Sw 1113 issue web

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

In July 2013, Michael Bradshaw, VPof Operations at K&M Collision inHickory, NC, was victorious in a court-ordered arbitration against Nationwidefor a short-pay lawsuit filed on behalfof a body shop customer. We wanted toknow what’s happened since.

The underpayments were deter-mined to be reasonable and necessaryrepair costs, but the problem contin-ues as Bradshaw reports that this issueis an ongoing and common with sev-eral specific insurers, including Na-tionwide and GEICO.

Currently, Bradshaw is pursuingsix short-pay cases against Nationwide,three against GEICO, and one againstAllstate. Still, his pursuit of full pay-ment has not yet impacted these insur-ers’ practices. Bradshaw notes, “theycome out and refuse to pay for thesame things they just lost. Their atti-tude is ‘sue us again,’ and I do.”

On a positive note, Bradshawsays that some other insurers who areaware of his short-pay cases have“chosen to do the right thing and paythe full repair bill because they knowthey’ll get tied up in the same litiga-

See Bradshaw Shortpays, 3

NC Shop Won Short-Pay Arbitration in July,Have There Been Changes or Consequences?

by Ed Attanasio

Throughout the years, body shopsowners all over the country have runfor political office and institutedchanges at the local and national level.People have said that the skills accu-mulated while running a body shopcan easily transfer into politics. By ne-gotiating on a daily basis with insur-ance companies, coordinating literallythousands of details monthly andworking with a crew consisting of awide range of distinct personalities,collision professionals are well-suitedfor public office, according to DougConner, the owner of Conner Bros.Collision Centers in Richmond, VA.,an MSO consisting of four locations.

Conner, 69, started painting carswhen he was 17 and worked for localcar dealerships for roughly 15 years.He started his very own shop in 1976with the help of his wife Jean and hisbrother Donnie, another painter.

“I worked for another shop tolearn the business and then got thenerve to start my own,” Connerchuckled. “We signed a three-year

lease and werejust hoping to getsome cars in hereat the beginning.During the firstsix months, wedidn’t know if wewere coming orgoing, to be hon-est. Our originallocation was 3,000square feet. It wasa long building, soif we parked themside-by-side, wecould maybe get atotal of six cars in

the shop at one time. But, eventually,we saved about $10,000 and pur-chased some land close to our origi-nal shop. After our lease expired, webuilt our first shop. We never neededto borrow any money, which was veryfortunate.”

Today Conner is semi-retiredwith his two sons Kevin and Alanrunning his shops, after serving twoterms as a councilman of the ninth

Virginia Shop Owner Says Collision Repair isEasy Compared to Politics

See Collision v Politics, Page 22

MSO owner DougConner served twoterms as a council-man in Richmond,VA, and is proud ofthe things he didfor the city, eventhough he ran intocomplacency and alot of red tape

NACE 2013 Proceeds As Expected, Eyes Turn to Revitalized Show in Detroit in 2014To no one’s sur-prise, the 2013NACE exhibitionwas a downsizedevent from previ-ous years, but theLas Vegas-venuemay have been themost appropriatelaunching pad forwhat is expected tobe a revitalizedNACE event in De-troit next summer.

Attendance has been down forthe past three years, with a slight

uptick for the 2011 show in Orlando,FL. This year’s event saw another at-tendance dip, which ASA ExecutiveDirector Dan Risley says was ex-pected.

There were significant successesat the 2013 show such as a popularkeynote by industry veteran Mike An-derson and the MSO Symposiumwhich has been growing in atten-dance,

Mike Anderson kicked off the2013 NACE Expo with a keynotespeech entitled “The Future Is Not Setin Stone” at the Opening General Ses-sion/Collision Industry Forum.

Anderson’s familiar audience en-gagement techniques were on displayas he employed humor, moving per-sonal annecdotes, and even his

Tourette’s syndrome ticks, as modelsand metaphors for perseverance, unityand action in the industry.

See NACE 2013, Page 4

Mike Andersonbrought his trade-mark mix of humor,experience, consul-tation, and evangel-ism to the NACEkeynote address.

Autobody News Associations Issue covering some national and local associations from other regions. See pp. 6, 10, 16, 18, 22, 24 & 46.In the Spring, we’ll publish updates on other associations throughout the country. Tell us about your favorite Collision Repair Associations.

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A Frame Paint Booths . . . . . . . . . . . 16Absolute Mitsubishi-Hyundai . . . . . 43Accudraft Paint Booths . . . . . . . . . . . 4AutoMax Hyundai Del City . . . . . . . . 6BASF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 47Car-Part Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Certified Automotive PartsAssociation (CAPA). . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chevyland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Chief Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Classic BMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Dallas Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56David McDavid Auto Group . . . . . . 11Dent Tools Direct USA . . . . . . . . . . 14Don Carlton Auto Group. . . . . . . . . 31Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Finnegan Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . . 2Ford Wholesale Parts DealersTX, OK, LA, NM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Forklift Wrecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Fowler Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 50Honda-Acura Wholesale PartsDealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-29

Houston Auto Body Association. . . 44Huffines Chrysler-Jeep-DodgeLewisville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Huffines Hyundai Plano . . . . . . . . . 48Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . 45

Intertape Polymer Group . . . . . . . . 20KBS Coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers. 41LKQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Malco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 53Mercedes-Benz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Mike Calvert Toyota. . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Mitchell International. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers. 49MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 33North Freeway Hyundai . . . . . . . . . 36Ray Huffines Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . 30Reliable Chevrolet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Replica Plastics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Sartorius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13, 25SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . 17Scoggin-Dickey Buick . . . . . . . . . . 38South Pointe Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge. 19Sherwin-Williams AutomotiveFinishes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26, 27

Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 53Toyota of Fort Worth . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Toyota of Laredo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 51Valspar Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Volkswagen Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Volvo Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 52Walcom USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Young Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Inde

xofAdvertisers

ContentsREGIONAL3M’s Hire our Heroes Campaign Has

NASCAR’s Greg Biffle in the Driver’s Seat . 14ASA Houston Boosts Helena Brown

for City Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Austin Native Returns Home to Keep Auto

Glass Business in the Family . . . . . . . . . 9HABA Endorses Allen Fletcher for

Representative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Louisiana Dept of Insurance Says Over

63% of Complaints are FromProperty-Casualty Insurance . . . . . . . . . 12

Pull-A-Part Acquires El Paso BasedMega U Pull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Ram 1500 Once Again is the ‘Truck ofTexas’ Named by the Texas AutoWriters Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Service King Acquires Tri CountyCollision Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

COLUMNISTSAttanasio - Do Ad Specialties (“Swag”)

Really Make an Impression? . . . . . . . . 42Attanasio - I-CAR Instructor Looks Back

at 20 Years in the Business . . . . . . . . . 30Franklin - Take 15 Seconds to Think about

Putting Marketing Ideas to Work. . . . . . 44I-CAR Tech - New Honda “Body Repair

News” Publication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Insurance Insider - Cycle Time is

Money for Everyone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Yoswick - November Retrospective on

the Collision Repair Industry. . . . . . . . . 32

NATIONALA Profile of the Evolving Collision Repair

Marketplace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36AAPEX Learning Forum Amps Up Business

Selling Skills to Benefit Buyers . . . . . . . 54AASPI Board of Directors Releases

Statement Denouncing PartsTraderMandates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

AASP-MN Files Formal Complaint withState Dept of Commerce Re PartsTrader Mandates in Minnesota . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

ABAC’s Decade-Long Battle Againstthe Hartford Insurance Co. . . . . . . . . . . 24

Allstate Plans to Increase its MAWorkforce by 130 Agents . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Allstate Says Usage-BasedInsurance Increasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

ASA Ohio Writes to State Farm’s CEOEd Rust Jr. Opposing InsurerMandated Parts Ordering . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

ASA-AZ Surveys Wholesale Parts Dealerson PartsTrader Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

AudaExplore™ Introduces GoTime Lineof Driver Focused Mobile Solutions . . . 45

Auto Data Direct Adds 3 New Statesto Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Autobytel Acquires Assets ofAdvanced Mobile LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

BASF Joins ASA as NewestCorporate Member. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

BMW Asks California Court to Strike ClassAction in Leaking Sunroof Case . . . . . . 49

Bob Stevenson Joins Carbench . . . . . . . . 50CAPA Tops 60M Certified Parts . . . . . . . . 50CARSTAR Opens First Shop in

Jacksonville, FL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Choice Autobody Repair Association

Advocates for Both Consumersand Repairers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Consumer Groups Go to Court toForce Obama Administration’sHand on Back-Up Cameras . . . . . . . . . 53

Faces of NACE 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Independent Garage Owners of

North Carolina Pushes Ahead . . . . . . . 10Lincoln Electric Announces New

Welding Devices/Lifters . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Memphis Dealership Gets 1st Full

Allstate Office on Site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Memphis-area Auto Glass Replacement

Hit by Halt to Vehicle RegistrationInspections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

NACE 2013 Proceeds As Expected, EyesTurn to Revitalized Show in Detroit in 2014 . 1

NC Shop Won Short-Pay Arbitrationin July, Have There Been Changesor Consequences?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

NHTSA Recommends Back UpCameras for New Cars. . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Overall Parts Solutions is aNABC Top Level Member . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Rate of Auto Production Leads to PoorerVehicle Quality According to Ford’sGlobal Purchasing Chief. . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Rhode Island’s Don Cushing WearsMultiple Hats in Parts Wholesaleand Auto Body Associations . . . . . . . . 16

SCRS Adds Consolidation Tracks toSEMA Repairer Driven Education . . . . . 51

SEMA Supports Ban of E15 . . . . . . . . . . . 51Sherwin-Williams Adds Full Feature

Claims Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Sumpter County, SC, Continental

Tire Plant Ready to Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Tennessee CRA Advances Professionalism

& Consumer Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Todd Chizmar on I-CAR Board . . . . . . . . . 50Tru-Way’s New Website, Data . . . . . . . . . 50Urethane Supply Company Offers

New Welding System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50US Auto SAAR to Hit 16.4M, Highest

Level Since 2006. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Virginia Shop Owner Says Collision Repair

is Easy Compared to Politics . . . . . . . . . 1Virginia-Based Automotive Recycling

Association Does More Than Greenthe Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

WIN Announces Opening of Most Influential Women Nominations for 2014, Gala tobe Held in San Diego . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2013 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

Welcome to our Associations Issue which will run in the fall and spring in future. In addition to covering national tradeshows like NACE and SEMA, Autobody News is dedicated to providing

regular coverage of regional auto body and vendor associations. We hope you like the coverage here.

Autobody News is pleased to announce that, beginning in November 2013, we have expanded our circulation into

eight additional states.

These states are North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia—in our Southeast Edition—and Connecticut, Massa-

chusetts, Rhode Island and Maryland—in our Northeast Edition.

This expansion will enable us to reach out to thousands of “new” body shops and provide coverage of these states'

regional auto body association activities and industry events.

Our readers continue to tell us that our coverage of regional industry news keeps them informed about what’s going on locally and what other associations are doing nationwide.

Get in touch with us at [email protected] if you havea regional article or event that you’d like the rest of the

collision community to know about.

elcome to sociai titions Issu to our Ass ueWe h will run in the fa which all e

Is Expanding to New ReadersIs Expanding to New ReadersIs Expanding to New Readers

“We get caught up in how muchthings cost, in Parts Trader, in cycletime, and we forget that what mattersis how we fix the car,” Anderson said.“When the industry gets a black eye, itaffects every single person [in it].”

“With insurers, they try to comein our industry and do things to us andnot with us,” he said, citing his experi-ence living briefly in Hawaii where hewas counseled about developing amore colobarative style while teach-ing.

At the conclusion of his talk An-derson was honored with the 2013 JoeJackson Industry Champion Award,presented by Axalta Coating Systems,which recognizes collision repairers ex-hibiting outstanding leadership, charityor humanitarian works.

MSO SymposiumThe largest Multi-Shop Operator(MSO) Symposium to date was heldon Oct. 16 and provided a strong drawto the shops in attendance. It attracteda sold-out crowd of 275 MSOs.

“We had the combined benefit ofcollision repairers and capital marketleaders, as well as expert speakers onleadership and decision-making con-tribute to our interactive event that fo-cused on the current and future stateof the U.S. collision repair industry,”said Vincent Romans, The RomansGroup, producer of the MSO Sympo-sium. (See p. 36 this issue for the Ro-mans Group Profile of the EvolvingCollision Repair Marketplace.)

The MSO Symposium was fullfrom start to finish. Several attendeescommented it was the main reasonthey came to Las Vegas for the con-vention and a few described the eventas a kind of speed dating process inwhich some smaller MSOs vied for at-tention from the four big players in at-tendance.

“All the major players were repre-sented at this year’s MSO Symposiumand the room was a veritable ‘who’swho’ list,” says Ron Nagy, AAM, ofNagy’s Collision Specialists. “This eventcontinues to deliver.”

“The representation from bothlarge and small MSOs at the symposiumprovided a good view of the changinglandscape occurring within the industryon an almost daily basis,” says FrankLaViola, Assistant Vice President at En-terprise Rent-A-Car. “These changes

will undoubtedly affect all the con-stituents within the industry and helpsus all be better prepared to tackle thesechanges.”

“The attendance at the MSO wasstrong and key MSOs were well-rep-resented,” says Shelton Byrd, Sales

Executive Western Region, MitchellInternational. “The overlying mes-sage of the panel discussion was theimportance of recruiting talented peo-ple and fostering their growth.”

Stone Fort Takes Over the ShowMajor changes will occur in the showmanagement with Stone Fort Grouptaking over the NACE-CARS showfrom current show operator HanleyWood Exhibitions, who has managedthe show for the past 13 years. StoneFort Group offers an experiencedteam to provide conference manage-ment, sales and marketing for NACEand CARS 2014, and will workclosely with the association in a simi-lar capacity to Hanley Wood, who willnow concentrate on the trade showsthat they own.

Stone Fort Group co-foundersSean Guerre and Brian Nessen have 20years of trade show and conference ex-perience, and reportedly have broaderinternational marketing reach thanHanley Wood.

NABC Presented Three VehiclesThe “First Responder Emergency Ex-trication” presentation was deliveredby the Clark County Fire Department

from Henderson, NV, who conductedlive emergency extrication techniqueson late model vehicles. The NABC’sRecycled Rides presentations featuredthree vehicles donated to local com-munity organizations targeting thosein need. The first was a speciallyequipped, handicap-accessible vanthat has been repaired by Gerber Col-lision and donated by State Farm In-surance. The van was donated to theFoundation for Positively Kids andwill be used to transport medically-challenged children so that they canreceive the medical care they need.

NABC also hosted the presentationof two vehicles donated by Allstate In-surance and repaired independently byCaliber Collision and the Van TuylGroup. The vehicles were donated tothe Nevada Partnership for HomelessYouths.

I-CAR PresentationsI-CAR offered three technical presen-tations of its “Repairability TechnicalSupport” initiative, designed to helpbridge the information gap betweenthe repair industry and vehicle manu-facturers. I-CAR hopes to improve in-dustry access to technical repairknowledge, address gaps in repair pro-

cedures, and enhance industry techni-cal communication with OEMs. “Ve-hicle Maker Repair Information andI-CAR Technical Support,” stressedthe importance of OEM repair proce-dures, how to access information on-line and various resources availablewhen accessing them. “Today’s Ad-vanced Vehicle Construction Materi-als & Safety Systems,” focused on theadvanced materials used by car mak-ers and how those materials affect therepair process now and in the future.“Advanced Joining Methods–Under-standing OEM Procedures and RepairProcesses” covered important repairinformation on advanced joining tech-nologies, which ones to use in differ-ent situations, and how to replaceparts following OEM recommenda-tions. All presentations were led byJason Bartanen, I-CAR director ofindustry technical relations, andJamie Boettcher, instructional de-signer and trainer.

NACE and CARS 2014 will takeplace July 29-Aug. 2 at the Cobo Cen-ter in Detroit, MI, and will be co-lo-cated with I-CAR and CIC.

To learn more about NACE, visitwww.ASAshop.org or call (800) 272-7467, ext. 361.


Mike Anderson (l) receives the Joe JacksonIndustry Champion Award from Axalta’sMichael Bennett

Continued from Cover

NACE 2013

Fred Schultz, CEO of Positively Kids, acceptsHandicap-Accessible Van donation

Consumers play a vital role in the col-lision repair industry—and educatedconsumers are the best customers.Choice Autobody Repair Association(CARA) recognizes the importance ofeducated consumers as customers andbelieves that trade associations helprepairers perform better for their cus-tomers. In fact, President Rick Finneyexplains CARA’s mission as “to edu-cate the consumers of the collision in-dustry, educate the consumers on theirrights, so that if they are ever involved

in an automobileaccident, they (theconsumer) canmake an educateddecision on whothey want repair-ing their automo-bile. Give back thechoice to the cus-

tomer about who repairs their vehicle.Make the consumers the decisionmaker!”

CARA is a non-profit associationdedicated to educating consumers,and they believe “it is their choicewho repairs their vehicle. We’re notanti-DRP or anti-insurance—we’resimply pro-consumer. We want to em-power the motoring public with theconfidence that it’s their opportunity,right and power to make you theirchoice.”

CARA was established in late2005 when Finney and several othershop owners in the Ohio Valley de-cided to form their own, consumer-based organization. “We felt that itwas very important the consumerswere aware of their rights after beinginvolved in an automobile accident.We have had a very good responsefrom our consumer awareness cam-paign.”

Though CARA is based in OH,they are actually a national associa-tion with members throughout theUS. They recently started a South-western Michigan chapter in BattleCreek, MI, plus they are planning toadd many more chapters throughoutthe country in the near future. Cur-rently, CARA has around 50 mem-bers, and they offer both associateand corporate memberships, each ofwhich features various benefits, such

as discounts on BASF managementtraining, Collision Billing Servicesand a plethora of other purchasingdiscounts. CARA also makes docu-

mentation available to members, andthey distribute informational fliers toconsumers.

One of CARA’S most importantgoals right now is to strengthen the as-sociation by attracting new members.Finney notes, “Whenever I talk to ashop owner, managers, etc., I hear thesame issues, no matter where the per-son that I talk to is from. Ohio, Michi-gan, Florida or California, the sameissues. We need to attract new mem-bership so that we can better addressthe issues that we are business ownersface on a daily basis.”

Other goals include continuing toaddress industry issues by workingwith other associations to share infor-mation and ideas, in addition to im-proving matters for their members andtheir customers. Finney “would like toshow our membership that we need toregain control of our business as wellas our customer base.”

With so many lofty aspirations, itis no surprise that one of the biggestchallenges CARA faces, like manyother associations, is dealing with thecost of maintaining operations. Finneyelaborates, “we have many issues thatwe need to address, and like anythingelse, it takes time and money. In myopinion, we as an industry need tostart meeting more often with variousagencies on a consistent basis andbring to their attention what some ofthe issues are that our membershipfaces in their daily business practices.I would personally like to meet withthe automobile manufacturers, paintmanufacturers and departments of in-surance.”

