Michigan House Bill 5339, intro- duced on February 19, seeks to amend the Michigan Insurance Code of 1956 to restrict insurance companies from numerous actions that irk collision re- pair facility operators. The broadly worded bill has not yet been sched- uled for hearings. The bill, as sponsored by Repre- sentatives Dale W. Zorn ,Greg Mac- Master, Anthony G. Forlini, Peter Pettalia, Michael D. McCready, would ban insurance companies from compelling the use of specific colli- sion repair or claim centers, restrict non-OEM parts usage, and prohibit an insurer from specifying specific ven- dors for parts or other materials. Specifically the bill would pro- hibit insurance personnel from the fol- lowing: ● Compel or coerce the insured or claimant to choose a particular repair facility, claim center, or other similar facility regardless of whether the re- pair facility, claim center, or other similar facility is under the insurer's direct control. This subdivision would not pro- hibit an insurer from requesting the insured or claimant to take the a par- ticular repair facility, claim center, or other similar facility after informing the insured or claimant that the in- sured or claimant is not under an ob- ligation to do so. ● Must not fail to inform the insured or claimant that the insured or claimant has the freedom to use a re- pair facility of the insured's or claimant's choosing, or fail to inform A multi-jurisdictional task force con- ducted raids in Wayne and Oakland counties on the morning of Feb. 28 on suspicion of a theft and fraud ring in- volving automobiles. The investigation reportedly stemmed from a stolen automobile that lead investigators to raid the Somerset Collision Shop on John R. near Eightmile, according to reports in the Detroit News. “The raids were conducted with auto theft teams from Highland Park and Hazel Park in conjunction with the Action Auto Theft squad and a number of other assisting agencies,” said the Hamtramck Police Depart- ment in a press release. “The raids were successful with multiple arrests and the recovery of stolen property. Somerset Collision in Detroit was the primar focus of the A proposed bill in Minnesota, House File 2690 (HF 2690), seeks to amend Minnesota Statutes 2012, section 72B.092, subdivision 1 to include more stringent prohibitions against in- surance company requirements placed upon repair facilities. Introduced by Representatives Joe Atkins, Greg Davids, Joe Hoppe, Debra Hilstrom, Jim Davnie and Melissa Hortman on Monday, March 3, HF 2690 changes two subsections of the existing law, including provisions the repair indus- try supported and were added into the law in 2007. The first amends adds a prohibi- tion against insurance companies and their representatives from requiring that a vehicle be presented “… at a particular motor vehicle repair shop designated by the insurer” in addition to the existing ban against drive-in claim centers. According to Judell Anderson, executive director of AASP-MN, whose organization supports the bill, this amend seeks to expand the exist- ing prohibition on requiring vehicle owners present their cars at a drive-in because insurers have adapted to the existing prohibition by requiring ve- hicle owners to take their vehicles to a specific repair facility for inspection. Minnesota Bill Proposes More Comprehensive Restrictions on Insurer Vendor Requirements Detroit Body Shop Raided in Suspected Theft and Fraud Ring, Numerous Cars Impounded See Michigan HB 5339, Page 9 See Minnesota HF 2690, Page 8 Michigan’s HB 5339 Seeks to Address Steering, Non-OEM Parts, and Parts Procurement See Detroit Shop Raided, Page 8 In a vote in the MD House Economic Matters committee on March 14, Maryland House Bill 574 (HB574), sponsored by Delegate John A. Ol- szewski, Jr., received an unfavorable report out of the committee. Intro- duced in January, HB574 and its com- panion, Senate Bill 487, sponsored by Senator John C. Astle, sought to pro- hibit insurance company personnel from specifying a specific vendor for parts or materials or part procurement process, and would have required OEM crash parts for a period of three years after the date of manufacture of a vehicle. In a 16 to 7 vote on March 14, the MD House Economic Matters com- mittee voted for an unfavorable report on HB574. In Maryland, committees report to the legislature on the bills that are assigned to them as favorable, with or without amendment, unfavor- able, or without recommendation. Having been voted out of committee, the bill now returns to the floor of its chamber of origin accompanied by a report of committee action for consid- eration. No action has yet been taken on SB487. The bills provided common ground for insurers and non-OEM parts suppliers in opposition. Several insurance and aftermarket parts groups testified in opposition to the bill. Repair facility operators that sup- port the legislation believe it protects consumers and preserves a repair fa- cilities ability to manage its opera- tions. The Washington Metropolitan Auto Body Association, WMABA, supports the proposed legislation be- lieving it necessary to protect the rights of repair facilities to operate their business independently and pro- tect consumers. The Automotive Body Parts As- sociation (ABPA) publicly denounced the legislation prohibiting insurers from requiring the use of alternative collision parts on vehicles less than Maryland Parts Bill Receives Unfavorable Vote in Cmte See Maryland Parts Bill, Page 16 Great Lakes Edition Illinois Indiana Michigan Ohio Wisconsin YEARS www.autobodynews.com 32 32 32 Presorted Standard US Postage PAID San Bernardino, CA Permit #2244 P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018 Change Service Requested VOL. 3 ISSUE 7 APRIL 2014
Transcript
Michigan House Bill 5339, intro-duced on February 19, seeks to amendthe Michigan Insurance Code of 1956to restrict insurance companies fromnumerous actions that irk collision re-pair facility operators. The broadlyworded bill has not yet been sched-uled for hearings.
The bill, as sponsored by Repre-sentatives Dale W. Zorn ,Greg Mac-Master, Anthony G. Forlini, PeterPettalia, Michael D. McCready,would ban insurance companies fromcompelling the use of specific colli-sion repair or claim centers, restrictnon-OEM parts usage, and prohibit aninsurer from specifying specific ven-dors for parts or other materials.
Specifically the bill would pro-hibit insurance personnel from the fol-lowing:
● Compel or coerce the insured orclaimant to choose a particular repairfacility, claim center, or other similarfacility regardless of whether the re-pair facility, claim center, or othersimilar facility is under the insurer'sdirect control.
This subdivision would not pro-hibit an insurer from requesting theinsured or claimant to take the a par-ticular repair facility, claim center, orother similar facility after informingthe insured or claimant that the in-sured or claimant is not under an ob-ligation to do so.● Must not fail to inform the insuredor claimant that the insured orclaimant has the freedom to use a re-pair facility of the insured's orclaimant's choosing, or fail to inform
A multi-jurisdictional task force con-ducted raids in Wayne and Oaklandcounties on the morning of Feb. 28 onsuspicion of a theft and fraud ring in-volving automobiles.
The investigation reportedlystemmed from a stolen automobile
that lead investigators to raid theSomerset Collision Shop on John R.near Eightmile, according to reportsin the Detroit News.
“The raids were conducted withauto theft teams from Highland Parkand Hazel Park in conjunction withthe Action Auto Theft squad and anumber of other assisting agencies,”said the Hamtramck Police Depart-ment in a press release.
“The raids were successful withmultiple arrests and the recovery ofstolen property. Somerset Collision inDetroit was the primar focus of the
A proposed bill in Minnesota, HouseFile 2690 (HF 2690), seeks to amendMinnesota Statutes 2012, section72B.092, subdivision 1 to includemore stringent prohibitions against in-surance company requirements placedupon repair facilities. Introduced byRepresentatives Joe Atkins, GregDavids, Joe Hoppe, Debra Hilstrom,Jim Davnie and Melissa Hortman onMonday, March 3, HF 2690 changestwo subsections of the existing law,including provisions the repair indus-try supported and were added into thelaw in 2007.
The first amends adds a prohibi-tion against insurance companies and
their representatives from requiringthat a vehicle be presented “… at aparticular motor vehicle repair shopdesignated by the insurer” in additionto the existing ban against drive-inclaim centers.
According to Judell Anderson,executive director of AASP-MN,whose organization supports the bill,this amend seeks to expand the exist-ing prohibition on requiring vehicleowners present their cars at a drive-inbecause insurers have adapted to theexisting prohibition by requiring ve-hicle owners to take their vehicles to aspecific repair facility for inspection.
Minnesota Bill Proposes More ComprehensiveRestrictions on Insurer Vendor Requirements
Detroit Body Shop Raided in Suspected Theftand Fraud Ring, Numerous Cars Impounded
See Michigan HB 5339, Page 9
See Minnesota HF 2690, Page 8
Michigan’s HB 5339 Seeks to Address Steering,Non-OEM Parts, and Parts Procurement
See Detroit Shop Raided, Page 8
In a vote in the MD House EconomicMatters committee on March 14,Maryland House Bill 574 (HB574),sponsored by Delegate John A. Ol-szewski, Jr., received an unfavorablereport out of the committee. Intro-duced in January, HB574 and its com-panion, Senate Bill 487, sponsored bySenator John C. Astle, sought to pro-hibit insurance company personnelfrom specifying a specific vendor forparts or materials or part procurementprocess, and would have requiredOEM crash parts for a period of threeyears after the date of manufacture ofa vehicle.
In a 16 to 7 vote on March 14, theMD House Economic Matters com-mittee voted for an unfavorable reporton HB574. In Maryland, committeesreport to the legislature on the billsthat are assigned to them as favorable,with or without amendment, unfavor-able, or without recommendation.Having been voted out of committee,the bill now returns to the floor of its
chamber of origin accompanied by areport of committee action for consid-eration.
No action has yet been taken onSB487. The bills provided commonground for insurers and non-OEMparts suppliers in opposition. Severalinsurance and aftermarket partsgroups testified in opposition to thebill. Repair facility operators that sup-port the legislation believe it protectsconsumers and preserves a repair fa-cilities ability to manage its opera-tions. The Washington MetropolitanAuto Body Association, WMABA,supports the proposed legislation be-lieving it necessary to protect therights of repair facilities to operatetheir business independently and pro-tect consumers.
The Automotive Body Parts As-sociation (ABPA) publicly denouncedthe legislation prohibiting insurersfrom requiring the use of alternativecollision parts on vehicles less than
Maryland Parts Bill Receives Unfavorable Vote in Cmte
See Maryland Parts Bill, Page 16
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Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesOnline Editor: Alicia BasteriContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess,David Brown, Rich Evans, Ed Attanasio, Chasidy SiskAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman, Bill Doyle, David Petro (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Louise TedescoArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia
Testimony on Maryland Parts Bill InvolvesRepresentatives from WMABA, PCI,LKQ, CAPA and Shops, Some Repairers ‘Cannot Afford to Refuse’ PartsTrader . . 29
UT Companies Gift Car to Single Momwith Autistic Son . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Utah Offers Grants to Body Shops toConvert to Waterborne, Not ManyApplicants So Far. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Andy’s Auto Body’s New Location in Wood River, IL, LooksLike a New Car DealershipAndy’s Auto Body’s newest locationis going to be like a “new car dealer-ship without new cars,” as managerChuck Tucker told writer NathanGrimm. The shop is located at 1533E. Edwardsville Road in Wood River,IL, will have all the trimmings of anew car dealership, including a fullauto body shop and a full mechanicaldepartment. The location will alsofeature between 30 and 50 used carsfor sale, according to owner MarkAnderson. Anderson said the13,000-square-foot building, just ablock from three existing new cardealerships with another on the way,was prime real estate for his business.“There’s a lot of dealerships rightthere, which will help us developcustomers,” Anderson said, noting,“Four dealerships, but none have abody shop.”
Customers of the body shop’sAlton Square Mall location will no-tice a similar, if not new and im-proved, showroom, Tucker said. Thewaiting area will still have the leatherchairs and 70-inch television thatcustomers are accustomed to, but theWood River location will also haveWiFi technology, a gourmet coffeebar, fireplace and a computer for
guests who may need to get workdone while they’re waiting.
Although it’s a new location,Tucker said the staff will be seasonedveterans in the automotive field,some with more than 30 years of ex-perience.
It’s an exciting new venture forthe body shop, but it’s also a nicenew start for the building, which hassat empty for years. Wood Rivermayor Fred Ufert said the buildinghasn’t been occupied for around eightyears, since Federico Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep moved to its new loca-tion. Ufert said the city is “glad to seethat building used.”
“It’s a good deal for them and agood deal for the city,” Ufert said.“We’re thrilled that they’re here.”
It will be a quick turnaround forthe building, too, as Tucker said theyhope to open the doors on March 14.The business will have a grand open-ing March 22 and McKay Auto Partswill have a barbecue at both theWood River and Alton Square Malllocations. Despite all the newness,Tucker said one thing won’t change—Andy’s Auto Body’s commitmentto running a “reputable, locallyowned business.”
Auto shops’ businesses in IL arebooming due to the large number ofcars damaged in storm-related acci-dents.
Zara’s Auto Body Shop in Spring-field, IL, said they have had an averageof 100 cars in their lot to fix since theregion started getting hit with winterstorms in January.
That’s good for business. Butthe shops are seeing a shortage ofnew OEM parts from manufacturers.
“If the new parts aren’t avail-able, not only are we in the sameposition lacking parts, but so isevery other body shop in the coun-try trying to find those same parts,so they aren’t even available a lotof times in the salvage yards any-more,” said Kim Woolard, a Cus-tomer Service Representative atZara’s.
Todd Liston says he’s fixingdouble the usual number of cars thisyear at Auto Body Specialists inRockford, IL. The surge in businessstarted last year but has acceleratedfrom the January storms. State FarmInsurance reported a 20% jump intheir car insurance claims from De-cember 2012 to the same time lastyear.
IL Shops Also See PartsDelays Due to Storm Repairs
Auto body shops in the Clevelandarea of Northeast Ohio are said tobe facing overwhelming demandsthis winter. A Touch of Class AutoBody Inc. off Brookpark Road has afive week wait list for new cus-tomers, and several other bodyshops around the Cleveland area areexperiencing the same overwhelm-ing demand.
“Any shop that’s doing thisright now… I know no body likes tohear this but any shop that’s doingany type of quality work we’re allso far behind it isn’t funny,” saidKevin Harrison, the owner of ATouch of Class. “It’s been so busywe actually put on a second shift ofemployees due to the fact that theoverload has been just five weeksout all the time.”
Harrison said another factor isthe demand for parts. “They’re hav-ing trouble getting parts fromColumbus to Cleveland, Pittsburghto Cleveland, so that delays us evenmore,” he explained.
“So sometimes you tell a cus-tomer a car will be done in two orthree days but the next thing youknow it’s four or five days becausewe’re still waiting for parts.”
N. Ohio Shops See PartsDelays Due to Demand
Carl Richard Roberts passed awayMarch 7 after an extended illness.Carl briefly owned a gas station be-fore going into auto body repair atLeeson’s Body Shop, in Youngstown,OH. He began working independ-ently in 1960, opening Robert’s Autobody at a family building on HeckRoad. He opened Peace Valley Autoin 1975 and later moved his workacross the street opening Robert’sAuto body in 1982 until his retire-ment in 2002. He is survived by threechildern and six grandchildren.
Carl Richard Roberts, FormerOH Shop Owner, Dies at 67
Accurate Auto Body CARSTAR hasbeen certified I-CAR Gold. Techni-cians are certified in structural andnon-structural repairs, refinishing, es-timating and shop operations.“We arecommitted to having the latest tech-nology, innovative repair processesand best trained technicians to pro-vide the best auto body repair avail-able,” said owner Joe Maslanka.“We applaud our team members fortheir hard work in earning this recog-nition. Accurate Auto Body has beenin business since 1975.
Chicago’s Accurate AutoBody Gets I-CAR Gold
A fire of undetermined origin, re-ported at 3:50 a.m. Feb. 23, de-stroyed Standiford’s Auto BodyShop at 9938 Feed Spring Hill RoadSE in Mill Township, OH. Capt.Rick Kinsey of the Uhrichsville FireDepartment said the 30- by 90-footmetal structure and its contents arebeing considered a total loss. In-cluded in the fire were a tractor anda 1934 Lincoln automobile. Kinseysaid the owner, Lawrence Standi-ford, who lives in a house about 20feet from the body shop, reportedthe fire. No one was in the bodyshop at the time and no one washurt, but siding on Standiford’shouse was damaged by the fire.
“The building was fully in-volved upon our arrival,” Kinseysaid. He added that the rear sectionof roof already had started to col-lapse when firefighters arrived.Thirty-four firefighters from sevenarea fire departments worked forabout four hours to extinguish theblaze. Kinsey said a lot of the metalconstruction had collapsed, and fire-fighters had to take metal apart toget to the fire. Kinsey said an inves-tigator from the Ohio Fire Marshal’sOffice will assist in an investigation.
Fire Destroys Body Shop inMill Township, OH
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 5
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Andy McDonald described a traditionof excellence associated with Waubon-see Community College’s auto repairprogram at 47 Waubonsee Dr, SugarGrove, IL, to the Kane County Chron-icle.
McDonald, assistant professor ofauto body repair at the school, talkedabout strong finishes at state and na-tional competitions and said high-cal-iber students find work soon afterschool. Since 2008, Waubonsee stu-dents have earned four 1st placeawards at SkillsUSA, seven 2nd placeawards, and two 3rd place awards instate competitions. Several studentshave advanced to the National Skill-sUSA completion in Kansas City, Mis-souri, earning 2nd, 4th and 8th placeawards.
A lot of that was accomplishedwith older training technology, butnow the school has been endowedwith a $50,000 ultimate collision edu-cation makeover grant.
Waubonsee was among fourschools nationally to receive theaward.
As a result, the school will add anew paint room, a new paint booth anda new frame rack, which was donatedby Spanesi Body Shop Technology ofNaperville.
A North Aurora-based SherwinWilliams store will donate paint for theinterior of the program’s building.
The equipment is worth tens ofthousands of dollars, and McDonald saidit will provide a boost, allowing studentsto work with state-of-the-art machinerythat they would encounter when they areemployed. “It’s more real world,” Mc-Donald said.
For instance, with the oldertechnology, there were 1980s-stylespray booths, and paint might haveto dry overnight. But with newertechnology, McDonald said, cars canbe “baked” for 30 minutes. He saidit also helps mistakes get correctedmore quickly.
