If there’s a recall of your vehicle, the automotive industry wants you to know about it.

That’s why it has put a lot of work into a new initiative called The Vehicle Recall Search Service, which was announced at the National Automobile Dealers Association’s NADA Show 2018 last week.

The free service, being put forth by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers, with the help of vehicle-history service Carfax, will help dealers, DMVs, and insurers search up to 10,000 vehicle identification numbers in 30 seconds and inform consumers about vehicles with open safety recalls..

“This was a great team effort, to really get together and solve a problem,” AGA President and CEO John Bozzella said in a blog post on NADA’s website.

Outgoing NADA Chairman Mark Scarpelli applauded the effort and said he would be the first customer for the service.

“Having a cost-free method for all dealers and others to conduct automated or batch searching of recalls will greatly enhance the likelihood that recalled vehicles get the repairs they need,” Scarpelli stated in the blog post. “This is exactly why NADA, on behalf of its dealer members, has been asking for this capability.”

While the initiative makes it easy to check whether a car needs a recall, it’s no good if car owners don’t actually have recalls repaired. That might be part of the reason why NADA announced a collaboration with Check to Protect vehicle recall campaign, which was launched by the National Safety Council (NSC) last June.

Wes Lutz, who replaced Scarpelli as NADA chairman over the weekend, said that the association was “proud to be a partner in its efforts to educate and raise awareness about the importance of getting recall repairs completed.”

NSC, which says more than 100,000 people have taken part in the initiative since its launch, noted the importance of having dealer support for the campaign.

“At the end of the day, dealers are the ones who repair the open recalls and close the loop,” said Kelly Nantel, NSC’s vice president of communications and advocacy, in a news release [PDF]. “This relationship raises awareness about the Check To Protect campaign among dealers, drivers and their communities—all places we want to spread the word.”

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