In addition to growing their asso-ciation with new members, CARA isalso in the process of schedulingmeetings to address some of the is-sues plaguing the industry, such as theissues related to purchasing paint ma-terials. Addressing the ongoing con-

troversy of PartsTrader, Finney asks,“what is the benefit for shop ownersand their customers? PartsTrader isjust another way for an outside entityto control your business. In my opin-ion, this is bad for our industry, pe-riod!”

Finney believes that Right to Re-pair is a consumer issue, and “everyconsumer has the right to have theirvehicle repaired wherever theychoose. Having said that, as shopowners, we believe we should haveaccess to the information so that wemay be able to properly repair ourconsumer’s vehicle as well.”

When asked about CARA’sstance on the PARTS Act, Finneynotes, “I have read in a consumer re-ports issue that consumer groups esti-mate the cost of collision repairswould raise by 1 billion a year, na-tionally, and consumers would footthat bill through their insurance pre-miums. It is my understanding that

when the insurance industry calculatesthe cost to the consumer, they are cal-culated with the repairs installing newOEM parts.

As far as the aftermarket partsissue, we keep hearing they areguaranteed to fit and have a lifetimewarranty. I believe we would all liketo hear how they must be crashtested and be subjected to the sametesting as the OEM parts are sub-jected to.”

Overall, CARA’s viewpoint onmany industry issues reverts back totheir mission statement and their be-lief that is should be the consumer’schoice as to who repairs their vehicle,as is inherent in the very name of theassociation.

CARAPO Box 392Cadiz, OH 43907740-942-3107www.c-a-r-a.org


888-974-8767 405.606.4446 fax

[email protected]

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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].

Rick Finney


Service King Collision Repair Centersannounced that it has acquired Tri CountyCollision Center of New Braunfels,Texas, which serves Comal, Guadalupeand Bexar counties. “We’re looking for-ward to partnering with a company witha rich history in New Braunfels like TriCounty Collision Center,” said JeremyLennox, market vice president –SouthTexas, Service King. “Their commitmentto innovation, quality auto body repairsand customer satisfaction aligns withService King’s values and gives us greatconfidence that this will be a successfulopportunity for our growing team inSouth Texas.” Service King currently has13 locations in the San Antonio market,but this will be the first in New Braunfels.“We’re expanding our talented group ofteammates as well as expanding our foot-print in the South Texas region,” saidService King CEO Chris Abraham.“The Tri County team is now a part of theService King family, and we take greatpride in blending our rich cultures andvalues. We are committed to carrying thetorch of their pristine reputation in thelocal community and providing growthand opportunity for our new teammates.”Service King now has more than 80 lo-cations in Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi,Tennessee and Texas.

Service King Acquires TriCounty Collision Center

Atlanta-based Pull-A-Part, LLC(www.pullapart.com) which servesthe do-it-yourself, used auto partsmarket, has acquired the El Paso lo-cation of Mega U Pull, a self-serviceauto recycling yard.

The new El Paso location is thesecond Pull-A-Part operation in Texas,following its acquisition of the U-Pull-It Auto Parts location in Brownsville,Texas. The acquisition of Mega U Pull,part of the Pull-A-Part long-termgrowth strategy, increases the com-pany’s holdings to a total of 26 usedauto parts superstores in 12 states.

“The addition of Mega U Pullin El Paso to our growing networkof stores expands our presence in thesouthwestern market and supportsthe Pull-A-Part strategy of acquiringoutstanding, existing operations orselectively developing greenfield lo-cations across the country,” saidRoss Kogon, President and ChiefExecutive Officer of Pull-A-Part.“Pull-A-Part looks forward to serv-ing more new customers in Texasand being a part of the dynamic ElPaso community,” Kogon said.

Pull-A-Part Acquires El PasoBased Mega U Pull

The Houston Auto Body Associationand the Automotive Service Admin-istration are endorsing Allen Fletcherin the upcoming elections. AllenFletcher is the State Rep that intro-duced HB500 and was a key playerin getting this Bill passed last leg-islative session. Before this bill waspassed the independent auto me-chanic and body shops were payinghigher the rate (1%) for their Fran-chise taxes than the Dealer ownedauto mechanic and body shops.House Bill 500 allows the sameFranchise tax rate (0.5%) as thedealer owned counterparts. This Billis going to save the independentshops millions of dollars a year intaxes. We want to strongly urgeeveryone to put this date on their cal-endar and come out to support AllenFletcher. Says the campaign, “Sup-port us in the re-election of AllenFletcher. Join us for family fun, food,and music. October 19th from 3pm -7pm, Tin Hall: 14800 Tin Hall Rd,Cypress, TX, 77429. Hosted By:Johnny Bang/Johnny Bang’s Bangand Bump Shop, Automotive ServiceAdministration, Houston Auto BodyAssociation. To RSVP, please contactSharon at (281) 798-5931.

HABA Endorses AllenFletcher for Representative

The ASA Houston Chapter is askingmembers to support Helena Brownin her run for City Council for Dis-trict A. In their endorsement, ASAsays, “In 2012, the City of Houstontried to pass new regulations on ourshops that could result in new re-quirements for paperwork and finesstarting at $500 per paperwork vio-lation, plus hundreds of hours oflost shop time due to delays in pro-cessing customer work orders. He-lena Brown, Council Member ofDistrict A was one of leaders in CityCouncil who truly helped us infighting Chapter 8-22. She assistedus greatly in speaking out, organiz-ing public meetings to these regula-tions that would have been bad forshop owners and bad for our cus-tomers. As the City continues tolook for new ways to tax and regu-late businesses, we cannot let downour guard. That’s why we are ask-ing you to join us in supporting ourfriend Helena Brown for HoustonCity Council District A. Please joinwith us, other shop owners andmanagers by supporting an upcom-ing fundraiser or make your contri-bution by credit card, at:www.helenabrown.com/contribute.htm

ASA Houston Boosts HelenaBrown for City Council

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Terry Schmidt, a 52-year-old Austinnative, has returned to his home townafter living in the Twin Cities, MN,area for a number of years workingwith a family business. He’s the newowner of Viking Auto Glass &Bumper, which was owned and oper-ated by his cousin Fred Schmidt formore than 30 years.

Schmidt’s family owns variousbusinesses throughout town, as his fa-ther ran the Theissen Signs shop formany years. Terry worked for his fa-ther for two years, in 1992 and 1993,and also ran his own neon sign com-pany. Yet, he spent most of his time asa welder-turned-salesman in the Min-neapolis-St. Paul area.

He didn’t think he would comeback to Austin after living in the Citiesfor so long, but a phone call from Fredearlier this year caused him to recon-sider. Fred was considering retirementand asked if Terry would take over theauto glass repair and auto supply busi-ness, “to keep it in the family.” He of-ficially took over the business in June.

A Normandale Communitiy Col-lege graduate in business manage-

ment, Terry said he’s well-acquaintedwith the business and hopes to expandViking’s customer base. He employstwo part-time glass repair technicians

at the moment, but he hopes to hireone or two more employees within ayear. In addition, he plans to expandhis auto shop supply inventory — hecarries paints, sanding supplies, thin-ners, fillers, and putties, among otherthings — and expand his sales routesto auto repair shops in southeasternMinnesota and northern Iowa.


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The Automotive Service Associationof Ohio (ASA Ohio) has sent a letterto State Farm CEO Ed Rust Jr., ex-pressing the association’s oppositionagainst any insurer-mandated parts or-dering system.

In the letter, ASA Ohio PresidentJoe Sanfillipo III explaines the asso-ciation’s concerns surrounding StateFarm’s new policy, which requires allcollision repair shops participating inits Select Service program to elec-tronically order parts through Part-sTrader LLC.

After a brief pilot program wastried in various locations throughoutthe country, it has been reported thatState Farm intends to complete a na-tionwide rollout of the plan by the endof 2014. ASA Ohio carefully reviewedthe information available on StateFarm’s new parts procurement man-date and held open sessions to discussthe proposal. After reviewing the pro-gram and hearing concerns from ASAOhio members, it was determined thatthe State Farm mandate has the poten-tial to disrupt the relationship betweenautomotive repair facilities and their

parts vendors. Furthermore, the letterdescribes that the added influence thatsuch a mandate would give State Farmover collision repair market pricingwould have a negative impact on re-pair facilities’ operations and wouldtake even more control away from au-tomotive repair professionals.

The letter explains that the mostefficient method of ordering parts isin a free market system. Disruptingthis process through a single man-dated system will negatively affect therelationship repair professionals havedeveloped with their customers, whohave trusted them to service their ve-hicles.

In its letter, ASA Ohio encour-ages State Farm to offer the onlineparts ordering system to its SelectService network on a voluntary basis.Should the electronic platform proveto be efficient and improve the auto-motive repair process, then ‘certainly’the industry would adopt the program.

ASA Ohio Writes to State Farm’s CEO Ed Rust Jr.Opposing Insurer Mandated Parts Ordering

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The Independent Garage Owners ofNorth Carolina (IGONC) recently heldtheir annual Automotive Service &Technology Expo the weekend of Sep-tember 27–29, 2013 at the EmbassySuites Hotel and Convention Center inCary, NC. According to Executive Di-rector Bob Pulverenti, the event wentwell with around 200–250 attendees,but most were from the mechanicalside of the association as IGONC hashad a more difficult time getting colli-sion shops and their vendors involved.

IGONC does their best to put to-gether useful seminars, and this year’sevent featured 14 seminars on man-

agement and busi-ness related topics.Pulverenti believesthese types of in-dustry events areimportant. Theypresent a good net-working opportu-nity for shop

owners to meet and work together,plus they provide a casual setting forinteracting with vendors and suppliers.

Pulverenti would like to see morecollision repairers involved with theexposition but, he says, “it’s likepulling teeth to get the shop ownersand technicians to come.” He notesthat even the monthly seminars put onat the I-CAR training facility inIGONC’s office are not well attendedby local collision shops. In fact, gen-erating interest and participation is oneof the biggest challenges his associa-tion faces.

Because people can research on-line and obtain a good portion of theirinformation that way, many no longersee the value of associations, accord-ing to Pulverenti, “but we still have apurpose and fulfill a need.” Despitethese challenges, IGONC has beenable to maintain their membership,though they haven’t seen much growthsince the recession began. While theyhad planned to expand into SC and VAin 2008, economic difficulties inhib-ited those plans, but they still hope toexpand into those neighboring statesonce the economy improves.

IGONC is North Carolina’slargest member-sponsored, non-profitassociation servicing the automotive

repair, service and collision industry. Itwas established in 1959 by a group ofgarage owners with the goal of help-ing members deal with the challenges

facing their industry. Originally namedthe Independent Garage Owners ofAmerica which eventually becameASA affiliated, but over time, theyended their affiliation with ASA andhave since become associated withSCRS and AASP. Pulverenti notes,“everything changes over time, and wehave to reinvent ourselves constantly,but I still feel like we’re a relativelystrong group compared to other asso-ciations.”

According to their mission state-ment, IGONC exists “to help makeNC’s independent garage owners theabsolute best in the country.” They un-dertake the distribution of the most up-to-date information on automotiverepair and business practices, protect-ing members from unfavorable leg-islative initiatives, and by buildingproductive relations between mem-bers, vendors and consumers.

Though IGONC membershippeaked in the mid-1980s with around1000 members, they have managed tomaintain around 550 membersthroughout the economic crisis of thepast decade. Pulverenti believes this isdue to creating a positive perception ofwhat the association does, such as pro-viding vendor benefits, education, in-formation and training. IGONC alsoplays a role in legislative matters onbehalf of their members, such as whenthey participated in a rally for Right toRepair several years ago in the nation’scapital.

Short-term, IGONC’s goals are tocontinue providing information tomembers and to seek benefits to helpput money back in garage owners’

pockets. They also constantly monitorlegislation, mostly locally but also on anational scale when necessary. Goingforward, they plan to focus more oneducational initiatives and to look atindustry trends to determine how theycan best serve their members and theautomotive repair industry asa whole.

Since IGONC recentlywrapped up their annual expo,they do not have much on thedocket right now. According toPulverenti, IGONC has a re-pair shop licensing bill they’dlike to introduce when theysense the timing is more fa-vorable.

Pulverenti notes that in-stituting legislation is one ofthe largest challenges facing the in-dustry today. “Sometimes, legislatorswill introduce a bill, thinking they’redoing good for one or two constituentswho complained, but they don’t really

understand what they’re introducing orhow it impacts the industry, whether ina positive or negative way.” He findsit frustrating because, even if IGONCcompiles documentation, they arelucky to get an audience with legisla-tors who do not have the time or inter-

est to get involved, and he believes theonly solution is for people from this in-dustry to become legislators so theyunderstand the challenges collision re-


Independent Garage Owners of North Carolina Pushes Ahead

See IGONC, Page 14

with Chasidy Rae SiskSoutheast Associations


Thomas Richard at the Regional Auto Center,Greensboro, NC

Clint Rogers of Triangle Collision in Morrisville, NC

Bob Pulverenti


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For the third time in four years, theRam 1500 has been named the Truckof Texas by the Texas Auto Writers As-sociation, retaining its 2012 title andbeating out the redesigned ChevroletSilverado.

Ram and the rest of the ChryslerGroup took home 15 of 24 awards at theTexas Truck Rodeo, bringing home notonly Truck of the Year honors, but alsoSUV and full-size SUV of Texas in ad-dition to other awards last weekend.

The Texas Truck Rodeo is an an-nual event. This year, 61 pickups, SUVsand crossovers were put through rigor-ous testing.

Texas is often viewed as a majorsales and marketing battleground for U.S.

trucks and SUVs. A successful campaignin Texas is seen as a bellwether for na-tional success in those segments.

“Members of the Texas Auto Writ-ers Association have always enjoyedthe Texas Truck Rodeo,” MichaelMarrs, TAWA president said in a state-

ment “It’s a unique chance to comparevehicles back-to-back in a timely man-ner on the same course and providehonest, real-time feedback to our in-dustry partners.”

The newly redesigned Jeep GrandCherokee was named the SUV ofTexas —it also took home the awardfor best midsize SUV. The SummitEcoDiesel edition won the best mid-size luxury SUV title.

Full-size SUV honors were givento the Dodge Durango, while the JeepWrangler Sport was named the bestoff-road SUV.

The other members of the Detroit 3were not left out: Ford’s F-150 SVT Rap-tor was named the best off-road pickup

by the auto writers for the fifth consecu-tive year, while the GMC Terrain Denaliwon compact luxury SUV honors.

More than 40 members of theTexas Auto Writers Association wereon hand at the two-day event.

“The Ram, Jeep and Dodge brandsfrom Chrysler Group clearly impressedour TAWA members at this year’s event,”Marrs said in a statement. “There’s nodoubt that innovative powertrains, im-pressive designs and new technologiesare paying off for these brands.”

Ram won best luxury pickup withthe 1500 Laramie Longhorn, bestheavy-duty pickup with the 2500 HDand best commercial vehicle with theProMaster.

Ram 1500 Once Again is the ‘Truck of Texas’ Named by the Texas Auto Writers Association

Of the 1537 consumer complaints re-solved by the Louisiana Department ofInsurance (LDI) in the first half of2013, 983 were related to property andcasualty insurance.

Those complaints resulted inLouisiana insurance policyholders re-ceiving an additional $3.3 million ininsurance payments in the first half of2013 as a result of assistance from thedepartment. Louisiana Insurance Com-missioner Jim Donelon says these

funds are in addition to the originalamounts offered to consumers by theirinsurance companies and are the resultof LDI staff working with insurancecompanies to resolve complaints.

The average money additionalmoney received per complaint was$3,375

Overall, from all lines of insur-ance, the LDI received more than2,000 consumer inquiries and morethan 1,500 consumer complaints from

January through June 2013.“The experienced LDI staff can

assist consumers to secure additionalinsurance settlements when their par-ticular case warrants such action. Ourstaff can advise on when to file a com-plaint against an insurance companyand help resolve disputes with insur-ers,” said Insurance Commissioner JimDonelon. “We can assist in determin-ing what options are available to con-sumers when they are unsatisfied with

the resolution of a claim.”This amount is up from the first

half of 2012, when the LDI assistedconsumers in receiving more than $2.6million in additional insurance pay-ments stemming from consumer com-plaints.

For year-end 2012, insurance pol-icyholders received an additional $6.4million in payments by requesting as-sistance from the Louisiana Depart-ment of Insurance.

Louisiana Dept of Insurance Says Over 63% of Complaints are From Property-Casualty Insurance

Ram 1500

tion if they don’t.”In Bradshaw’s July victory against

Nationwide, the insurer’s short-paysincluded: labor rates ($48 Body & Re-finish, $80 Mechanical and $65Frame), procedures (i.e. sand and buff,final detail, road test, color tint and col-lision access time), invoiced paint &materials, sublet markup, fixture usageand a $250 Damage Analysis fee whichincluded a comprehensive part by partinspection of all components including:exterior panels, inner structure, me-chanical components and SRS and seatbelt systems. The award also includedstorage charges at a rate of $50 per dayfor the total amount of $2,506.98 plusaccrued interest until the insurer’s fullpayment is made.

“I’m glad the courts recognizedwhom the repair experts were.” saysBradshaw. “From the beginning I wasvery confident we would succeedthrough our legal system in provingall our charges to be both reasonableand necessary. For any insurer to ex-pect all shops to operate by the samerates, procedures and charges regard-

less of training, manufacturer certifi-cations, equipment and facilities is lu-dicrous. The fact is we have made acommitment to repairing vehiclesproperly, adhering strictly to all man-ufacturer repair methods and guide-lines and what we’re consistentlyfinding with some insurers is they carevery little about manufacturer certifi-cations and proper repairs and onlyabout bottom line cost and the cheap-est repairs possible. My Father (CEO)and I decided if we were going to stayin business and continue to repair ve-hicles properly we could no longer ac-cept insurer dictated repair costs. Wefound that short-pay litigation wasnecessary to stop insurer underpay-ments and provide our customers withthe factory certified repairs their pol-icy affords them.”

Bradshaw credited assistance andadvice from Erica Eversman, RayGunder, Barrett Smith and many otherindustry experts as well as his legal teamof Jason A. Orndoff and William E.Morgan for his legal victory.

Bradshaw admits that there arechallenges to pursuing short-paycases, such as the difficulty of waitingto receive the money rightfully owedto him. He also notes that there has

been a great deal of pushback fromcertain insurers who go out of theirway to steer customers to other shops.

“I hope our actions and resultsencourage other quality-minded re-pairers to seek similar actions againstthe less than ethical insurers. Welearned a great deal in this initial caseand I have had to embark on two morecases against Nationwide for short-pays in the amounts of $5,663.24 and$10,135.52. I’m confident we willprevail as I know we are in the right. Iknow such actions are necessary tostop such behavior and to best serveour community members, our em-ployees and our company,” Bradshawsaid. “We’ll continue to share our ef-forts with others so they may knowthat they no longer have to accept in-surer dictation of repairs, rates, mate-rials and charges.”

Bradshaw hopes that his victoriesin pursuing short-pay cases “will makeit easier for other shops to pursue them.Maybe we’ll even get to the pointwhere the insurance companies just dothe right thing instead of forcing shopsto pursue litigation in order to get paidwhat they are rightfully owed.”