He said the old equipment wasn’tbad, but “it was just old equipment.Now, it’s going to be better.”
Sue Murray, the assistant vicepresident of career and technical edu-cation at Waubonsee, said it was thesecond year the school had applied forthe grant. She said it’s an opportunityto put a wish list together. She said I-CAR seeks the donations.
She said the donations will im-prove an already-successful and pop-ular program. She said having sucha program is a positive for Waubon-see.
“It is always full,” she said, addingthat there are few such programs in thestate. She said because such programsneed equipment that can be pricey andrequire plenty of space, “schools don’tgo into it lightly.”
At Waubonsee, she said, it’s a bighelp to have a program experiencesuch accolades.
“It has a very good reputation,”she said.
Darrel DeGreves, the store man-ager at Sherwin Williams in North Au-rora, said his store’s donations will bebetween 20 and 40 gallons of “Moon-light White” paint for the interior ofthe building.
“It’s really needed,” he said. “Thebuilding was originally a horse barn,and they’ve converted it into an autocenter.” He said he is happy to help.He said he is familiar with the programand is impressed by those who are init. “The kids are good kids,” he said.
Waubonsee’s auto body repair pro-gram is approved by the Illinois Com-munity College Board and certified bythe National Automotive TechniciansEducation Foundation (NATEF). It istaught in accordance with National In-stitute for Automotive Service Excel-lence (ASE) standards and followsI-CAR guidelines.
Waubonsee’s auto body repairprogram gives students real hands-onexperience making both structural andnon-structural repairs on a variety ofvehicles. Students develop skills in theareas of frame repair and straightening,sheet metal repair, welding, plasticcomponent repair, refinishing, and bothsolvent-based and waterborne painting.Students repair an average of 78 carseach year. The auto body repair pro-gram is headquartered in the AutoBody Building, an 18,000 square footfacility on the south side of Waubon-see’s Sugar Grove Campus. This facil-ity houses three spray booths, two prepstations, a modern classroom, and acomputer lab.
Waubonsee’s facilities and pro-gram are compliant with the NationalEmission Standards for Hazardous AirPollutants and have been certified soby the Illinois Environment ProtectionAgency (EPA). Students earn per-sonal EPA certification which is a re-quirement for those working in thefield. Students have trained on a me-chanical frame measurement systemand two computerized systems. Otherequipment includes three frame ma-chines, a state-of-the-art waterbornepaint system, and six resistance andMIG welders.
$50,000 Grant Provides Major Boost to IL’s Waubonsee CC Auto Repair Program
The Iowa Collision Repair Associa-tion (ICRA) held the fourth annualMidwest Auto Body Show onMarch 20, 2014, in Altoona, IA. The2014 theme was “The Future IsNow” and was free to Midwest col-lision industry members.
Paul Massie, Ford MotorCompany's powertrain and collisionproduct marketing manager, offereda video presentation webinar aboutthe high-strength, military-gradealuminum alloy included in the2015 Ford F-150 pickup and con-ducted a Q&A session.
Iowa senator, Brad Zaun, andICRA lobbyist, Scott Weiser,brought the collision industry up todate on 2014 legislative activities.
Pete Tagliapietra of NuGenIT moderated an “Insurer Mandate–Parts Procurement” panel discus-sion.
A presentation titled, “Infor-mation Technology and the Futureof Collision Repair,” was given dur-ing lunch.
After lunch, free “Training inthe Round” education sessions wereheld in the trade show floor, whichfeatured more than 65 vendor dis-play booths.
Midwest Auto Body ShowFeatured F-150 Presentation
Spanesi Americas has donated aMultibench 12, valued at $25,000,to Waubonsee Community Collegeof Sugar Grove, IL, the CollisionRepair Education Foundation’s2013 Ultimate Collision EducationMakeover-winning college school.In addition to the company’s in-kindequipment donation to the school,Spanesi Americas Managing Direc-tor Timothy Morgan has also madea $1,000 personal donation to theorganization.
“The Spanesi family has al-ways been dedicated to education,as I am myself. And knowing thatover 80 percent of the repairs per-formed today in a collision facilitydon’t need the traditional ‘framerack,’ we felt it necessary to donateto the Education Foundation whatshops are making ‘real world’ re-pairs on now and in the future,” saidMorgan.
“Helping give students and aschool equipment that meets today'sand tomorrow’s needs through theFoundation’s Makeover is some-thing I am no stranger to, participat-ing through past companies Imanaged and continuing to supportpersonally.”
Spanesi Americas Donates a$25K Multibench 12 to WCC
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 7
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“We’ve heard from our members thatinsurance companies now tell peopleto go to a specific repair facility to gettheir vehicle inspected,” said Ander-son. “In many cases the insurer willactually have staff on site at the bodyshop one or two days a week, essen-tially running a drive in claim centerin the repair facility. This section is re-ally about combating insurance com-pany steering.”
The second amendment adds asection to the existing law that ex-pands upon the types of requirementsthat insurance companies may notplace upon repair facilities. The addedsection states that insurance companyrepresentatives shall not:● specify or require any motor vehi-cle repair shop to utilize specific ven-dors, distributors, manufacturers,suppliers, business platforms, or in-ternal processes in order to carry outvehicle repairs for an insured orclaimant.
This expands upon another sub-section that was added into the exist-ing law in 2007 that says insurance
company representative shall not:● specify the use of a particular ven-dor for the procurement of parts orother materials necessary for the sat-isfactory repair of the vehicle. Thisclause does not require the insurer topay more than a reasonable marketprice for parts of like kind and qualityin adjusting a claim
In October 2013, AASP-MNfiled a formal complaint with the Min-nesota Department of Commerce re-questing administrative and/or legalaction to prevent State Farm from re-quiring that collision repair shops thatparticipate in the insurer's direct repairprogram use the PartsTrader parts pro-curement system based upon the ex-isting section of the law.
According to Anderson, the ad-dition of the new section shouldhelp address numerous concernsAASP-MN members have with in-creasing insurance company re-quirements for specific vendors andbusiness processes beyond the ex-isting law that prohibits that activityfor parts and materials.
8 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Continued from Cover
Minnesota HF 2690
raids.”This isn’t the first time Somerset
has been raided by authorities, accord-ing to the Detroit News writer, TomGreenwood.
In March 2007 the office of theMichigan Attorney General announcedthe arrests of three individuals in con-nection with a Detroit based organizedcrime operation that allegedly stolemillions of dollars in insurance fraud.
The arrests came after authoritiesraided three Detroit area body shopsthat were all owned by the same fam-
ily. Among the body shops raided in2007 were the Somerset Auto BodyShop, 20461 John R in Detroit.
Other businesses owned by thefamily were: Bojax Auto Collision,Dynamic Collision, the Collision Con-nection, Ultimate Collision and For-eign and Domestic Collision.
According to the AG in 2007 thebusinesses were owned/operated/man-aged by an Orchard Lake man as wellas his mother and brother, both ofwhom lived in West Bloomfield.The defendents all received probation.
The AG office was unable to con-firm or deny that the same family stillowned the Somerset Collision Shop orwere involved in the recent raid.
Continued from Cover
Detroit Shop Raided
A car was on fire outside of Mark’sAuto Body on Alpine Road in theTown of Union, where it was beingstored for the winter. A section ofAlpine Rd. was closed off to trafficas a result.
Township Fire crews saythey’re not sure why the car startedon fire, but say it has a fuel leak, andkeeps reigniting. Foul play is notsuspected.
There is minimal damage to the
building, but the car has been deemeda total loss.
The Township Fire Departmentalong with the Eau Claire Sheriff’sDepartment responded. The call camein just before 8:45 PM Friday.
Mark’s Auto Body plans to beopen during normal business hours.
the insured or claimant of the insurer'sownership interest in, or agreementwith, a repair facility, claim center, orother similar facility● Communicate the need to delay thecommencement of repair to allow theinsurer to inspect the automobile formore than 1 full business day fromwhen the insured or claimant pre-sented the claim or automobile forloss adjustment or inspection.● Dispute coverage of the loss with-out performing a physical inspectionof the automobile.● Specify a non-original equipmentmanufacturer aftermarket crash part toreplace a structural component of anautomobile, including, but not limitedto, a bumper reinforcement, radiatoror core support, or any other part thataffects the structural integrity orairbag timing of the automobile.● Specify a non-original equipmentmanufacturer aftermarket crash part inthe repair of the damaged automobileif the part is not certified by a nationaltesting board to guarantee quality, fit,and crashability.
● Specify the use of a particular ven-dor to procure a part or other materialnecessary for the satisfactory repair ofthe automobile. This subdivision doesnot require an insurer to pay morethan a reasonable market price forparts.● Unilaterally or arbitrarily disregarda repair operation or cost identified byan estimating system that the insurerand repair facility have agreed to usein determining the cost of repair.● Place a limit on the maximum costof paint or other materials requiredto repair the damaged automobile.This subdivision does not require aninsurer to pay more than a reason-able market price for paint and ma-terials.● Disregard a repair facility's postedlabor rate without proof of the rangeof posted door rates available to thepublic in the market.
The bill also would also providean insured, claimant, repair facilityowner, potential repair facility owner,or person aggrieved by this act theability to bring a civil action againstan insurer for a violation of this sec-tion. A plaintiff who prevails could re-ceive Damages in the amount of 3times the actual loss or $500.00,
whichever is greater as well as attor-ney fees and costs.
Ray Fisher, executive director ofthe Automotive Service Association(ASA) of Michigan, said to a mediasource: “ASA Michigan did not au-thor or introduce this bill but we areglad that Representative Zorn and theother co-authors, have taken a keyrole in trying to resolve some of theissues that have plagued our collisionshops here in Michigan. I have passedthis on to our leadership for their re-view and we are looking forward toworking with Representative Zorn asthis moves forward. Obviously he istrying to cure many of the burdensthat our collision repairers have facedfor quite some time.”
Fisher added, “In conversation,we understand that currently no hear-ings have been scheduled as yet butASA Michigan will encourage theseissues to be discussed in the commit-tee as soon as possible.”
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 9
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Michigan HB 5339According to the Indiana 326 IAC 8-10 Regulation, auto body workers arerequired to complete annual trainingeach year between January 1 andMay 1, and within 90 days for newemployees. The Indiana AutobodyAssociation (IABA) offers IABAmembers two free, online trainingprograms that meet the requirements.
Non-IABA members can takethe training for $99.95 for the shopversion and $34.95 for the individualversion. Visit www.iaba.info to learnmore.
Indiana 8-10 Online TrainingClass Annual Deadline is May 1
Place an ad in ourAUTOBODY MARKETPLACEsection of Autobody News.
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10 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Ohio Repairer Three-C Body Shops Pursues Multiple Lawsuits Against State Farm for Short-PaysThree-C Body Shops is seeking re-covery of short-pays, fees and courtcosts from State Farm Insurance forthe insurer’s repeated underpaymentsfor services generally rendered andcharged to their customers when theirvehicles have been deemed to be totallosses.
Currently there are approximately89 active lawsuits between Three-C’sand State Farm which began in No-vember, 2012. Generally the suits stemfrom total-loss billings whereas Three-C Body Shop is seeking an estimated$296,807.93, of which State Farm hasagreed to pay only $31,565.03, leav-ing an unpaid and contested amount todate of $265,242.90. Similar lawsuitswill likely be filed.
Bob Juniper, second generationowner and President of the 58 year-old family owned company is nostranger to controversy or to takingon the challenges the collision indus-try presents. He was one of the firstshop owners in the nation to ‘put hismoney where his mouth is’ by hishard-charging and often controversiallocal television and radio consumerawareness ads and commercials re-garding Direct Repair Programs.
Bob Juniper said, “When a vehi-cle becomes a total loss we cease nor-
mal repair related activities andchange to another mode of operation,and as such, charges for such activi-ties are assessed that may or may notbe consistent with a repair.
Such charges may be processesincluding but not limited to clean-upfrom fluid leaks, relocating a disabledvehicle, storage, protection, research,documentation, administrative activi-ties, parts handling and others. We haveclosely studied the high cost of han-dling and processing total loss vehicles.
In the Columbus area insurersunderstand and pay for such charges,all but one that is. State Farm contin-ues to be ‘the odd-man-out’ in set-tling such claims fairly.
We must be paid for our effortsand liabilities associated with thehandling involved in total losses assuch activities are not "the cost ofdoing business”. We have decided tolet the courts decide who is right andwho is wrong. Our efforts to workthings out with State Farm directlywere unsuccessful. I believe the factswill show that the money is owed.We look forward to sharing the re-sults of these cases with the collisionrepair industry.”
Todd A. Fichtenberg, one ofThree-C’s attorneys of the law firm
Skinner & Associates, LLC ofColumbus, Ohio stated: “Ohio lacksthe statutory provisions that havemade those like Ray Gunder inFlorida so successful in the recoveryof fees and costs. Without that statu-tory framework, we are using Ohio’sexisting laws and good faith argu-ments for the extension of those lawsin an effort to recover Three-C’s feesand costs”.
Three-C Body shops was foundedin 1956 and currently has six (6) loca-tions including two satellite locations(inspection-estimating, drop-off anddelivery) which help feed their four (4)repair production locations in andaround the Columbus market area. Thecompany does $10 million-plus in an-nual sales.
More information on Three-CBody Shop may be found at theirwebsite at www.threecbodyshop.comor one can reach Bob Juniper at 614-403-1408.
GM’s Handling of Fatal Switch Recall Being InvestigatedThe U.S. Justice Department hasstarted a preliminary investigationinto how General Motors (GM) han-dled the recall of 1.6 million vehicleswith faulty ignition switches linked toat least 13 deaths.
The inquiry is focusing on whetherGM might have violated criminal orcivil laws by failing to notify regulatorsin a timely fashion about the switch fail-ures, said a person familiar with theprobe who asked not to be named andisn’t authorized to discuss investiga-tions.
Lawyers in the U.S. Attorney’soffice in the southern district of NewYork are leading the investigation.
The inquiry comes as House andSenate committees and the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administra-tion (NHTSA) are also investigatingGM’s actions leading up to the recall.
The initial recall on February 13,2014, covered 778,562 ChevroletCobalts and Pontiac G5s. It waswidened less than two weeks later tomore than 800,000 additional vehi-cles. Those include 2003–2007 SaturnIons, 2006–2007 Chevrolet HHRs,2006–2007 Pontiac Solstices, and2006–2007 Saturn Skys. Other mod-els affected are the 2005–2006 Pon-tiac Pursuit sold in Canada and the
2007 Opel GT sold in Europe.NHTSA, whose decision not to
investigate the switch failures yearsago is also under scrutiny by Con-gress, is focusing on what steps theautomaker took to investigate and rec-tify engineering concerns and con-sumer complaints dating back to atleast 2004.
GM has until April 3, 2014, toanswer questions posed by the regu-lator in a 27-page order issued in earlyMarch 2014.
GM has said that heavy key ringsor jarring can cause the ignitionswitches to slip out of position, cut-ting off power and deactivating airbags. The automaker has linked thedefect to at least 23 crashes, including13 deaths.
NHTSA could fine GM as muchas US$35 million, which would be themost ever by the U.S. government, ifit finds the automaker didn’t pursue arecall when it knew the cars were de-fective.
GM’s stock has slid 9.2 percentin 2014 through March 10, 2014, andthe recall is emerging as the firstmajor test for new CEO, Mary Barra,who was promoted two weeks beforethe company decided to implementthe recall on January 31, 2014.
AkzoNobel Automotive and Aero-space Coatings North America(A&AC) marked the third decade ofoffering business services in the NorthAmerican market through the SikkensAcoat selected program during theWinter North American PerformanceGroup meeting February 12–14,2014, at the Hilton Hawaiian Villagein Honolulu, HI.
The three-day program was de-signed to enhance the performance ofindividuals and businesses repre-sented through a mutually-beneficialexchange of information, success sto-ries, and consultation.
“As one of the world’s largestpaint and coatings companies, weknow our customers find value inthese engagements,” commentedBarry Rinehart, North American com-mercial services leader for AkzoNo-bel A&AC.
“As always, the numbers tell thestory. As we enter our third decade ofproviding cutting edge business de-velopment programs, many of theshops that were with us in the begin-ning remain with us today. We would-n’t have that kind of loyalty if therewasn’t something of value being de-livered and received.”
AkzoNobel Celebrates Mile-stone during Conference
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www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 11
Collision Experts, a New York-basedMSO with two locations, said it will nolonger be included in State Farm’s Se-lect Service Program because the colli-sion repair shop wants to have the rightto decide where to purchase its parts.State Farm’s customers can still chooseto have their vehicles repaired at Colli-sion Experts’ shops in Schenectady orClifton Park, but the national officemay no longer refer customers to Col-lision Experts.
Collision Experts CEO andowner Maryann Bowman said it wasmore important for Collision Expertsto have the freedom to buy parts fromtrusted vendors that the company hasbuilt relationships with over the yearsrather than be included in State Farm’sSelect Service Program, which re-quires collision repair shops to pur-chase parts from PartsTrader.
Richard Bowman said “Manyof my parts vendors signed up withPartsTrader so we couldn’t use them.”
“Sometimes you have to partways in a partnership,” said MaryannBowman. “In this case, I believe thatthe national changes don’t work for
my business model. We do not wantto sever the relationships we’ve builtwith our vendors over the years.”
State Farm has been rolling outthe changes incrementally and just re-cently implemented the mandate inNew York. Collision Experts is theonly local body shop to publicly optout of the program as a result of thechanges.
“Although we value the businessthat State Farm has referred to us overthe years, the new Select Service Pro-gram does not fit our business model,”said Bowman. “This is strictly a busi-ness decision based on changes to theSelect Service Program that would re-quire us to change parts vendors. Wehave great relationships with our partsvendors, and we feel that this helps usprovide an exceptional product. If atany time State Farm decides to changeor adjust their Select Service Program,we will be more than happy to revisitthis in the future.”
However, State Farm customersare still free to choose Collision Ex-perts for their body repairs.
