Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine May 2026

News Magazine May 2026

April 2025 or thereabouts, the Department of Labor and Licensing began the process of converting the HVACR industry to electronic licensing renewals. In an industry that was satisfied with paper, it has been a tough change. So, if we are the industry that was happy with the status quo, why was there a change? Suffice it to say, we are living in a changing world that you and I may not be so happy with. Doesn’t matter, it will change and we will adapt or we will be left out — not just behind. There may be more but I can think of a couple of reasons that electronic renewal became necessary. 1. The time and labor involved for the department became untenable. The Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing Code Enforcement division is understaffed and it would have been impossible for them to handle the growing volume of paperwork. Their staff already has to jump between programs to handle the demand — even after electronic renewal. So how many departments does that small staff of 3 or 4 have to administer? Let’s see, HVACR, Electrical, Boiler, Elevator, and It is an unreasonable expectation that they handle very well but growth is overwhelming.

2. Printing and postage have gone out the roof. The last time I estimated the cost of a bulk mailing, it was about $1.50. That did not include the extra cost of contracting with a mailing firm. Today, postage is even higher and so is labor. We have about 19,000 licensees plus registrants in our industry. Even at a buck and a half, it would cost over $30,000 to print and mail the licenses. May not seem like much when we pay $150 to $200 for a license, but that money also has to pay for inspectors, etc. One reason that we are short on inspectors is that our income will not support the full complement of inspectors we had 20 years ago. In the May 2025 issue of the NewsMagazine, I did not mince my words. There was a problem in the change over to electronic license renewal and I called it a screw-up. Hurt some feelings so I toned down the rhetoric and republished the May issue. Did not change the fact that we still had problems with information and education. Well, we have lived through the first year and we’ll see how it works out during the second electronic renewal. We have been through it once and will not be as intimidated as we were during the first one.