For shop owners interested inpursuing a short-pay case, Bradshaw

advises you to start by finding aknowledgeable attorney who is will-ing to learn about the collision repairindustry and to consult with other at-torneys across the country. It is alsoimperative that you are “meticulous inyour documentation, especially the re-pair contract.”

Bradshaw believes that the solu-tion to preventing such lawsuits frombeing necessary is multi-faceted. First,it must begin by “educating shop own-ers and their personnel as it relates towhat is necessary for proper repairsand how to bill accordingly. Becausemany shops don’t do this, the oneswho do look like the bad guy to the in-surers.”

Next, more legislation is neededto dictate what the insurance compa-nies are required to do when paying fora claim. Finally, consumer educationis key; “we need to teach consumers topurchase proper insurance coveragefrom a carrier who will reimbursethem fairly in the event of a loss.”

One of Bradshaw’s suits againstNationwide involves a vehicle whichwas declared a total loss midwaythrough the repair, and Bradshaw is inthe midst of a battle to receive pay-ment for the work completed thus far.



Bradshaw Shortpays

At the NASCAR Sprint Cup race thisfall at Texas, NASCAR star Greg Bif-fle will be driving a No. 16 3M FordFusion with a strong force behind it –the power of the 3M Hire Our Heroesprogram.

Biffle’s No. 16 3M Hire Our He-roes Ford Fusion will feature a paintscheme created by legendary car de-signer Chip Foose to honor the veter-ans recognized through the 3M HireOur Heroes program in 2013. ChipFoose will also be in attendance inTexas to cheer on Biffle.

The car’s hood design reflects therespect of the saluting soldier flankedby the stars and stripes, with thestripes down the side creating a fast,sleek look for the car.

“It’s an honor to drive a car thatrecognizes the many contributions ofour country’s military members whilethey were on active duty, and also sup-port a program that enables them tolearn new skills that translate to ca-

reers in the collision industry now thatthey are back home,” said Biffle. “Thecar looks regal and fast, and we’regoing to need all of that speed at Texasif we’re going to claim that Sprint Cuptrophy.”

3M recognizes the need for qual-ified technicians in the collision re-pair industry and has created anopportunity to help returning veter-ans and their families that have cho-sen to pursue careers in the collisionrepair industry. The 3M Hire Our He-roes campaign raised funds through-out the year to help offset the costs oftuition, books, tools and equipmentfor returning veterans and their fam-ilies.

3M is partnering with the Colli-sion Repair Education Foundation,the National Auto Body Council, andOperation Comfort to help supportrehabilitation and training and driveemployment in the collision repairindustry for America’s returning vet-erans. The goal of the 3M Hire OurHeroes campaign, which kicks off inJanuary 2013, is to donate up to$250,000 to benefit returning veter-ans and their families. The donationis based on the sales of select popu-lar 3M products to qualified distrib-utors.

“The men and women who haveserved our country bring excellenttraining and skills, a commitment fordoing the job correctly, a passion forintellectual achievement and a strongwork ethic – all tremendous attrib-utes for employment in today’s colli-

sion repair industry,” said Dale Ross,U.S. Marketing Operations Managerfor 3M Automotive Aftermarket Di-vision.

“Our industry needs qualifiedrepair professionals with the neces-sary skills to keep pace with theevolving repair standards,” addedRoss. “We are committed to helpingrepair facility owners and managersaround the country get the capable,qualified repair professionals theyneed to perform at the high stan-dards expected in today’s collisionindustry while honoring the tremen-dous service of our military men andwomen.”

Nearly 60 grant winners, includ-ing military members and familymembers of veterans, were selectedfrom applicants all across the United

States. Each recipient received a fi-nancial grant to purchase tools andequipment needed to start their ca-reer in collision repair. 3M partneredwith the Collision Repair EducationFoundation to award and administerthe grants for these deserving appli-cants.

A number of the nation’s militaryveterans who work in auto body repairshops and their shop owners whonominated them are headed to the No-vember NASCAR Sprint Cup Seriesrace in Texas. The winning militaryveterans will have an opportunity toexperience the pre-race ceremoniesfrom pit road and meet Roush FenwayRacing owner Jack Roush, as well asBiffle and Foose.

Ultmately the 3M Hire Our He-roes campaign is supporting the U.S.Chamber of Commerce in raisingawareness for hiring America’s heroesand helping drive employment in thecollision repair industry for these de-serving veterans and their families.3M is proud to have the honor ofbeing a national board member of theU.S. Chamber of Commerce HiringOur Heroes program.


3M’s Hire our Heroes Campaign Has NASCAR’s Greg Biffle in the Driver’s Seat

(L-R) SSgt. Caruthers, U.S. Army, Greg Biffle,driver of the No. 15 3M Ford Fusion, Sgt.Grant, U.S. Army, Jack Roush, owner, RoushFenway Racing, Lt. Gen. Tom Waskow, U.S.Air Force (ret.) and board member of USO-NC

pairers face.Regarding other issues facing the

industry, Pulverenti notes that me-chanical shops are dealing with pres-sure from mass merchandisers and cardealerships, while collision repairersface insurers’ pressure in terms oflabor rates and steering. Labor ratesfor collision repair are set unrealisti-cally when looking at the cost of oper-ations and labor, but trying to convinceinsurers to increase the labor rateseems futile at times.

Similarly, PartsTrader also nega-tively impacts collision repairers. Pul-verenti explains, “it’s a bad thingbecause obviously bidding on parts re-

duces the list price and profit margins,just like labor rates that are being con-trolled by insurers reduces their profitmargins.”

Unlike ASA, IGONC favorsRight to Repair in some form as theybelieve the information needed tosafely repair a vehicle should be guar-anteed accessible to repairers; how-ever, he is convinced that as variousstates get these bill passed, it will be-come a non-issue. NC has a bill re-garding Right to Repair in mind, but ithas not yet been introduced as they arewatching for developmens for similarbills in other states.

IGONCPO Box 90426Raleigh, NC 27675-8117800-243-1560, www.igonc.com

Continued from Page 10

IGONC

World wide, collision repair is a com-plex industry with many factorsweighing heavily on its practice andprogress, and the environment in NewEngland is no different. There are con-stant legal battles, training issues andnew technology to contend with, mak-ing it difficult for many people to keepup with and stay ahead of all thesechanges. The easiest way for many tokeep up with current trends and infor-mation is supporting industry associa-tions with your involvement on alocal and national level.

Don Cushing of Rhode Island isthe Wholesale Manager at Bald HillDodge Chrysler and Jeep. With nearly40 years of experience in and aroundthe collision repair industry, Cushingis a valuable resource for informationand trends locally and nationwide.Cushing exemplifies this involvementwith several important associations:the Mopar Masters Guild (MMG), theAuto Body Association of Connecticut

(ABAC), and the Alliance of Automo-tive Service Providers of Massachu-setts (AASP/MA).

“I take my career with Bald HillDCJ and my involvement with theMopar Masters Guild, ABAC Newsand AASP/MA very seriously, andI’m determined to make a difference!I use all of these avenues to networkwith customers and build relationshipsbecause without our customers we arenothing.”

After graduating ITT TechnicalInstitute in 1974, Cushing began hiscareer as a parts counterperson at asmall dealership in Providence RI, andafter a few months, he was recruitedby a large dealership, under the direc-tion of Ernie Wennerstrom, his cur-rent Parts Director at Bald Hill. Aftera few years working for varioussmaller dealerships during which he“yearned to get back to the wholesaleside of the business,” Cushing washired as the Wholesale Representative

at a Chrysler dealership where he wasemployed for 16 years.

A change came in 1997 whenWennerstrom hired Cushing as BaldHill’s Wholesale Manager and madehim responsible for supplying over1100 customers for their mechanicaland collision departments. Cushingnotes, “I have several parts represen-tatives that work alongside me in myendeavors to gain customer base andformulate new and exciting ideas toincrease the company revenue.”

Cushing became involved withMMG in 1998 when Wennerstrom in-troduced him to the Executive Boardwho were interested in having Cush-ing create their newsletter. Cushing’scontributions yielded success.

He says, “What started out as asimple updated pamphlet to membershas now turned into a multi-page mag-azine featuring members’ stories, ven-dor profiles, vendor ads and industrynews! The plus side of working for the

Mopar Masters Guild is that I get tolisten and hear what the ‘Best of theBest’ have to offer at guild events.”

The same year, Cushing beganexpanding Bald Hill’s customer terri-tory into CT, and as Bald Hill acquiredmore customers in their neighboringstate, Cushing met many collision re-pair shop owners who belonged toABAC. Over time, he told them abouthis success with MMG’s newsletter,and in 2001, he helped them launchABAC News, the official newsletterfor ABAC. The newsletter, combinedwith the financial support of its ad-vertisers, allowed ABAC to continuegrowing their educational and legisla-tive programs.

Through his roles with Bald Hill,MMG and ABAC, Cushing also be-came involved with AASP-MA, andin November 2012, he was appointedas their Statewide Association Divi-sion Director. His duties are to servethe Board of Directors by using his


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Rhode Island’s Don Cushing Wears Multiple Hats in Parts Wholesale and Auto Body Associations

with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast Associations


experience as a vendor to contributeinput on the many concerns and issuesfacing the industry.

Currently, ABAC’s most impor-tant topic is the Hartford Lawsuit. Inregards to this endeavor, Cushingnotes, “This class action lawsuit willcertainly be a game changer in theway that insurance companies conductthemselves in the future, both on thelocal (Connecticut) level, northeastand nationwide.

Increasing membership, the edu-cation of ABAC members and shopowners and legislation are some of theongoing issues that the ABAC is fo-cusing on. These endeavors will proveextremely valuable as they move for-ward.” He also explains that a few ofthe ways that ABAC works towardachieving their goals is through semi-nars, OEM presentations, guest speak-ers at events and advertising.

Another important concern in CTright now is their Anti-Steering Bill,and Cushing has “always supportedthe fact that everyone has a right tochoose the repairer of their choice.There should be no influence from theinsurance company on where a cus-tomer brings their vehicle.”

One of MMG’s biggest events is

their annual meeting at NADA, andtheir next meeting is scheduled forJanuary 2014 in New Orleans, LA.According to Cushing, “This annualmeeting draws the best Mopar partsmanagers (and the top 100) in thecountry. The motto for the MMG is‘the exchange of information by like-size dealers in a non-competitive en-vironment.’ This meeting combinedwith several Performance Groupmeetings throughout the year keepsmembers apprised of new and innova-tive ideas that are brought forth fromthese gatherings.”

Recently, Cushing was elected asPresident of the Southern New Eng-land Mopar Service and Parts Mas-ter’s Guild. The group meets once amonth, and their variety of guestspeakers tends to draw a decentcrowd. Cushing hopes that this rolewill also allow him to aid with neces-sary industry improvements; “I planon using this position to help to fur-ther educate attendees in their dailyoperations and hopefully share someideas and best practices (as we do withthe Mopar Masters Guild) with eachother.”

In regards to issues impacting thecollision repair industry as a whole,

Cushing notes, “As we move forwardin the automotive industry, there arechallenges that we all face. The Rightto Repair Act is one. Working for adealership and with our large cus-tomer base, we have always sharedand assisted with information that ourcustomers (collision and mechanicalshops) need. I don’t believe that weshould just sell parts to our accountsand not help them when they are inneed. This is also one of the main rea-sons why I don’t support the Parts Act.We as a dealer of OEM parts have theresources to give our wholesale cus-tomers information on repairing theirvehicles in the best and safest waypossible according to our manufac-turer specifications.”

Though PartsTrader has not yetimpacted the New England area,Cushing believes that these type of in-surer-mandated parts programs are thebiggest challenge facing the industry,and he fears that it will soon spread toimpact his company’s market area. “Ican see alienation of customers, de-layed deliveries, reduced profits andmost of all, dissatisfied consumers.The only winners in this game areState Farm and PartsTrader.”

What can be done about Part-

sTrader, insurer steering, and other is-sues plaguing the industry?

Cushing advises, “I hope that allparties involved (mainly collisionshop owners) work towards gettingeducated and ‘doing their homework’before embracing this product. Letyour thoughts be known. Be vocal.Get involved!”


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Getting local shops involved tends topose the biggest challenge for mostcollision repair associations, and thisis currently the focus for the Ten-nessee Collision Repairers Associa-tion (TCRA). As TCRA strives toincrease their membership, ExecutiveDirector Tony Nethery shared someinsight into the association and theirobjectives.

TCRA was established in 2006when three collision repair shop own-ers met for lunch and the conversationturned to “the struggles of going italone in the collision industry,” ac-cording to Nethery. This casual con-versation sparked an idea and a goal,leading to the first TCRA meetingabout a month later which was held ata restaurant in Jackson, TN. One ofthe founders volunteered to serve aschair until a board could be formedand an official charter completed.

Though 50 people attendedTCRA’s first meeting, “the crowddwindled to about half of that when itwas made clear that TCRA was beingformed to increase knowledge andwork together, not to do battle with in-surers,” Nethery explains. Still, enoughinterest was generated to allow TCRAto form a second chapter in Nashvillethe following year. Currently, the Jack-son chapter of TCRA focuses on thewestern part of the state, while theirNashville chapter services central TN;however, since TN is over 400 mileslong, they hope to establish an easternchapter in the near future.

Currently, TCRA consists ofaround 20 member shops, but they areactively seeking new members andsponsors across the state. As such,they are also restructuring their boardand meeting locations and times.While TCRA’s current membership islower than it has been in the past,Nethery believes “our members arecommitted to seeing it grow again.”

Previously, each TCRA chapterhad their own Board of Directors andofficers and would meet monthly ontheir own, but Nethery notes that this“basically resulted in two associationswith sometimes completely differentagendas.” As TCRA tries to increasetheir membership, they are also re-structuring the organization to pro-

mote unity. According to Nethery, “Inorder to try and boost attendance, weare now meeting every other month asa large group and moving the meet-ings to different areas to make travelequal for everyone. At the first of the

year, we hope toelect one set of of-ficers for the stateand include boardmembers from theentire group. Thisallows us to bringin better speakersbecause of the

larger group and keeps us all workingon the same issues. We are also hiringa part time staff member to keep upour website, send out reminders andsolicit new members.”

Anyone in the state is invited tojoin TCRA, and there are definitivebenefits to membership, according toNethery. “Membership in TCRA pro-vides an opportunity to have a strongervoice in the industry. Many youngshop owners have had the benefit ofbeing mentored by their peers.”

TCRA is a member of the Soci-ety of Collision Repair Specialists(SCRS), and they subscribe to SCRS’smission, purpose and objectiveswhich include promoting educationand communication within the colli-sion repair industry. In May 2012,TCRA also entered into an alliancewith the Congress of Automotive Re-pair and Service (CARS) in order toprovide several new industry andbusiness-related benefits to members,including a discount on the cost ofTCRA’s membership.

The top purpose of TCRA is edu-cation and communication betweencollision repairers. They promote aprofessional atmosphere, as seen intheir policy which is detailed on theirwebsite: that all officers, sponsors andmembers of TCRA conduct themselvesand their transactions in a legal and eth-ical manner; and in addition, follow allguidelines and regulations set forth bythe association during meetings andevents, and exhibit great care regardingthe reputation of this organization.

TCRA’s objective is “to developa forum for interaction and exchangeof ideas between body shops in TN,

promote ethical and best practices,and to communicate with and educatemembers in all matters relevant tothese objectives.” Nethery clarifies,“our mission is to educate the con-sumer and ourselves on how to cor-rectly repair a vehicle and to promoteethical business practices.”

Regarding the emphasis on educa-tion, Nethery notes, “education is im-portant for the same reason in thisindustry that it is in any other. An edu-cated consumer is a customer that willmake good choices in repair and not beeasily steered by the insurer. In the stateof TN, there is no license required to docollision repair, other than a business li-cense that anyone can buy. A hair-dresser has to have a license to cut hair,but anyone can call themselves a colli-sion tech and cut your car in half. Thefact that is even sadder is that an insurerwill pay them (anyone who says theyare a body shop) the same rate that theypay the shop who is trained and has in-

vested millions in equipment. This willnot change until our industry begins towork together and develop some sort oflicense or standards.”

One of the ways that TCRA ispromoting education to members isthrough participation in the annualSoutheastern Conference which in-cludes TN, AL, GA, MS and FL. Theyhave been involved with the confer-ence since 2012 and hope to see an in-crease over the 250 attendees fromlast year when they meet again inApril 2014 in Biloxi, MS.

TCRA also believes that commu-nication is vital in this industry, andNethery explains, “we believe thebiggest problem in the industry is thedivision of the shop owners. Evenfierce competitors need to stick to-gether on key issues that will hinderthe freedom to do business in the fu-ture. That is the value of being part ofan association.”


Tennessee CRA Advances Professionalism & Consumer Issues

with Chasidy Rae SiskSoutheast Associations


Tony Nethery

See Tennessee CRA, Page 21


Over 130 people attended an Auto-motive Service Association of Ari-zona (ASA-AZ) meeting on theevening of August 13th that featuredDale Sailer from Parts Trader andGeorge Avery, national spokesper-son from State Farm Insurance.Mike Anderson of Collision Advicefacilitated the meeting in whichquestions were answered followingpresentations by Mr. Sailer and MrAvery. Among those in attendancewere two state legislators curiousabout the program and the impact onconstituents. (See John Yoswick’s ar-ticle on this event in the SeptemberAutobody News.)

The meeting coincided with thenational rollout of Parts Trader inArizona, Texas, New Mexico andColorado. Arizona was the first statein which Select Service shops wererequired to locate and purchase allparts using the relatively new andcontroversial program without ben-efit of the “fax only” option. SelectService shops are now only allowedto purchase parts from vendors thatagreed to sign a Parts Trader Agree-ment.

As a follow up to this meeting,ASA-AZ sent out surveys to new cardealerships parts departments. “Theoverwhelming majority of our colli-sion repair members are opposed tothe mandated use of parts procure-ment programs” stated Luz Rubio,Executive Director for ASA-AZ.“We sent out the surveys to find outhow Parts Trader was actually work-ing for vendors and whether they feltit added value to their business.”

Thirty OEM vendors replied tothe survey with results that wereoverwhelmingly negative in regardsto how parts departments felt theprogram was working for them.“The results of our survey do notseem to support Mr. Sailer’s claimsthat Parts Trader has been well re-ceived by many of the vendors usingit” said Ms. Rubio. One of the re-spondents commented on the overallprogram, “We have not seen a valuein the program. We pride ourselveson relationships built with repairersthroughout the years and find PartsTrader to be an unnecessary part ofour business. There are a lot of unan-swered questions as to who will pay

for the Parts Trader program andhow that will affect established rela-tionships and pricing models.”

ASA-AZ released a positionstatement opposing Parts Trader onJuly 27, 2012. “Feedback from OEMparts vendors as well as repairers hasgiven us no reason to change our po-sition regarding the use of PartsTrader” commented Ms. Rubio.“Not one collision trade associationhas come out in support of the StateFarm mandate and now, it is clear,that OEM parts departments are alsoopposed to its use. It is time for StateFarm to consider an alternative in-stead of forcing repair shops andparts vendors to use a program thatis both unpopular and ineffective.”

