In the near future, the collision repair community could be thanking Domenic Nigro, co-owner of Philadelphia-based Nigro's Auto Body Repair for fewer vehicle collisions. "Thank someone for fewer work opportunities," you may ask? In this case, yes.
Nigro's shop is marketing two Smartphone apps designed to keep young drivers safer by stopping them from texting and driving and helping mom and pop monitor their speed. While efforts like these may seem like community service efforts that shops work on when they can, they're at the heart of what makes this business a Top Shop.
Much about Nigro's is unusual. The shop actually traces its origins to Italy and the European method of repairing vehicles, which Nigro says outpaces much of the technology used in America. Co-owner and father of Domenic, Aniello Nigro trained and worked in Florence, Italy, before coming to Philadelphia to open the shop in 1984.
Domenic took over much of the business end of the operation in 1996. He is the shop's sole estimator and oversees a business where he, his father and the shop's other employees (two additional techs and one painter) hold a number of certifications and have received every kind of training. Nigro's is an I-CAR Gold Shop and is certified to buy parts from BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Nigro notes that the two manufacturers will only sell certain structural parts to certified buyers.
The shop performs metal, fiberglass and aluminum work and spends much of its time renovating classic cars, including Bentleys, though it's comfortable working on Chevrolets, Hondas and Fords. Regardless of vehicle type, Nigro says each is given the same careful attention. So thorough is the shop with its work, says Nigro, that it's never had to redo any of its work. In almost 30 years, not one vehicle has had to come back, he said.
Despite these accomplishments, Nigro says the focus of his business is helping people. "I'm tired of cars. I don't like them anymore," he jokes. "I like people."
This is why he and the shop devote so much of their time to the Philadelphia community and why Nigro is working hard to change the repair community. To help their fellow Philadelphians, Nigro's sells AutoTex Pink windshield wiper blades and Paschal handbags with 10 percent of the revenue going to charity.
On the first Tuesday of every month, Nigro's, with the help of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, hosts a SAFE KIDS event where technicians properly install car seats (Nigro says he attended car seat installation training that required four, eight-hour days of training). The shop hosts Ladies Night events where it teaches female attendees how to change tires, check fluids, understand how brakes and other systems work, and what to do if they're ever in an accident.
At its events, Nigro's hosts a lemonade stand to raise money for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. The shop also installs vehicle hand controls for the handicapped, with a portion of the purchase and installation fees going to the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis.
Nigro says the app offers significant benefits in Philadelphia where busy police officers can take time to get to a scene and where accident chasers (disreputable towing companies) often prey upon accident victims by towing vehicles to shops where they are charged outrageous sums to have their vehicles stored, repaired or recovered.
The shop soon will begin marketing apps aimed at the parents of teenage drivers – Mobile Tattle Tale (MTT) and Teenage Speedster. Parents can download both apps to their children's phones where they can only be uninstalled with a password. Using MTT, parents can block cell phone texting functions when the user of the phone reaches a predetermined speed. The app offers additional features, including an automatic text response for inbound texts that lets the other party know that the teenager is unable to text at that time.
Teenage Speedster notifies parents when the user of the phone reaches a certain speed, predetermined by the parent. The app notifies how fast the vehicle was going and at what location. Both apps notify parents if the teen tries to disable the application or remove it from the phone.
Any profits Nigro's makes from these two apps will go to local schools. Currently, Nigro is looking for schools to work with him to promote the device and collect revenue from it.
If all that weren't enough, Nigro also is working with a company to install cutting-edge solar panels on his shop to provide electricity, heating and cooling. He's working with another small company that's developing technology that can eliminate VOCs. The technology doesn't filter them – it eliminates them before they can adversely affect employees or the community.
Nigro also is getting political – in a manner not common for most repairers. After two years of contacting members of Philadelphia's City Council, he's finally managed to arrange meetings with council members to discuss his concerns over the state of the industry in Philadelphia.
While such efforts may not seem significant in light of the challenges repairers face nationwide, don't discount what he may accomplish. Nigro's already has proven just how much one repairer and one small shop can do.