“We still welcome all State Farm
customers and look forward to con-tinuing to work with local State Farmagents to provide the best repair forour mutual clients,” said Bowman.
Collision Experts’ parting withState Farm is amicable, Bowman said.However, some body shops have filedlawsuits or traveled across the coun-try to heighten awareness of StateFarm’s changes.
“We will continue to have a goodworking relationship with StateFarm,” said Bowman. “It’s disap-pointing that they may refer cus-tomers to different shops despite ourhigh rating because of a difference ofopinion. We are willing to work to-gether so we can give our customersthe best service at a time when theyneed it most.”
12 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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On Feb. 14, 13 Penta Career Centerstudents at 9301 Buck Rd, Perrys-burg, OH, earned top awards at theSkillsUSA Regional Competition inTiffin.
All award winners will advanceto the Ohio SkillsUSA Champi-onships in Columbus on April 15and 16, 2014. First Place (goldmedal) winners included: CharlesMcCaw (Swanton), Advanced Man-ufacturing Technologies, for the Pre-cision Machining contest and JaredCoker (Genoa), Welding, for theWelding contest.
Seven students earned secondplace and silver medals, these stu-dents included: Derrick Perry (Per-rysburg), Automotive CollisionRepair, for the Automotive Refinish-ing contest; Colby Roseman (Ot-sego), Automotive Collision Repair,for the Collision Repair contest.
SkillsUSA is a national organi-zation for high school students whoare training for careers in trade, in-dustrial, technical, and health-relatedoccupations. The organization pro-vides quality educational experi-ences such as leadership, teamwork,citizenship, and character develop-ment skills.
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 13
Disabled Math Teacher Found Body Shop to Make Wheelchair Accessible Golf CartsIn January 2000, Cory Trenkamp wasin a car accident in which his neck wasbroken. After months of recovery, reha-bilitation and confinement to a wheel-chair, he entered college at Wright StateUniversity, where he earned his bache-lor’s degree in math. He now teachesmath online through the West CentralOhio Learning Academy, according toAnne Coburn-Griffis, writing in thePutnam Centinel.
“My parents take my siblings andnephews for rides around our farm. Lastsummer, my 3-year-old nephew wantedme to ride with them,” said Trenkamp.“Since my wheelchair wouldn’t fit onit, I looked into some options.”
Trenkamp located a body shop inColumbus that makes wheelchair-acces-sible golf carts but the cost for such a ve-hicle was high. “My dad asked a buddyof his if he knew anyone that could con-vert ours. He said he’d like to try.”
That friend was Mark Ricker, theowner of Mark’s Auto Body just west ofOttoville on U.S. 224. He and a crewthat consisted of Vernon Etzler and TonyButler worked on the cart renovation inhis rural shop over the recent cold win-ter months. On Friday, Trenkamp andhis father Carl joined them all there fora final fitting. With the press of a button,Ricker lowered the passenger-side door
into a ramp. Trenkamp drove his wheel-chair up the ramp and locked the chair inplace, just as he does in his van, for aperfect fit. Under windy but blue skies,Trenkamp and Ricker took the finished
cart out for its inaugural spin. Accord-ing to Ricker, Etzler was the brains be-hind much of the cart retrofit.
“We cut it in two and put steel in tolengthen it out,” said Etzler. “There’s alot to doing it, stretching everything out— throttle cables, brake lines, puttinganother seat in.”
When asked how long it took tocomplete the project, Etzler belly-laughed. Ricker smiled and explained.
“It took a month and a half but the firstone always takes longer.”
Trenkamp himself located themechanism that locks his wheelchairsafely into the floor of the cart. Rickerexplained that the original front seat isnow located near the back of the cart. Itsits just behind the area where Trenkampcan now drive in and park his wheel-chair. A new seat was installed in front. Anew steel roof had to be made and in-stalled as well.
“Just for Cory,” said Ricker. “Justfor his safety.”
Cincinnati Reds decals personal-ize the red vehicle, which is street-legal with tail lights, turn signal and adistinctive horn. The cart will run upto 30 mph. It seats seven.
“We can load up with the grand-kids and go to Jennings Park,” saidTrenkamp’s dad.
Now his son Cory can join them, al-though he has other destinations in mind.“We don’t have sidewalks near ourhouse, which there should be. Now I canget up to town if I want to. Take it to thegame; maybe use it as a bull pen car. Youget tired of riding around in minivans.”
Ricker suggested mounting adrop-down television in the ceiling ofthe golf cart. “Maybe next year,”grinned Trenkamp.
Carl Trenkamp, left, watches from the door ofMark’s Auto Body, Ottoville, as his son Coryand shop owner Mark Ricker takes thewheelchair-accessible golf cart for its firstspin on Friday. (Putnam Sentinel/AnneCoburn-Griffis)
Elizabeth Melde walked in to Mar-tins Collision Repair with no ideashe would leave in a new set ofwheels. The body shop, and severalother local companies, teamed up tofix a car donated by Bear River Mu-tual Insurance that was legally to-taled, bring it back to tip-top shapeand donate it to a family in need.Melde and her two children fit thedescription perfectly. Her son, Jack-son, 5, is autistic and suffers from se-vere hemophilia, and needs to get tothe doctor quickly when in need. Hernew sedan will help alleviate thepressure, and danger of not havingher own vehicle. Melde’s old carwas running on a leaking head gas-ket for six months before it finallygave out.
“I’ve just been being optimistic,”Melde said. “Hoping I’ll get to mynext destination.” She had pulled overmore and more frequently to let thecar cool down after it overheated,making her kids later and later toschool. All those worries are gonenow. “I’m just in shock,” she said.“This is a miracle right now. I’venever heard of anything like this hap-pening to anyone.” It happens to be inher favorite color, turquoise.
UT Companies Gift Car toSingle Mom with Autistic Son
by Ed Attanasio
As the collision industry in Utah un-dergoes the transition to waterbornepaint and everything that comes alongwith it, many are embracing the newproducts, techniques and equipmentwhile others are not as enthusiastic.
The state deadline for waterborneis looming (July 1, 2014) and as wasthe case in other states with similarmandates, some shops arewaiting until the last mo-ment. But some valuablenews involving grants mightjust speed up the conversionprocess for body shops thatwere previously lagging.Any body shop that wantsthe state grant money willhave to match the grant dol-lar for dollar, so it’s more ofa hand up than a handout,according to the state’s Divi-sion of Air Quality and theUtah Clean Air Partnership(UCAIR), a statewide alliance thatwas created to make it easier for indi-viduals, businesses and communitiesto add equipment or processes thatwill improve the cleanliness andbreathability of Utah’s air.
The Utah’s Department of Work-force Services has earmarked $300,000now to help small businesses to im-prove the state’s air quality and an ad-ditional $1 million after June 30, 2014through the state Department of Work-force Services. The goal of the programis to help small businesses reduceemissions through improved equip-ment and the maximum amount is$15,000 and must be matched dollarfor dollar. In addition to auto bodyshops, dry cleaners, restaurants, printshops and other small businesses withfewer than 100 employees can apply.
The first collision repairer to takeadvantage of the grant money offeredby the state was ACS Precision Finishin Salt Lake City, a shop owned byCandido Gallegos and his son An-thony. Both father and son were a lit-tle reluctant to try something new afterhaving spent so much time masteringthe solvent-based paint techniques,but their paint jobber, Superior PaintSupply, made the transition easier forthem, while the grant money alsomade the decision a little more palat-able, Anthony Gallegos said.
“We’re getting $15,000 to changeover, and for us it was a no-brainer,
because all of the shops in Utah aregoing to have to switch to waterborneanyway,” Gallegos said. “We lookedat Superior Paint Supply’s water-based paint system (De Beer’s Water-base 90 by Valspar) because we heardvery good things about it. So, we ap-plied for the grant and then we werepretty shocked when the state con-tacted us and told us we were the firstshop to apply.
“I read an article about the grantsin the paper and told my son,” Can-dido Gallegos said. “We figured let’sget some financial help if it’s being of-fered. From what we’re hearing, bodyshops aren’t applying for these funds,which I find surprising. The money isright there on the table. They want togive us money! How often does thathappen?”
The local media flocked to ACSPrecision recently to cover the shop’sconversion to waterborne while lettingsmall businesses know that the grantmoney is available for them, as long asthey’re willing to improve their airquality. “We were surprised when thelocal newspapers and news stationscalled us and wanted to interview usabout the grant money,” Gallegos said.“It’s a big deal for Utah and a big dealfor this industry and an eye opener foreverybody.”
According to the Division of AirQuality, if every paint tech in the stateused waterborne instead of solvent,daily emissions would drop by 572pounds per year. In fact, the industrywill be required to make this change byJune 1, 2014 to comply with new airquality regulations. The big challengefor small businesses is, of course, thecost to make the upgrades.
Gwen Springmeyer is the Assis-tant Executive Director for UCAIRwhich is administering the state grants.She wants body shop owners to know
that the grant application process iseasier than they might imagine andthat her organization is willing to helpshops with the application process.
“The grant application is easy forseveral reasons,” Springmeyer ex-plained. “There is no competition forthe grant, so if you qualify and there isstill money in the budget, you’ll get it.Secondly, we don’t ask for your finan-cials. The application is seven pagesand we’re more than willing to helpyou with it. The money is there, so wewant to encourage body shops andother small businesses to apply and getthese dollar for dollar grants. Andmaybe most importantly, the deadlineis June 30, 2014, but then we’re alsogoing to make another $1 million avail-able as part of the same program. So,essentially, the state is offering $1.3million in air quality matching grants.”
Jeff Brasier is a paint trainer forSuperior Paint Supply in Salt LakeCity. He has been working literallynon-stop for the last five months asshops rush into the waterborne gamebefore the deadline of July 1. “I’ve gotshops lining up and it’s been crazy,”Brasier said. “I’m training 2-3 shops
all the time, back to back and oncewe’ve got them covered, here come 3-4 more.”
While many shops in his regionare embracing the new paint andquickly learning how to apply it cor-rectly, some smaller shops are draggingtheir feet, Brasier explained. “If some-one is onboard, I can train them in threedays without issue. But, if they’re re-luctant for whatever reason, it can takemonths, because they have to unlearnso many old habits. The waterbornepaint goes on wetter and it stays wetlonger and you have to use it in a cleanenvironment without dust and dirt allaround. It’s not rocket science, so if agood painter is motivated, he or she canbe adept at using it rather quickly.”
For more information about get-ting a clean air grant, you can findmore information and the grant appli-cation at www.ucair.org.
14 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Utah Offers Grants to Body Shops to Convert to Waterborne, Not Many Applicants So Far
Waterborne Paint Trainer Jeff Brasier (right) from Supe-rior Paint Supply demonstrates waterborne applicationtechniques for Corey Kaggie, a painter at ACS PrecisionFinish in Salt Lake City Follow us on Twitter:
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www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 15
five years old.“Senate Bill 487 will severely
limit the choices that the consumerhas in getting their vehicle repaired,”said ABPA Executive Director Ed-ward Salamy. “These types of anti-consumer bills not only eliminatecompetition, a foundation of theAmerican free enterprise system, theyalso increase the potential for higherinsurance costs.”
ABPA claims that a representa-tive of the Washington MetropolitanAuto Body Association (WMABA)made a series of false claims, includ-ing:
● OE radiators have a better war-ranty than alternative supplier radia-tors.
● Consumers will be required topay additional rental car fees causedby delays due to alternative parts.
“The ABPA is not only monitor-ing the legislation in Maryland, but ithas also come to our attention there issimilar anti-consumer legislationbeing introduced in Rhode Island andMichigan,” said Salamy.
“Having your vehicle involved ina collision is already a very stressfulexperience for the consumer. Havinga repair association such as WMABAusing scare tactics to achieve theirown agenda is not in the best interestof the consumer.”
Maryland Senate Bill 487 wouldprohibit “…a specified adjuster, ap-praiser, insurance producer, or em-
ployee of an insurer from requiring amotor vehicle repair facility to use aspecific vendor or process for the pro-curement of parts or other materialsnecessary for the repair of a motor ve-hicle; requiring an insurer that issuesor delivers in the State a policy of motorvehicle liability insurance that providescoverage for the repair of physicaldamage to the insured motor vehicle toauthorize specified repairs to be madeusing genuine crash parts; etc.”
The Property Casualty InsurersAssociation of America (PCI) testified
in opposition to the legislation.Oyango Snell, State Government Re-lations Counsel said, “PCI and ourmembers encourage lawmakers toclosely examine the possible negativeramifications for consumers that couldresult if Senate Bill 487 passes. Thislegislation not only imposes severe re-strictions on how insurers manage theauto body repair process and deliver a
quality repair experience, but it alsocould hurt consumers by increasingthe costs associated with getting vehi-cles repaired and increasing the costof insurance premiums. CurrentlyMaryland’s average collision pre-mium ranks 13th highest in the nationand that ranking could rise by forcingmore repairs to always be made withoriginal equipment parts, which canbe as much as 60 percent more thanaftermarket parts.”
Snell continued, “We believelawmakers will see that this bill limits
consumer choice and stands in theway of insurers providing high qual-ity repairs at reasonable costs for theirconstituents. We are urging lawmak-ers to table this legislation and con-tinue to fight against higher costs forconsumers.”
The Coalition for Auto RepairEquality (CARE) that represents com-panies in the automotive aftermarketincluding NAPA, AutoZone, AdvanceAuto Parts, O’Reilly Auto Parts andBridgestone-Firestone Retail Opera-tions, raised concerns about the pro-posed legislation’s impact uponlow-income consumers and that it stig-matizes non-OEM parts by requiringthe consumer to consent to their use.
“If passed, House Bill 574 andSenate Bill 487 would require mo-torists who need vehicle replacementparts to specifically sign for the use ofaftermarket parts in their vehicles be-fore accepting them. This is unfair be-cause these same vehicle owners do nothave to sign for the more expensive carcompany-labeled parts. In addition,this plants a seed of doubt in a con-sumer’s mind that the aftermarket partsare somehow of inferior quality, fright-ening them into spending extra moneythat they may not have,” said the exec-
16 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Maryland Parts Bill
“[This legislation] imposes severe restrictions onhow insurers manage the auto repair process anddeliver a quality repair experience...”
—Oyango Snell, PCI Govt. Relations Counsel
utive director of CARE.Addressing the issue of the three
year requirement for OEM parts, ananalysis prepared on the bills by theMaryland Department of Legislativeservices noted that the Maryland Au-tomobile Insurance Fund (MAIF), anindependent state agency created bythe Maryland State Legislature in 1972to provide insurance to residents whocould not secure it on the private mar-ket, already has a policy to pay forOEM parts for two years after the dateof manufacture. While adding a year tothe current policy would raise costs,the analysis states, “However, despitethe prevalence of motor vehicle acci-dents and collisions in society at large,any expenditure increase due to cover-ing an additional year is likely to beminimal.”
The MAIF reported that in 2013it wrote a total of 460 estimates on2011 model vehicles (three year oldvehicles that would be covered by theexpanded OEM-only waiting period)and that the average difference be-tween estimates using OEM parts ver-sus aftermarket parts was $117.32, fora total estimated increased cost of$53,967. If that cost was passed on toconsumers in premium, the two per-
cent tax on insurance premiums paidto the state would result in $1079 taxcollected.
The Washington MetropolitanAuto Body Association, (WMABA)supported the proposed legislationbelieving it necessary to protect therights of repair facilities to operatetheir business independently and pro-tect consumers.
WMABA also believes that theimpact on costs from the OEM-partsonly requirement would be minimaland that there is no correlation be-tween this type of provision and thecost of insurance. According toWMABA, while Rhode Island with a30-month prohibition, and West Vir-ginia, with a 3-year prohibition, havehistorically higher premiums thanMaryland, Indiana, with a 5-yr prohi-bition, and Minnesota with a com-plete aftermarket prohibition havelower premiums than Maryland.
WMABA also drew attention tothe fact that consumer choice is pre-served in the legislation because con-sumers would still have the ability toconsent to the use of aftermarketparts if they choose to do so.
For more detailed discussion ofthe testimony see p. 29.
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 17
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Ford Recommends LORD Fusor in F-150 RepairsLORD Fusor 108B, a metal bondingadhesive designed for body shop isnow recommended by Ford MotorCompany for the repair of their new2015 Ford F-150 aluminum cab.
Unveiled at the 2014 NorthAmerican International Auto Show inDetroit, Mich., Jan. 13, Ford MotorCompany approved LORD Fusor108B metal bonding adhesive for re-pairs on the 2015 F-150 military-gradealuminum alloy cab by their dealersand independent body shops. This newdesign will require adhesive in nearlyall joints in the cab. Ford will be listingspecific repair procedures in the colli-sion repair manual along with instruc-tions that will be provided with serviceparts.
“Over the years, Fusor has ledthe industry with innovative metalbonding applications such as quarterpanel bonding, rivet bonding on lam-inate steel and weld bonding withSTRSW by working with the OEMrepair teams before the vehicleslaunch. LORD Fusor has been a spon-sor of the Ford Paint and Body Tech-nology Center and continues to workwith them to develop important vehi-cle repair procedures,” says JulieMiller, market manager at LORDCorporation. “We recommend follow-
ing the OEM procedure when usingFusor 108B for vehicle specific pro-cedures. LORD Fusor 108B metalbonding adhesive is one of three ap-proved repair adhesives by FordMotor Company, including Motor-craft TA-1B.”
Gerry Bonanni at Ford MotorCompany’s Paint and Body Technol-ogy Center stated that the developedprocedures are easy to follow and canbe performed by any body shop thatperforms collision repairs on F-150trucks today.
“The approved adhesives arewidely available and training will beavailable by I-CAR to assist techni-cians with this mainstream repairprocess,” says Bonnani.
Ford will present information onthe 2015 F-150 and aluminum repairat the AASP/NJ Northeast ShowMarch 21-23 in Secaucus, N.J. Addi-tional details will be presented at theCollision Industry Conference (CIC)April 9-10 in Portland, Ore., NACECARS 2014 July 31-Aug. 2 in De-troit, Mich., and at the SEMA ShowNov. 4-7 in Las Vegas, Nev.
