Annual wish list

Jan. 1, 2014
Here’s what we should all resolve to make happen in 2014.

2014 is a new year, and a good chance to make some changes — in some cases, long-awaited changes — in our industry. Here’s my wish list for what I’d like to see happen in the coming 12 months.

1. We need everyone involved in this industry to agree that safe and proper repair of every vehicle is more important than cycle time or severity. As I said at my keynote address at NACE, a study following the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster found that a culture at NASA of “relaxing safety standards to meet financial and time constraints” set the stage for that failure. In some ways, insurer pressures to improve cycle time and reduce severity have forced repairers to be better businesspeople (regardless of whether that was the intention). But too much emphasis on cycle time and severity can lead to more important things being compromised. Some procedures, like zero-point calibrations on many newer import vehicles, have to be done regardless of what effect it has on cycle time or severity. If we forego necessary procedures because we’re being graded based on cycle time, severity or the number of lines on the estimate, we’re going to have a catastrophic event just like NASA did.

2. We need an interface that will allow the vendors that sell us parts (the OEM dealers, primarily) to export their invoices directly into our shop management systems. This system would update all the invoice data, including the correct parts numbers and prices. That would save us countless hours keying in or posting that information.

3. I’d like to see Toyota’s “predictive estimating” become a reality in 2014, with other automakers offering something similar for their vehicles. Toyota’s system requires the user only to select the damaged portions of the vehicle (left front fender, for example), and all items related to that section of the vehicle are automatically listed — including one-time-use fasteners, necessary information labels, and procedures such as color sand and polish (with a link to the related Toyota published documentation). The system helps ensure estimates are complete based on the automakers’ prescribed procedures. That reinforces the first item on my list: safe and proper repair of every vehicle.

4. I’d like U.S. insurers to follow the lead of some Canadian insurers by allowing I-CAR Gold Class shops with highly trained technicians to include a flat dollar amount as a line item on estimates for training. If insurers are serious about wanting shops to get training, that’s something they should embrace.

5. Those fixing cars and light trucks have much of the OEM information they need to do so, but I’d like to see a mandate requiring that RV and heavy-duty truck manufacturers share repair information with the shops working on those vehicles.

6. It’s time for more of the automakers with shop certification programs to work together. Let’s avoid a shop having to buy, for example, four different welders to meet the requirements of various programs. Just give us the specs the welder has to meet, and let us find the welder we prefer that meets those specs.

7. I’d like the estimating system providers to implement a formula for feather, prime and block. It’s not as variable as they claim, and could be a consistent labor time based on square footage or a percentage of the repair time. We need this to happen, and for insurers to consistently pay for it and quit trying to tell us no one else charges for it. We’ve been having this discussion far too long.

8. Speaking of the above, could 2014 please mark the end of insurers using the tired old refrain of “You’re the only one who...”? If nothing else, insurance companies, please come up with some new excuse. You’ve sounded like a broken record for 30 years, and no one believes it anymore.

9. Perhaps most of all in 2014, I’d like to see all collision repairers (and their associations) work together on some of these items. These are not DRP vs. non-DRP issues. There are DRP shops that do great work and some that don’t, just as there are some non-DRP shops that do great work and some that don’t. At the end of the day, safety and proper repairs should trump everything.

That alone would make 2014 the best year yet for our industry.

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