with myriad agricultural technologies. One of his passions is to see how new technologies are conceived and implemented.

George speaks and facilitates panels at many equipment industry meetings, such as Dealership Minds Summit, Precision Farming Summit, and an annual webinar that summarizes dealership consolidation called The Big Dealer Report. He also founded the Machinery Advisors Consortium (MAC), which provides advice and training to improve agricultural productivity (https://www.machineryadvisors.org).

The Machinery Advisors website has over 80 articles, such as: "Are You Ready for the 2nd Machine Age? What is the connection among Nebraska Tractor Tests, Moore’s Law, and the second half of the chess board?"

https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgerussell/

Check out this episode!

[casorasi]

'Right-to-repair' fight extends from iPhones to tractors

The software in Peter Ripka's $120,000 tractor gave him an error code and cut the engine to 50% capacity, and Ripka couldn't figure out why. He was locked out. The farmer near Ogilvie called the dealership to send someone with… 'Right-to-repair' fight extends from iPhones to tractors

[dagwolf]

A license agreement John Deere required farmers to sign in October forbids nearly all repair and modification to farming equipment, and prevents farmers from suing for "crop loss, lost profits, loss of goodwill, loss of use of equipment … arising from the performance or non-performance of any aspect of the software." The agreement applies to anyone who turns the key or otherwise uses a John Deere tractor with embedded software. It means that only John Deere dealerships and "authorized" repair shops can work on newer tractors.

"If a farmer bought the tractor, he should be able to do whatever he wants with it," Kevin Kenney, a farmer and right-to-repair advocate in Nebraska, told me. "You want to replace a transmission and you take it to an independent mechanic—he can put in the new transmission but the tractor can't drive out of the shop. Deere charges $230, plus $130 an hour for a technician to drive out and plug a connector into their USB port to authorize the part."

[kenyatta]

A license agreement John Deere required farmers to sign in October forbids nearly all repair and modification to farming equipment, and prevents farmers from suing for "crop loss, lost profits, loss of goodwill, loss of use of equipment … arising from the performance or non-performance of any aspect of the software." The agreement applies to anyone who turns the key or otherwise uses a John Deere tractor with embedded software. It means that only John Deere dealerships and "authorized" repair shops can work on newer tractors.

"If a farmer bought the tractor, he should be able to do whatever he wants with it," Kevin Kenney, a farmer and right-to-repair advocate in Nebraska, told me. "You want to replace a transmission and you take it to an independent mechanic—he can put in the new transmission but the tractor can't drive out of the shop. Deere charges $230, plus $130 an hour for a technician to drive out and plug a connector into their USB port to authorize the part."

"What you've got is technicians running around here with cracked Ukrainian John Deere software that they bought off the black market," he added.

[infoneer-pulse]

A license agreement John Deere required farmers to sign in October forbids nearly all repair and modification to farming equipment, and prevents farmers from suing for "crop loss, lost profits, loss of goodwill, loss of use of equipment … arising from the performance or non-performance of any aspect of the software." The agreement applies to anyone who turns the key or otherwise uses a John Deere tractor with embedded software. It means that only John Deere dealerships and "authorized" repair shops can work on newer tractors. "If a farmer bought the tractor, he should be able to do whatever he wants with it," Kevin Kenney, a farmer and right-to-repair advocate in Nebraska, told me. "You want to replace a transmission and you take it to an independent mechanic—he can put in the new transmission but the tractor can't drive out of the shop. Deere charges $230, plus $130 an hour for a technician to drive out and plug a connector into their USB port to authorize the part." "What you've got is technicians running around here with cracked Ukrainian John Deere software that they bought off the black market," he added.

Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware - Motherboard

[dontletmeontheinternet]

For Tech-Weary Midwest Farmers, 40-Year-Old Tractors Now a Hot Commodity

An anonymous reader quotes a report from StarTribune: Kris Folland grows corn, wheat and soybeans and raises cattle on 2,000 acres near Halma in the northwest corner of Minnesota, so his operation is far from small. But when he last bought a new tractor, he opted for an old one -- a 1979 John Deere 4440. He retrofitted it with automatic steering guided by satellite, and he and his kids can use the tractor to feed cows, plant fields and run a grain auger. The best thing? The tractor cost $18,000, compared to upward of $150,000 for a new tractor. And Folland doesn't need a computer to repair it. Tractors manufactured in the late 1970s and 1980s are some of the hottest items in farm auctions across the Midwest these days -- and it's not because they're antiques. Cost-conscious farmers are looking for bargains, and tractors from that era are well-built and totally functional, and aren't as complicated or expensive to repair as more recent models that run on sophisticated software. "It's a trend that's been building. It's been interesting in the last couple years, which have been difficult for ag, to see the trend accelerate," said Greg Peterson, the founder of Machinery Pete, a farm equipment data company in Rochester. [...] There are some good things about the software in newer machines, said Peterson. The dealer will get a warning if something is about to break and can contact the farmer ahead of time to nip the problem in the bud. But if something does break, the farmer is powerless, stuck in the field waiting for a service truck from the dealership to come out to their farm and charge up to $150 per hour for labor.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from Slashdot https://ift.tt/2tvCfIB

[newstfionline]

The Right to Repair

Jason Koebler, Vice, Mar 21 2017

To avoid the draconian locks that John Deere puts on the tractors they buy, farmers throughout America’s heartland have started hacking their equipment with firmware that’s cracked in Eastern Europe and traded on invite-only, paid online forums.

Tractor hacking is growing increasingly popular because John Deere and other manufacturers have made it impossible to perform “unauthorized” repair on farm equipment, which farmers see as an attack on their sovereignty and quite possibly an existential threat to their livelihood if their tractor breaks at an inopportune time.

“When crunch time comes and we break down, chances are we don’t have time to wait for a dealership employee to show up and fix it,” Danny Kluthe, a hog farmer in Nebraska, told his state legislature earlier this month. “Most all the new equipment [requires] a download [to fix].”

The nightmare scenario, and a fear I heard expressed over and over again in talking with farmers, is that John Deere could remotely shut down a tractor and there wouldn’t be anything a farmer could do about it.

A license agreement John Deere required farmers to sign in October forbids nearly all repair and modification to farming equipment, and prevents farmers from suing for “crop loss, lost profits, loss of goodwill, loss of use of equipment … arising from the performance or non-performance of any aspect of the software.” The agreement applies to anyone who turns the key or otherwise uses a John Deere tractor with embedded software. It means that only John Deere dealerships and “authorized” repair shops can work on newer tractors.

“If a farmer bought the tractor, he should be able to do whatever he wants with it,” Kevin Kenney, a farmer and right-to-repair advocate in Nebraska, told me. “You want to replace a transmission and you take it to an independent mechanic--he can put in the new transmission but the tractor can’t drive out of the shop. Deere charges $230, plus $130 an hour for a technician to drive out and plug a connector into their USB port to authorize the part.”

“What you’ve got is technicians running around here with cracked Ukrainian John Deere software that they bought off the black market,” he added.