LORD Fusor 108B is currentlyavailable to all dealers and body shops.For more information please visitLORD.com, or call at 1-877-275-5673.
18 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
On February 21-22, the WisconsinAuto Collision Technicians Associa-tion (WACTAL) held their 2014 Con-ference and Trade Show at theWilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells,WI.
The Conference began at 8AM onFriday morning with a slew of educa-tional seminars. Greg Horn, VP of In-dustry Relations for MitchellInternational, began with IndustryTrends in which he educated attendeeson the collision repair industry’s cur-rent state by exploring claim frequencytrends and Key Performance Indica-tors (KPIs). He also touched on ad-vancing vehicular technology in termsof changes in vehicle construction and
the increase in cars being manufac-tured with accident avoidance systems.Mark Mueller of PPG Refinish fol-lowed with The New Collision RepairAdministrative Paradigm. This semi-nar sought to teach participants a bet-ter way to deal with the pressuresrelated to an increase in administrativeresponsibilities for managing claims.
After lunch, Tony Passwater,President of AEII, presented HowHave We Gotten Where We Are Now?during which he examined the strate-gies used to force the collision repairindustry into its current state, as wellas how to identify and counteract thesepractices to improve the industry’s fu-ture.
WACTAL members met for abrief meeting before opening the tradeshow on Friday night from 5-8PM.This was followed by the HospitalitySocial which provided attendees andexhibitors a chance to relax and net-work while enjoying the hors d’oeu-vres sponsored by BASF, Body ShopSupply Co., Broadway AutomotiveGroup, Finishmaster, Motors Service& Supply, PPG, and West Bend Mu-tual Insurance.
In Salvage Vehicle Inspection –What You Need to Know on Saturdaymorning, Trooper Quinn Sieber, Sal-vage Vehicle Inspector for the WIState Patrol, reinforced the illegality ofremoving VIN tags.
With the conclusion of the infor-mational seminars, the trade show re-opened on Saturday from 10AM until2PM, an exciting expansion from pre-vious years when the Trade Show wasonly open one day.
All aspects of the event werewell-received by participants, thoughstormy weather on Thursday and Fri-day impacted attendance slightly.
with David BrownShop Showcase
with Attorney Martin ZuradaBody Shop Law
with Domenico Nigro
The Community-Focused Body Shop
with Janet CheneyShop Showcase
with Frank SheroskyIndustry Business Beat
with Chasidy Rae SiskAssociations Assembling
with Chasidy Rae SiskWestern Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskOld School Know How
with Chasidy Rae SiskAssociations Assembling
with Chasidy Rae SiskSoutheast News
with Chasidy Rae SiskGreat Lakes Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskNational Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskSouthwest Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskSoutheast Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast Associations
with John YoswickHistorical Snapshot
with Ed AttanasioShop Showcase
with Ed AttanasioMedia Matters
with Ed AttanasioOld School Know How
with Ed AttanasioAdvertising Advantages
with Ed AttanasioAssociations Assembling
Association Meetingswith Thomas Franklin
Western Associationswith Thomas Franklin
Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,who writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family ofNASCAR fans. She can be contacted at [email protected].
WACTAL Hosts 2014 Conference and Trade Show
In 2013, the collision industrynearly doubled the 2012 amount ofsupport it provided to high schooland college collision school pro-grams through the Collision RepairEducation Foundation with nearlyUS$9.4 million in product andmonetary donations.
Ninety percent of this supportwas in-kind donations, and the col-lision industry surpassed the US$20million mark in total giving since2008. Also, working towards beingas lean of a charitable organizationas possible with a full-time staff offour, 90 cents of every dollar do-nated went towards supporting theschool programs, instructors, andstudents in 2013.
“The incredible growth in sup-port that the Collision Repair Edu-cation Foundation has been able toprovide since 2008 is a direct resultof the industry’s generosity, and tonearly double the amount donatedin 2013 compared to 2012 showshow much our supporters believe inthe technical education of indus-try’s future professionals,” saidClark Plucinski, Collision RepairEducation Foundation executive di-rector.
Record $9.4M Donated toCollision School Programs
The Collision Repair EducationFoundation and AkzoNobel Auto-motive and Aerospace Coatings areproud to announce the winners of thenew Sustainability Challenge Grant:
► Applied Technology Center(Rock Hill, SC)►Cerritos College(Norwalk, CA)►Gaithersburg High School(Gaithersburg, MD)►Manhattan Area Tech College(Manhattan, KS)►Northern Maine CommunityCollege (Presque Isle, ME)
Winners were selected based on theirsubmitted proposals for applyingcontinuous improvement and sus-tainability principles that improvethe school body shop process or howthe shop interacts and impacts thecommunity. Each winner will re-ceive funding to introduce their pro-posed idea into their school andreport on the success of their project.
The program also provided asustainability video series and othertools that served as a way to educatecollision students about sustainabil-ity, its principles, and how to im-prove and make a positive impact onthe environment.
Sustainability ChallengeGrant Winners Announced
PPG Automotive Refinish unveiledits 2014 distributor training sched-ule. Consisting of more than 30classes across 12 critical businessareas, the training is for owners,managers, sales staff, and other keypersonnel involved in the operationof a PPG distributor business.
Classes cover general opera-tions, finance, business developmentand management, conflict resolu-tion, selling skills, commercial busi-ness development, and more.
“We’re always enhancing ourdistributor training offerings, mak-ing sure they’re relevant and re-warding,” said Bob Wenzinger, PPGdistributor programs director. “Wesee PPG distributors at all levelslearning and improving from ourcourses.”
Training will be held fromMarch to December in PPG businessdevelopment centers and conferencefacilities throughout the U.S. andCanada. Courses are led by PPGleaders and prominent consultants inthe automotive refinish industry.
View the complete 2014 train-ing schedule at http://us.ppgrefin-ish.com/PPG-Refinish/Training/Training-Courses.
PPG Announces DistributorTraining Schedule
Car-O-Liner® has expanded theirequipment offering included in the2015 F-150 Collision Repair Pro-gram. New equipment includesthree new welders, frame alignmentsolutions, and a mobile aluminumworkstation.
“This equipment will greatlyenhance the technician’s potential tohave the exact tools they need forhigh quality, quick, and accurate re-pairs. With this expanded productoffering, Car-O-Liner is excited toprovide the total repair solution,giving technicians the right equip-ment to complete each repair orderefficiently,” said Peter Richardson,key accounts manager for Car-O-Liner.
Visit www.car-o-liner.com formore information.
Car-O-Liner Offers NewFord 2015 F-150 Equipment
The Specialty EquipmentManufacturers Association(SEMA) Data Co-op (SDC)is now helping more than600 automotive specialty
equipment Suppliers and re-sellers around the worldstandardize and manage theirparts data to improve effi-ciency and increase sales, a
300 percent increase fromAugust 2013. The SDC hasseen unprecedented growthfollowing a very strong for-mal launch of its Product In-
formation Management Sys-tem (PIMS) in May 2013and the announcement offree product data exports toSEMA members.
For more collisioninfo, go to:collision.honda.comairbagaware.honda.comcrashrepairinfo.com
Driver claims mobile dent repairbusinesses did $3,700 in damage
When cameras from the NBC 5 Investi-gates Consumer Unit started rolling,two so-called repairmen went running,according to Deanna Dewberry, of theNBC 5 Investigates Consumer Unit.
A North Texas student told thenews team that after his bad experi-ences with two different mobile dentrepair businesses he wanted to warnothers to steer clear of drive-up, fix-itauto repairmen whose promises andprices seem too good to be true.
Joshua Bissonette is a cash-strapped college student trying to fin-ish up school after serving in the U.S.Army. With his car in need of repair,Bissonette turned to Craigslist andfound an ad for “mobile auto body”repair men who fix dents and damageat a person’s “work or home” for “lessthan a traditional” body shop. He de-cided to give them a try.
“They got to work right away,”said Bissonette. “They started pryingthe dent out. It seemed like they knewwhat they were doing.” But he soonlearned otherwise.
“The dents look gone, but it does-n’t look good,” he said. Bissonette saidthey didn’t finish the job either.
“They said due to the coldweather they couldn’t apply paint,”Bissonette said. They left with the re-pairs incomplete and his wallet $250lighter.
“I just wanted them to go away,so I paid them their money,” he said.
But with the work unfinished,Bissonette went back to Craigslistagain where he found another adfor a different mobile auto body re-pair business. This ad had picturesand promises. So he called and setup a meeting in an Arlington park-ing lot.
“They said it was going to looklike new,” Bissonette said. He paidthem $250 cash for the job.
Bissonette said these guys cov-ered their shoddy work with greengoop saying it would protect the paint.When he got home and washed it offhe was horrified. He saw a scratchedsandpaper surface and spray paintspattered on his windshield, mirror,and tire.
“It looks horrible,” he explained.Bissonette then called NBC 5 In-
vestigates Consumer Unit and theycalled the numbers from both ads toset up meetings. We showed up at thefirst location in our station ChevroletTahoe, which had a dent. Their cam-eras were in tow.
We told a guy, who said his namewas Tony, that some of his past cus-tomers were unhappy with his work.
“No comment at this point. I haveto get in touch with my lawyer,” hesaid. When Investigates pressed fur-ther he got in his car and sped away.Investigates then called the number inthe second ad and set up a time andplace to meet.
When they identified themselves,the repairman immediately coveredhis face, never got out of his car andleft faster than the first guy.
“The Worst I’ve Ever Seen”Brian Johnson, a certified collisionrepairman for Service King in Irving,evaluated Bissonette’s car.
“It is the worst I’ve ever seen forsomeone to call that a finished prod-uct,” he said. “It looks like they usedspray paint out of a can.”
Johnson said he sees fly-by-nightauto dent repairmen come out of thewoodwork in the DFW area, espe-cially after weather events like storms,hail and ice.
“Just since the beginning of this
year, I have seen three cars personallywith the same situation,” said Johnson.Johnson said the looks of Bissonette’scar are the least of his worries.
“There is probably no structuralintegrity left in that panel,” Johnsonsaid. In his opinion, because of howthe work was done, the panel mightnot perform as it should in a wreck,potentially putting Bissonette’s safetyat risk. He recommended replacingthat panel. In total, the repairs wouldnow cost $3,700.
Texas has no state agency thatregulates collision repair, so it’s upconsumers to do their homework.
The News Team reported thatconsumers should ask repairers if theyhave certification from an organiza-tion like I-CAR, or ASE, the NationalInstitute for Automotive Service Ex-cellence. They should also ask aboutwarranties. If a repairman doesn’toffer one, experts suggest findingsomeone else.
“You want to make sure the com-pany is standing behind their work,”said Steve Sikes, Service King’s as-sociate vice president of business de-velopment.
Experts also said any paint workneeds to be done in a controlled envi-ronment, so if someone offers to paintoutside, that’s likely a red flag too.
In the end, Bissonette’s plightstruck a chord with Richardson-basedService King.
“It’s certainly unfortunate whatyou’ve had to deal with, with the sub-par repairs,” Sikes said to Bissonette.
In a gesture of goodwill, thecompany, a supporter of U.S. service-men and servicewomen, said it wouldfix his car for free, leaving Bissonetteastounded and smiling from ear toear.
The Enterprise Rent-A-Car loca-tion attached to this particular ServiceKing location said it would also pickup the tab for his rental car while therepairs are done.
Bisonette said he learned his les-son and he’ll be less trusting next timeand that he hopes his story helps oth-ers avoid being taken by rogue mobiledent repair businesses.
“I decided to call NBC 5 Investi-gates because I don’t want this to hap-pen, you know, to anybody else,” hesaid.
22 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
North Texas Student Says Two Mobile Dent Repair Businesses Took Him for a Ride
Ford Motor Co. is being sued overclaims that it infringed a patent on tech-nology for an automatic turn signal.
Ford’s three-blink lane changetechnology infringes a 2008 patentheld by Richard Ponziani, a formerautomotive design engineer for com-panies including General Motors andValeo SA, according to a complaintmade public today in federal court inWilmington, DE.
Ford pitched the turn signal asthe solution to one of the top 10 driv-
ing pet peeves when it announced thetechnology in 2009.
The turn indicator is designed toblink three times and automaticallyshut off.
The technology is used in Ford’sF Series truck, Taurus, Edge, and Fu-sion models, according to the com-plaint, which seeks unspecifieddamages.
Ford spokeswoman, KristinaAdamski, declined to comment on thecomplaint.
Ford Sued Over Patented Turn Signal Technology
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
Despite the harsh and unusual weatherin the southeast portion of the country,the Automotive Aftermarket Associa-tion Southeast (AAAS) has been hardat work in their efforts to strengthenthe industry—they aren’t going to leta little snow and ice slow them down!Currently, their main focus is on twoupcoming lobbying events, but theyare also preparing to award scholar-ships as their scholarship deadlinedraws near and planning for their an-nual conference in June.
AAAS held their second AnnualCapitol Day at the GA State Capitol inAtlanta on Wednesday, February 19th.GA members of AAAS were invitedto join the association for a full day oflegislative sessions and visits withelected officials as AAAS seeks topersonally advocate for the industry’spriorities.
On March 18th and 19th, AAASmembers from the Sunshine State areencouraged to attend their AnnualCapitol Day event in Tallahassee, FL,again attending legislative sessionsand visiting with legislators as they at-
tempt to strengthen the industry. Re-garding these two events, President ofAAAS Randal Ward explains, “mem-bers join us for a day or two of walk-ing the halls of the legislature andvisiting representatives.” Ward be-lieves this is a proactive networkingopportunity that allows them to gainadvocates for future legislative con-cerns they may encounter.
AAAS is also preparing to awardscholarships in the near future. Thedeadline for the AAAS EducationalFoundation Scholarship is March 31,2014. The AAASEF Scholarship Fundwas established in 2005 to encourageand financially support individualswishing to continue their education ina technical training school or college.Applicants must be sponsored by anAAAS member to be eligible, but alleligible candidates will be considered,regardless of their chosen field ofstudy. Applications can be submittedat:www.automotivescholarships.com/AAAS.
Additionally, AAAS is makingarrangements for their upcoming An-nual Conference and Trade Show, to
be held at the Baytowne Warf ofSandestin on June 5-8, 2014. They areexcited to present keynote speakerJohn Washbish, President and CEO ofthe Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance,Inc.
With over four decades of expe-rience in the automotive industry,Washbash’s leadership skills havebeen recognized with numerousawards, including the AutomotiveWarehouse Distributors AssociationLeader of the Year Award and North-wood’s Automotive Aftermarket Man-agement Education Award. AAASChairman Mike Morgan feels “veryfortunate to have John joining us forour annual conference. We look for-ward to his visit and him sharing hisviews and insight on the industry andthe economy… We are honored towelcome an impressive list of guestspeakers who will deliver very timelyeducational and informative presenta-tions on some of the most importanttopics facing the aftermarket industrytoday.”
On Saturday morning, the con-ference will begin with Washbish dis-cussing changes and trends that
impact aftermarket businesses. Next,Scott Luckett, Chief Information Of-ficer of the Automotive AftermarketIndustry Association (AAIA) willpresent “The Connected Car: The Im-pact of Vehicles Telematics in theAuto Care Industry,” and this will befollowed by a presentation on “Af-termarket Access to OEM VehicleRepair Information,” given by SkipPotter, Executive Director of the Na-tional Automotive Service TaskForce (NASTF). The program willconclude with Wayne Bowling, Sen-ior Vice President of Employee Ben-efits at Willis Group, who willdiscuss Obamacare’s effects on at-tendees, their businesses and theiremployees.
In addition to the educational as-pect of the event, AAAS promises net-working opportunities and plenty offun with a full schedule that includesa deep fishing charter, a reception atBaytowne Marina, a Saturday nightdinner cruise on the Solaris, and theBell/Hines Memorial ScholarshipFundraiser Golf Tournament. AAASwill continue providing updates onthis event at www.aaas.us.
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 23
24 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
Looking for tips, tools and resourcesto help your business, defend your po-sitions or do your part for the indus-try? Here’s a collection of links tosites, documents and information youmay find interesting and useful.
— More and more state legisla-tures are considering bills that wouldplace new limits on insurer mandates,such as State Farm’s mandated use ofPartsTrader. Meanwhile the Automo-tive Service Association (ASA) is ex-pected to issue a preliminary reportsoon on the response it has receivedfrom state attorneys general and insur-ance regulations regarding the legalityof State Farm’s PartsTrader mandate.
“ASA has had discussions with anumber of these states that have sub-mitted inquiries for additional sup-porting information,” the associationstates in its press release. “It’s impor-tant to note that subsequent to our an-nouncement relative to sending lettersto each state, State Farm sent states aletter arguing the legitimacy of suchmandates.”
Want to see what State Farm istelling some state regulators? Clickhere (http://tinyurl.com/StateFarm-Letter) to see one such letter.
“Our goal was to resolve this issuewithout government oversight, inter-ference or legislation,” Dan Risley, ex-ecutive director of ASA, said. “Assuch, we have persisted in our effortsto work with State Farm to change thecurrent PartsTrader mandate policy.This has included multiple meetingsand other discussions that continuedthroughout 2013. ASA believes thatthere are potential solutions (if) StateFarm is willing to work toward an am-icable resolution that benefits StateFarm, collision repairers and the con-sumer.”
— Looking for another way to re-cruit new technicians? Shops shouldnote that use of the TopTechFinder.com(www.toptechfinder.com) recruitingsite is still free for both shops and thoselooking for work.
Since launching in early 2012,TopTechFinder.com has connected withover 1,350 candidates and 350 repair-ers in the collision repair business. Ithas since expanded to help mechanicalrepair shops find qualified employees.
“It’s hard to find qualified techni-cians on general job boards,” Jeff Her-man, CEO of TopTech Finder, said.“They aren’t designed for the mechan-ical repair industry and don’t drawmany technicians. In contrast, TopTechFinder allows candidates to show offindustry-specific qualifications, mak-ing it a natural place for techs to findjobs.”