The ASA AZ continues to rein-force its position that insurance com-panies should stay in the business ofinsurance and leave all aspects of thecollision repair process includingparts ordering to the collision repairprofessionals. For additional infor-mation about ASA of Arizona visitwww.asaaz.org.

Survey results can be down-loaded at Autobodynews.com.

ASA-AZ Surveys Wholesale Parts Dealers on PartsTrader Usage

Car buyers in Memphis will soon beable to purchase insurance for their newvehicle before they even drive off thelot. Chuck Hutton Chevrolet has beentapped to be the first dealership in Ten-nessee to add a full-service Allstate In-surance office on-site. The dealership ispart of an initiative by Allstate, the na-tion’s no. 2 auto insurance company, toplace agencies in dealerships across thecountry. The program has already beenpiloted at dealerships in other states.Chuck Hutton chief financial officerRichard Carney says the dealershipearned the opportunity to pilot the pro-gram in Tennessee because it is thestate’s leading seller of Allstate’s ex-tended service contracts—policies thatcover mechanical items that would notordinarily be covered under warranty.“The hardest thing in insurance sales isprospecting,” Carney says. “But in thisbusiness we have 300 people a day thatcome through the lot. That creates a lotof opportunities.” The office will be runby Steve Hutton and is expected toopen Dec. 1. Tennessee state law pro-hibits onsite offices, so the office atChuck Hutton will be located in the oldOldsmobile showroom next door to themain dealership at 2471 Mt. MoriahRoad.

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TCRA’s most relevant short-termgoal revolves around PartsTrader, andthey are currently trying to exert influ-ence to dissuade PartsTrader fromspreading in their state. TCRA does notbelieve that PartsTrader will improvecycle time, but it will allow insurers toexert control on parts profitability in thefuture, just like they control labor ratestoday. “All of the group hopes thatsomewhere along the way that PartsTrader will be stopped but also believethat it is not likely that it will. We areencouraging all the OEM parts vendersto not sign up on Parts Trader. The onlything that will stop Parts Trader will beif enough venders do not sign up for it

to work,” Nethery explains.The topic of Right to Repair

yields mixed views amongst TCRAmembers since the association consistsof dealership shops and independentshops, but Nethery notes that it is notreally a big issue in TN at present.Though TCRA is not currently in-volved in any legislative matters, Neth-ery explains that when they’ve pursuedlegislative reform in the past, the chal-lenges they’ve faced are acquiring therevenue to combat insurers’ lobbyistsand, once the law is passed, makingsure that it is enforced.

TCRAPO Box 66Jackson, TN 38302731-394-5628www.mytcra.com


Tennessee CRA

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district in Richmond, VA. He decidedto run for the first time in 2004, whenhe began to see an alarming trend inlocal Richmond politics, he explained.

“There was a period of time inRichmond here when we had a lot ofcouncil people ending up in jail for awide range of reasons. For bribery,outright theft and other things—wewere really in horrible shape here inRichmond for a few years. I was al-ways under the impression that inorder to be a public official, you needto have this degree or that degree, so Inever really considered it. But even-tually I realized that these politiciansmight have degrees, but they don’thave common sense. Their job wasbeing a council member and that wasit. They were professional politicians,essentially. So that’s when I decidedto get interested and involved. I servedfor six years, completing two termsfrom 2006 to 2012 and I never bribedanybody or stole anything from any-one.”

During his first campaign in2004, Conner lost in a three-personrace, but it was a learning experience,he explained. “So, I ran the next timein 2006 and beat the incumbent in aclose race where I won by only 250votes. It was great, because I knew Iwas going to make changes and I wasexcited about the opportunity to play arole in helping the city. It turned outto be an interesting new experience,with surprises every day—just likerunning a body shop.”

Conner immediately saw that hecould apply his skills in the collisionrepair field to use in the politicalarena. Said Conner, “All I can say isthat body shop owners are more thancapable of holding any of these polit-ical positions and handling the re-sponsibilities associated with them. Aperson running a body shop has tonsof experience, both professionally andpersonally that can be easily trans-ferred to being a council person, acongressman or even a senator or agovernor, in my opinion. Educationhelps, but I believe real-world experi-ence is the most important thing re-quired for any job. Serving in publicoffice parallels the collision repairbusiness in many ways, because bodyshop professionals have to developskills to make it, such as negotiation(DRPs), networking (community out-

reach), managing people (employees)and delivering results.”

Conner achieved a lot of reallygood things while being a councilmanfor Richmond and is proud of it. “We

had drainage issues and problems withthe infrastructure, so those were es-sential things that needed to be fixedright away,” Conner said. “We didsome band-aid work, but we never re-ally completely fixed it, and if I hadwon a third term, I am confident wecould have gotten that done. I ran outof time. We had some huge projectsthat were taken care of and that is verygratifying. I started a career and edu-cation commission, which got laborpeople together working with ourschools. It led to the establishment ofa career training facility, which isbeing built right now, to provide nurs-ing training for welfare mothers andpeople who need new careers forwhatever reason. We’re training peo-ple for jobs where there is demand inRichmond, like laboratory techni-cians, pharmacy technicians for med-ical coding professions, for example.In one year, we can train someone tobe a lab tech and we know that com-panies will hire them, because we’realso working with the employers.”

Another significant accomplish-ment that Conner is proud of involveshis outsourcing of the city’s fleet.

“We went to Baltimore andchecked out a fleet service and deter-mined that we could save $200,000 amonth by outsourcing our city’s fleet.With roughly 1,000 vehicles and theirequipment, it was a huge undertaking.The thinking behind outsourcing isjust like a shop running on salary vs.commission. The people who wererunning the fleet were on salary. Now,sure they weren’t making a lot, butthey also weren’t doing much either.By using an outside company, total ac-countability became a part of it andthere was a huge difference right offthe bat. If you have someone workingfor commission or flat rate, they’re

obviously going to be more moti-vated. By outsourcing our fleet, wesaved several million dollars everyyear, because it’s 100% based on per-formance, so we’re not paying for

people or cars sitting arounddoing nothing.”

After a year in office,Conner began to see the badside of politics and it’s calledinactivity.

“When it comes to gov-ernment, nobody wants tostick their necks out, be-cause they’re afraid to losetheir jobs,” Conner said. “Sonothing happens except for alot of talking and posturing.

They’re real good at coming up withreasons not to do something. It’s verytough and if you want to achieve any-thing, you have to stay on it and workat it. It takes a long time and that’swhy we have so many problems inthis country—the inactivity can killyou.

“In planning, for instance, it’s allabout what you can’t do,” Conner said.“For example, some of the sign ordi-nances in this city are ridiculous. Theywould block new businesses from get-ting new signs, for example, with these

lame restrictions, but I told them,‘How do you expect new businesses tocome here when we won’t even letthem have a sign?’ We need new busi-nesses to become successful, so thatwe can build up our tax base and offerservices to our folks, but you’re goingto wrestle with this small businessowner about the size of his sign? It’sin a commercial area, I told them, butyou would think we’re in Hollywood,the way they were reacting. In everysituation, I was advocating small busi-nesses and their rights, because that’swhere I came from. But, red tape willslow you down and discourage you,because there is so much of it. It tooka lot of time and effort, and I did getsome things done, but it was tough.”

Accountability was somethingelse that Conner eventually realizedwas non-existent in local politics, atleast in the city of Richmond. “Theaverage politician talks a lot andmakes a bunch of promises. They’rehoping that people eventually forgetabout what they said. If you do whatyou say you’re going to do, peoplewill remember that, you know? I feellike I was different because I followedthrough and cared and that’s the mostimportant thing I can say about that.”


Conner Brothers Collision Repair has four locations, but islooking to open its fifth soon. Here the shop is sponsoringa local community car wash


Collision v. Politics

For nearly ten years, the Auto BodyAssociation of Connecticut (ABAC)has been engaged in a legal battle withthe Hartford Fire Insurance Company(the Hartford), and though a judge andjury awarded the victory to ABAC, thefight is not yet over as the Hartford hasappealed the ruling to the state’sSupreme Court. Still, Tony Ferraiolo,President of ABAC, remains opti-mistic, noting “this is one of thebiggest things happening in the indus-try right now, and it will rock the coun-try if—no, when—we win next year.”

ABAC filed a class-action law-suit against the Hartford in 2003,claiming the insurer was manipulatinglabor rates across the state and usingsteering practices to direct customersto shops on their direct repair program(DRP). Besides getting a discountedrate from their network of DRPs, theinsurer also had their appraisers usethe same uniform labor rate in their es-timates across the state, thus pressur-

ing independent shops to lower theirrates. David Slossberg, lead attorneyfor ABAC in this lawsuit, noted that,as a result of this conduct across theindustry, profit margins for auto bodyshops have decreased from 6% to lessthan 2%, which disregards the shops’expenses related to training, equip-ment and environmental regulations.

In November 2009, a SuperiorCourt jury in Stamford ruled in favor

of ABAC, award-ing $14.7 millionin compensatorydamages to theshops representedin the lawsuit be-cause they foundthat the Hartfordengaged in unfair

trade practices which resulted in a lossto CT body shops. Earlier this year, inMay, Superior Court Judge Alfred J.Jennings granted injunctive reliefwhich mandated that the Hartford “re-

frain from interfering with the inde-pendent judgment of motor vehiclephysical damage appraisers in its em-ploy in the performance of their du-

ties… including the determination ofthe hourly rate to be applied in calcu-lating the labor component of costs torepair.”

The injunctive relief was grantedafter the jury found the Hartford to beengaging in unfair business practicesthrough the use of in-house appraisersand their network of DRP shops to ar-tificially suppress labor rates in CT. Inaddition to being prohibited from in-terfering in their appraisers’ judg-ments, the Hartford will also berequired to submit a Quarterly Com-

pliance Report to the court whichmust include: (i) the range and aver-age of hourly rates used by each Hart-ford appraiser, (ii) hourly rate(s)

charged by all shops underDRP contract with the Hart-ford, (iii) any changes theHartford makes to estimatesor appraisals as a result ofreinspection or supervisoryreviews, and (iv) a summary

of any adverse or disciplinary actionagainst any of the Hartford’s CT-li-censed appraisers.

Judge Jennings ruled in favor ofABAC and the shops they represent yetagain in June 2013, awarding $20 mil-lion in punitive damages intended topunish the Hartford for manipulating thelabor rate and to deter other insurancecompanies from engaging in the sameunlawful conduct; the award is believedto be the largest unfair trade practicesaward ever issued in the state of CT.Jennings explained the award was


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ABAC’s Decade-Long Battle Against the Hartford Insurance Co.

with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast Associations


David Slossberg

meant to send a message to the Hartfordand other insurers that any violations offair trade rules will not be tolerated.

After the Hartford appealed thecourt’s decision, a stay was placed onthe injunctive relief, but Ferraiolo notesthat during the two weeks it was in ef-fect, it seems to have caused other in-surers to begin negotiating higher laborrates and concessions. He emphasizedthat appraisers should be negotiatingrates on a shop-by-shop basis, estab-lishing labor rates based on the individ-ual shop’s business model, the qualityof their repairs and the model of the carbeing repaired. “What we have soughtto achieve in this lawsuit is simply forthe Hartford and its appraisers to followthe law,” said Ferraiolo. “We alreadywon the case, but now we’re dealingwith the political and bureaucratic non-sense. Yet, there is merit in the fact thatwe’ve engaged in a ten-year battle, andthe jury decided in our favor.”

ABAC also acts as a “watchdog” ontheir members’ behalves, meeting withlegislators to explain how the Hart-ford’s actions negatively impact theirconstituents. Ferraiolo says, “we’ve hada lot of success in showing the negativeimpact on consumers, but the insurersconsistently try to muddy the waters.

Still, this is industry-changing stuff! Aslong as it doesn’t become politicallycorrupt, we will win next year.”

Like Ferraiolo, Slossberg is con-fident that after fighting this battle formore than a decade, the ABAC willultimately prevail. “This case shouldgive hope to all those individuals andsmall businesses who think they can’tpush back against the big insurancecompanies. The ABAC andsome 1000 small businessesin the State of Connecticutwon a hard fought and well-earned jury verdict whichwas followed by carefullywritten and well-reasoneddecisions by the trial judge regardinginjunctive and punitive damages.”While Ferraiolo is definitely pleasedwith the court’s ruling, he is less con-fident that the Hartford will complywith the judge’s mandates, noting thatthe insurers just don’t seem to be get-ting the message, despite ABAC’s vic-tories in court.

Ferraiolo believes that DRPshops are part of the problem becausethey are doing the publicity for the in-surers, claiming that it’s necessary tobe on DRPs in order to stay in busi-ness. He notes, “they’ve helped build

this big monster, but now they can’tdestroy it.” A & R Body Specialty,Ferraiolo’s shop, is a medium-sized,independent shop which representsthat market that’s in trouble as mostmid-sized shops participate in DRPsin order to stay in operation; however,he insists that while solutions are fewand far between, and shops like his areat a competitive disadvantage due to

the unfair trade practices of the Hart-ford and other insurers, independentmid-sized shops are trying to competein the market by providing educationto both their employees and the con-sumer and by offering excellent cus-tomer service.

Because the case is still in the ap-peals process, none of the shops havereceived any of the awarded funds yet.If the Hartford’s appeal is rejected, eachmember of the class-action lawsuit willhave to apply to receive their share ofthe money, and the trial court will es-tablish a process to distribute the funds.

The class originally began with 1000CT body shops, but it has since grownto include an estimated 1500 shops af-fected by the Hartford’s practices. Thesheer number of complainants “showsthe breadth and extent of the damagecaused by the defendant’s misconduct,”according to Judge Jennings. In estab-lishing the amount of punitive damages,Jennings also considered the net worthof the Hartford, somewhere in the $12to $13 billion range, in order to ensurethe award would be a meaningful de-terrent to the insurer.

Jennings has not yet determined theamount that will be awarded to ABAC’sattorneys who have not received a centof compensation from this ten-year longlawsuit. Ferraiolo praises the attorneys’dedication to the cause; “our attorneysare aggressive and are working very hardto win this case. They have just as much,if not more, invested since they don’t getpaid unless we win!”

In fact, these attorneys haveproven their support of local auto bodyshops yet again by representing ABACin a second, similar lawsuit which wasfiled four years ago against Progressivefor steering and labor rate suppression.This case is being pursued in Federal


See ABAC v Hartford, Page 35

The Alliance of Automotive ServiceProviders of Minnesota (AASP-MN)has filed a formal complaint with theMinnesota Department of Commercerequesting timely administrativeand/or legal action to prevent StateFarm from mandating that repairshops use the PartsTrader parts pro-curement system.

The Complaint and Request forRelief is based on State Farm’s viola-tion of Minn. Stat. § 72B.092, subd.1(6). This provision, enacted in 2007,prohibits insurers from specifying“…the use of a particular vendor forthe procurement of parts or other ma-terials necessary for the satisfactoryrepair of the vehicle.” The complaintstates that the mandated use of Part-sTrader restricts market options forparts procurement, and thereforeshould be prohibited as intended bythe legislature.

AASP-MN was instrumental ingetting this provision included inMinnesota law. In May 2007, Min-nesota’s Governor, Tim Pawlenty,signed into law a bill, proposed byAASP-MN, that added specifying

parts procurement vendors to the listof prohibitions on insurers in colli-sion cases. In addition to existinglanguage providing for an insured’sright to choose a shop and other pro-hibitions, two additional prohibitionswere included to prevent insurers incollision cases from adjusting a dam-age appraisal without conducting aphysical inspection or specifyingparts vendors. The law states that noinsurer shall:● adjust a damage appraisal of a re-pair shop when the extent of damageis in dispute without conducting aphysical inspection of the vehicle; or● 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.

For more than a year, AASP-MN has corresponded and met withDepartment of Commerce officialsto express concerns regarding themandated use of PartsTrader in other

states. According to AASP-MN, thedepartment was reluctant to act untilState Farm indicated its intention toimplement PartsTrader in Min-nesota.

AASP-MN is also pursuingthis issue with the office of the At-torney General. Information hasbeen transmitted to the appropriateofficials to request that they workwith, or in lieu of, the Departmentof Commerce to prohibit the imple-mentation of PartsTrader as a vio-lation of Minnesota Statute. Inaddition, AASP-MN has consultedwith legal counsel to identify pos-sible causes of action that could bebrought before a court.

In May of 2012, AASP wasamong the first industry associations togo on record stating that State Farm’snewly-mandated bidding process forparts procurement was an unprece-dented and uninvited intrusion into thebusiness of collision repair. AASP-MNsays its efforts reinforce that positionand are intended to protect the interestsof the collision repair industry and givevoice to its concerns.


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AASP-MN Files Formal Complaint with State Dept of CommerceRe PartsTrader Mandates in Minnesota

CARSTAR is entering the Jack-sonville, FL, market with its firstlocal shop. American CARSTARCollision is located at 13051 BeachBlvd, Jacksonville, FL 32246. Theshop is owned by Randy Sikes.

“In today’s market it is criticalto be part of a winning team,” saidSikes of his new partnership withCARSTAR Auto Body Repair Ex-perts.

The new CARSTAR store willbenefit from the CARSTAR Man-agement System, which providesresources to improve key businessmetrics such as cycle time, partici-pation in CARSTAR’s 19 corpo-rately managed DRP programs, andimproved purchasing power from45 corporately managed purchasingprograms.

“We are thrilled to welcomeRandy and American CARSTARCollision as our first collision repaircenter in the Jacksonville region,”said David Byers, CEO ofCARSTAR Auto Body Repair Ex-perts. “Randy brings excellent ex-perience running a successful bodyshop and we look forward to con-tinuing to build his business as partof the CARSTAR network.”

CARSTAR Opens First Shopin Jacksonville, FL

The Alliance of Automotive ServiceProviders of Illinois (AASPI) Board ofDirectors has denounced PartsTraderand supporting the efforts of the Mis-sissippi Collision Repair Association(MSCRA) in their lawsuit againstState Farm to halt the insurer from re-quiring that shops in Mississippi usePartsTrader. AASPI’s statement comeson the heels of State Farm expandingits mandated use of PartsTrader be-yond the Chicago metro area and intothe entire state of Illinois.

“PartsTrader and its mandateduse by State Farm proves beyond ashadow of a doubt that the over-whelming purpose of this program is

to minimize the shop’s control of theirbusiness and expand the profitabilityof State Farm,” said AASPI PresidentJeff Kallemeyn. “PartsTrader is crip-pling the business relationship be-tween shops and suppliers, andultimately the vehicle owner will re-ceive inferior repairs due to mandatedusage of PartsTrader.”

AASPI will be hosting a statewidemeeting on November 23, 2013 atPheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, IL,featuring guests from MCRA and theirlead attorneys in their lawsuit againstState Farm. Also making an appear-ance will be Ray Gunder of Gunder’sAuto Center in Lakeland, FL.

