“One of the greatest things about the survey is that it mainly compares your rates to the rates of shops similar to yours,” explains AASP/NJ Executive Director Charles Bryant. “If you’re a shop that has made the investment in extensive training and certification, you have three frame machines, 40,000 square feet, a fence around your lot and a full security system, you might need to charge more for your labor rate than a two bay shop with none of the same amenities or training. You’re going to charge more if you have made the investment to become an I-CAR Gold Class shop than you would if you had not. When you get a report, the system takes all of these factors into account.”
According to the system’s mission statement, its purpose is, “To restore the free market system for labor rate pricing in the auto collision repair industry, in order to enable sufficient profitability for shops, for the ultimate care and safety of consumers and their families.”
The way the system works is you fill out a brief, five-minute survey for free. The more shops that participate, the more accurate the labor rate becomes. If a shop wants to receive results from the labor rate survey, there is a $99 monthly fee, but it is completely free to fill out.
At this point, over 140 shops have participated in the survey, and their contribution has already affected the local labor rate. However, it is necessary that all shops take the five minutes to input their information in order to truly make a difference.
“It’s such a valuable tool, but only if we use it,” says Bryant.
A newer section of the database that has been developed is a directory of procedures and what insurers compensate for them in what areas.
“Time and time again, shops have been told by insurers, ‘We don’t pay for that,’ in regards to certain procedures,” remarks Bryant. “For example, a particular insurer may pay for Remove and Install on batteries in South Jersey, but not in North Jersey. But without a database like this, how would a North Jersey shop know that? Now there’s something the shop owner can hand to the appraiser and say, ‘Yes you do.’”
Bryant encourages shops to take advantage of this unique opportunity.
“The bottom line is,” he says, “the insurance industry has been successful at artificially suppressing the labor rates for years, to the point that a lawnmower or bicycle shops that conducts repairs on these machines that generally cost only a few hundred dollars and require much less investment are able to charge and get paid almost double what insurers want to pay collision shops that are repairing the modern vehicles on the roads today that costs thousands of dollars. Now there is a tool to stop this unfair practice, but it will take masses of shops to participate to create change.”
For more information on the Variable Rate Survey and to participate, visit nationalautobodyresearch.com or check out the feature story in the June issue of New Jersey Automotive magazine at www.grecopublishing.com.
Please visit AAP/NJ at www.aaspnj.org or contact Charles Bryant at (732) 922-8909.
For more information on the NORTHEAST® Automotive Services Show, please visit www.aaspnjnortheast.com.