TopTech Finder is free for job-seekers and will remain free for em-ployers for a limited time.
— It’s a common belief in the in-dustry that in markets with lowerlabor rates, estimates have more lineitems to make the bottom line aboutthe same as it would be in a marketwith a higher labor rate. Some analy-sis from Mitchell International indi-cates that may not be the case.
Download Mitchell’s most re-cent “Industry Trends Report,”(http://tinyurl.com/cpbt9ks) to readhow the company analyzed estimatesin states with the highest labor ratesto compare them to those with thelowest labor rates. The states with thelowest average body labor rates –Massachusetts ($37.07), Tennessee($41.14), Florida ($41.29), Georgia($42.04) and Maryland ($42.12) – didnot tend to have more repair (versusreplace) operations, more refinishhours or more overall estimate linesthan the states with the highest aver-age body labor rates – Montana($63.05), Alaska ($61.35), California($60.46), North Dakota (59.52) andWyoming ($57.45).
“Only 1.2 hours of total laborseparates the average of the bottomfive labor rate states from the top fivelabor rate states,” the report found, forexample.
— Which states are doing themost to improve highway safety? The11th annual report card from Advo-cates for Highway and Auto Safetymeasuring state progress in passinghighway safety laws gives Illinois,Oregon and the District of Columbiathe top grades for having enacted 12of 15 laws the organization supports.Another six states, including Indiana,have passed 11 of the laws.
States receiving the lowest grades,having enacted five or fewer of the
laws, are South Dakota, Mississippi,Arizona, Iowa, Montana and Nebraska.
Download the report at:http://tinyurl.com/lctnvv9
— Here’s a link that has nothingto do with collision repair directly, butcould save a life. Joe Arnold, vicepresident of Arnold’s Body Shop inDavenport, Iowa, is urging people tolearn the symptoms of a stroke afterhis wife suffered a stroke on the dayafter Christmas.
“She is only 39 years old andhealthy,” Arnold posted on Facebook.“It can happen to anyone at any age.At the start we thought it was just a mi-graine. As it progressed, it becameclear that it was a stroke. I only knewbecause of my past training as an EMT(14 years ago) what it really could be.She will make a full recovery becausewe recognized the signs and symptomsand took immediate action based uponthem.”
The three key symptoms are out-lined at: http://tinyurl.com/ltg3q63
“The more you know, the saferyou and your loved ones will be,”Arnold wrote.
— Another anti-DRP website,StopDRP.com, has launched; its con-tent includes an animated video cau-tioning consumers about the use ofnon-OEM parts (comparing them tohaving a diamond replaced with cubiczirconium) and one fictionalizing aconversation between a shop and aninsurer about what the shop must doto become part of the insurer’s DRP.
The site includes a link to anothersuch site, StopSteering.com, whichlaunched in 2008.
— Looking for help explainingtheir automaker’s position on non-OEM parts or reconditioned wheels?The OEM Roundtable this yearlaunched a new consumer website,www.CrashRepairInfo.com. The siteincludes: information for vehicle-owners on how to choose a body shop;definitions of common terms used incollision repair and auto insuranceclaims; automaker position statementson vehicle safety systems, counterfeitor salvage airbags, etc.; and videossuch as Honda’s demonstration of amistimed airbag’s impact on a water-melon.
— Ten insurers (including Farm-ers, USAA, Chubb and MetLife)are offering a branded app(http://tinyurl.com/Snapsheet) throughSnapsheet (www.Snapsheet.com) thatenable “self-service” claims for cus-tomers. Snapsheet CEO Brad Weis-berg said when an insured calls toreport a loss, the insurer can offer themthe option of using the app to uploadsix to 15 photos of the damage. Esti-mators at Snapsheet’s offices then pre-pare an estimate based on the photosand sends it back to the customerwithin three business hours.
The customer has the option of adirect-deposit cash-out, or can use theapp to schedule an appointment withone of the insurer’s DRP shops. Sup-plements are handled through Snap-sheet. Insurers pay a flat fee perestimate for the service, Weisbergsaid. He emphasizes that his companyproduces “visual estimates” only.
How do Snapsheet estimators en-sure their estimates comply with vari-ous state laws regarding use ofnon-OEM parts, etc.?
“There are some states where weabsolutely cannot write in,” Weisbergsaid. “But what we pride ourselves onis writing accurate estimates. Notonly accurate to fix the car but alsoaccording to a carrier’s guidelines. Sowe spend a lot of time with the carri-ers calibrating with their claims or-ganization how they want us to writethe estimates. They review a lot of ourestimates to make sure we’re writingaccording to plan.”
Prior to Snapsheet, Weisberg wasthe founder in 2011 of BodyShopBids,which enabled consumers to uploadphotos of their damaged vehicle andreceive quotes from nearby bodyshops within 24 hours.
“BodyShopBids was a great ideaand a great way to start, but it wasn’t areal business,” Weisberg said. “This isneeded in the industry and this is wantedby consumers, so it’s a perfect fit.”
Helpful Documents, Tools, Information Only a Click Away For Shops
with Ed Attanasio
Shop and Product Showcase
with Ed Attanasio
Shop Showcase
with Ed Attanasio
Social Media for Shops
with Ed Attanasio
SEMA Show Goes On
with Erica SchroederShop Showcase
The Right Causewith Mike Causey
Industry Insightwith John Yoswick
—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop in thefamily and has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988. He is the editor of theweekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com).Contact him by email at [email protected].
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 25
On Saturday, February 22nd, the Au-tomotive Service Association of Ari-zona (ASA-AZ) hosted a courseentitled Survival Skills for Service Ad-visors at the Phoenix Airport Hilton.Luz A. Rubio, Executive Director of
ASA-AZ, says it was a “great class!We had 30 Service Advisors in atten-dance, representing shops around Ari-
zona. Most attended to learn betterways on how to communicate withcustomers, others [came for] a re-fresher course.”
The focus of the event was on theimportance of developing good commu-
nication skills, andthe group discussedvarious scenariosand examples, ex-amining the bestway to handle eachunique situation.
“Being able to lis-ten to the customerand addressing thereason they cameinto the shop shouldbe the primaryfocus. Being able toeducate and informthe customer on the
importance of maintaining their vehiclein order to prevent costly repairs wasalso an area of focus,” Rubio told us.
Attendees’ expectations were ex-ceeded, Rubio believes. “Several ex-perienced service advisorswho have been in their posi-tion for more than ten yearsenjoyed the class and walkedaway with at least one ideathat they can implement toimprove how they have beendoing their job.”
In 2014, the ASA-AZ’sgoal is to provide their mem-bers with education andtraining by attracting indus-
try speakers who will share fresh con-tent that members can relate to andlearn from. “The benefit of being amember is the opportunity to ex-change ideas with peers and learnfrom each other. We promote that weare not an association of competitors,but an association of peers where weidentify challenges and come up withideas that will maximize the successand longevity their businesses.”
ASA-AZ is very excited to offer afull calendar of meetings, events and
26 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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with David BrownShop Showcase
with Attorney Martin ZuradaBody Shop Law
with Domenico Nigro
The Community-Focused Body Shop
with Janet CheneyShop Showcase
with Frank SheroskyIndustry Business Beat
with Chasidy Rae SiskAssociations Assembling
with Chasidy Rae SiskWestern Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskOld School Know How
with Chasidy Rae SiskAssociations Assembling
with Chasidy Rae SiskSoutheast News
with Chasidy Rae SiskGreat Lakes Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskNational Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskSouthwest Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskSoutheast Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast Associations
with John YoswickHistorical Snapshot
with Ed AttanasioShop Showcase
with Ed AttanasioMedia Matters
with Ed AttanasioOld School Know How
with Ed AttanasioAdvertising Advantages
with Ed AttanasioAssociations Assembling
Association Meetingswith Thomas Franklin
Western Associationswith Thomas Franklin
Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,who writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family ofNASCAR fans. She can be contacted at [email protected].
ASA-AZ Meets to Discuss Survival Skills for Service Advisors
On February 24, 2014, a group ofFlorida auto body shops filed an an-titrust action against over forty prop-erty and casualty insurers in the U.S.District Court for the Middle Districtof Florida.
In the case, A&E Auto Body ver-sus 21st Century Centennial Insur-ance Co., d/b/a Farmers InsuranceGroup et al., the plaintiffs allege thatthe State Farm vendor agreement re-quires shops desiring to participate inthis preferred provider program to ac-cept the market rate for such services,and that State Farm calculates thoserates in an improper manner thatkeeps them artificially low and notrepresentative of the true market forsuch services.
The plaintiffs also allege that theremaining insurer defendants in thestate have advised plaintiffs that theywill pay no more than State Farmpays for labor at their shops, thus re-sulting in a stabilizing of rates at theseallegedly low levels.
In addition to a number of com-mon law counts, plaintiffs assert thatdefendants’ conduct constitutes price
fixing under Section 1 of the ShermanAct. In search of evidence of agree-ment amongst the defendants (a nec-essary element of a Section 1 claim),plaintiffs allege that the insurersagreed to control and suppress auto-mobile damage repair costs at meet-ings amongst themselves that theyrefused to allow members of the autocollision repair industry to attend.
Plaintiffs also contend that de-fendants’ alleged conduct constitutesunlawful boycott activity. In supportof that assertion, plaintiffs maintainthat the defendants’ alleged acts ofsteering customers away from plain-tiffs, through allegations and intimi-dations of poor work quality placesdefendants’ conduct beyond the lim-ited antitrust exemption that the in-surance industry enjoys under theMcCarran Ferguson Act.
The action is only in its very ear-liest stages, and the insurers have notyet responded to plaintiffs’ allega-tions. However, given the number ofinsurer defendants, and the nature ofthe issues, the case will be a majorcollision industry event in 2014.
Property and Casualty Insurers Hit With AntitrustSuit by Florida Auto Body Shops
by Sam Celly, MS JD CSP
The maintenance and operation ofgasoline tanks, both aboveground andunderground, has become expensive,highly regulated, and burdensome.Automobile dealers have resorted togas dolly equipment where a smallamount of gasoline can be added toeach new automobile delivered to thedealership. We note that automobilesdelivered to dealerships from manu-facturers have very small amounts ofgasoline; this being a result of U.S.Department of Transportation (DOT)regulations, which dictate that mini-mal amounts of gasoline be retainedin gas tanks of vehicles in transport.We write this memo to discuss DOT,OSHA, and CARB regulations appli-cable to gasoline being transportedfrom a public gasoline station to deal-erships for a later fill in automobileson the lot.
Federal DOT Regulations:Gasoline transport is discussed in Sec-tion 173.6 of the DOT regulationsunder “material of transport excep-tions.” The regulations require that acontainer being used to transport
gasoline must be less than 8 gallonsper container and a maximum of 72total gallons (440 pounds). The con-tainers must be secured in the pickuptruck and properly labeled. The drivershould be trained in DOT regulations.We recommend that the containers areUL certified. Beyond that, there aremany other regulatory agencies withenforcement in the hazmat arena.http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2011-title49-vol2/pdf/CFR-2011-title49-vol2-sec173-6.pdf
Safety: Safety concerns for gaso-line containers are as follows:* Properly labeled container withhazard warnings and employee train-ing in Hazard Communication Pro-gram (OSHA Regulation 29 CFR §1910.1200).* 29 CFR § 1926.152(a)(1) statesthat “Only approved containers andportable tanks shall be used for stor-age and handling of flammable liq-uids. Approved safety cans or DOTapproved containers shall be used forthe handling and use of flammableliquids in quantities of 5 gallons orless...”* Bonding of containers to eliminatestatic electricity be followed both atthe time of filling up the containersand when transferring from containerto container. Keep containers on theground when filling and not on thebed of the truck. Use grounding wirewhen necessary. Keep nozzle in con-tact with can during filling. Do not fillcontainers over 95% to allow for ex-pansion. Spilled gasoline must evap-orate before containers are put on thetruck.* Containers must be closed so as tominimize the risk of spill and creatinga fire hazard.* Spill proof spouts also lock in va-pors so as to avoid vapor release whilein storage. Don’t overfill gas tanks onautomobiles. Keep fire extinguisherclose by!* Transport truck must have a spill kitavailable with a trained operator oncontaining, cleaning, and proper dis-posal of spill absorbent.* Studies at Worcester PolytechnicInstitute’s Department of Fire Pro-tection Engineering, as reported byNBC News in late 2013, have indi-cated that under certain conditions,plastic cans are vulnerable to fireswith an explosive force. The condi-tions that present the higher risk in-clude having a very small amount of
gasoline (a few teaspoons) inside thegas can, cool temperatures, tiltingthe can at 42 degrees (typical pourangle) and of course a spark! Theemployees should be trained to avoidthese risky conditions and maybeeven buy metal cans in the future.http://www.nbcnews.com/news/in-vestigations/watch-gas-can-explode-lab-test-v21744014
CA Air Resources Board(CARB): As of July 1, 2007, allPortable Fuel Containers (PFC) soldin California must be certified by theAir Resources Board as meeting low-emission standards and regulatory re-quirements. This regulation isapplicable to manufacturers and re-tailers who place the gas cans in thestream of commerce. Only containersof 10 gallons or less are covered bythis regulation, so the sale of a 25 gal-lon gas caddy for shop use is exemptfrom CARB regulations. The follow-ing table provides a listing of thoseCARB approved containers certifiedfor sale. http://www.arb.ca.gov/con-sprod/fuel-containers/pfc/eo/eo.htm
Summary: CA based businesseshave only CARB approved containersavailable. Other states may use theseCARB approved containers with vaporlocks that are spill proof and emit neg-ligible flammable vapors and hence,are safer. Training in hazardous mate-rials, including information on risks as-sociated with plastic cans, should beprovided to employees. Followingsafety and operation instructions on thePFC is also mandatory.
Sam Celly has trained auto deal-ers regarding EPA/OSHA compliancein 9 western states since 1987. Cellywas the first staff engineer at KPA afterearning his Bachelor’s of Engineeringdegree and later, his MS degree inChemical Engineering (School ofMines & Technology). In 1997, he re-ceived his Doctorate of Jurisprudencefrom Southwestern University in LosAngeles with emphasis on Labor &Environmental Law. Sam is a Certi-fied Safety Professional and hasserved as the Chair of the Law Com-mittee and Environmental IssuesCommittee of the American IndustrialHygiene Association (AIHA). Addi-tionally, he is a member of AmericanInstitute of Chemical Engineers (1985)and the AIHA, where he is the Presi-dent of the Southern California Sec-tion. Send your comments to:[email protected].
roundtables this year as they continueto strive to provide a forum for mem-bers to share valuable information thatwill help elevate the standard in the in-
dustry. Rubio poses a question: “Whereelse can you go to exchange informa-tion with your peers, people that havefound what works or what does not?We urge shop owners to attend theseevents and network with their fellowpeers; the return on their membershipinvestment will be more than just fi-nancial.”
ASA-AZPO Box 81517Phoenix, AZ 85069602-544-2600www.asaaz.org
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 27
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By now most shop owners know thecollision repair world is changing rap-idly. Last month I wrote about the Sci-Fi Shop of the Future. New materialsand new smart cars require new skillsand new technology. But what ischanging even faster is the way peo-ple communicate with one another.Facebook’s recent purchase of What-sApp for 19 billion dollars to enhancethe mobile segment of its 1.2 billionusers says that mobile communicationbetween users may become the pre-dominant way people communicate inthe future. But how many shops em-ploy someone solely for the purposeof connecting with this segment of thepopulation? And is there any goodreason to do so at this time?
My answer would be that it alldepends on how much a shop’s busi-ness depends on connecting with rela-tively young vehicle owners anddrivers. Older customers are usuallymore affluent and drive higher end ve-hicles. If a shop maintains a databaseof at least ten years of past customers,the odds are good that more than halfof those customers is older and possi-bly less tech-savvy. More importantly,these prior customers and theirfriends, families and contacts maymake up the biggest part of your fu-ture customer base outside of insur-ance and dealership referrals. As thenew market becomes more and moretied to websites, Facebook, Twitterand other media, the general game de-pends on who can come up with themost captivating message and imageson the new media. But you have an
advantage most new media peoplelack. Your ten years or more of accu-mulated customer contacts are a solid,experienced crowd. Now the time hascome to maximize that resource.
It’s time to take a new look atyour professional image. Unlike serv-ice stations and mechanical shops,your customers don’t come in for reg-ular maintenance or simple batteryand tire purchases. In a sense they’resomewhat like the family doctorwhose patients come in for annualcheckups and exams. But the collisionshop owner is more like a surgeonwho only sees a patient when a majoroperation is needed. And so much ofyour marketing must be similar to thatof the surgeon or other professionalswho only see clients in extreme timesof need. How do they build a reliableclient base?
Many professionals must relyheavily on client referrals and con-tacts. To build on these, most seek tojoin clubs, associations and charita-ble organizations that their clientsfrequent or belong to. If they belongto a particular religion or philosoph-ical group, they will participate inthat group to have an opportunity tomeet with various members and be-come known as a specialist in theirspecific field. High-priced profes-sionals like CPAs, lawyers and sur-geons can afford to invest serioustime in developing a deeply personalrelationship with a potential client. Atypical body shop owner can’t affordto dedicate substantial time to anyone potential collision repair cus-
tomer. So how can a shop owner dothe kind of depth marketing that willgain the loyalty of this kind of reli-able referral source?
One shop owner in the CaliforniaSan Fernando Valley had a wall full ofcontacts. He belonged to the Knightsof Columbus, the Sheriff’s SupportersLeague, and the American Legion. Hesponsored a Boy Scout Troop, aLadies Auxiliary and several schoolsports teams. It sounded like this guywas everywhere and his volume ofbusiness attested to the effectivenessof his efforts. How did he do it? Ob-viously not alone. Later I learned thathis sister had started a woman’s busi-ness referral service. His son was ac-tive in the business at a young age. Ingeneral I don’t think he had paid P.R.people doing any of this work, but it’snot much of a stretch to consider thatpossibility. Family is great if you haveit, but if not can it be cost-effective toemploy a real public relations person
to handle this in-depth membershipand schmoozing activity?