The Women’s Industry Network an-nounced that nominations for the MostInfluential Women (MIW) Awardswill open on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013and will be accepted through Tuesday,Dec. 31, 2013. The winners will berecognized at a gala held during the2014 WIN Educational Conference,May 5-7, 2014, at Paradise Point inSan Diego, CA. The MIW award rec-ognizes women who have enriched thecollision repair industry with theirleadership, vision and commitment toexcellence.

“Being recognized as one of Ak-zoNobel’s Most Influential Women inthe collision repair industry was si-

multaneously humbling and empow-ering,” said Linda Sommerhauser,owner of Autobody Color Co. inKansas City, MO. “I was humbled be-cause I knew that there were so manywithin the industry who could havejust as easily been recognized for theirmany contributions. However, I alsofelt empowered because I was nowpart of a recognized community ofleaders who were committed to mak-ing the path a little easier for others tofollow.”

In addition to the MIW awardsgala, where honorees are presentedwith a Tiffany’s crystal award and cus-tom commemorative pin, WIN hasadded a new element to the programthis year. Recipients will have the op-portunity to invest in the future of col-lision repair by mentoring a WINscholarship winner as they continuetheir education toward a career in theindustry.

“We felt this was an importantway for seasoned professionals to em-brace the future of our industry,” saidMargaret Knell, chair of the MIWPlanning Committee.

Honorees have held positions inevery facet of the collision repair in-dustry, as shop owners, body and painttechnicians, managers, wholesalers,lobbyists, suppliers, insurance ad-justers, consultants, educators, editorsand writers, and industry associationdirectors.

“Being honored as a Most Influ-ential Women in 2011 was an amazingexperience,” said Barbara Davies,co-owner/general manager of Auto-body News. “I was thrilled to be a partof such an impressive group of womenfrom so many different parts of the in-dustry. Having the opportunity to getto know this group of smart, inspiringand creative women has been the high-light of my career in the collision re-pair industry.”

The MIW program’s charteraligns with WIN’s mission to “en-hance the role of women in the indus-try” and has recognized more than 75women for their professional accom-plishments and for going beyond re-quirements of their positions to giveback to their communities. AlthoughWIN membership is not a requirementfor nomination, more than 30 percentof MIW recipients are currently, orhave previously been, members ofWIN.

WIN Announces Opening of Most Influential WomenNominations for 2014, Gala to be Held in San Diego


AASPI Board of Directors Releases StatementDenouncing PartsTrader Mandates


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When body shop professionals inNorthern California yell “Show methe Money!” they’re probably notquoting from Jerry Maguire, the 1996film starring Tom Cruise. No, it’smore likely that they’re referencingKurt Money, a body technician whois renowned for being an especiallyskilled instructor for the Inter-Indus-try Conference on Auto Collision Re-pair (I-CAR). Virtually all repairersknow I-CAR is a not-for-profit train-ing organization focused on educa-tion, knowledge and solutions for theCollision Repair Inter-Industry anddeveloping and delivering technicaltraining programs to professionals inall areas of the Collision Repair Inter-Industry.

Money is celebrating 20 years asan I-CAR instructor this year, but he’ssurely not resting on his laurels. As afull-time body man working at Lark-field Body and Paint in Santa Rosa,CA, and teaching a wide range of I-

CAR courses, Money’s schedule isjam-packed. If he’s not mentoringbody techs and fixing cars, he’s en-joying his Harley motorcycle. Moneyis all about teaching people, helpingthem and making a better industry; byvolunteering his time when possibleand showing that he cares.

Money, 56, came to northern Cal-ifornia from Spanish Fork, UT—justoutside of Provo—in 1979. After grad-uating from Utah Valley Technical Col-lege, Money decided to start his ownshop and later hired two of his class-mates to work for him. It was calledMoney’s Body & Paint and before longthe shop was doing well. But Kurt wasnot ready to own and operate his ownbusiness at that point in his life. “Thebusiness was fine, but I was more intohaving a good time, playing a lot ofgolf, bowling and not paying attentionto the shop. I was playing when Ishould have been working and prettysoon I ran it into the ground. It was a

useful lesson and what I learned was, Idon’t want to own my own shop!”

After working briefly for a Chevydealership’s collision center in Provo,UT and supervising a crew of nine,

Money decided togo west. “I loadedmy tools in my vanand headed to Cali-fornia,” Moneysaid. “I was actu-ally going to SanDiego, but my volt-age regulator failedand caused my ve-hicle to break down

in Santa Rosa. I took it to a dealershipand they told me that the van made it allthe way from Utah on the charge thatwas left in the battery, which was verysurprising.”

After working for a decade as abody tech at a Cadillac dealership inSanta Rosa, Money got a job at Lark-field Body and Paint in 1990, where he

still works today. “It’s a third-genera-tion shop and they treat all of us likefamily,” he explained. “Dave Hartmanis the owner and he’s an exceptionalindividual. He’s the best boss I’ve everhad, because he cares about us anddoesn’t treat us like employees.”

In 1985, Money started taking I-CAR classes, to learn as much as hecould about his profession and improvehis skills, he said. “When I first foundout about I-CAR, some of the olderguys told me that I didn’t need to takethose classes. But, I found out that I-CAR was offering information I could-n’t find anywhere else. Back then, theyhad approximately 16 classes and Itook them all. My instructor was a guynamed Bob Puckett and he’s retirednow. When I saw him in action, Ithought to myself, I can do this.”

His I-CAR teaching careerstarted over a gentleman’s bet, Moneysaid. “I told one of my fellow techsthat I was thinking of becoming an in-


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I-CAR Instructor Looks Back at 20 Years in the Business

with Ed AttanasioOld School Know How

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].

Kurt Money hasbeen teaching techsthrough I-CAR fortwo decades

structor for I-CAR. But he said, ‘Youcan’t talk in front of two people, howare you going to get up there and talkto a group?’ So, we made a bet and itactually provided me with additionalmotivation. I jumped in there andstarted teaching and I’ve been doing itnow for 20 years.”

To see what he could do, I-CARsent Money to Orange County to meetwith Lead Instructor Ronnie Swaggert.“I admit, it was a little intimidating,”Money said. “I had to make a presenta-

tion in front of him and it wasn’t easy. Ilearned a lot from that and now I inte-grate it into my teaching. I use humorand I try to present the information in away that the students can absorb easily.I’m hands-on and I like to teach visu-ally. My approach is I teach the way Iwould want to be taught. I come up

with scenarios that the techs can relateto and that way they get involved andretain the information.”

By using his proven techniques,a wide range of people within the col-

lision industry have grown to knowand respect Money for his uncannyability to connect with his students.One of these is Dan Welsh, the ownerof Crockett’s Premier Auto Body inPinole, CA and a former I-CAR in-structor who currently sits on the or-ganization’s board. “All I can say isKurt Money is a special individual,”Welsh said. “I keep waiting to run intohis twin, because the man gets somuch done there must be two of them.He’s very methodical and exceedinglyfair and in everything he does, he putsother people first. He never takescredit and makes himself accessible toall his students, by giving them hiscell phone number and even his homephone number.”

Peter Lock, the head instructor atContra Costa College’s auto tech de-partment has been working with KurtMoney since day one. Money periodi-cally teaches Lock’s students weldingclasses and uses the Contra Costa Col-lege’s classroom to teach I-CARclasses on Saturdays, he said. “When Ifirst met Kurt, I was expecting some-one completely different. He pulled upon his Harley with the long hair and hehad a Harley T-shirt on (he owns 86HD T-shirts). I thought, what is going

on with this guy? But after spending aday with him, I realized he’s prettyamazing. He’s a special person and helives to teach. Kurt gives his time freelyand has helped us in so many ways.”

Jim Boyle, the owner of RegalCollision in Vallejo, CA, also goesway back with Money and like every-one else, has nothing but good thingsto say about the man. “He is a uniqueindividual and the one thing I can sayis that his passion for teaching andhelping people really stands out,”Boyle said. “When he gets up there infront of a class, you want to listen tohim. I most appreciate his sense ofhumor and his attention for detail. Heinspires people to be better, and that’swhat teaching is all about.”

Gene Lopez, a regional managerfor I-CAR is yet another Money fan, forseveral reasons. “Kurt is a tech, so hecan deliver the information in a waythat other techs can relate to,” Lopezsaid. “With 20 years of teaching expe-rience at I-CAR, he is an integral partof the Santa Rosa market. He is a self-starter and works wells with other peo-ple, including Maria Reynaga, ourchairman in that region. For him, it’s hislife, not just a profession and that’s whywe value him so greatly at I-CAR.”


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Peter Lock (left), the head instructor at Contra Cost College and Jim Boyle, the owner of RegalCollision in Vallejo, CA have known and worked with Kurt Money for many years

20 years ago in the collision repairindustry (November 1993)“My time away from the industry thisyear made me more aware than ever thatmany of the people who keep telling ushow we can improve the claims process,improve parts ordering, improve pro-ductivity, improve turn-around time andcut car rental costs don’t know the firstthing about how our shops operate orhalf the steps required to properly repaira damaged vehicle. Computers and soft-ware programs are great, but computersdon’t take the nuts and bolts out of afender, and they can’t comprehend thefact that a left door can’t be replaced witha right door, even if the part numbner onthe invoice is the correct part number.

“It seems that many insurancecompanies—and some shops—havebought into the promise that one or an-other computer system will solve manyor all of their problems. There is alwaysone direct repair program or anothertelling shop owners that something willgreatly expedite the claims handlingprocess…All these promises soundgreat on paper or in panel discussions,but they don’t do the repair work.”

► from a column by Bobby John-son, at that time the owner of B&J Col-lision in Jefferson, Texas

15 years ago in the collision repairindustry (November 1998)PPG has done a comprehensive study ofover 2,000 collision repair facilities. Hereis a snapshot of some of the statistics:

The average labor rate: $34 an hour.Average gross profit per hour per

technician: $45.63 (top 25 percent),$32.57 (middle 50 percent), $19.69(bottom 25 percent).

Labor efficiency (hours sold ver-sus available hours): 154 percent (top25 percent), 118 (middle 50 percent),82 percent (bottom 25 percent)

PPG’s Rich Altieri said it is likelythat repair opportunities will continueto decrease. His prediction: By 2006,40 percent of today’s shops will ceaseto exist. If the collision industry is a$24 billion business, 24,000 shopsdoing $1 million a year in sales wouldtake care of the market.

► As reported in Hammer & Dolly.Indeed in 2006, there were about 36,000shops, 40 percent fewer than the 60,000

Altieri said there were in 1998. (Last yearthere were about 34,500.) The averagelabor rate nationally last year was $45.43,up 33 percent since 1998, but below 41percent cumulative rate of inflation dur-ing that period; to keep up with inflation,the national average last year would havehad to have been $47.89.

10 years ago in the collision repairindustry (November 2003)Collision repairers who are part of StateFarm’s “Select Service” or “ServiceFirst” direct repair programs have beenlauding the insurer for the way it admin-isters its claims management process forvehicle repair. It’s a process that techni-cians and shop owners are saying putstrust in collision repair professionals.

Repairers have often been frus-trated with how insurers handle theclaims management process. For yearsthey have argued that many insurers areoverly involved in the process and don’tlet repairers do their job without tellingthem how it should be done. But StateFarm is taking a different approach.

“To put it simply, State Farm is let-ting the experts—collision repair pro-fessionals—do what they do best,” saysDon Keenan, owner of Keenan AutoBody in Clifton Heights, Penn. Keenansaid State farm respects its Select Serv-ice collision repair shops’ experienceand expertise and “as a result, we’refreed up to do the best possible job.”

The Society of Collision RepairSpecialists earlier this year issued a pressrelease praising State Farm for what theorganization is calling a “professionalapproach to claims management.”

“I have received countless callsfrom members commenting on the pos-itive relationship with State Farm, SCRSExecutive Director Dan Risley said.

► As reported in Auto Body Re-pair News (ABRN). The most recentnational survey allowing shops to rateinsurers with regard to reimbursementpolicies and claims handling efficiencystill found State Farm at the top, but witha score of 64.8 (out of 100), down from93.4 in 2003. In 2003 it had a nearly 30-point edge over its closest competitor.Now two other insurers are within 4.2points of knocking State Farm out of thetop spot. SCRS this past year has beenamong the most vocal critics of State

Farm’s implementation PartsTrader, andRisley, now with the Automotive Serv-ice Association, wrote to State Farm inSeptember saying the insurer’s man-dated use of a vendor “that solely finan-cially benefits State Farm is moredictatorship than partnership.”

5 years ago in the collision repairindustry (November 2008)Minnesota shop owner and NACEchairman Darrell Amberson said (atthe event’s opening sessions) that thecollision industry should also be payingclose attention to increased efforts byautomakers to gain design patents oncrash parts, which could limit competi-tion from non-OEM parts manufactur-ers. He said that while design protectionis a “fundamental right” for any indus-try, it could also drive up parts costs,also leading to more total loss vehicles.

He called on the estimating systemproviders to bring more automation, so-phistication and automaker information

to the systems to help them evolve frombeing “just a guide to a tool that couldbe used to blueprint jobs.” The systems,he said, currently are too incompleteand subject to interpretation.

“Can you imagine a world wherewe didn’t have to spend so much ef-fort negotiating, debating (and) look-ing for non-included operations? Ithink whether an insurer or repairer,we could probably increase our lifeexpectancy if we didn’t have to dealwith this,” Amberson said, drawinglaughter and applause from the crowd.

Overall, Amberson, despite thestruggling economy and the specificchallenges the collision repair industryfaces, is optimistic about the opportuni-ties for those shop owners who embracenew technology and processes, diver-sify their business, and think of them-selves as business people, not repairers.

► from Autobody News coverageof the 2008 International AutobodyCongress and Exposition (NACE)


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November Retrospective on the Collision Repair Industry

with John YoswickHistorical Snapshot

—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].

How often have you heard the expres-sion Time is Money? It’s a phrase thatapplies to many businesses but—as itpertains to body shops, insurancecompanies and vehicles owners—it isonly half of the equation. In this in-dustry, time equals money and cus-tomer service.

It’s much more expensive to finda new customer than to retain an ex-isting one. As insurers we are awarethat the time it takes to repair an in-sured vehicle is directly tied to the in-sured’s CSI score and retention rates.Low cycle time equals high CSI, sowe need to focus on reducing cycletime.

Here’s what I mean. Althoughcustomer service can’t be defined byan algebraic equation, it’s safe to as-sume that cycle time is less than orequal to customer service. (I promise Iwon’t reference algebraic equationsfor the remainder of the article.) Theimportant idea is that the less time it

takes to repair a vehicle, the greater thecustomer service is. That’s because,even when the vehicle owner ratescustomer service poorly in terms of therepair itself—or the handling of the

claim, the overall score is going to bebetter when the repair is done quickly.

Also, if you can get repairsthrough your facility faster, you canmove more repairs through the samefacility and you make more money.

For the collision repairer, reducedcycle time equals increased salesequals more money. Increased CSI in-creases customer-driven repeat and re-ferral business. Therefore, reducing

cycle time translates to increased col-lision repairer profitability, CSI, andcustomer referrals and repeat business.

I am not suggesting that shopsshould sacrifice quality just so youcan get the customer’s car back

sooner. But I am pointing out the im-portance of managing cycle time. Theimportance of cycle time goes far be-yond the dollars saved in rental car ex-pense. It also goes beyond the fact thatif you repair the car quicker, you canget another car in the shop.

For insurance companies, there’sanother factor: open claim liability. Thelonger a claim is open, the more likelythe claim will increase, for a lot of rea-sons. Paying and closing claims quicklyreduces open claim liability, and that’sadditional motivation on the insurer’spart to push for reduced cycle time.

Body shops tend to think that thisis just part of the game for insurancecompanies, that we are just imposingour will on hapless shops to save afew dollars on a rental car. But if youremove yourself from that “us-against-them” posturing and thinkabout something other than arguingwith insurance companies, you willrealize that this just makes sense.


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The Insider is a corporate-level executive with a Top 10 auto insurerin the U.S.. Got a comment or question you’d like to see him addressin a future column? Email him at [email protected]

Court, and ABAC will be seekingclass certification later this year. AsFerraiolo stated repeatedly, these law-suits could change the collision repairindustry if the association is victorious.Industry leaders from other states havealready begun contacting ABAC to ex-press interest and seek advice on howto pursue these types of battles.

The Hartford was contacted forcomments, but none have been re-ceived at press time.

Auto Body Association of Connecti-cut (ABAC)104 Cheshire RdProspect, CT [email protected]

We are all in business to deliver aservice to the customer. You just hap-pen to repair cars; we simply providecoverage in the event of a loss. But thebottom line is that delivering customerservice is a more important businessproposition than anything else theshop or insurance company does. Inthe highly competitive insurance andcollision repair markets, retaining pol-icyholders and getting repeat businesswill make the difference between sur-vival and prospering.

The challenge for insurance com-panies is that we are beholden to thetime that body shops take to make therepairs. With few exceptions, the timeit takes for you to repair a vehicle issolely dependent upon your shop’smanagement and operational effi-ciency. Although you may think it’s aninsurance company goal to manageyour shop, it isn’t. We don’t haveenough manpower or systems to man-age your business for you. Instead weneed shops to be conscientious aboutcycle time. Better cycle time equalshigh customer service scores whichequals greater policyholder retention.

It is frustrating as an insuranceexecutive to realize that we lose poli-cyholders because the customer was

dissatisfied with the length of time ittook to repair their vehicle. I realizethat insurance companies can ad-versely impact cycle time with out-dated processes or lack of trust(though I’m sure many of you willemail me to point this out). But thefact remains that there are tens ofthousands of body shops in the indus-try. A small percentage of you under-stand what I am saying. And an evensmaller percentage actually take ac-tion to ensure that cycle time and op-erational efficiency are dominant inall phases of your facility.

The greater percentage of bodyshops repair cars at their own pace be-cause, after all, they don’t owe any-thing to the insurance company. Theyproclaim that they are repairing thecar the right way and you just can’trush such things. If you are one ofthose short-sighted people, pleasedon’t repair any of my customers ve-hicles. But for those that want to sur-vive what is going to be a continualreduction of shops in the UnitedStates, please keep reading.

The moment you are notified thatthere is a claim, we are starting theclock. Why? Because we are doing thatinternally with our own staff. We are

monitoring and assessing every step ofthe claim process. The stopwatch startsthe moment you are notified of theclaim, and only stops when the cus-tomer is handed back their keys.

The days of measuring cycle timeby the number of days is gone. Insur-ance companies are measuring cycletime by the minute. We can no longertolerate working with shops that aren’tdriven to improve their efficiency andcycle time – especially when yourcompetition down the street under-stands the rules of engagement andhow to win.

I know that all shops aren’t cre-ated equal. Fortunately, we are gettingbetter at identifying the “haves” fromthe “have-nots.” If you aren’t keenlyaware of the cycle time in all phasesof your operation, your fate will besealed because your customers won’ttolerate it. Time is money. Customersatisfaction and retention is driven byhow long it takes you to repair the car.

The Insider is a corporate-levelexecutive with a Top 10 auto insurerin the U.S.. Got a comment or ques-tion you’d like to see him address in afuture column? Email him at [email protected].


