Fwd: Road Warrior: Busy Days at the Statehouse, New Benefit Partner

May 16, 2024

New MBP Announcement: GMG EnviroSafe joins NJGCA–wants to safeguard your location and prevent accidents

Two weeks ago, we reported that MinorDecliner had joined our Association as our newest Member Benefit Partner (MBP).  

You can read more about MinorDecliner, and the age verification and loss prevention services they offer, in that announcement by clicking HERE.

We are always meeting with potential MBPs, as we gauge their capabilities and services to expand our program into new (and needed) arenas.

This week, we are pleased to announce that GMG EnviroSafe has joined NJGCA as our latest addition to the MBP program.

EnviroSafe is a unique service provider, offering business owners 35 years of experience in the safety-, environmental-, and health-compliance consulting. Though they service all kinds of businesses, their focus is primarily on auto repair facilities.  

When EnviroSafe is hired to inspect and audit your location, you are helping your establishment simultaneously meet OSHA, EPA, and local regulations. They will assess what complies with existing standards, point out what needs to be updated or serviced, and help you create an implementation plan to achieve those goals. In doing so, they take the guesswork out of your compliance obligations, and allow you to focus on running your small business.

Every NJGCA member should keep safety foremost in mind. Sadly, it has become all too common to read news reports of job-related accidents – or even deaths.  In fact, just this past January, a technician was killed when an RV fell on top of him while he serviced the vehicle. And only a few years ago, in 2019, a repair facility employee was killed when a vehicle rolled off the lift.

These stories are tragic; and made more upsetting since, in most cases, they could have been avoided altogether with a proper safety audit.  

By itself, the death of a valued employee at your premises is painful and heartbreaking. Moreover, there are a multitude of unforeseen complications which emerge in the aftermath of such an accident. You could potentially face a series of lawsuits, a damaged reputation, patron backlash, insurance claims, and any number of unforeseen consequences–all flowing from an incident that may have been preventable with a routine safety audit.  

In the January case cited above, OSHA’s involvement will necessitate a six-month investigation into the accident. Once the investigation is complete, there could be additional fines or penalties brought against the owner.

Such situations are catastrophic and present examples of what not to do. But they also illustrate what can be done to prevent a serious injury (or death) from happening elsewhere.  And when you adopt this mindset, don’t forget that it is not only your employee’s life you’d be safeguarding, but your own.

Shop owners take pride in knowing their craft and doing it well. But this does not make them experts at everything. And even if you are well versed, is every one of your employees well-versed and keen enough to spot a problem in your building or on your equipment?

There is more to a facility and equipment safety check than greasing a lift, inspecting bay door torsion spring wires, looking over nozzles or hoses, and confirming store entranceways and delivery points are well greased and maintained. To understand potential hazards and liabilities, you are compelled to call those professionals that know what to look for and what the federal/state regulations demand.

Take a moment to visit our newest MBP’s website, then contact Nick at nick@njgca.org if you have any questions or would like to be put in touch with a representative from EnviroSafe. 

Bottle Deposit Mandate Being Proposed

A new fight is brewing in the Legislature over a major initiative to place a whole new series of regulatory burdens on your business: a bottle deposit mandate. The bill would place a 10¢ deposit on every beverage container of any kind sold in the state of New Jersey. This includes plastic, glass, metal, and even cardboard containers in which a beverage is pre-packed for off-premises consumption. The distributors would be responsible for collecting the deposit from retailers, who would be required to pass it on to consumers.

While a mandate that increases the cost of some of your products is bad enough, the true burden of this bill is the redemption mandate. Every business which sells any packaged beverage to the public would be mandated to serve as a redemption center, where consumers can bring their bottles back, and you would have to pay them 10¢. The bottles don’t even need to have been purchased at your location. The bill also mandates the presence of a “reverse vending machine” which can scan bottles and pay customers in cash for them (these cost $10,000-$20,000 each). But the store would still be required to monitor the machine, make sure there’s enough space in it for bottles and that it has enough cash to dispense, and if it’s not working properly or doesn’t accept certain types of containers, then an employee would have to manually scan them all and pay out the deposit. Retailers would also have to make sure their empty bottles are secure, to ensure people don’t steal them and try to deposit them again.

Perhaps the worst thing about this bill is that it explicitly includes vending machines. That means if you’re an auto repair shop with a vending machine available for your customers’ convenience, you would now be required to redeem bottle deposits from people who aren’t your customers.

Also, unlike most states with these laws, there is no real money being given to retailers for the effort of collecting these containers. There are a few states with these laws on the books, but no states have started a new program in decades. 

This bill was supposed to heard for a discussion in the Senate Environment Committee this week, but it was pulled when the Committee ran out of time. You can read the testimony we submitted HERE. 

Condiment and Utensil Restrictions Proposed

The Senate Environment Committee was also expected to pass a bill that would prevent businesses, including c-stores, from providing customers with condiment packets or plastic utensils unless the customer explicitly asks an employee to give it to them. This would ban basic self-serve displays allowing people to just grab what they want, and put more of a burden on cashiers who would need to store all this behind the counter. We've seen with the similar plastic straw ban that these laws trying to micromanage basic human interactions are not practicable and not enforced. Furthermore, this bill would set the first offense fine at $1,000, just for leaving mustard packets out for customers. As with the bottle deposit bill, this bill was not heard because the committee ran out of time, but it is expected to be heard again at the next hearing. You can read the testimony we submitted HERE. 

Burdensome Heat Standard Rules Keeps Moving

Last week we mentioned a new bill which passed the Senate Labor Committee that would establish a series of new regulations aimed at protecting employees working in “excessive” heat, whether outside or inside. 