Many businesses calculate thelifetime value of a customer. Figuringone collision repair every 3-to-5 yearsgenerates an approximate number. Butthis ignores the people in that cus-tomer’s surrounding universe. The op-portunity to specifically refer a repairfacility just when an accident happensis quite rare. That’s why the P.R. per-son is needed to amplify the praise ofa satisfied customer in a group. Thismarketing person must have the abil-ity to speak for the shop at groups,community events, company meetingsand more. He or she should be of acomparable age to the prospectivecustomers, with a background in salesand public speaking but with enoughfamiliarity of the collision repair shopto present a credible story and reasonto patronize the shop. As the crowdturns to social media, personal contactstill has the advantage.
28 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Tom Franklin has been a sales and marketing consultant for fifty years. He has writtennumerous books and provides marketing solutions and services for many businesses.He can be reached at (323) 871-6862 or at [email protected]. See Tom’s columns at www.autobodynews.com under Columnists > Franklin
Zurich Insurance Group will cut about800 jobs globally to save around $250million per year by the end of 2015 tohelp reduce costs and improve prof-itability.
The job cuts, which are equiva-lent to 1.4 percent of its total head-count, will remove management layersbetween the group and its businessunits. Customer-facing activities willnot be affected.
“We continue to make significantprogress towards our strategic goal tomake Zurich a focused and more prof-itable business,” said chief executive,Martin Senn.
Senn said that Zurich would in-vest in global corporate and mid-mar-ket business and its high-margin retailinsurance lines, while turning aroundor exiting non-core, underperforminginsurance businesses.
Zurich also pledged to grow op-erating earnings through 2016 by re-ducing complexity, as it lowered itstarget for return on equity from 16 to12–14 percent through 2016.
Senn stressed that Zurich is striv-ing to be at the upper end of that goaland that he would be disappointed ifthe company was still at 12 percent inthree years.
Zurich Insurance Cuts Jobs to Boost Profitabiltiy
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
The MD House Economic Matterscommittee, on March 14, voted 16 to7 for an unfavorable report on HB574.No action has yet been taken onSB487. See cover story this issue.
This article provides some back-ground on the testimony pro and conin front of the committee.
On February 21, the WashingtonMetropolitan Auto Body Association(WMABA) testified at the MD HouseHearing on Economic Matters in sup-port of House Bill 574 (companion toSenate Bill 487), entitled Motor Vehi-cle Liability Insurance – ReplacementParts for Damaged Motor Vehicles.
During the hour-and-a-half thatthis bill was discussed in committee,House delegates heard from severalpanels representing various segmentsof the collision repair industry.
The first panel consisted of Jor-dan Hendler, Executive Director ofWMABA, Mark Schaech of Mark’sBody Shop, and Joe Tucker of JQRestorations. Hendler began by ex-
pressing her belief that HB574 wouldprovide collision repair shops with theability to service vehicles with whatthey deem to be the highest qualityparts, stressing the need to trust thecollision repair professionals to knowwhat’s best for their customers. “As anindustry, collision repairers are thefirst line of defense and considered theprofessional when it comes to fixingyour car and doing what’s right foryou,” she said. Support of this bill isimportant, Hendler continued, be-cause use of aftermarket parts can im-pair warranties on newer vehicles,especially those that are less than threeyears old. Before a collision, a con-sumer’s warranty is 100% intact, butif their vehicle is repaired with after-market parts, the warranty is no longer100% intact; portions of the warrantywill not be valid because OEM partswere replaced with parts not recom-mended by the factory warranty.
Additionally, even when the partsvendor or insurer offers a warranty onaftermarket parts, it is non-transfer-able should the car be sold to another
consumer. “Aftermarket parts, in ourindustry’s perspective, are inferior togenuine parts. We have fit, finish andfunctionality issues, even just for cos-metic purposes,” Hendler reiterated.Another problem Hendler cited withthe use of aftermarket parts is that theyaren’t full vehicle crash-tested, andaccording to IIHS 2010 Chief Re-search Officer, there is a lot of engi-neering that goes into making a crashprotection system, so changing partsmay result in the system being unableto function as intended by the manu-facturer.
MD code requires shops to in-form the consumer when aftermarketparts are used, and most insurers per-mit customers to opt for using OEMparts instead; however, the customermust pay the difference in price be-tween the parts options.
Speaking to claims that HB574will lead to higher insurance premiums,Hendler pointed out that though RI andWV have a three-year prohibition onaftermarket parts and historicallyhigher rates, IN has a five-year prohi-bition and MN has a complete prohibi-tion on aftermarket parts, and both ofthese states enjoy lower premiums thanMD. Furthermore, insurers admit thatpremiums are mostly predicated on theindividual driver, their driving recordand where the live, in addition to statebodily injury laws. A report by theProperty Casualty Insurers Association(PCI) indicates that a complete ban onaftermarket parts would affect premi-ums by 2.6%, or $24 per year on aver-age. Thus, Hendler concluded, there isno evidence of a correlation betweenusing OEM parts and increased insur-ance premiums.
Schaech provided an example ofinstalling an aftermarket radiatorwhich fails and ruins the vehicle’s en-gine. The engine will not be coveredunder the manufacturer’s warranty be-cause the failure was caused by the af-termarket part.
Tucker addressed the parts pro-curement portion of the bill, explain-ing how DRPs work and comparinginsurer-mandated parts procurementto steering, an activity prohibited byMD law.
When asked who is responsiblefor faulty parts, Schaech noted theshop is liable, and though a shop canask the consumer to sign a “Hold
Harmless” letter if they know they aregoing against OEM recommenda-tions, he believes it’s not right forshops to be put in this position at all.While MD law requires shops to dis-close use of aftermarket parts, givingthe consumer the option of spendingmore money to repair their vehiclewith OEM parts, many DRP shops arerated on how often they use aftermar-ket parts in their repairs.
The next panel called to testifyconsisted of insurer representatives.Noel Patterson began by arguing thathalf the cost of insurance premiums isdictated by the cost of coverage; if thecost of repairs increases, so will theprice of the premiums. She also be-lieves that the use of aftermarket partspromoted competition in the market-place while allowing insurers to con-trol costs even as they strive to restorethe vehicle to its pre-accident condi-tion.
On behalf of USAA and the MDInsurers Alliance trade association,Kimberly Robinson said she op-posed HB574 because many insurersoffer consumers the choice to pay forOEM parts in their repair, allowing forcompetition between insurance com-panies in MD, but this law would shiftthe cost of parts, increasing insurers’expenses and translating into higherpremiums “despite other states’ expe-riences.”
A representative from LibertyMutual also objected, arguing that cus-tomers can get an extended warrantyon aftermarket parts by going to DRPshops. This led to a delegate question-ing how the insurers can claim thatthey are restoring a vehicle to its pre-loss condition when they’ve alreadyacknowledged that using aftermarketparts may lead to diminished value, towhich the insurer replied that their goalis to restore the vehicle to its previouscondition, not its pre-accident value.
Several representatives fromLKQ-Keystone were called to testifynext, and Bruce Barriano argued thataftermarket parts are the same asOEM parts essentially; the term “af-termarket” simply means the part wasmade after the vehicle was manufac-tured. He insisted that the term is nota connotation of inferior quality as af-termarket parts are built brand newand to specifications. Barriano said
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 29
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Testimony on Maryland Parts Bill Involves Representatives from WMABA, PCI,LKQ, CAPA and Shops, Some Repairers ‘Cannot Afford to Refuse’ PartsTrader
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
On January 16th,the Collision In-dustry Foundation(CIF) held theirfourth annual galafundraiser in PalmSprings, CA. Thiswas the first timethe event was not
held in Las Vegas in conjunction withCIC’s fourth quarter planning meeting,but according to CIF PresidentWilliam Shaw, the gala was very suc-cessful and exceeded CIF’s expecta-tions.
Nearly 100 people attended thetwo-hour cocktail reception at Lulu’sBistro, and this year’s event saw an in-crease in the number of underwritingsponsors showcased. CIF began byselling raffle tickets at the door, a ven-ture that raised $820. They also held asilent auction for eight items, includ-ing electronics and even an Indy CarRace Package. The auction generatedover $4000.
CIF’s goal was to raise $25,000,but they exceeded this goal by raising$32,000. The proceeds fromthe event will be added to theorganization’s Disaster ReliefFund which is used to supportindustry participants who areimpacted by natural disasters.This annual event is a vitalpart of their efforts to collectdonations, and Shaw sees it asa “great opportunity to createawareness and let the indus-try know how to participateand that CIF exists to helpwhen disaster strikes… we are reallycreating good momentum moving for-ward.”
On March 12, the Board ofTrustees met in Chicago to discusscurrent disaster needs and fund alloca-tions. In addition, the Trustees estab-lished its goals and plans for the next12 months.
CIF is also pleased to announcethat two new Trustees were just elected.Casey Steffen with Saint-Gobain Abra-sives and David Henderson with Au-taExplore/Autowatch will join theBoard and work with the Foundation tocarry on its initiatives.
CIF was created in 2001 by theNational Auto Body Counsel (NABC)as a national non-profit organization tocollect and distribute charitable funds.
The first campaign they supported wasMontana’s Camp Mak-A-Dream, aprogram dedicated to helping childrenand teens suffering from cancer, andthey collected over $500,000 for thiscause in their first years of operation.The funds were used towards buildingan on-site health care facility for thecamp, and in 2005, CIF supportedCamp Mak-A-Dream yet again by do-nating funds to help purchase a bus forthe program.
Since beginning, CIF has sup-ported a number of campaigns, plan-ning and implementing variousprojects. They supported a three-yearcampaign called “Crash Hunger” thatfocused on raising funds to feed Amer-icans. Another project, in 2008, was“Blanket the City: Detroit,” a fundrais-ing effort to support the city that wasso disproportionately impacted by eco-nomic turmoil. In their attempt to helpa broad base of organizations provid-ing vital services to the city, CIF madedonations to the Children’s Home ofDetroit, Clean Downtown Detroit Part-nership and Gleaner’s Food Bank.
In addition to providing dona-tions to Recycled Rides, CIF part-
nered with Skills USA and the WorldSkills Competition to sponsor the USCollision Team, sending two competi-tors to the World Skills Competitionin Helsinki, Finland. CIF also partici-pates in “Leave Something Behind”initiatives throughout the year; whileattending CIC meetings around thenation; this program serves as a ges-ture of gratitude to the host city. Overthe years, this effort has yielded bookdonations to a Portland library andmonetary donations to Children’sHospitals in Phoenix, AZ, and Wash-ington DC, as well as Toys for Tots inLas Vegas and the Utah Food Bank inSalt Lake City.
Though these programs are morethan sufficient to illustrate that CIF is“the charitable conscience of the col-
lision repair industry,” when HurricaneKatrina struck LA and MS in 2005,CIF’s Board of Directors created theDisaster Relief Fund to aid victims ofnatural disasters. Their fundraising ef-forts allowed them to aid over 100 col-lision industry professionals impactedby Katrina. This project was so suc-cessful that CIF decided to make it anongoing program and through their ef-forts, they’ve supported victims ofmany natural disasters, including Hur-ricane Irene, the tsunami in Japan and,most recently, Superstorm Sandywhich devastated the entire east coastof the US in the fall of 2012.
All of these programs supportCIF’s mission “to collect funds fromall facets of the collision repair indus-try to be distributed to repair profes-sionals chosen by the Foundation’sselection committee.” CIF’s assistanceis limited to individuals and not pro-vided to businesses or organizations.A committee reviews all requests anddistributes funds based on individualneeds. Those interested in helping areencouraged to make donations, joinCIF’s volunteer committee or aid withVictim Location/Assistance.
Currently, CIF’s short-term goalsinclude creating awareness about whoCIF is, as well as their mission and vi-sion – to bring awareness and emergencyrelief to collision repair professionals.Their primary focus remains helpingthose in need.
Further down the road, Shawhopes CIF will establish a sustainablefund with “enough money in reserveto help those in need and help subsi-dize the costs not covered by insur-ance in the event of a natural disaster.In the meantime, we will continue tosupport various campaigns in our ef-forts to reach out and engage the col-lision repair industry so they can givesomething back.”
Regarding challenges that CIFfaces in order to maintain operations,
30 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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CIF is Now the Charitable Conscience of the Industry
Bill Shaw
that aftermarket parts are only cheaperin price, not in quality or safety, andusing these parts benefits consumersby keeping insurance costs down.
In contrast, HB574 creates athree-year monopoly which is anti-competitive, allows OEMs to chargewhatever they want for these parts,and will clearly lead to increasingrates—“this bill is not without finan-cial implications,” Barriano insisted.Additionally, consumers receive awarranty on the life of LKQ aftermar-ket parts, plus the shop that repairs thevehicle receives indemnification fromLKQ who will defend the collision re-pair facility if a lawsuit is filed.
Two General Managers of LKQ-Keystone facilities in MD, Jim Lohanand Marcel Hoover, spoke about howthe businesses they run contribute to thestate’s economy, and they claimed thatmany customers call them seeking analternative to high-priced OEM parts.
Jack Gillis, Executive Directorof CAPA and on behalf of the Centerfor Auto Safety, opposes the bill be-cause it limits consumer choice, pro-
tects an unfair monopoly, restrictscompetition, and will increase crashrepair costs for MD consumers.
In addition to arguing that compe-tition lowers prices, Gillis points outthat using OEM parts doesn’t neces-sarily mean restoring the vehicle to itspre-loss condition, and because OEMparts are frequently recalled, he doesn’tthink they should be the only option.Arguing that “there’s nothing wrongwith generic products,” he asked whyaftermarket parts aren’t banned alto-gether if they’re substandard and sug-gests a middle-ground option ofrequiring aftermarket parts to be func-tionally equivalent to OEM parts.
The final portion of testimonybegan with Laura Marta Harding ofState Farm who focused on the partsprocurement portion of HB574, not-ing that PartsTrader has only been ineffect in MD for two weeks. She ar-gued that the collision repair shopscontrol the inputs in PartsTrader, spec-ifying the type of parts they use, andindicated that shops who object to in-terference in this business are wel-come to opt out of State Farm’s SelectService Program.
Testifying on behalf of the oppo-sition was Laura Gay, owner of Fort
Washington Auto Body and Sullivan’sAuto Body. Gay discussed the decreasein the collision repair business due toadvancing technology, admitting shecannot afford to refuse PartsTrader be-cause she needs the business generatedby being on State Farm’s DRP.
Lawrence Christiansen of Na-tionwide estimated that HB574 wouldincrease Nationwide’s premiums by$12 million over the next six months,and as this insurer only writes around10% of MD’s insurance, the bill wouldseriously impact MD’s economy.
Oyango Snell, Counsel for PCI,concluded the testimony by pointingout that the bill’s advocates haven’t pro-vided proof of consumer complaints,thus aftermarket parts usage poses nothreat to the consumer in his opinion.Aftermarket parts only represent 10%of the parts market, so he feels the goalof HB574 seems to be creating evenmore of a monopoly. He finishes histestimony with the double-edged re-minder that “insurance companies don’tsell parts.”
If you’re interested in viewingthe hearing, you can access it from thelink on the www.autobodynews.comwebsite. Search for the online storywith the same title as this article.
Shaw mentions the number of thosewho need assistance, but he feels thatthe resolution to this dilemma is “toarticulate our message and informcontributors how their donations willbe used to support the industry.”
CIF is run by a Board of Trustees,comprised of 12 leaders from all seg-ments of the industry. This group isstill in the planning stages of their2014 agenda, but Shaw hopes to beable to define this year’s goals by theend of the first quarter.
Shaw succinctly wraps up CIF’smission and goals as follows: “Wewant the collision repair industry tobe aware that there are people in needand to encourage them to get in-volved and give back. We are tryingto create a culture that gives back be-cause the benefits are tremendous forboth sides. The message we want toshare is this—whether you’re directlyinvolved with CIF or not, it’s very im-portant to get involved with local or-ganizations and to support charities.”
Collision Industry Foundation (CIF)PO Box 3007Mechanicsville, VA 23116855-4CIFAID (855-424-3243)http://collisionindustryfoundation.org
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 31
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Pack Brothers Collision Center ofBelmont, NC, has won a short-payarbitration case in a Lincoln CountyNorth Carolina court against Nation-wide Mutual Insurance Company.
On Feb, 3, 2014, a judgeawarded a customer of Pack Brothersa little more than $3,000, which wasowed to Pack Brothers for collisionrepairs that Nationwide refused topay upon completion of their in-sured’s car.
The lawsuit was filed on behalfof the customer with a Power of At-torney assigned by the customer incooperation with Pack Brothers. Thecustomer was insured by Nation-wide, which refused to pay for re-pairs for a first-party claim.According to Pack Brothers, Nation-wide did not honor their policy andrefused to pay them for the repairs. Ajudge found that under the policy lan-guage, Nationwide did owe their pol-icyholder so he could satisfy hiscollision repair bill. The judge en-tered a judgment against Nationwidefinding in favor of the customer sothat he could pay Pack Brothers.
“Insurance companies are soused to saying that they will not payfor correct repairs, and they knowthat very few shops will push it into
litigation,” said Ronnie and LarryPack. “Therefore, they continue todeny payment to the shops becausethey know it’s time consuming andexpensive for the shop owners to pur-sue.
“What we are seeing is that in-surance companies are shortcuttingrepairs, and so the repairs to the carare now compromised because of theinsurance company refusal to pay forthe correct repairs needed. Therefore,some of the shops are shortcuttingthe repairs to make up for that loss—which ultimately makes the customerthe loser.
“Our victory means nothing un-less the whole industry gets involvedand demands to be paid for correctrepairs.”
NC Shop Wins Nationwide Short-Pay Arbitration Case
OEM repair information today is good,but not perfect, says Jason Bartanen,director of industry technical relationsfor I-CAR. It needs to be better andmore readily accessible for shops.