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by Vincent J. Romans & Mary JaneKurowski, The Romans Group

Part 1 of our annual series exam-ines the largest shop groups in theindustry, their growing marketshare, and an analysis of the num-bers. This year’s report expandsto include Canada.

The impact of globalization isincreasingly evident with theemergence and migration of newand hybrid auto physical damagemodels that exist in other coun-tries throughout the world; someof which are finding their way tothe United States. There has alsobeen an increase in U.S. and for-eign trans-border investments in-volving various segments withinthe collision repair, property andcasualty auto insurance and theautomotive aftermarket ecosys-tem. In light of this, we have ex-panded our annualanalysis and profile of theU.S. collision repair mar-ketplace to includeCanada.

United StatesIn 2012, U.S. merger andacquisition activity formultiple-location platformtransactions took place in10 states and involved 17independent collision re-pair organizations with 128 loca-tions as compared to 48 locationsin 2011. These platform transac-tions shifted approximately $300million in revenue during 2012with average revenue transferredof $2.35 million per location.

Year to date through Septem-ber 2013, we see slower M&A ac-tivity within the collision repairindustry as reflected in the follow-ing chart. The 2013 YTD acquisi-tion activity for multiple-locationplatform transactions took place in5 states and involved 9 independ-ent collision repair organizationswith 59 locations. These platformtransactions have shifted approx-imately $158 million in revenue todate during 2013 with averagerevenue transferred of $2.2 millionper location. See first chart.

Through September 2013,ABRA entered two new markets,Washington and Indianapolis,while Caliber and Service King’s

transactions were in existing mar-kets. Boyd/Gerber entered theMichigan market with its HansenCollision platform transaction.These MLOs also had a numberof single-location acquisitions in2012 and 2013 along with Brown-field and Greenfield locationswhich built out their respectivemarkets.

The following map indicateswhich states had the most inde-pendent multiple-location platform

merger and acquisition activityfrom 2010 through 2013.

Despite the slowdown inmerger and acquisition activitythus far in 2013, multiple-locationoperators, and the collision repairindustry in general, continue tomove through what we have iden-tified as Contraction, Consolida-tion and Convergence.

We believe that ConstructiveTransformation, the inevitable andnecessary heavy lifting associatedwith the integration of different or-ganizations and their businessplatforms, is one of the main rea-sons consolidation momentum hastapered down. Other factors, suchas higher valuations and morecomplex transactions requiringlonger periods for due diligence,also contribute to this temporaryrespite.

We continue to see threemain active expansion strategiesshaping the collision repair indus-

try. One strategy is beingdriven by independentand dealership regionalMLOs which are focusingtheir expansion within ex-isting and/or contiguousmarkets. Another strategyof national independentconsolidators, such asBoyd/Gerber, ABRA andCaliber, is the continuedfocus of activity primarily

within existing markets throughclustering and leap-frogging intonew regions and markets usingplatform acquisitions to gain entry.

Unlike these larger, multi-re-gion MLO companies, there havebeen few regional MLO consolida-tors venturing into new platformmarkets. The northeast marketscontinue to be absent of any sig-nificant MSO market entry.

The third strategy is aggres-sive expansion by franchise con-solidator MLOs such as CARSTARand ABRA. ABRA is onboardingboth dealer and independent fran-chisees in second- and third-tiermarkets. CARSTAR is targeting

growth with independent repairersin specific targeted markets withsome market penetration in thenortheast. Fix continues its two-pronged strategy of building out itsfranchise model in target marketswhile maintaining and growing itsbanner network across a broaderU.S. marketplace. These acquisi-tions, Brownfield and Greenfield,and franchise conversions strate-gies will continue to influence thedirection of consolidation and right-sizing within the collision repair in-dustry and will result in increasedMLO market share in the U.S.

The $20+ million U.S. colli-sion repair segment continues togrow their market share and brandrelatively faster than other seg-ments of the collision repair in-dustry. This growth is being drivenby an increasing number of vari-ables.● Private equity’s continued inter-est in the collision repair industry

► U.S. MSO organizationswith private equity financing andsupport include the following (seechart):


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● MLO access to various privateand strategic partner capital forbusiness, market growth, expan-sion and infrastructure develop-ment increasing consolidationthrough single- and multiple-loca-tion acquisitions● The segment’s local and multi-market footprint which offersgreater consumer and insurancecompany choice● Multi-level selling and marketingfor insurer choice brand preferencewith access to insurance companydirect repair claims● Ongoing operational improve-ment, resulting in increased vehi-cle repair quality, higher daily touchtime, increased throughput, lowercycle time, and shorter length ofrental● Business service differentiation,

market segmentation andbrand recognition/reputa-tion● MLO market leadershipthrough sustainable, top-tier, competitive perform-ance results● Expanded businesshours of operation includ-ing multiple daily shifts,

weekends and hybrid work shifts● Insurance DRP focus that drivessingle point of contact, operationalconformity, predictable and sus-tained repair quality, and competi-tively ranked repairer performanceoutcomes● An integrated, multi-level salesand marketing approach to captur-ing consumer, insurance, rental,and fleet● Expansion of new and hybridnetwork platforms involving MLOs

United States $20+ Million MLO andthe $10 to $20 Million SegmentsIn the past, we have reviewed andprofiled the $20+ million MLO seg-ment. The 2012 U.S. profile hasbeen expanded to include ourwork on the $10 to $20 millionmultiple-location operator seg-

ment. This profile of the $20+ mil-lion and the $10 to $20 millionmultiple-location collision repairoperators includes:● Independent and dealershipMLO collision repair operatorsprocessing $20+ million or more inrevenue annually within the U.S.market● Independent and dealershipMLO collision repair operatorsprocessing $10 to $20 million inrevenue annually within the U.S.market● Professionally-managed opera-tors providing performance-based, brand-recognized andcompetitively-differentiated colli-sion repair services● Companies focused on achiev-ing top-tier, self-managed, andcustomer-required performanceresults, high customer satisfac-tion, and consistent and sustain-able quality repairs● Businesses that tend to pursuemultiple customer segments forcollision repair revenue includingproperty and casualty insuranceDRP, automotive dealer, accidentmanagement, rental car, and di-rect-pay consumers

● Organizations typically incorpo-rating strategic planning as part oftheir proactive approach to theirbusiness, market developmentand growth● Operators practicing businessprocess improvement and opera-tions excellence; managing the or-ganization by incorporating andintegrating all functional areassuch as finance, personnel, oper-ations, sales/marketing, and tech-nology as a minimum foundationfor their business platform

Both the $20M+ MLO and the$10 to $20M MLO collision repairprofile used for this analysis ex-cludes repair facilities that focusexclusively or primarily on expe-dited paint and cosmollision, paint-less dent removal, glass repair,and mechanical only; and collisionrepair related primarily to auctionvehicles. We do recognize thatwithin these segments some com-panies continue to be in variousstages of strategic growth, trans-formation and transition to busi-ness models approaching that ofan insurance company DRP or di-versified customer collision repair


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Faces of NACE 2013

A new free publication from Hondafeatures body repair information ontheir new models. The first two edi-tions of Body Repair News are nowavailable on Honda’s Service Expresswebsite. The premier publication inthe series focuses on new model bodyrepair information for the 2014 AcuraMDX and the second edition coversthe 2013 Honda Accord. SubsequentBody Repair News editions will becreated, or updated, for each new

model and any minor model changewhere significant body designchanges are made.

Body Repair News is more thanjust a token few pages of new modelhighlights. The premier issue is 10pages of technical information colli-sion repair professionals need toknow, everything from colored dia-

grams showing strengths of steel (seeFigure 1), to new structure applica-tions, to structural foam locations, andrepair guidelines. Body Repair Newssummarizes new body and vehicletechnology that may affect collisionand other body repairs. It is not in-tended to replace the detailed infor-mation contained in the body repairand service manuals. Rather, it simplyhelps collision repair industry person-nel understand why using the vehicle

maker service information is so im-portant to complete and safe repairs.

The new Acura MDX has a frontdoor ring reinforcement made of1,500 MPa steel. During replacement,where spot welding does not reach,Honda specifies MIG brazing and noGMA (MIG) plug welds. In the publi-cation, the restrictions for welding on

the 1,500 MPa steel are not onlyspelled out in detail, there are photosof what can go wrong if welds aredone on this steel (see Figure 2).

Several other welding precau-

tions and guidelines are included. Alsoincluded are details on the passive re-straint system on the vehicle, and elec-trical repair information, which showshow Honda wants repairs done onwiring pigtails and connectors.

Body Repair News is availableon the opening page of the ServiceExpress website. Click on “Industry

Position Statements & Body RepairNews”, and then scroll down to BodyRepair News. It is provided free ofcharge, along with the company’s po-sition statements and emergency re-

sponse guides. Repair techniques on the2013 Honda Accord are in-cluded in the I-CAR LiveVehicle Technology andTrends 2013 (NEW13), theOnline Collision Repair forHonda and Acura Vehicles(HON01e), and the upcom-ing Live Replacement ofUnitized Structural Vehicles

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Figure 2 - This photo shows tensile strength test resultsof welding 1,500 MPa steel to 590 MPa steel. The 1,500MPa steel fractured first, because the welding heat re-duced its strength far below 590 MPa. (Photo courtesy ofAmerican Honda Motor Co, Inc.)

Figure 1 - This colored illustration shows the materials and strengths of steel used on the 2014Acura MDX. (Photo courtesy of American Honda Motor Co, Inc.)

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As I start to pack for my annual pil-grimage to SEMA, I’m thinking aboutall those overloaded shopping bagscarried through the exhibit hallsbulging with what we know in thebusiness as the advertising specialty.Anything emblazoned with your com-pany’s name: pens, scratch pads, keychains, calendars, baseball caps,mugs, bags, foam footballs, clocks,and bottle openers—is called an adspecialty. Although some simplyknow them as “swag” or “chotchke,”other people call them “things that sitaround my office.” I’m guilty of en-abling my hoarding tendencies thisway. We’re so used to seeing them thatit may be a surprise to learn that theautomotive industry is by far thelargest user of these promotionalitems.

Some people (including me) de-light in collecting pens and baseballcaps while others argue that most adspecialties end up in the roundfile and

then the landfill. What will futurecivilzations think about us when in theyear of 2220, archeologists dig up tonsof coffee mugs and refrigerator mag-nets that say “Bill’s Body Shop” or“Tom’s Auto Collision”? Will theylaugh and point out ad specialties as atoken of our society’s eventual de-mise?

Many companies use them as aneffective form of branding and adver-tising, particulaly for businesses thathave infrequent contact with their cus-tomers, like body shops. If you’re abody shop and spending a significantamount of money on ad specialties,you should always ask yourself ‘are

they a good use of my advertisingmoney?’ Have you ever encountereda customer who actually said, “I sawyour name on a desk pad and that’swhy I brought my car here.”

The Advertising Specialty Insti-tute (ASI) is the largest media, mar-keting and education organizationserving the $19.4 billion promotional

products industry, with a network ofover 25,000 distributors and suppliersthroughout North America.

ASI’s CEO is Tim Andrews andI had a chance to talk to him recentlyabout the power of the ad specialtyand how automotive repair businessescan benefit from using them.

“For impressions, ad specialtiesare by far the most cost-effective formof advertising out there,” Andrews ex-plained. “Every time someone seesyour name on a pen or a key chain,that’s called an impression. Duringlean economic times, ad specialtiesare an ideal solution for smaller com-panies that need to get their names outthere, but they can’t afford other formsof conventional advertising. Ad spe-cialties are remembered and kept andmany of them are used by people formany years, based on our research.”

Getting a high-quality ad spe-cialty and personalizing it for yourcurrent customers is also a great wayto further strengthen your positionwith your customer base, Andrewssays.

“For your return customers or topinfluencers in your community, per-sonalization is a unique way to reallyconnect even more with your most-prized contacts. If someone has a t-


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Do Ad Specialties (“Swag”) Really Make an Impression?

with Ed Attanasio

Social Media for Shops

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].

“Nationwide the automotive industry buys morepromotional items than all other consumerproduct companies combined”

— Advertising Specialty Institute

shirt or a pen with their own name onit, they will logically keep it for amuch longer period of time. It createsadditional value and the impressionsderived from a personalized ad spe-cialty can be ten times higher, in somecases.”

Also, instead of buying 2,000cheap plastic pens, for example,maybe purchase a smaller number ofhigher-quality pens, in order to keepthem in the hands of your customerslonger.

“The more they use that pen,your brand name and logo will remainfurther in the top of their minds, whichmeans your efforts will grow expo-nentially,” Andrews said. “An inex-pensive pen or key chain might getdiscarded after limited use, but if theend-user values it and sees it as beingspecial, it will remain on their deskand in their possession for a muchlonger period of time. It just makessense.”

The products that leave the mostpositive impressions and those that re-cipients keep longer are: outerwear,shirts, recognition items (awards,plaques), caps/headwear, flash drives,health and safety products, desk/officeaccessories, and bags, according to

Andrews.ASI provided several statistics

that are worth noting when makingdecisions on promotional products.● Nearly nine in ten (87%) recipientsof promotional merchandise can iden-tify the advertiser on the item.● Over one-half (52%) of the time, adspecialties leave a more favorable im-pression of the advertiser.● Promotional products deliver thesame or a better ROI than other formsof media.● 81% of product recipients indicatedthat an item’s usefulness is the pri-mary reason to keep it.● There are nearly 8,000 different au-tomotive-related promotional prod-ucts currently in ASI’s database.● The automotive industry buys morepromotional items than all of otherconsumer product companies com-bined nationwide.● Study results show that most peopleown approximately 10 ad specialtyitems on an on-going basis and holdon to them for an average of sixmonths, a far longer time period thanany other traditional form of advertis-ing.

What’s your ultimate goal in giv-ing a pen, hat or key chain away?

Who’s your target audience? Are youtrying to reach out to prospective cus-tomers? Or, are you staying in touchwith your VIP clients, those who seemto get into more accidents or havehigher-end vehicles? Are you doing acampaign targeting your vendors, in-surance agents, local community lead-ers or organizations?

It all comes down to finding yourtarget market and continually brand-ing. Many automotive-related busi-nesses use ad specialties as one oftheir main forms of marketing. For ex-ample, glass replacement companiesoften distribute scratch pads, desk cal-endars, and other items to auto bodyshops. Since most body shops fre-quently work with several glass re-placement companies, it’s a good ideafor them to keep their name and phonenumber in front of them. Car dealersoften provide license plate brackets totheir customers with the dealer’s nameand logo—nine times out of ten thecustomer never thinks about it again,but the dealership is being advertisedto everyone who sees that new car andthinks about buying that model forthemselves.

So, as I run around at SEMA,loading up on pens, hats, key chains,

scratch pads and any else I can get myhands on, I will be thinking about thepower of the ad specialty. Ad special-ties are a useful form of branding andthat’s why they’ll continue to be an in-tegral part of the marketing and ad-vertising efforts of almost every bodyshop in this country today.

Recently, for example, a com-pany that manufactures and sells theseitems sent me a nice little key chainflashlight with my name and companyprinted on it. It’s something I mightactually use, if I can find room on myalready overloaded key chain.


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A few years back I attended a man-agement-training seminar put on byKepner-Tregoe, Inc., a prestigiousmanagement consulting companybased in Princeton, New Jersey. Theprincipal speaker noted that the com-pany had completed a follow-up sur-vey to find out how many companieshad implemented the costly plan andprocedures they had developed forthose clients. Sadly, they found thatonly about 20 percent of their clientshad put more than a few of their rec-ommendations to work, and many hadsimply put the entire package on ashelf and forgotten about it. This ten-dency to put new projects on the shelfis common to many kinds of business,and the collision repair industry isn’timmune to it.

Many autobody industry publica-tions have had articles on body shopmarketing for years, often describingspectacular business gains made byspecific shops using one marketingstrategy or another. And yet I seldomsee these strategies put into action byshop owners that I know read the pub-lications. I can only conclude thatthere are too many things on a shopowner’s “to-do-list” to allow him orher to focus on a new marketing strat-egy. There are only 24 hours in a day,and even less than that in a typicalworkday. Finding the time to intro-duce what might be a complicatednew marketing strategy can seemnearly impossible.

Back around the year 2000, Iheard another speaker named Al Se-cunda who had an interesting new ap-proach to getting a difficult projectunder way. He had written a book en-titled The Fifteen Second Principle(Berkley Books, 1999). Simply put,he suggested committing to spendingat least 15 seconds on the projectevery day. When he spoke I thoughtthat 15 seconds seems like a ridicu-lously small amount of time. What canyou do in 15 seconds? At the very

least, he said, you will find out if youcare enough about getting it done tospend a few seconds, or you will findout that you don’t even care thatmuch. And if you do care, even a fewseconds are enough to focus on atleast one step you can take to furtherthe project.

Once into a marketing project,you will often discover that there arepreviously unrecognized reasons why

you didn’t want to take on the project.For one shop, the idea to put up somenew signs ran squarely into a city’slegal prohibition for certain kinds ofsigns. This meant working around theprohibited ones to find those thatwould be acceptable. Another shopowner decided to begin a prior cus-tomer-calling program to dig up somereturn business or referrals. This proj-ect flew in the face of employee re-sistance to phone soliciting andrequired some re-training and even re-cruiting new personnel. With a newproject there is always the possibilityof running into what can seem to beinsurmountable obstacles, but withouttaking a few moments to consider it,nothing will ever be done.

Probably the most frequent bar-rier to getting a new project underway will be the resistance of peopleneeded to do the work. A manager atUnited Health Plan once said, “Un-less the pain of not doing somethingis greater than the pain of doing it,most people will choose not to do it.”Of course that suggests punishingpeople for not taking action, an un-wise approach to getting those proj-ects under way. But in the real worldof many body shops competing forlimited repair jobs, failing to imple-

ment better marketing strategies cansubject one to the real pain of a lostjob. Probably a better motivationalstrategy is to give the people expectedto do the work the current repair vol-ume numbers versus the potentialjobs that can come from the market-ing initiative, but this can’t be done in15 seconds. So what can?

Many body shops in the U.S. areenamored with Toyota’s lean produc-

tion philosophy, based on kaisen, theconcept of continuous improvements.When focusing on continuous mar-keting improvements, small incre-mental steps may be best.

Marketing genius Jay Abraham,in his invaluable book Getting Every-

thing You Can Out of All You’ve Gotwrites, “It’s amazing how few compa-nies ever test any aspect of their mar-keting and compare it to somethingelse.” Abraham suggests experiment-ing and always testing a small samplebefore committing to a major market-ing expenditure. Just devoting thosefew seconds every day to evaluating amarketing initiative could save a shopowner a lot of wasted money and per-haps zero in on one that really bringsin the business!

A good example is calling priorcustomers to see if there might bemore need for repairs now, or perhapsa referral to a friend or family mem-ber. So what’s to test? A wronglyworded phone call could annoy theprior customer and do more harm thangood. But some carefully planned testcalls could reveal what approachworks best. And an astute shop ownermight put this test together in just afew seconds. It’s worth a try.


