RVBusiness, January/February 2021

PEOPLEon theMove Retiring Bruce Hopkins Looking Forward to His Own Traveling BY TRAVIS PRYOR torhomes But he is quick When Bruce Hopkins announced last winter that he was going to retire at the end of 2020 from his position as RV Industry Association RVIA vice president of standards he might have thought that seemed like a long way off But in an early December conversation he chuckles at the idea that the RV industrys Godfather of Standards might have changed his mind and decided to stick around for awhile Although he admits he loves the industry and that stepping away is kind of bittersweet Hopkins also acknowledges that he was married in July 2019 and is looking forward to spending some time traveling the country with his new bride The plan was to go to Australia but COVID kind of changed our route he told RVBusiness on Wednesday afternoon Dec 2 Hopkins is rightfully credited with building a set of standards for the RV industry to get all manufacturers to build all towables to the same guidelines as well as mo to credit his success to coming on the scene at the right time He said industry principals in the 1960s and 1970s were anxious to work with each other to develop such standards in an effort to keep government especially state governments out of their businesses One of the things Im most proud of is when I came on in 1974 there were 16 states that had regulatory oversights of recreational vehicles and each person operated independently and that prevented the manufacturers from building a single unit to go into any market he said noting that under that system mass production wasnt feasible Overcoming that was very helpful he said An early industry strategy meeting that included Dave Humphreys who later became RVIA president helped Hopkins develop a three plank platform to inform his decisions regarding standards Always allow manufacturers the greatest amount of flexibility providing safety is not jeopardized Always be consistent Prevent problems from occurring in the first place Hopkins went to work with state representatives 96 RVBusiness J A N U A R Y F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 to make sure his standards group and the state regulatory agencies were extensions of each other and were doing things the same way That allowed him to develop the industrys handbook which puts into laymans terms how requirements would be applied With the handbook in hand he was able to help train the state agencies Once the procedures and government affairs departments were established most of the state regulatory agencies ceased to exist and the industry was able to regulate itself Hopkins credits Ralph Herzler of Coachmen Industries Inc and Bob Wilkinson of Fleetwood Enterprises Inc for helping him succeed along the way They were good barometers people you could bounce things off of and have individual conversations with he said If I look at that today theres probably three or four people I would put into that category In more recent years Hopkins has worked to ensure American made RVs have a worldwide market He has worked with foreign governments including China to make sure American RVs are not locked out of those countries But still he said his proudest moments come from seeing the improvement in safety over the years Stories about fires or explosions in RVs he said have become fewer and farther between as the industrys standards have matured Most fire reports have to do with people falling asleep in bed while smoking between 11 p m and 5 a m outside the realm of the manufacturer Hopkins noted Also the industry has added small towables to the types of vehicles that need a carbon monoxide detector even though those vehicles dont have engines because the unit might be parked next to a large motorized vehicle or even next to a generator that could send exhaust into the trailer That change was made after a real world incident and the industry didnt wait for any agency to mandate better standards but addressed the measure independently Fire extinguishers have been a more recent item worthy of review as different extinguishers put out different kinds of fires Manufacturer data indicates many RV fires occur when the vehicle is unoccupied Were always trying to tighten it down how do we get more safety in here without harming the manufacturers Hopkins said You could build an RV like a tank but then it would be so expensive nobody could afford to buy it As he wound down his final year in the business Hopkins said he believes things are in good hands with Kent Perkins and Curt Richardson taking over some of the technical duties and organizational work and with RV Technical Institute Executive Director Curt Hemmeler expanding his role to include senior vice president of standards for RVIA I think the industry has done a really really good job he said If somebody wanted to put us under a microscope could we do better Absolutely But for the most part we do really really well as an industry Im very proud of it and very happy to have been involved with it RVB