Bartanen says the OEM informa-tion available today still isn’t compre-hensive. Several gaping holes exist, aproblem causing shops and insurers tomake procedural guesses on jobs withno way to verify their judgments. Someshops have a hard time obtaining theinformation at all, Bartanen adds. Ve-hicle manufacturers have strong distri-bution methods for their affiliateddealerships, but don’t have an efficienttactic to deliver that same informationto independent facilities, which repair amajority of collision-damaged vehi-cles.
I-CAR last summer launched anew Repairability Technical Support(RTS) initiative to tackle the prob-lem—a four-member team dedicatedto communicate with auto manufac-turers to fill the informational gaps anddistribute the information to the indus-try at large. The initiative—which willbe a continual, ongoing effort movingforward—is expected to improve workquality and productivity for independ-ent shops by providing centralized ac-cess to more consistent, detailed andstandardized repair information.
A new website has been created,rts.i-car.com, which is designed as a“centralized, comprehensive distribu-tion mechanism” for OEM information,Bartanen says.
All technical-based informationfrom every auto manufacturer—paint,materials, parts and processes—islisted on the website and stored in thedatabase. Rather than linking users toan auto manufacturer’s website, the in-formation is housed directly on theRTS website in an easy-to-read format.
The website also includes all ofI-CAR’s latest technical briefs anddaily articles.
Bartanen says there is significantinconsistency between auto manufac-turers regarding the type and amountof information they distribute. Somemanufacturers have a wealth of infor-mation available, while others don’thave any collision repair informationavailable in the U.S. market.
I-CAR held a series of discussionswith a group of 50 auto manufacturers,shop professionals and insurers to out-line 13 standard pieces of informationthat repairers need access to from everyOEM. The list includes items such asmaterial identification, material re-pairability guidelines, sectioning pro-cedures, seam sealer identification andlocation, and corrosion protection re-quirements.
The broader impact of the matrix,though, is development of more com-prehensive OEM repair manuals, Bar-tanen says. Members of the RTSinitiative have communicated the gapsto every OEM to help release more in-formation, many of which are nowworking on producing those standarditems for the industry.The RTS createdan OEM technical information matrixthat outlines which manufacturers pro-vide which pieces of information. Thatdocument is a major benefit to repair-ers, Bartanen says, because it’s a singleresource to identify whether the infor-mation they need exists, and wherethey can find it. The information ma-trix will be updated and expanded asnew information becomes available,and is viewable for free at rts.i-car.com.
Doug Craig, collision repair man-ager of the Chrysler Group, for exam-ple, says he is working with Chrysler’svehicle design and materials engineersto update and distribute new technicalrepair bulletins to reflect the identifiedinformational gaps. Many other OEMsare doing the same.
Another notable improvementcame from Kia—a company that his-torically hasn’t released collision infor-mation in the U.S. market. Bartanensays the company now has a “highlycomprehensive” collision manual avail-able online for its Soul model.
OEM information sometimesfails to provide specific necessary
steps to perform a recommended re-pair procedure, Bartanen says. OEMinformation provides shops with high-level processes to make a repair, butlacks detailed information to makethem correctly. For example, an OEMprocedure might recommend “makingand dressing a GMA MIG plug weld.”But it may not specify how far togrind the weld, how to dress it, or thegrit of sandpaper to use.
The RTS website includes an on-line informational communication por-tal for shops. It’s a technical inquirysubmission process that provides theindustry with a strategy to communi-cate and resolve repair gaps they en-counter, Bartanen says.
Shops can submit technical in-quiries, and the RTS team initiates com-munication with auto manufacturers toanswer questions and share informa-tion. All technical inquiries and findingsare sorted and searchable by vehiclemanufacturer and subject matter.
OEM StandardizationBartanen says OEMs use different for-mats, phrases and terminologies in theirrepair manuals, which makes them dif-
ficult to read and causes shops to mis-interpret directions. All OEMs havebeen solicited to develop more stan-dardized communication processes.
Craig says auto manufacturersunderstand the confusing—and some-times contradictory—information theyproduce, and most companies are infavor of working together to simplifyand unify their procedures.
The RTS initiative is not necessar-ily meant to address the industry’s repairstandards issue, but it’s one direct im-provement that has resulted from thosediscussions, says Bob Keith, treasurer ofI-CAR’s international board of directorsand multi-store director for CARSTARAuto Body Repair Experts.
And it will prove to be a majorbenefit for shops, he says. Repairerswill have access to more robust infor-mation and a more efficient strategy toclarify technical questions to improveperformance on the shop floor.
In addition, Keith says the RTSinitiative has opened better lines ofcommunication between the industryand auto manufacturers to boost re-sponsiveness surrounding informa-tional needs.
32 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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The newly-formed Louisiana Colli-sion Industry Association (LaCIA) hasbeen busy setting up their organizationand is working toward their goals.They held a meeting on January 21 todiscuss their progress thus far as wellas their future plans. Over 180 peopleattended this meeting, which DerekStubbs, Vice Chairman of LaCIA, at-tributes to the fact that “we are all herebecause we care about this business,
and we care about what happens to it.”
Chairman Lynn Lejeune calledthe meeting to order, welcomed atten-dees and led a prayer before the asso-ciation’s general counsel LanceKinchen, of Breazeale, Sachse andWilson LLP, read the anti-trust state-ment. Next, Executive Director AlysiaHanks touched base on a few thingslike the upcoming Southern Automo-tive Repair Conference in Biloxi andtold the group what she hopes to ac-complish with the association.
Each member of the association’sBoard of Directors then provided somebackground on their experiences andspoke about their plans for LaCIA.Lejeune stressed that it is about “com-ing together and agreeing to make adifference.”
Stubbs emphasized the impor-tance of focusing on the present andthe future instead of the past. “Lastyear is over, and we still have battlesto fight everyday this year, but weneed to face these problems together
to make a difference. We have nationalissues that we have to handle first on astate level.”
Chris Medine from Medine’s
Collision said he believes LaCIA haspotential to be and do many goodthings through having so many indus-try professionals working together.His son is the third generation of hisfamily to enter this industry, and Me-dine wants to effect change so that hisson can have the same long and suc-cessful career.
Randy Mclachan of Perform-ance Finish & Collision feels thatLaCIA is taking the correct profes-sional approach to their development,and he believes the association can beuseful in providing training and edu-cation to its member. He said he hopesthat they will be “an association of ed-ucation.” He is confident that by work-ing together LaCIA members canmake meaningful change that will ben-efit LA’s collision repair industry.
Reid Heiser of Mitchell Interna-tional spoke about three things that as-sociations such as LaCIA can do, suchas providing a sense of community,offering training and changing per-spectives. In regards to these benefits,Hanks said, “it’s a great thing to walkinto a room of neighbors and not aroom of competitors. Mitchell has alot of training they can send in to helpour group. They benefit when our in-dustry benefits. The industry is rapidlychanging, and if you don’t keep upwith it, you will not succeed. We needto embrace those changes and plan forwhat is coming down the line. [In re-gards to perspective], unless you getout and see what others are doing,nothing will ever change—‘you can’twork on your business if you’re work-
ing in your business.’”The day after the meeting, Hanks
emailed notes to participants, alongwith some additional information aboutthe association’s progress. Their web-site is now finally operational, though itis still being improved, and can befound at www.la-cia.com.
In response to questions at themeeting about social networking,Hanks provided the address of the as-sociation’s Facebook page, agreeingthat social networking is “an avenuewe will explore.” Since the meeting,Hanks has established a Twitter ac-count @LouisianaCIA and a Facebookpage (www.facebook.com/SeLaCRA).
Hanks has drafted a formal re-quest to the LA’s commissioner’s of-fice, requesting that they look into thelegality of PartsTrader in their state,similar to what ASA has initiated, andshe is currently awaiting commentfrom the association’s attorneys. Ad-ditionally, the email provided a link tothe website for the Southern Automo-tive Repair Conference and a link toMike Watson’s article on partial refin-ish.
Also attached were LaCIA’s gen-eral membership application and an ap-plication to a GM training course thatwas held on February 25th at the Holi-day Inn in Baton Rouge. Many mem-bers for LaCIA attended the eventwhere topics included aluminum in newvehicles and price matching as it per-tains to CollisionLink and GM’s Bumpthe Competition Program which allowsprice matching on select parts when aninsurer estimate calls for aftermarketparts to be used. GM’s course also dis-cussed 2013/2014 cores on fascias andheadlights, how to recognize counter-feit airbags and warranty information.More information on technology andtheir service bulletins can be found atwww.genuinegmparts.com.
LaCIA supports and will be at-tending the Southern Automotive Re-pair Conference in Biloxi, MS, onApril 11–12, 2014 where they have re-served a booth. LaCIA’s next meetingis scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th inMonroe, LA. As LaCIA continues todevelop and becomes increasingly in-volved with industry issues, stay tunedfor updates.
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LaCIA Meets to Talk Progress and Future Plans
LaCIA Chairman Lynn Lejeune speaks tothe group
Lance Kinchen, General Counsel for LaCIA,addresses the meeting
with David BrownShop Showcase
with Attorney Martin ZuradaBody Shop Law
with Domenico Nigro
The Community-Focused Body Shop
with Janet CheneyShop Showcase
with Frank SheroskyIndustry Business Beat
with Chasidy Rae SiskAssociations Assembling
with Chasidy Rae SiskWestern Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskOld School Know How
with Chasidy Rae SiskAssociations Assembling
with Chasidy Rae SiskSoutheast News
with Chasidy Rae SiskGreat Lakes Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskNational Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskSouthwest Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskSoutheast Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast Associations
with John YoswickHistorical Snapshot
with Ed AttanasioShop Showcase
with Ed AttanasioMedia Matters
with Ed AttanasioOld School Know How
with Ed AttanasioAdvertising Advantages
with Ed AttanasioAssociations Assembling
Association Meetingswith Thomas Franklin
Western Associationswith Thomas Franklin
Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,who writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family ofNASCAR fans. She can be contacted at [email protected].
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
The Collision Repair EducationFoundation (CREF) is always busyworking on ways to improve theprospects of the industry, and the firstquarter of 2014 is no exception asthey calculate 2013 donations, collectapplications for their Student Schol-arship and School Makeover pro-grams, and prepare for their 2014
Summer Golf Fundraiser. BrandonEckenrode, Director of Developmentfor CREF, eagerly shares some infor-mation about their recent tallies andfuture plans.
As 2013 drew to a close, dona-tions to CREF for the year totaled $9.4million, nearly double the amount ofdonations as they received in 2012. Ofthose contributions, 10% was receivedin monetary contributions with the re-mainder being received via in-kindproduct donations, such as tools,equipment, supplies, parts and otherdonations to assist instructors in theircollision repair programs.
When questioned about the rea-sons behind this increase in contribu-tions to CREF, Eckenrode states “yearafter year, we are able to reach moreand more industry businesses and helpcommunicate to them about how weare looking to support high school andcollege collision school programs, in-structors and students. Knowing thatthese students are the future profes-sionals of the industry, our supportersunderstand how their technical educa-tion is vital, and with school instructorsworking with limited/reduced budgets,the industry has really stepped up tosupport them through our organiza-tion.”
The monetary donations receivedin 2013 will be used to fund CREF’sprojects, such as their scholarships forstudents and school grants, as well as
to keep the organization running. The2013 tallies help Eckenrode remain op-timistic about CREF’s fundraising ef-forts for 2014: “we anticipate anothergreat year with both monetary and in-kind product donations. I would inviteand challenge repair facilities, espe-cially the independent owners, to con-sider an annual tax-deductible donationof $500, $750 or $1000 to the Founda-tion. Through strength in numbers, if
even a quarter of thetotal number of re-pair facilities wereable to make this do-nation, we would beable to completelytransform collisionschool programsacross the countryand work towardsthe graduating stu-dents being properlytrained and ready forentry-level work.Owners across the
country have expressed their desire forproductive, efficient and ‘ready towork’ entry-level staff, and we canmake this possible by all working to-gether.”
Next up for CREF will be award-ing their student scholarships and an-nual school makeover grants. Thedeadline for scholarship applicationsended in the middle of February, sothe applications are now being re-viewed by the Board of Trustees Se-lection Committee, and CREF plansto announce the winners later thisspring. The scholarships are availableto high school seniors and college-level students who have studied colli-sion repair for at least one semester.CREF has over $200,000 reserved tobe awarded as various scholarshipsand tool grant opportunities for stu-dents looking to enter the collision re-pair industry.
The deadline for CREF’s SchoolMakeover Grant falls on June 6th,but Eckenrode encourages applicantsto begin the process well ahead oftime since a great deal of informa-tion is requested. He enumerates,“the Makeover application requiresmany different pieces of informa-tion; however, it provides our Boardof Trustees Selection Committee agreat overview of the program andthe budget that they are workingwith to provide the best technical ed-ucation possible for the students. Our
Makeover Grant is available to non-profit high school and college colli-sion school programs, and the grantis meant to help those collision pro-grams who are facing a reducedbudget and need additional tools,equipment and supplies for their pro-gram.”
Since 2008, when the CREFbegan its philanthropic focus, the col-lision industry has provided over $20million in various types of donations,and though CREF anticipates that thisnumber will continue to increase overthe years, Eckenrode believes “it’s im-portant for the industry to know that,in addition to the support we are pro-viding to schools, we are also gettingactively involved in helping to bridgethe gap between graduating and em-ployment. We want to ensure that stu-dents graduate with the entry-levelskill sets that employers are lookingfor and make these students aware ofthe various employment opportunitiesthere are in all segments of the indus-try. By CREF providing such tools asa donor ‘entry-level employment jobboard’, we can not only showcasethese opportunities to students but
also to parents, guidance counselorsand school administration to show thatthese collision programs are worth-while to support and invest in.”
As such, Eckenrode is pleasedthat CREF will be presenting and ex-hibiting at the American School (Guid-ance) Counselor Association’s annualconference this summer where guid-ance counselors from around the coun-
try will gather. During the conference,CREF plans to explain the “worth-while career opportunities collision
34 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Education Foundation Doubled Down on Its Future in 2013
Brandon Eckenrode (l) of CREF and Mark Algieof 3M
students have within this industry andwhy guidance counselors shouldn’tthink badly about a technical educa-tion for students.”
This summer, CREF will also bebusy with their 13th Annual SummerGolf Fundraiser, to be held the after-noon of July 31st inconjunction withIndustry Week inDetroit. The eventwill take place atthe Northville HillsGolf Club outsidethe city, and CREFanticipates “anothersold out crowd withfunds being raisedgoing towards as-sisting us in sup-porting high schooland college colli-sion school programs, students and in-structors. The event has gone fromraising $19,000 in 2009 to averaging$75,000 the past two years. The Edu-cation Foundation has tried raising thequality of the event year after year;however, this increase in funds raisedhas been made possible by our spon-sors and attendees.”
The funds raised at the golfing
event will aid CREF in providingstudent scholarships and SchoolMakeover Grants in the future. Inaddition to offering a nice afternoonof golfing fun and networking,CREF sees the events as a chance to“communicate to industry leaders
about how we are making a differentin collision school programs.”
Eckenrode encourages anyoneinterested in participating in the golffundraiser as a player or sponsor tocontact him as soon as possible as theevent has historically sold out monthsin advance. Those who are unable toattend can still participate by purchas-ing golf balls for CREF’s helicopter
golf ball drop. Up to 1200 numberedballs can be purchased to be droppedonto a course green via helicopter dur-ing the event. Whoever purchases theball that lands in the hole will win23% of the proceeds from the balldrop, an astounding $7000 gift card ifall of the balls are sold! Winners donot have to be present, and this pro-vides yet another creative method forCREF to raise additional funds duringthe event.
Eckenrode is grateful to the col-lision repair industry for makingCREF’s efforts possible: “I wouldlike to thank the collision industry formaking over $20 million in donationspossible in such a short period oftime. I am not aware of any othertechnical trade having a ‘Foundation’type organization that supports theirprograms like ours does. Collisionschool programs are becoming theenvy of other school programs asthey see what type of support theschools are receiving through us, andwe look forward to working togetherto take this organization to anotherlevel.”
www.collisioneducationfoundation.org847-463-5244
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 35
THESE DEALERS are GENUINE WHOLESALE PARTS SPECIALISTS.
Ivan James Sandquist, age 33, waskilled in a freak accident on the morn-ing of March 3. The Williston PoliceDepartment (WPD) reported that theyreceived a report of two men being in-jured while working at Absolute Autobody, located at 104 NW 10th Ave.Upon investigation, it was discoveredthat Patrick Woodard of Gainesville,who repairs cars at an auto shop in theRaleigh area of Levy County, was driv-ing a 1999 Toyota northbound on US-41. As the vehicle approached AbsoluteAuto Body, the left front tire broke freefrom the vehicle and traveled north onthe west shoulder of the highway. Thetire struck a driveway apron, sending itairborne. The tire jumped over a six-foot chain link fence, where it thenstruck Sandquist, killing him instantly.After striking Sandquist, the tire struckthe friend he was standing and talkingto, James E. Fender, 45, the owner ofthe Absolute Auto Body Shop. Fendersustained serious injuries and was air-lifted to Shands Hospital in Gainesville.
Williston Police Chief DennisStrow said the incident was being in-
vestigated, and that he asked for helpfrom the Florida Highway Patrol(FHP). An FHP homicide investigatorwill be assisting in trying to figure outwhat happened. “We asked for helpfrom FHP because they have so muchexperience in these kinds of things.”They hope to determine if the cause ofthe accident was a speed factor or amechanical problem.
Chief Strow added that the vehi-cle, which Woodard had been drivingat the time of the incident, had beentaken to Woodard (since he works atan auto body shop) to be checked out.He said that Woodard had not doneanything to the car, including thewheel, which came off of the vehicle,prior to taking it for a test drive.
Strow said the tire did not explodeand was intact on the wheel.
A memorial was held for JamesSandquist at Knoff Funeral Home inWilliston at 4 p.m., Thursday, March 6.
His mother requested that in lieuof flowers, donations be made to theAmerican Diabetes or the AmericanHeart Association.