Take 15 Seconds to Think about Putting Marketing Ideas to Work

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

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

“Unless the pain of not doing something isgreater than the pain of doing it, most peoplewill choose not to do it”

—United Health Plan Manager

If you are serious about your business future and plan to have some say in what that future is... then the answer is clear − Become a Member of the HABA.

Our mission is to create an environment of professionalism, respect, account-ability, excellence, enthusiasm and the ability to collect fair and reasonable compensation for collision repairers who properly restore vehicles to their safe pre-loss condition.

For more information on becominga Member, please visit our website at: www.habaonline.org

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AudaExplore™ has announced thelaunch of GoTime, a new line ofdriver-focused mobile solutions thatstreamline and accelerate a range ofpartial and total loss claims and repairprocesses while driving an improvedand optimized vehicle owner experi-ence.

“There’s a perfect storm ofchange hitting the market—from anew generation of vehicle owners tothe pervasiveness of mobile devices tonewly available self-service offeringsthat enable new ways of engaging ve-hicle owners never before possibleuntil now,” said Neal Lowell, Auda-Explore’s vice president of productmanagement and innovation. “OurGoTime line of mobile solutions em-powers insurers and repair facilities toaddress these market dynamics headon, with features that take business ef-ficiencies and the vehicle owner expe-rience to the next level.”

The GoTime family of mobile so-lutions is powered by AudaNet, Auda-Explore’s global, intelligent, next-generation claims and collision repairplatform.

GoTime product highlights in-clude:

● GoTime Autosource. Drivesimmediate accuracy and quicker per-

formance for insurance staff and inde-pendent appraisers. According to Au-daExplore, it is the only smart phoneapp with advanced vehicle identifica-tion, one-thumb conditioning, and themarket-driven valuations of Au-tosource, AudaExplore’s valuationservice. AudaExplore says the intu-itive design of GoTime Autosourceempowers appraisers to easily com-plete comprehensive vehicle-side in-spections.● GoTime Repair. Designed to en-able peak performance for collisionrepair facilities through better repairtracking and shop management. Bycombining AudaExplore’s AutoFo-cus body shop management system(BMS) with AudaExplore’s Au-toWatch collision repair trackingsoftware on smart mobile devices,the company states that users canquickly and easily optimize opera-tions, reduce cycle times and maxi-mize customer communications.● GoTime Appraiser. AudaExplorecalls this feature an all-in-one mobilesolution that enables appraisers to ef-ficiently and effectively manage ap-praisal appointments and vehiclerepairs while providing vehicle own-ers with an optimized customer expe-rience. Going beyond just photos,

GoTime Appraiser features drag-and-drop schedule updates, integratedturn-by-turn directions, single-clickcustomer communications, AudaEx-plore’s patent-pending vehicle photoguides, and location-specific repairstatuses and alarms.

“With the mobile technology agecomes new ways of increasing the ef-ficiency and productivity of apprais-ers and collision repair experts in thefield, as well as delivering immediateand optimal communications to vehi-cle owners,” added Lowell. “We arefanatical about providing our cus-tomers’ customers with the best expe-rience possible and are proud to bringthe first three GoTime solutions tomarket, building upon our commit-ment to delivering continuous innova-tion and integrated intelligence for theautomobile claims market.”

In other news, the company an-nounced Oct. 8 it will expand itsglobal automotive data footprint withthe addition of Chrysler vehicle man-ufacturing build data, for vehicles inthe US., Canada and Mexico. The ex-pansion brings Chrysler vehicle builddata accuracy to every country whereChrysler vehicles are sold through Au-daExplore’s AudaVIN™ vehicle iden-tification technology.

AudaExplore™ Introduces GoTime Line of Driver Focused Mobile SolutionsAutobytel has purchased AdvancedMobile LLC, a provider of mobilecommunications services for the auto-motive industry. Autobytel said it willoffer OEMs and dealers the ability toconnect with consumers using a pre-ferred method of text communication,via a secure platform that protects con-sumers’ privacy. Autobytel will alsooffer dealers a comprehensive suite ofmobile products including apps, web-sites, Send2Phone capabilities and textmessage marketing. Advanced Mobile,founded in 2006 and based in King ofPrussia, PA, markets a full range of ad-vanced mobile technologies that facil-itate communication between dealersand car buyers on smart phones andtablets. This platform will be the coreof an array of mobile services Autoby-tel will offer to its dealer and manu-facturer customers, and will also beavailable to consumers through Auto-bytel’s websites. “Last year, more than326 million U.S. wireless subscriberssent more than 2 trillion text mes-sages,” said Jeffrey Coats, presidentand CEO. “This acquisition enables usto offer the industry the mobile re-sources it requires to successfully com-municate with car buyers in a preferredmanner,” Coats said.

Autobytel Acquires Assets ofAdvanced Mobile LLC

Environmental concerns have becomea major priority in the collision repairindustry and removal and reutilizationof recyclable material. The AutomotiveRecyclers Association (ARA) is play-ing an increasing role in this move-ment.

Since it was established in 1943,ARA has been the only trade associa-tion representing the automotive recy-cling industry. It is dedicated to

efficiently remov-ing and reutilizingautomotive parts aswell as seeing tothe safe disposal ofinoperable motorvehicles. ARA hasexpanded to repre-sent approximately

1250 companies through direct mem-bership, plus over 3000 additionalcompanies worldwide through their af-filiated chapters in 43 states and 14other countries.

CEO Michael Wilson explainstheir mission: ARA aims to furtherservices and programs to increase pub-lic awareness of conserving the futurethrough automotive recycling and topromote the industry’s value to the au-tomotive consumer. ARA encouragesaggressive environmental managementprograms to assist member facilities inmaintaining proper management tech-niques for fluid and solid waste mate-rials generated from the disposal ofmotor vehicles.

ARA offers many benefits to theirmembers, such as networking opportu-nities, legislative representation, mar-keting tools and even discounts onliability insurance and training throughtheir own university, ARAU. Theirwebsite features resources for mem-bers, and ARA publishes weekly elec-tronic newsletters as well as abi-monthly magazine, Automotive Re-cycling, to provide members withneeded information on the latest indus-

try trends, training and technologicalupdates. According to Wilson, ARAserves members by offering a broadspectrum of programs and benefits forall sizes of automotive recycling oper-

ations: “business models for profes-sional automotive recyclers includeboth full and self-service platforms,and our clients range from do-it-your-selfers to independent repair shops tolarge insurance based collision repairfacilities.”

ARA also maintains two founda-tions for the benefit of their membersand the industry at-large. Their Educa-tional Foundation hosts a library of in-

dustry-specific training courses whichare available through the ARA Univer-sity. ARA’s Scholarship Foundationpromotes continuing education byawarding over $30,000 in scholarshipgrants to the children of their membersand their members’ employees.

Discussing the challenges ARAfaces to maintain operations, Wilsonlists branding, consolidation within theindustry, the exportation of salvage ve-hicles out of the country, the unlevelplaying field at salvage auctions andwith unlicensed or illegally operatingentities, and advancements in technol-ogy. He says the industry needs toovercome the competition and barrierserected by auto manufacturers seekingto protect their market share. ARA also deals with the commonproblems of adapting to the changes in-herent as new generations come of age,such as how to get them involved withthe association and its leadership.

Wilson explains their current


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Virginia-Based Automotive Recycling Association Does More Than Green the Industry

Michael Wilson

Memphis-area Auto Glass Replacement Hit by Halt toVehicle Registration InspectionsThe auto glass replacement industry inMemphis is feeling some pain after thecity halted auto inspection requirementsfor registration renewal, says an articlein the AGRR publication glassBYTEs™.

Without this net to catch wind-shield damage, the demand for autoglass repair and replacement work is onthe decline. “It’s just about killed the re-placement auto glass industry,” saysShawn Barnett, manager of A&B FastAuto Glass in Memphis. “We’ve seen abig decline in business. It’s dropped bymore than 50 percent. “We’ve switchedover to do more home glass work,” Bar-nett adds. “We haven’t laid anybody offyet, but we’re a small company so wedon’t have a lot of people.” Meanwhile,Jack Morris Auto Glass has also felt the“hurt,” according to Jack Morris,CEO. The company has locations inTennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansasand Mississippi.

“Fortunately, we operate in moreareas than just Memphis,” says Morris.“If I were to guess, I would say our busi-ness has been down about 10 percent andI would say close to half of the dip is theeconomy and the other half is because ofthis. “We’ve complained to the state andcounty about this,” he adds.

“Everything [the economy] is justkind of shaky right now and I don’t see

the halt in inspections ending anytimesoon. Years ago, it used to be that resi-dents had to get vehicles inspected threetimes a year in Memphis, then it went totwo times and about seven or so yearsago, it went to once a year. It helped busi-ness even when inspections were re-quired just one a year. But with theeconomy the way it is, if there is a crackin the windshield, consumers are just de-ciding to put off getting the windshieldrepaired or replaced.” Mark Yates, a vet-eran auto glass technician in Memphis,says he was laid off from Jack MorrisAuto Glass after demand for windshieldrepair and replacements dropped.

“The fact they are no longer doingvehicle inspections is really hurtingbusiness,” says the 30-year industryveteran. “I got laid off along with a fewothers. Before, if your windshield haddamage, the city wouldn’t pass yourcar under inspection. After the inspec-tions stopped, the local police weresupposed to give more tickets for dam-aged windshields but we haven’t seenthis happen.”

Yates says he submitted applica-tions with other local auto glass com-panies in the Memphis area, but that noone is hiring. “I just went and put in ap-plications at two other companies but

See Glass Replacement, Page 48

focus: “the professional automotive re-cycling industry is not immune to theeffects of the type of seismic eventsthat have transformed the American au-tomotive sector over the past few years.Our members must be equipped toadapt to the effects of this change inorder to meet emerging markets in newand creative ways. We are also focusedon providing our members with theskills and knowledge to meet the chal-lenges that new, more complex motorvehicles bring to our facilities. A recentPolk report detailed that the number ofvehicles older than 12 years has in-creased by more than 20 percent, andthat percentage is expected to continueto rise for at least the next five years.These numbers predict a significantwave of inoperable motor vehicles thatwill be arriving soon at automotive re-cycling facilities throughout the UnitedStates. As an industry, we must seizethe opportunities these increasing in-ventories create for the proper and effi-cient removal and reuse of ‘green’automotive parts.”

ARA leadership held a strategicplanning retreat earlier this year thepurpose of which was “to articulate afuture that realizes the full potential ofmembers’ businesses. ARA is working

continually to engage industry partnersthat want to help advance the automo-tive recycling profession and, at thesame time, try to bridge gaps betweenus and those entities that have minimalinterest in supporting policies that pro-mote the utilization of OE recycledparts.”

Currently, ARA is planning fortheir upcoming 70th annual conventionwhich will be held November 6 –9 atthe Sheraton Convention Center inPhoenix, AZ. They are planning a ro-bust program of educational and train-ing opportunities for their members,such as the Certified Automotive Re-cyclers (CAR) program. ARA is cur-rently working on the new CARprogram in order to emphasize the in-dustry’s environmental stewardship.

ARA also looks forward to hosting au-tomotive recyclers from around theglobe for the International Roundtableon Automotive Recycling which willtake place immediately after their con-vention.

Recently, ARA partnered withCIECA in order “to leverage expertise

and implementation tools ofboth parties, develop stan-dards and advance new busi-ness platforms. CIECAdevelops technology elec-tronic communication stan-dards that allow betterconnectivity within the indus-try. This partnership is in-creasing parts sales andreducing risk.”Other pending projects in-

clude ARA9001, a quality control sys-tem specifically tailored to theautomotive recycling industry that isbased on elements of the association’scurrent Gold Seal program and contin-ued recognition and utilization of theGreen Recycled Parts trademark. Theassociation also recently released ARADirect, an online auction platformwhere members can purchase vehiclesfrom various insurance companies,wholesalers, fleets, franchise dealers

and others in a manner that signifi-cantly changes the means by whichmembers’ vehicle acquisition demandsare met and increases their inventory.

Though these matters are morethan enough to keep ARA occupied,they work in the regulatory and leg-islative sphere as well. In addition toworking with the EPA to make stormwater permitting appropriate and effec-tive for professional automotive facili-ties plus regularly educating memberson OSHA standards, ARA has beenworking with the DOJ to increase com-pliance and enforcement of the Na-tional Motor Vehicle Title InformationSystem (NMVTIS). Their work withDOT to combat the use of counterfeitairbags has led to ARA’s involvementin legislation on this topic as educateconsumers about recycled OEMairbags. Wilson believes this legislationalso “benefits body shop owners be-cause they will be able to better iden-tify counterfeit airbags and alsounderstand the cost-effective option ofusing non-deployed recycled OEMairbags in repairs.”

ARA also supports evaluations onthe need for and cost of new regula-tions while keeping an eye on howthese changes impact jobs which bene-


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fits collision repair shops. The currentmotor vehicle safety recall legislationunder consideration in the Senate ap-plies to rental fleets, “but ARA is tak-ing the opportunity to educatepolicymakers on the need to include re-call data into third party inventorymanagement systems so recyclers canidentify through their electronic inven-tory searches whether a particular parthas been recalled; this benefits bodyshop owners because this would guar-antee that the recycler wouldn’t un-knowingly sell a recalled part to arepairer,” says Wilson.

Additionally, ARA has taken aninterest in metal anti-theft legislationto prevent duplicative mandates onprofessional automotive recyclers.Though recyclers are already regu-lated by sales and reporting require-ments, anti-theft legislation proposedin Congress protects city and munic-ipality infrastructures as well as bodyshops and consumer assets. Wilsonadmits there are always challengeswhen trying to get legislation signedinto law, beginning with misrepre-sentations about recycled parts. Inorder to educate legislators about theindustry, ARA must combat those op-posed to the proposed legislation, pre-

senting a challenge since these com-petitors often have significantly moreresources.

Wilson believes that OEMs needto embrace parts reutilization at thedesign stage. He says, “technologicaladvances are eliminating past barri-ers to foster robust international com-merce. Access to parts data that onlyautomotive manufacturers can pro-vide is crucial to enable the autobody industry as well as automotiverecyclers to compete in emergingtechnologies and business platforms;this is a need both our industriesshare. Only with this important datacan the automotive recycling profes-sion efficiently and accurately iden-tify OE recycled part matches forrepairs and total loss determinationcalculations.”

Another challenge is the expan-sion of parts technology as electronicparts are all being added to the mix ofcollision and mechanical parts inven-tory, necessitating even more specificdata to appropriately describe for reuse.Though ARA has not taken a formalposition on PartsTrader, Wilson notes,“we continue to monitor and evaluatethe program’s rollout. Several ARA re-cyclers are members on the PartsTrader

Advisory Board, and ARA invitedPartsTrader representatives to providea presentation on the program at ourupcoming convention.”

ARA is also monitoring initia-tives related to Right to Repair, andWilson explains, “ARA has long ar-gued that car owners and independentrepair shops need full access to the in-formation, parts and tools necessary toaccurately diagnose, repair and re-program vehicles. ARA staff has beenactively coordinating with our affili-ated state chapters in New England tomonitor R2R initiative on the statelegislative level as well as continuedto dialogue with stakeholders in-volved in the national Right to Repairconversations.”

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Allstate reports that drivers that aresigned up for its usage-based insur-ance program, Drivewise, will regis-ter more than one billion milesdriven this month. Allstate said thatDrivewise is launching in Kentuckyand Montana this month, making theusage-based insurance product avail-able in 22 states including New Yorkand New Jersey. Allstate’s usage-based auto insurance (UBI) productmeasures mileage, hard braking, ex-cessive speed, and the time of daywhen a customer drives. Using thatdata, Allstate calculates insurancepremium savings for each customerusing its telematics technology. Cus-tomers can receive savings equal to10 percent of premium.

After the first six months of use,savings are based on driving perform-ance calculated from the data col-lected. The company said that sevenof every 10 Drivewise customers savemoney through the program and noone receives an increase. Of the driv-ers earning a discount, the averagesavings is 14 percent per vehicle.

Allstate reports that roughly, athird of all new customers enroll inthe Drivewise program, where it isavailable.

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NHTSA Recommends BackUp Cameras for New CarsThe National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration (NHTSA) has in-cluded a recommendation in its NewCar Assessment Program (NCAP)that encourages manufacturers toequip new vehicles with a rearviewvideo system. NCAP includes a five-star rating system for raising con-sumer awareness aboutcrashworthiness and rollover safetyinformation. The NCAP update isseparate from NHTSA’s proposedrule to update Federal Motor VehicleSafety Standard No. 111 (Rear ViewMirrors) to require all new passengercars be equipped with a rearviewcamera system. The equipment is in-tended to prevent accidents by alert-ing drivers when pedestrians arebehind the vehicles. Under a lawpassed in 2008, the NHTSA had until2011 to issue the rule to be phased-inby 2014. While the law permittedsensors, mirrors or other devices toprovide drivers with rearward infor-mation, the NHTSA determined thata camera and dashboard displayscreen system was the best solution.The automakers have generally ob-jected to not being provided moreflexibility in determining cost-effec-tive ways to achieve the goal.

they are not hiring,” he says. “Busi-ness is slow all around.”

Yates found a position as an autoglass technician near the Sarasota,Fla., and is relocating. He worked inFlorida years ago, but says he leftwhen the recession hit and workplummeted in the state. “This is whatit feels like in Tennessee now,” Yatessays. “Fortunately, business in Floridahas picked up so I’m going back.” TheMemphis City Council ended fundingfor the auto inspection stations in lateJune, effectively shutting them down.The Council apparently had hopedthat either Shelby County or the Stateof Tennessee would take over inspec-tion responsibilities, according a localreport; however, this has not been thecase. Shelby County Mayor MarkLuttrell has said the county govern-ment has no intention of stepping in tofund the inspections.

“In other localities, we do run it,but we don’t pay for that,” says Ten-nessee Gov. Bill Haslam. “Where werun it, the users are paying for it or thelocal county is paying for that. My un-derstanding is … we were willing torun it, but we don’t pay for it anywhere else, so it’s not fair for us to payfor it here.”


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BMW has asked the U.S. NorthernCalifornia District Court to strike theproposed state class action status of alawsuit filed against the company bytwo BMW owners who claim thatdrainage tubes installed to pull wateraway from vehicles’ sunroofs do notproperly work, leading to water dam-age.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys claim theclass should include California resi-dents who have “owned or leased anyBMW X5 series vehicles, X3 seriesvehicles and 5 series vehicles.”

In response, BMW’s attorneysclaim in court documents, “First, thepurported class is not ascertainable be-cause it includes many persons whohave no claims against BMW NorthAmerica. Those putative class mem-bers whose cars have never manifestedthe alleged defect, those whose sun-roofs leaked for reasons other than thealleged defect and those whose carsare covered under warranty—and thuseligible for repair at no cost to them—cannot claim they suffered any cog-nizable injury and therefore lackstanding.”

The attorneys also claim, “Theclass includes many vehicles purchasedmore than ten years ago, meaning thatthe transactions at issue are well outside

the statutes of limitation of, for exam-ple, plaintiffs’ CLRA (three year), UCL(four year) and breach of express war-ranty (four year). At a minimum, per-sons whose claims are outside thestatutes of limitation should be ex-cluded from any proposed class.”

