It was announced today that from 11.59pm tonight, ACT car dealerships will be able to safely deliver motor vehicles purchased prior to the lockdown.
The announcement was welcome news for Canberra Toyota dealer principal Mirko Milic, who had been lobbying for the change since lockdown was announced five weeks ago.
Mr Milic said lockdown restrictions in every other Australian state have allowed for safe, contactless car delivery, with cars from Sydney being delivered to Canberra during this lockdown while his dealerships in Canberra had been prohibited from delivering in the ACT.
“We felt like we were unfairly treated up until this decision, a lot of backlogs to be catching up on but we’re happy to be fixing that problem,” he said.
“It’s going to be a bit of a mad rush, but from next week, now that we’ve been given the go-ahead, we can schedule deliveries.”
Mr Milic already has a stockpile of cars in Canberra ready for delivery dating back to last year, with his holding yards across town full to the brim.
He’s relieved the loophole that has left Canberra’s car dealerships in the lurch has been resolved, allowing completion of their many outstanding transactions waiting on delivery.
“We have essential workers hanging out to pick up their new cars,” he said. “Now they can feel safe about going wherever they have to go.”
Normally delivering 600 cars a month, approximately $24 million worth of vehicles, the resumption of trade will have a resounding impact not only on Mr Milic’s business and the 400 people he employs locally, but the entire Canberra motor vehicle industry.
“It means we can deliver cars to our customers who have been waiting a long, long time,” he said.
“We’ll start as soon as possible … The key is getting them registered is a bit of a process and a backlog getting number plates from Access Canberra.”
Operating four Canberra Toyota dealerships, as well as Lexus of Canberra, Subaru Canberra, Volvo Cars Canberra and Phillip Mitsubishi, some of Mr Milic’s many employees will be able to come back on deck to administer the delivery of the vehicles.
“We still have to be careful how we manage that, we’ll use a rotating system with a couple of people in each showroom,” he said.
“Sitting at home and twiddling their thumbs is a challenge, and some of our staff have expressed some mental anguish to myself and our management … I think this is going to help in that regard.”
Get all the latest Canberra news, sport, entertainment, lifestyle, competitions and more delivered straight to your inbox with the Canberra Daily Daily Newsletter. Sign up here.
For more local news:
