Function by function
Each of the twelve functions of this industry was reached by orders in each of the six quarters, and for each the compelled modification is stated in the orders' own terms. The instruments for each function and quarter are listed in the footnotes and mapped in the quarter table on this page.
SR, showroom and sales
The instruments and the determination
In 2020 Q2 the showroom was closed to in-person traffic or confined to remote sales and appointments in twenty-three States and the District and in the Texas counties, then reopened by appointment or at twenty-five to fifty percent of occupancy; in 2020 Q3 it operated by appointment or at capacity under written infection-prevention conditions in the regime States and under statewide face-covering orders, airborne-transmission controls on every indoor workplace, in thirty-three States; in 2020 Q4 it was re-capped at twenty to fifty percent or ordered remote in ten jurisdictions; in 2021 Q1 and Q2 the caps and face-covering controls ran to their stepped expiry between March 10 and July 1, 2021, with Kentucky's twenty-five percent cap to June 11 and Los Angeles County's fifty percent listing in March; in 2021 Q3 every Hawaii showroom operated under the tier and Safe Access conditions, every California showroom under the Cal/OSHA standard, every New York showroom under an exposure prevention plan, and every showroom in ten States and a dozen metros under the airborne-transmission controls, universal indoor face coverings, reinstated from July 17, 2021 onward.190 The operation of the showroom was partially suspended in every quarter from the second quarter of 2020 through the third quarter of 2021 because of those closure, remote-sales, appointment, capacity, workplace-standard and exposure-control orders.
SV, service and repair
The instruments and the determination
The service department was designated essential by every order of March 2020 and held by the same orders to distancing in the service drive, closed or capped lounges, screening at the door, no-contact drop-off, face coverings on technicians and customers, and, in Los Angeles County from December 30, 2020, twenty percent of indoor capacity; the State workplace standards of Virginia (July 27, 2020), Michigan (October 14, 2020), California (November 30, 2020), Oregon and Washington bound every bay; the face-covering orders of 2020 and 2021, airborne-transmission controls binding every indoor workplace, reached every counter; and the quarantine and isolation orders of Los Angeles and San Diego Counties removed exposed technicians by blanket order in the third quarter of 2021.191 The operation of service and repair was partially suspended in every quarter because the orders that permitted it fixed the conditions under which it ran, and, in the words of Q&A-17, "such a modification of operations is considered to be a partial suspension of business operations due to a governmental order if the modification required by the governmental order has more than a nominal effect on the business operations under the facts and circumstances," a condition that a closed lounge, a capped service drive, a screened door and a technician removed by blanket quarantine order satisfy on the orders' own terms; the ten percent figure by which the Notice deems that condition met is, by the United States' own account, a safe harbor and not a floor.
PT, parts
The instruments and the determination
The parts counter operated under the same conditions as the service department in every quarter, and its inventory depended on the plants, ports, rail yards and borders that the Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ontario and Mexican closure orders, the land-border notifications, the Captain of the Port conditions the Coast Guard bulletins record and the Federal Railroad Administration's emergency order conditioned or closed, and on the semiconductor plants of Asia whose governments' orders the Commerce Department and the Federal Reserve recorded in 2021.192 The operation of the parts department was partially suspended in every quarter because its counter was conditioned by order and its supply was interrupted by orders on its suppliers in the sense Q&A-12's own auto-parts example recognizes.
DL, delivery, test drives and field service
The instruments and the determination
The test drive and the delivery were barred with the showroom in 2020 Q2, then permitted only "without an employee present" or "limited to the customer and the customer's household members" and "without personal interaction," "curbside, at the customer's home, or in open service lanes"; field service on customers' premises depended on those premises being open to outsiders under the closure and capacity orders of every quarter; in 2021 Q3 deliveries to and service calls at federal facilities required attestation or masking, distancing and testing from July 29, Denver's contractors and subcontractors were ordered vaccinated from September 1, and deliveries in the exposure-control jurisdictions were made under their face-covering requirements.193 The operation of delivery, test drives and field service was partially suspended in every quarter because of the closure, test-drive, delivery, premises and contractor orders.
DM, motor-vehicle offices, titles and registrations
The instruments and the determination
Every State's motor-vehicle agency closed to the public or went to appointments in March 2020; Illinois closed its facilities twice; New Jersey's Commission closed for sixteen weeks; California's 169 offices for eleven; Texas waived the title and registration requirements themselves for thirteen months; the States extended every expiration; the District's agency ran by appointment to July 19-20, 2021, Oregon's under lobby limits to June 30, 2021 and New York's county offices to May 17, 2021; Louisiana's proclamations of August 6 and 31, 2021 continued the Office of Motor Vehicles' emergency provisions; California extended commercial licenses on September 2, 2021; West Virginia's vehicle-inspection suspension ran to October 1, 2021; and the recorders, clerks and secretaries of state through which dealers file closed their counters.194 The operation of titling and registration was partially suspended in every quarter because the governmental office that completes every sale was closed, restricted or placed on appointments by governmental action, by the Governors' orders where they reached the agency in terms and otherwise by the agency's own closure under the emergency declarations, recorded in the closure notices this analysis cites, and the deferred transactions of each closure were the next quarter's backlog.
FI, finance and insurance
The instruments and the determination
The finance desk moved to electronic contracting under the emergency remote-notarization orders of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maryland, Texas, Georgia, Nebraska, Vermont, Mississippi and Illinois, several of which ran through the third quarter of 2021; its lenders operated under the federal financial regulators' emergency statements of March 13, 2020, the appraisal deferrals and the credit-union relief rule to December 31, 2021; New Jersey's insurance grace periods ran under Executive Order 123 to January 1, 2022; and the Treasury's own postponements governed the industry's filing calendar in 2020.195 The operation of finance and insurance was partially suspended in every quarter because the signatures, notarizations, lender approvals and insurance placements through which it is performed were conducted under emergency regimes that replaced the in-person transaction the trade is built on.
SC, manufacturers' plants, semiconductors and freight
The instruments and the determination
Michigan closed every non-critical plant from March 24 to May 11, 2020; Pennsylvania closed transportation-equipment manufacturing from March 19; Mexico suspended non-essential activities from March 30 through May 30, 2020; Ontario closed places of business outside its essential list from March 24, 2020; the land borders were restricted to essential travel from March 20, 2020 to November 8, 2021; entry from China, the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and India was suspended through the period; the Federal Railroad Administration imposed face-mask controls, an airborne-transmission control, on every railroad operation from March 1, 2021; the Captains of the Port conditioned every port and vessel under the Coast Guard's regulations and the CDC's order, as the Coast Guard's bulletins record; Taiwan's Level 3 alert ran from May 19 to July 26, 2021; and the semiconductor interruption that the President ordered reviewed on February 24, 2021 and that the Commerce Department put in the Federal Register on September 24, 2021 left dealers, in the Federal Reserve's words of September 8, 2021, with "no end in sight" and new cars "largely already spoken for."196 The operation of the supply function was partially suspended in every quarter because the plants, borders, ports and rail yards on which the dealer's inventory depends were closed or conditioned by order, and Q&A-12 and the United States' own admission make an order on the supplier an order due to which the dealer's operation is suspended.
MK, shows and events
The instruments and the determination
The gathering prohibitions and venue closures of every State cancelled the spring 2020 auto shows and the June 2020 North American International Auto Show; the winter gathering limits cancelled the winter boat and RV shows of 2020-21 and moved the February 2021 Chicago Auto Show to July 2021, when McCormick Place reopened after sixteen months; in 2021 Q3 the Federal Reserve recorded the cancellation of the New York Auto Show, and indoor events required proof of vaccination or a negative test in New Orleans from August 16, New York City from August 17, San Francisco from August 20 and King County from September 16, 2021.197 The operation of shows and events was partially suspended in every quarter: prohibited in 2020 Q2 and Q3, prohibited by the winter caps in 2020 Q4 and 2021 Q1, capped to the spring 2021 expiry dates in 2021 Q2, and cancelled or conditioned on vaccination in the largest metros in 2021 Q3.
HR, hiring and licensing
The instruments and the determination
The Department of Homeland Security announced, by release of March 20, 2020, the deferral of in-person inspection of Form I-9 documents and extended it by successive announcements through the period; the Department of State suspended routine visa services from March 20, 2020 and resumed them post by post; the entry proclamations suspended the manufacturers' engineers and trainers; California's Department of Consumer Affairs waived the renewal requirements of its Division 3 licensees through October 31, 2021 and its Department of Motor Vehicles extended commercial driver's licenses through November 30, 2021; and the State motor-vehicle agencies suspended the road tests and license examinations on which drivers and porters depend.198 The operation of hiring and licensing was partially suspended in every quarter because the examinations, inspections, licenses and entries on which it depends were suspended, deferred or waived by order.
OP, offices and telework
The instruments and the determination
The business offices of the industry were confined to remote operation by the telework mandates of New York (March 20, 2020), New Jersey, Pennsylvania (March 19, 2020 and again "[u]nless impossible" from November 27, 2020), Michigan (March 24, 2020 and MIOSHA's rule from October 14, 2020), Kentucky, Oregon, Washington, California and the other closure States, and reopened only under the workplace standards, preparedness-plan requirements and exposure-control orders of 2020 and 2021; in 2021 Q3 every New York office adopted an exposure prevention plan, every California office ran under the Cal/OSHA standard and every office in the exposure-control jurisdictions ran under face-covering requirements imposed by order.199 The operation of the office was partially suspended in every quarter because of the telework, workplace-standard and exposure-control orders.
WF, workforce availability
The instruments and the determination
The stay-at-home orders of 2020 Q2 confined the workforce; the school closures of the spring of 2020 kept parents home; the Families First mandate compelled paid leave from April 1 to December 31, 2020 and the New York and Colorado statutes thereafter; the quarantine and isolation orders of every State and of Los Angeles, San Diego, Harris and other counties removed exposed employees for ten to fourteen days; the traveler quarantines of Hawaii, New York and Chicago confined every interstate trip; the CDC conveyance order placed every transit commute under airborne-transmission controls from February 1, 2021; and the school face-covering orders of Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Harris County and the Navajo Nation, airborne-transmission controls on every classroom, governed the workforce's children in the autumn of 2021.200 The operation of the workforce was partially suspended in every quarter because the orders confined it, closed its children's schools, compelled paid leave for its quarantines, placed its commute under airborne-transmission controls and, in the third quarter of 2021, quarantined its exposed members by blanket order.
CB, the customer base
The instruments and the determination
The stay-at-home orders of forty-two States and territories confined the households that buy and service vehicles; the closure orders confined the businesses and their fleets; the federal fleet offices went to maximum telework from March 17, 2020, were capped at twenty-five percent from January 24 to June 10, 2021, placed under workplace infection-prevention controls, masks and distancing, from January 20, 2021 and conditioned on contractor attestation from July 29, 2021; the hospital fleets were under the OSHA Healthcare ETS from June 21, 2021 and the health-care-worker vaccination orders of California, New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles County, Philadelphia and Denver from July and August 2021; the tribal and territorial customers were under their governments' lockdowns, face-covering orders (airborne-transmission controls on their businesses) and vaccination orders; and the school districts parked their buses under the school closures.201 The operation of the customer base was partially suspended in every quarter because every class of customer was under orders limiting its commerce and travel, and the sales and repairs that follow customer activity were delayed, interrupted or terminated with it.