Freak Tire Accident Kills Gainesville Body Shop Em-ployee, Injures Shop Owner, Driver Also Shop Worker
On March 7, 2014, ABRA AutoBody & Glass announced the pur-chase of all 13 Wilburn Auto Bodyrepair centers in the Charlotte, NC,metro area.
ABRA now has 145 com-pany-owned locations and 48 inde-pendently-owned franchises for atotal of 193 collision repair centersin 17 states.
Don Wilburn, founder andCEO of Wilburn Auto Body, em-braces the acquisition. “This is asignificant milestone for me.Wilburn Auto Body has servedCharlotte since 1975. I have com-plete confidence ABRA will con-tinue the legacy of deliveringtop-notch customer service and re-pair solutions to our customers andthe community.”
Building on its increasing suc-cess, ABRA plans to continue ex-panding in the months and yearsahead as part of its aggressive na-tional growth strategy. It is activelyseeking new opportunities to ac-quire repair centers and integratethem into its industry-leading oper-ating system.
36 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
(Retired Automotive Service Associa-tion lobbyist Don) Randall told thegroup that current antitrust laws arestrangling collision repairers by givinginsurers an unfair advantage to meetand to set policy language and contractdefinitions. In essence, he said, insur-ers have the ability to set market priceswhile collision repairers do not.
“Our system is control losses –which sounds like a pretty good idea,”Randall said. “But that system is de-stroying the free enterprise system inthis state.”
Insurance policies, he said, areladen with loopholes that give insurersthe opportunity to change a $100 de-ductible into one costing much more.
“In the event of a loss, ‘We willmake you whole,’ but who decideswhat is whole,” Randall said. “Youhave a variable. If you take the car tothe shop of your choice, and it isn’tone they choose, they may say to you,‘You just pay the difference betweenthe one you picked and the one wepicked.’ They may also say, ‘We don’tpay for…’ or “It is not customary…”or ‘It is not usual and ordinary.’ Theyare now engaging in ‘dancing aroundthe contract.’”
Randall railed against the currentdirect repair programs, saying theybreed corruption and cheating.
“It’s wrong and it ought to bestopped,” he said. “But it will not stopuntil this industry gets organized.”
– from coverage of a forum inPortland, Ore., sponsored by Fairnessin Auto Insurance Regulations (FAIR)
15 years ago in the collision repairindustry (April 1999)Could the computerized estimating sys-tems be improved to improve the easeand accuracy of estimating? Three Col-lision Industry Conference (CIC) com-mittees continued exploring this issueat the CIC meeting in Denver in April.
Bob Matejzel of the CIC Esti-mating Committee said his group hasidentified an initial list of about adozen procedures that it believes theestimating systems should automati-cally remind users about. As an exam-ple, Matejzel said that if replacementof a lower control arm or other front-end suspension part is entered on anestimate, the system should in someway prompt the estimator to also in-clude an alignment on the estimate.
Matejzel said the industry infor-mation providersare focusing muchof their efforts thisyear on Y2K com-pliance issues. Buthe said his com-mittee – which in-cludes insurers andshops – will con-
tinue to meet with the estimating sys-tem providers to discuss these changesthroughout the year.
“If you’d been at one of this com-mittee’s meetings, you’d have actuallyseen a group of repairers and insurersstand up and face the informationproviders and say with one voice, ‘Thisis what we want,’” said CIC ChairmanDale Delmege of the committee’s meet-ings earlier this year. “That was a magicmoment in this industry.”
Linda Holcomb said the CICWrite It Right Committee’s discus-sions with the estimating systemproviders has also focused on the needto make the systems easier to use.
“Our estimators are really spendinga lot of time writing estimates and we’dlike to see that done quicker,” she said.
– as reported in Autobody News
10 years ago in the collision repairindustry (April 2004)A videotape of an interview with onevehicle owner about his experiencewith an auto claim generated some
discussion when shown at the Colli-sion Industry Conference (CIC) inNashville largely because of who thevehicle owner is: Joe Maxwell, thelieutenant governor of Missouri.
“The thing I was most amazed bywas how quickly I was contacted by[the other driver’s] insurance com-pany, which almost immediately calledme and said they already had the checkin the mail to pay for my automobile,”Maxwell said. “I asked ‘How did youeven know how much damage wasdone?’ They said, ‘Well, from the re-port.’ So I was offered a settlement be-fore anybody even viewed the damageto the vehicle.”
Maxwell said that while the insur-ance company representatives werepleasant and that he never felt harassed,they did refer him to a shop in Colum-bia, Missouri, 45 miles away. When hetold the insurer the first check they sentwould not cover the cost of repairs,they made an appointment to sendsomeone out to look at the vehicle athis office. Maxwell doesn’t know ifthat happened. The shop received a re-vised estimate – still insufficient tocover the cost of repairs – but Maxwellsaid the adjuster never contacted him.
“They claim the guy came andviewed the car, but he never came intothe building, never jacked the vehicleup,” Maxwell said. “The car was par-allel parked on the street and the dam-age was on the driver’s door side so theguy would have had to lay down on thestreet to look under the car, whichwouldn’t have been safe. And clearlywithout opening the door, which waslocked, they could not have seen all thedamage. So that troubled me some.”
Maxwell said he’s concerned thatmany people in his situation wouldhave accepted that first check and “indoing so accept settlement on the claimand then discover it wasn’t enough tohave a professional, quality job done.”
He said he’s also concerned aboutinsurers steering work or owning shops.
“The idea of having an insurancecompany that would control where I re-paired my car is kind of like having afox watch the chicken house,” he said.“You may wind up with less chickens.”
– as reported in Autobody News
5 years ago in the collision repairindustry (April 2009)Under a settlement agreement reachedlast week, LKQ Corp. will be the onlycompany allowed to sell certain non-OEM collision parts for Ford vehicles.The non-OEM parts involved are thosedesigned to replace parts for whichFord owns design patents.
As part of the agreement, LKQwill pay Ford a royalty fee for each partsold, and has agreed not to challengethe validity of Ford’s design patentsduring the term of the agreement(which extends until October 2011 butmay be renewed). Other details of theagreement were not disclosed.
Ford said the settlement “does notendorse the quality or use of non-OEMreplacement parts sold by LKQ Corp.”
The agreement ends two legal bat-tles Ford has waged to protect its designpatents on collision parts for its F-150pickup and Mustang. It also is likely tosplit the non-OEM parts industry whichhas been working as the “Quality PartsCoalition” to limit automakers’ rights tohold design patents on collision parts.
– As reported in CRASH Network(www.CrashNetwork.com), April,2009. LKQ currently faces a lawsuitfrom Chrysler over the sale of parts thatthe automaker claims violate its designpatents. The Quality Parts Coalitioncontinues to back proposed federal leg-islation that would slash (from 14 yearsto just 30 months) the time that au-tomakers can use design patents to pre-vent other companies from producingreplacement crash parts.
20 Years Ago In The Collision Repair Industry (April 1994)
with David BrownShop Showcase
with Attorney Martin ZuradaBody Shop Law
with Domenico Nigro
The Community-Focused Body Shop
with Janet CheneyShop Showcase
with Frank SheroskyIndustry Business Beat
with Chasidy Rae SiskAssociations Assembling
with Chasidy Rae SiskWestern Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskOld School Know How
with Chasidy Rae SiskAssociations Assembling
with Chasidy Rae SiskSoutheast News
with Chasidy Rae SiskGreat Lakes Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskNational Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskSouthwest Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskSoutheast Associations
with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast Associations
with John YoswickHistorical Snapshot
with Ed AttanasioShop Showcase
with Ed AttanasioMedia Matters
with Ed AttanasioOld School Know How
with Ed AttanasioAdvertising Advantages
with Ed AttanasioAssociations Assembling
Association Meetingswith Thomas Franklin
Western Associationswith Thomas Franklin
—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a bodyshop in the family and has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988.He is the editor of the weekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription,visit www.CrashNetwork.com). Contact him by email at [email protected].
Bob Matejzel
Michigan Democrat, John Dingell, anardent advocate of the auto industrywho has held his seat in Congress since1955—longer than any other person inhistory—said that he will retire from theHouse of Representatives, a seniorHouse Democratic aide said.
Dingell first entered Congress tofinish his late father’s term and wenton to serve nearly six decades.
“I’m not going to be carried out feetfirst,” Dingell, 87, told The Detroit News. “Idon’t want people to say I stayed too long.”
Dingell said that he will not seek
re-election in November 2014.In his heyday, Dingell wielded power
as chairman of the House Energy andCommerce Committee and has shapedmajor laws for cleaner air and water, pro-tecting endangered species, and providinghealth care for poor children.
Dingell also expressed disappoint-ment with Congress.
“I find serving in the House to beobnoxious,” he told The Detroit News.“It’s become very hard because of theacrimony and bitterness, both in Con-gress and in the streets.”
Auto Industry Champion, John Dingell (D), to Retire
A Louisiana body shop owner saw hisdaughter using Twitter to survey herfriends on an important social matter,and a light bulb went off in his head.He was fuming about repeatedly hav-ing to wrestle with insurance compa-
nies over what they will and won’tpay for. But, rather than getting mad,he’s now using the social media site toquery other shops about what is andisn’t being paid for elsewhere.
Abel Cantrelle, 49, is the owner ofAdvantage Collision Center inHouma, LA. He recently pur-chased a 40-inch smart televi-sion and hung it on the wall itin his reception area in hisshop where both customersand insurance adjusters cansee it. But, they’re not watch-ing The View or Dr. Phil. Whatthey’re seeing is a real-timefeed of Cantrelle’s Twitter ac-count, so that when insurersdeny anything for any reason,he can tweet the details toshop owners and companieslike CCC and Mitchell to gettheir immediate feedback.The story begins late lastyear, when Cantrelle got
wind of a new trade association thatwas in its infancy, he explained. “Backin December, my paint rep walked intoour shop and asked me if I was going tobe attending a meeting of the newLouisiana Collision Industry Associa-tion (LaCIA) and I told him I hadn’theard about it. So, on December 5, Iwalked into their meeting in BatonRouge and I was surprised to see over200 people there. In my experience,people in this industry tend towork against each other, butwhen I walked into that roomand listened to what everyonesaid, a light bulb went on inmy head. Hey, a lot of us arein the same boat, I thought!”
After the LaCIA’s Janu-ary meeting, there was aquestion and answer sessionand that’s when Cantrelleshared his brilliant idea withthe membership in attendance. “Afterseeing my 14-year-old daughter (Ash-ley) on her cell phone texting herfriends, I realized that we can use thissocial media to help the organizationand each other,” he said. “All thesekids now are on Facebook, Instagramand Twitter every day communicatingwith [their peer group], so why can’tbody shops do the same thing?”
Cantrelle is not a techie andsurely not a social media expert, buthe knows that communication andnetworking can be powerful if usedproperly, he said. “It’s all about com-municating with the tools we’ve got.I remember way back when theystarted telling us about personalcomputers and programs like CCCand Mitchell. Lots of us didn’t knowanything about computers and nowthey’re in front of us every day. Wecan go to Twitter and communicateback and forth and get answers rightaway—at our fingertips.”
Cantrelle is using Twitter to callout insurance adjusters that want todeny when it comes to repair processesthey don’t want to reimburse. “If an in-surance company comes in here nowand says we don’t pay for this or that,all I have to do is say let’s stop righthere and ask these shops in Americaabout whether they ask for this sup-plement or not,” Cantrelle said.
“It freaks them out, to be honest.Mitchell and CCC are also on Twitter,so they can answer the question too, ifthey want to. I want them on there, be-cause that way they’re accountable aswell. The repair procedures are rightthere listed on CCC and Mitchell, so ifit’s there, it should be paid for.”
Cantrelle used to have severalDRPs, but no more, he explained. “I’mdone with it and now they’re steering
us away to other shops,” he said. “Idon’t think they’re happy with theTwitter thing and I’m certain that theydo not love the idea of it all being dis-played on a TV in my front office. It’salso gaining momentum, because wenow have more than 100 followers onTwitter and body shops are joiningevery day. There are now folks fromthe United Kingdom and all over thecountry that have joined us and I’m as-tonished by all the people that aregoing through the same thing and re-ally care.”
Alysia Hanks is the executive di-rector at LaCIA and an administratorat Lakeway Collision Center in Man-deville, LA. She strongly believes thatCantrelle’s use of Twitter is an ingen-ious and perfectly timed idea, formany reasons. “I’m all for using so-cial media, because it’s a great way tokeep connected to our members, otherbody shops throughout the countryand other state associations,” she said.“We always want to be networking, sothat we know what’s out there and beready for the next thing. We talked toother state associations and one of themain problems they encountered wasa lack of communication, so thingslike Facebook and Twitter can keep usin the loop.”
Hanks appreciates the trans-parency and accountability of the way
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 37
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Louisiana Shop Owner Uses Twitter to Survey Other Shops in Real Time
Abel Cantrelle saw his 14-year-old daughter Ashleytweeting one day and came up with the idea of usingTwitter to survey other shops on repair compensationin real time
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The whole shop is on Twitter
Cantrelle is using Twitter. “We’re tak-ing to it the insurance companies, be-cause it’s been too long,” she said.“We’re not doing this to start a fightand we’re not intending to start a law-suit. We just want the body shops inthis state to know that we’re here, towork together and make a better busi-ness environment for all of us.”
A man on a mission, Cantrellewants body shops at a national levelto get involved in what he calls, “thisTwitter thing.”
“If we could get, say, 800 to 1,000shops on this thing,” Cantrelle said,“Well, now, we would have somethingreally special. Since I don’t have anyDRPs, I’m not afraid of telling the truth.One of my first tweets was ‘Enough isenough—I’m tired of working for free,’and everybody loved it.”
“Last week, we did a car and theypaid me for the seam sealer and everysingle process I had to do. I tell any in-surer if there is a process I’m not doingon a vehicle, I will pay you back. I willprove everything I’m doing. We’re tak-ing pictures of every single thing now.”
“One big insurer told me some ofthese shops in the backyard willcharge for this and this, and I say doyour job and go catch them and find
them not doing those things and makethem pay you back. I recently wrote acar for $5,040 and State Farm wrotean estimate for $2,800, threw it on mydesk and ran. I made them come backout, rewrite it and go over it with meand they ended up writing the sameestimate as me.”
By telling the collision worldabout his new communication tool andprocess, Cantrelle hopes other shopswill join Twitter and realize it’s a greatway to know what other shops in otherparts of the country are dealing with.
“If everyone [joined Twitter], thescreen would be popping and jumping,”Cantrelle says. But when you’re in Mis-sissippi and I can tweet, ‘I have a Pro-gressive guy [for example] here andhe’s telling me shops aren’t charging forthis or that,’ and then ask, ‘Are youcharging for this?’ and they say, ‘Yes,’ Ican look at the Progressive guy and say,‘Well, there’s your answer.’
“United we stand, divided we fall.If people don’t start joining hands, it’sgoing to get bad,” said Cantrelle.
To join Cantrelle’s Twitter feedgo to #advantageccinc. “Hop onboardand ask me a question,” he said. “If Ican’t answer it, somebody will be ableto and that’s the beauty of it!”
38 APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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On March 8, 2014, a group of fourvandals wearing masks resemblingthose of the band Kiss did an esti-mated $40,000 worth of damage toabout two dozen vehicles parked theMaaco Auto Body Shop in SaddleBrook, NJ.
The group can be seen on surveil-lance video jumping on hoods, spray-ing graffiti, and smashing in windows.Police said that the suspects appear tobe men in their teens or early 20s. Asurveillance camera sitting above aMercedes caught the men as they set towork, destroying it using metal pipes,shovels, spray paint, and a fire extin-guisher. The Mercedes is now in policecustody as they process it for prints.
Shop owner, Walter Karol, saidthat he had to tell many of his cus-tomers that their vehicles were now in
worse shape than when they droppedthem off for repairs. Karol said that hehas filed an insurance claim and is re-pairing the cars that were damaged.
So far, there is no motive in thecase and police are asking for help inidentifying the masked men, hopingto make this performance their last.Call the Saddle Brook Police Detec-tive Bureau at 1-201-587-2940 withany information.
‘Kiss Bandits’ Vandalize Cars at Body Shop inSaddle Brook, NJ, Doing $40K in Damage
CARSTAR to Address Industry Trendsat Colorado EventsCARSTAR Auto Body Repair Ex-perts will host two collision industryevents in Colorado that will allowbody shop owners to learn about thecritical business issues and trendsimpacting their businesses.
CARSTAR said the events,called Collision Industry Night, willbe lead by a group of the industry’stop professionals. The events willfeature the following speakers andtopics of discussion:
■ Kurtis Keala of Mitchell Interna-tional—Mobile Estimating Technol-ogy■ Ryan Cassella of Hertz—CarRental Technology■ Steve Witt of BASF—Repair Plan-ning■ Robert Foster of 3M—The Impactof Technology for Future Vehicles■ Chris Johns of FinishMaster—Collision Industry Overview■ David Byers of CARSTAR—In-surance Industry Trends
“When you’re an independentbody shop owner, it’s hard to take thetime to step away from your businessto look at longer-range changes anddevelopments in the industry,” said
Mark Algie, business developmentmanager for 3M Automotive After-market. “This Collision IndustryNight provides a great way to under-stand how the changing marketplacewill impact your business, and plannow for those changes.”
The first event will take placeMarch 4 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. atthe Embassy Suites Denver-TechCenter in Centennial, CO. The sec-ond event will take place March 5from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the SkySox Security Service Field in Col-orado Springs, CO.
“For any body shop owner whois looking to grow their business, ex-pand to an additional location, ortransition their ownership to the nextgeneration, this is an excellentevent,” said David Byers, CEO ofCARSTAR. “We’re joining with thetop professionals in the collision in-dustry to bring these events to localmarkets so owners have the opportu-nity to explore the major issues,trends and solutions in our changingindustry.”
Body shop owners interested inparticipating can contact MikeDavids at [email protected].
www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 39
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