Hazer’s Auto and Truck Parts is growing its overseas workforce and setting up a parts pipeline between West Fargo and Grand Forks.
WEST FARGO — Hazer’s Auto and Truck Parts is expanding an innovative approach to the scrap business the company embarked upon several years ago, when it established a pool of workers in the Philippines as a response to a workforce shortage locally.
Now, Hazer’s is building on that foundation by expanding its connection to workers in the Philippines, while welcoming additional foreign workers to its business operations in West Fargo.
In addition, the salvage company is collaborating with a towing company to help with the sale and transport of vehicles and vehicle parts between West Fargo and Grand Forks, a move that until recently had been put on pause until Hazer’s could secure the arrival of seasonal visa workers from Mexico and South Africa.
That’s according to Daniel Hazer, who operates the business with his father, Duane.
“We’re getting ready to buy cars out of there (Grand Forks) to make it a better market to sell cars in and we can deliver parts up there,” said Hazer, whose family has operated the salvage company since about 1967, when Duane Hazer’s late brother, Ron, started the business.
Ron Hazer, who left the business in the mid-1970s, died in 2012.
Duane’s father, Lester, joined the salvage company in 1969 after quitting farming, and Duane joined the business in 1974 after having worked as a teacher.
Recently, Duane and his son Daniel agreed to sell their West Fargo homes to the city of West Fargo, which is considering incorporating those properties into a future interstate project.
Daniel Hazer stressed that the deal didn’t extend to the family’s salvage enterprises and he said the business is in the process of making a number of improvements, including the acquisition of large machinery that will help with vehicle demolition and parts processing.
“We sold our homes to the city, but we haven’t sold any of our salvage yard properties. We’re still in business and have lots of plans,” Daniel Hazer said, noting that the company’s connection to workers in the Philippines has grown to more than 50.
According to Hazer, the overseas workers are not employees of Hazer’s, but are part of a deeply integrated partnership with the salvage yard.
As part of the setup established around 2023, workers in the Philippines interact with Hazer’s customers in West Fargo using the internet and large TV screens.
“If you’re walking into our show room, you’re talking to those people,” said Daniel Hazer, who was instrumental in setting up the ongoing partnership between the salvage company and its pool of workers on the other side of the world.
The vehicle-moving equipment Hazer’s is in the process of setting up at its processing site in West Fargo can be controlled remotely using a console and imagery provided by cameras.
Daniel Hazer said the new equipment and its attendant command center will be tested in West Fargo this summer, but ultimately the excavator and wheel-loader that will be stationed in West Fargo could be controlled from virtually anywhere.
Hazer said the company’s approach to looking outside the area and even the United States for workers has given rise to push back from some who question whether the practice is taking away American jobs.
“No, we’re not,” Hazer said, adding: “We’re constantly trying to hire locally. It (hiring foreign workers) is only because we can’t get enough applicants.”
And the issue doesn’t appear to be about money, according to Hazer.
“I just think there’s not enough people out there anymore,” he said.