Now it's up in the Assembly Labor Committee today as well, showing there is some real momentum to this bill, despite how extreme it is in micromanaging most of the economy. NJGCA has been leading the way in raising awareness and building a coalition against it. Many people think it's a bill designed just to protect farm laborers and construction workers, but the way it's written it would cover every employer who has even a single employee who walks outside at any point between April 1 and October 31. 

The bill would require that when it's hot out, employers would be required to bring on more staff, to provide employees paid rest breaks, and to reduce shift lengths. Imagine if, because of our full-serve mandate, you had to shut down gas sales periodically, even though the employee is doing light work in the shade. In Oregon, the rule is that during any two-hour period the worker must be given a ten-minute paid break to rest. Also in Oregon, authorities have suspended the full-serve mandate entirely on days of excessive heat, which does not seem to be an option under current NJ law. 

We also know that there aren't enough auto repair technicians out there for every shop to bring in more help on hot days. What about tow truck drivers, are they not going to be able to get cars off the road because they're on a break? 

Employers would be required to provide at least 32oz of drinking water an hour at a temperature of 59 degrees or less–61 degree water would be a fineable offense. Employers would be required to come up with a dedicated written 'heat plan', that all employees would have to be trained on once per year. All documents, including copies of old heat plans would need to be kept for at least 6 years. The penalty for losing your outdated copy of your heat plan from 5 years ago may include imprisonment for 10-90 days.

If an employee mentions offhand they are concerned that it's hot out, and then their shift schedule gets changed 85 days later for genuine business reasons, they can claim it was discrimination under this law and the employer would be presumed guilty and need to prove their innocence. The employee would also be given a private right of action to sue the employer, the mere filing of such a suit will lead to many employers settling to cut down on legal fees even if they did nothing wrong (which will encourage more attorneys to get more employees to file suits). 

The Labor Commissioner would also be able to issue a stop work order for a violation of this bill, for every single site location (even those which could be in compliance with the bill), with the employer being required to pay all employees' regular wages for up to 10 days, even though they're not working. It effectively blackmails employers to plead guilty even if they are innocent, just to get back to business. 

And in amendments to the bill, the definition of “excessive heat” was lowered from 90 degrees outside or 87 degrees inside, to just 80 degrees. Based on data we've researched on the average high temperature for the last 4 years, that increases the number of covered days from about 30 a year to over 100 a year.

We will keep you posted on the status of the bill as it moves forward. The sponsor has said he is willing to consider meaningful amendments, but we'll see if this bill is salvageable. 4 states have already adopted some kind of heat standard. 

You can read more HERE and read the updated testimony NJGCA provided HERE. 

Vape Enforcement Bills/Delta-8 Ban

On Monday the Assembly Health Committee advanced two bills to step up enforcement of the state's four-year old ban on flavored vaping products, as well as to increase penalties for selling to minors. NJGCA supported both of these bills. We've known for years that the ban on flavored vapes has gone almost completely unenforced, and as a result there are smoke shops and other stores that are willfully violating the law and taking customers from honest retailers. Hopefully if these bills become law, it will create a more level playing field that honest operators can profit from. You can read the testimony we provided HERE. 

Also this Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is hearing new legislation to regulate so-called Delta-8 and Delta-10 THC products. The bill would effectively make it so that only licensed cannabis retailers can sell these products. While technically legal, these items have been available for the last few years because of some loopholes in the law. They are intoxicating, and there have been cases of stores selling them without realizing what they are, or the potential dangers to their customers. In one case, a teenager bought some thinking they were regular jelly candies, ingested a massive dose of THC and nearly died, which also put the unknowing store in a position of serious legal liability. 

They have also been so thoroughly unregulated that tests show they often contain Delta-9, which means a store selling them is effectively dealing drugs without knowing it. This bill too would help clean up the industry overall, to the benefit of good operators. If you have any questions or concerns about these bills please contact Eric@njgca.org

Reminder: Credit Card Settlement Deadline in 2 Weeks

We've discussed it a few times these last few months, but don't forget to file your application to get a cut of the settlement money from the lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard. The deadline is May 31st. You should have responded to a claim offer mailed to you, but if you didn't get one back in January you can apply through the website HERE. Make sure you use that official website, there are allegedly some scams going around designed to mimic the official website as a way to steal your claim. You can read more details in this informative article HERE. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Nick via Nick@njgca.org or 732-256-9646.

Rack Averages

**Rack prices have fallen to where they were a month ago, a drop of about 30¢ in three weeks**

News Worth Knowing:

Member Benefit Partner (MBP) Spotlight: LendingCapital

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Contact: Frank Eberhart, 973-479-2558, Frank@lendingcapital.net 

Available Real Estate

Cape Harbor Shell

**Price Reduction**

795 Route 109, Unit B, Lower Township, NJ, 08204

Contact: Jerry 609-425-8837 capeharborshell@comcast.net 

Click HERE to view listing

Station for Sale

Thriving High Profit Gas/Service Station close to Major Highway in Prime Location. 

This Exclusive Gas Station is the Sole Provider in the entire town, achieving a remarkable fuel profit of up to and sometimes over 1$ a gallon. Consistently selling 45,000 gallons monthly. Most fuel customers come from Highway so fuel prices do not have to be competitive. 

Also included with the Property is a Reputable High End Auto Repair Facility. Repair shop has all required Specialty and Diagnostic Tools for servicing mostly High End Vehicles. Advertising is no longer used do to an enormous Demand and large Customer Base. Repair Business has has potential for increased profitability and expansion, the business is open to experienced buyers for a possible partnership or profit sharing arrangement. Location is 1 out of 100. Fuel sales make 20-40K a month and repairs can do the same with the right operator. 

This one of a kind opportunity can include seller financing for those with High-Level Automotive or Gas Station Experience.

Contact Greg
908-291-7845

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