BMW’s attorneys also point outthat it is difficult to identify ownerswho have “experienced water damagebecause of the alleged defect, ratherthan other reasons—including lack ofmaintenance, accident damage or evenleaving the sunroof or trunk open be-fore a rain storm.”

Citing the certified pre-ownedBMW warranty, attorneys claim thatthe automaker “cannot be held liablefor ‘failing to company with the war-ranty’ or ‘refusing to repair’ if putativeclass members did not comply withtheir own obligations under the war-ranty or if the warranty does not pro-vide coverage for the damage claimed.Determining whether such complianceexists will require individualized in-quiries precluding class certification asa matter of law.”

BMW’s attorneys conclude byclaiming, “Plaintiffs cannot representthe putative class specified in theircomplaint because the class is simplytoo board and faces overwhelming in-

dividualized inquiries and becauseplaintiffs cannot satisfy basic typical-ity requirements. These deficienciesare plain, even at the pleading stage.For the foregoing reasons, the class al-legations therein should be stricken.”

Attorneys for plaintiffs’ MonitaSharma and Erica Anderson claim“BMW designed, manufactured, dis-tributed, sold and leased variousmakes and models of BMW vehiclesthat contain a serious design defectthat significantly impacts both thesafety and value of its vehicles. Specif-ically, numerous models of BMW ve-hicles manufactured during the classperiod were designed so that certainvital electrical components known asSDARS, RDC, and PDC modules, arelocated in the lowest part of the vehi-cles’ trunk. … Because BMW decidedto place these vital electrical compo-nents in what is essentially the lowestpart of the vehicle (the spare tire wellunder the trunk), they are especiallyprone to water damage that can becaused through the normal and ordi-nary use of the vehicle.

“When this water damage occurs,the vehicles become inoperable andpose a serious safety risk to those whoexperience this problem. Althoughthese components are highly suscepti-

ble to water damage, BMW providesno warnings or advisories to BMWowners about the location of this vitalequipment or the importance of keep-ing the vehicle’s trunk compartmentfree of liquids,” they continue.

The attorneys point out thatdrainage tubes are installed to pullwater away from the sunroof.

“Unfortunately, these sunroofdrains were designed in such a waythat they are prone to become cloggedwith dirt, debris, leaves, and other nat-urally-occurring materials. Whenthese tubes become clogged, theycome loose or leak into the trunks ofthe vehicles. These leaks, which even-tually flood the trunks of the vehicles,cause the vital electronic componentscontained at the bottom of the vehi-cles’ trunks to short-shutting off cer-tain components of the automobilenecessary for driving and creating apotential safety risk,” the attorneys al-lege.

BMW had asked the court earlierto dismiss the lawsuit by Sharma andAnderson. The court had not issuedany decision at press time.

BMW Asks California Court to Strike Class Action in Leaking Sunroof Case

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Allstate Insurance Co. plans to sig-nificantly increase its Massachusettsworkforce by the end of 2014 by hir-ing 130 more insurance agents. All-state opened its first Massachusettsoffice in October 2012 and has sinceexpanded to more than 18 locationsthroughout the state with more than40 employees. The company plans toopen another 30 offices in the nextyear. Several other national insurancecompanies, including Geico and Pro-gressive, have also entered the Mas-sachusetts market in recent years.

BASF is the newest corporate mem-ber of ASA. “BASF is excited aboutthe changes at ASA. They’re off to afresh start with a new leadership teamand are strengthening relationshipswithin the collision repair industry. Agood example is the combinedNACE/I-CAR/CIC conference in De-troit next year. We believe collabora-tions like this can help the collisionindustry thrive,” said Joe Skurka,manager, OEM and Industry Rela-tions. Visit www.ASAshop.org or call(800) 272-7467, ext. 361.

The U.S. auto industry’s new-vehiclesales in 2014 will hit their highestlevel since 2006 as consumers con-tinue to replace aging cars and trucks.Edmunds.com forecast that sales nextyear will hit 16.4 million vehicles.That would be up from an estimated15.5 million the firm expects in 2013and the highest total since 16.5 mil-lion were sold in 2006. However, theprojected 6% growth rate would bethe industry’s smallest increase sincesales bottomed out at 10.4 million ve-hicles in 2009.

Lincoln Electric announced Sept. 19that it has added a line of magneticangle fixturing devices and handlifters to its Radius tool Welding Gearproduct group. The tools are designedto position steel for tack welding orother pre- or post-weld operations.They also are ideally suited for cut-ting and grinding applications. Themagnetic fixtures are available inthree different models intended forvarious material thickness or applica-tions. The design makes them idealfor tight spaces.

Tru-Way’s New Website, DataTru-Way Company has launched anew, data-driven website offeringpoint-to-point vehicle measuring datafor cars, trucks and SUVs from the1950s to now. The website’s databasecontains more than 10,000 vehicles thatcan be searched by vehicle year andmodel, or by classification—domestic,imports or classics. Said Loretta Clos,manager at Tru-Way. “Tru-Way isunique in [its] offering of valuable his-torical data for older vehicle platformsthat may be difficult to find... with theability to purchase measuring data in achoice of format appropriate for them.”

CAPA Tops 60M Certified PartsThe Certified Automotive Parts Asso-ciation (CAPA) announced that its partsvolume has reached nearly 62 millionCAPA certified parts. In the past fiveyears, CAPA has increased its numberof part applications by and average of16% each year and added 17 new man-ufacturers to the program, bringing thetotal to 43 manufacturers. The numberof CAPA parts sold in the market hasalso increased by 13% in that timeframe. While metal parts have been thebackbone of the CAPA program, plas-tic parts and lights are now the fastestgrowing part categories.

Bob Stevenson Joins CarbenchCar Bench America welcomes BobStevenson to the position of NationalSales and Training. Stevenson will beresponsible for sales and training of;Car Bench®, Inverter Spot Welders,Computerized Measuring, Aluminum-Steel-and MIG Brazing Machines,Self-Piercing Riveting (SPR), Alu-minum Repair Tools and most allother equipment needed to rebuildtoday’s and forthcoming automotivebody and chassis construction. Steven-son brings 20 + years of professionalcollision knowledge and experience inboth paint and equipment.

Todd Chizmar on I-CAR BoardI-CAR announced the appointment ofTodd Chizmar of Chrysler GroupLLC to its international board of direc-tors. The senior manager of technicaltraining for Chrysler, Chizmar hasbeen part of the automotive industryfor nearly 20 years, the last 14 in tech-nical and management roles atChrysler. Said I-CAR chair WilliamBrower, “His insights will be particu-larly helpful as I-CAR begins to sig-nificantly increase its repair-relatedtechnical support of the industrythrough its new Repairability Techni-cal Support and Knowledge initiative.”

Allstate Plans to Increase itsMA Workforce by 130 Agents

BASF Joins ASA as NewestCorporate Member

US Auto SAAR to Hit 16.4M,Highest Level Since 2006

Lincoln Electric AnnouncesNew Welding Devices/Lifters

Sherwin-Williams Automotive Fin-ishes A-Plus Network, in affiliationwith VehicleOwnersGuide.com, hasreleased a new dispatching systemaimed at increasing car count for A-Plus shops and making claims man-agement simpler for insurers. A-Plusshops will now have access to theprovider’s Open Claims Gateway, afull feature claims portal that includesclaims workflow, dispatching, esti-mate review, vendor e-Coupons, con-sumer translations and analytics. Thenew dispatching system is populatedwith the A-Plus Network’s leadingcollision repair facilities and will pro-vide a turnkey repair network for in-surance companies throughout theU.S. and Canada. The Open ClaimsGateway portal will also dispatch carsto A-Plus shops, and then these facili-ties and insurance companies can usethe system to manage the claims.“Open Claims Gateway will be pro-vided free of charge to A-Plus Net-work facilities, and there is no contractto sign,” said Troy Neuerburg, direc-tor of sales excellence at Sherwin-Williams. “This system offersnumerous benefits.” It also includesthe ability to generate a consumer es-timate and an e-Coupon program.

Sherwin-Williams Adds FullFeature Claims Portal

The Urethane Supply Company re-cently released the 6057-C NitroFuzer Welding System, a new nitro-gen welding technology that com-bines hot air and nitrogen welding.The Nitro Fuzer includes fine-flowcontrol regulators on both the air andnitrogen sides. Those are combinedwith output pressure gauges and aflow gauge to give users controlover the amount of gas that is usedduring the welding process. The sys-tem includes a pressure safety circuitto help prevent burn out in heatingelements, an electrically actuatedair-nitrogen switch, and a melt-proofsilicone and fiberglass braided hotair welder hose. The Nitro Fuzeralso features an integrated airlesswelding system to allow for smooth-ing out the nitrogen weld and for re-pairing thermoset polyurethane. “It’sa fraction of the cost and time oftwo-part epoxies,” said Kurt Lam-mon, president of the Urethane Sup-ply Company. “An average six-inchrepair costs about $2 for the plasticwelding rod; with epoxy, it couldcost over $30.” The Nitro Fuzer isshipped fully assembled and in-cludes a variety of accessories andan instructional DVD.

Urethane Supply CompanyOffers New Welding System


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SEMA is supporting legislation (S.344) introduced in the U.S. Senate toban the sale of gasoline containing15% ethanol. The bill would over-turn actions taken by the U.S. Envi-ronmental Protection Agency (EPA)two years ago to permit ethanol lev-els to rise from 10% (E10) to 15%(E15). The agency is only requiring agas pump warning label to alert mo-torists that E15 could potentiallycause equipment failure for vehiclesolder than model-year 2001. “Thislegislation is necessary to protectauto enthusiasts by preventing dam-age to older vehicles and high-per-formance specialty components,”said SEMA Vice President of Gov-ernment Affairs Steve McDonald.“SEMA applauds Senators RogerWicker (R-MS) and David Vitter (R-LA) for their efforts to correct bystatute a flawed decision by the EPA.Unless enacted into law, E15 maysoon appear at a gas station nearyou.” Ethanol increases water for-mation that can then create formicacid and corrode metals, plastics andrubber. Older cars and certain high-performance specialty parts are notconstructed with corrosion-resistantmaterials or able to tolerate thehigher temperatures at which E15may burn.

SEMA Supports Ban of E15SCRS has included several tracks inits Repairer Driven Education(RDE) series at the SEMA Show thatwill address the consolidation trendin the industry. “SCRS is continuallylooking at ways that we can helpcollision repair business owners suc-ceed in the marketplace, and we re-alize that what defines successvaries for the wide array of repairersoperating in today’s shifting land-scape,” said SCRS Chairman RonReichen. “We suspect that the pri-vate equity entering our industry isgoing to continue to fund acquisi-tions, and that means independentcollision businesses are likely to beinterested in one of two models forsuccess: they will either positionthemselves to compete against con-solidation or position the business tosell for the highest value.” SCRS hasput together several sessions, in-cluding a panel of well-known in-dustry veterans who made headlinesof their own during the sale of theirprevious businesses. The panel, “If IKnew Then What I Know Now –Lessons Learned Selling My BodyShop,” will be held from 3 to 5 p.m.on Thursday, Nov. 7. Panelists willdiscuss things they learned in theprocess that can help attendees in-terested in proceeding down a simi-

lar path best prepare themselves.Subject matter experts include:• Aaron Clark, former owner of Col-lision Solutions, sold to ABRA AutoBody & Glass• Pat O’Neill, former owner of 911Collision Centers, sold to Caliber Col-lision Centers• Dan Bailey, former owner of A&BCARSTAR, sold to CARSTAR Fran-chise Systems• Mike Anderson, former owner ofWagonwork Collision Centers, sold toPohanka Collision Centers

“There is a great deal of com-bined knowledge among these experts,who will be offering first-hand insightinto how to navigate the process ofvaluing and selling your business,”said SCRS Executive Director AaronSchulenburg. “That said, it is very im-portant to point out that we have agreat deal of optimism that independ-ent collision repair owners can thrivein today’s marketplace as well, andhave also defined specific programsthat address solutions for them.”

Perhaps none of the programs ad-dress these solutions more specificallythan Wednesday afternoon’s sessionentitled, “Competing in a ConsolidatedMarketplace.” This session will be ledby Tim Ronak of AkzoNobel and willtake place from 3 to 5 p.m.

Ronak will discuss the most cur-rent consolidation information avail-able as of November 2013 and suggestthe path consolidation may take andthe impact it might have on the indus-try at large. He will compare collisionconsolidation to other industries toidentify strategies that were success-ful within those industries when con-solidation reshaped their businessmodel. Participants will have betterunderstanding on how to navigate inthis environment and insight into sur-vival strategies for their business.

On Friday from 12:30–2:30 p.m.,Scott Biggs of the Assured Perform-ance Network will host a session enti-tled, Creating a Parallel Universe:Reinventing the Collision Repair In-dustry, focusing on profit, prosperityand business survival in the decadesahead. Attendees will see alternativeversions of the future based upon theplans and agendas of insurers, MSOsand OEMs.

The 2013 RDE series is sponsoredby industry organizations such asSEMA, PPG Automotive Refinish, GMGenuine Parts, BASF Refinish, FordMotor Company, AkzoNobel, Hertz,Axalta Coating Systems, Goliath Carts,PBES (a division of AAIA), LKQCorp., SATA, Spanesi Americas, Sher-win-Williams and AASP.

SCRS Adds Consolidation Tracks to SEMA Repairer Driven Education

segment platform.Portions of this report contain

a specific segment of multiple-lo-cation networks (MLNs) that in-clude collision repair conversionand multi-segment customer-fo-cused franchisor Maaco alongwith franchise consolidator net-works CARSTAR and ABRA. FixAuto, currently a hybrid modelwhich includes both franchisemembers and non-franchise re-pairers participating in Fix’s fran-chise brand and its bannernetwork model, are also included.These organizations represent asignificant market segment of thecollision repair industry that war-rants continued tracking and mon-itoring.

There are various types ofmultiple-location networks that arenot currently included here suchas integrated and outsourced autophysical damage and glass net-works, Safelite and LYNX APD,accident management firms suchas The CEI Group, cooperative

marketing, consumer advocacyand management networks likeAssured Performance, and peerperformance groups including TheEverest Partners, PPG’s ParKaizen and the Coyote Group.Nevertheless, we do understandthe value and growing importancethese organizations have amongtheir customers and constituents inproviding solutions and supportingtheir needs.

Key Findings for the 2012 U.S.$20+M MLO Market Segment● The 68 $20+M MLO organiza-tions:►Processed 14.7 percent of the$30.7 billion in collision repair rev-enue nationally►Represent $4,504 billion in rev-enue, up 65 percent from 2006►Represent 3.9 percent of the35,200 collision repair locations● When combining the $20+MMLO organizations and the fourfranchise branded consolidatorMLN networks:►They represent $5.8 billion or19.1 percent of the $30.7 billioncollision repair market● When the $20+M MLO organi-

zations are combined with theMLN networks and the $10m to$20M MLO segment:►These combined three seg-ments represent $7.2 billion or23.5% of the $30.7 billion collisionrepair market● Within the top ten $20+M MLOs,five are independent and five aredealer groups►These top ten organizations ac-count for 55.9 percent of all$20+M MLO production locations►They represent 54.1 percent ofall $20+M MLO revenue►On average, the $20+M MLOsprocess $3.2 million per produc-tion location, over four times morethan the average annual revenuefor <$20M MLO repairers of$775,718.● Revenue for the top ten inde-pendent and dealership MLOswas $2.4 billion, an increase of$1.1 billion over 2006’s revenue of$1.3 billion

Key Findings for the 2012 U.S. $10 to$20M MLO Market SegmentAs indicated earlier, this group ofMLOs represents the next levelsegment being tracked as part of

the broader U.S. market. TheseMLOs compete not only on a localmarket basis, but also with the re-gional and larger multi-platformMLOs. They each bring an entre-preneurial and customized ap-proached to how they succeedand compete. They continue togrow their businesses organicallyand through new locations inorder to remain competitive or po-sition themselves as merger or ac-quisition candidates.● The 107 $10 to $20M MLO or-ganizations:►Represent $1.4 billion in rev-enue►Processed 4.5 percent of the$30.7 billion in collision repair rev-enue nationally►Represent 530 or 1.5 percent ofthe 35,200 collision repair loca-tions● The top 25 processed $409M

revenue and have 140 locationswhile the top 50 represent $745M,over 50% of this segments rev-enue, with 272 locations.


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Overall Parts Solutions, a leadingparts procurement and logisticstechnology provider for the collisionindustry has become a top-level Di-amond member of NABC. Based inGrand Prairie, Texas, Overall PartsSolutions provides a collision partstool called OPSTRAX, a Web-basedparts coordination system designedto work with major estimating andmanagement systems. “We look for-ward to being an integral part of theNational Auto Body Council,” saidNick Bossinakis, president of Over-all Parts Solutions. “With the helpof many of our partners in the colli-sion industry, we have been quietlygrowing our business. As we nowtake our business to the next level,we believe we have an obligation tosupport the work of the NationalAuto Body Council, which willstrengthen and benefit all of us inthe collision industry. “ With the ad-dition of Overall Parts Solutions,membership in the National AutoBody Council now includes 199businesses and individuals repre-senting all facets of the collision in-dustry. OPS joins 26 othercompanies at the top-tier Diamondsponsor level.

Overall Parts Solutions is aNABC Top Level Member

Auto Data Direct, a Web-basedmotor vehicle record database, hasadded Washington, Virginia and In-diana to its lineup, bringing the com-pany’s state count to 31. Companypresident Jim Taylor said, “This isan important milestone in the growthof our company’s services. ADD’score business is to provide real-timemotor vehicle inquiries to DPPA-qualified companies. We’ve grownfrom Florida records only in 1999 tonow working with 31 states. Ourcustomers value a single point of ac-cess for records so that the process offinalizing transactions is easy, accu-rate, and can be completed from on-line without extra steps to retrievethe information from other sources.”The records provided by ADD in-clude include owner, lien holder, andregistration information as well asvehicle data such as make, model,year, tag and title number, andrecords are made available through asecure internet connection, based ona company’s qualifications under theFederal Driver’s Privacy ProtectionAct (DPPA). ADD also provides anational title pointer with informa-tion from the National Motor Vehi-cle Title Information System.

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Consumer groups are taking theObama administration to federal courtover its about-face on backup cameras.

In a lawsuit filed today in federalcourt in New York, two individualsand four organizations—includingConsumers Union, the advocacy wingof Consumer Reports magazine—asked a judge to order the U.S. De-partment of Transportation to set rearvisibility standards for light vehicles,as required by a 2008 law.

DOT proposed rules in 2010 thatwould have required backup camerasin all new cars and light trucks. Finalrules were delayed multiple times afterautomakers and White House officialsraised concerns over costs. Beforeleaving office this year, TransportationSecretary Ray LaHood set a new goalof completing the standards by 2015.

With the lawsuit, the consumergroups hope to force the administra-tion’s hand and make backup camerasa standard feature on new light vehi-cles several years sooner.

“When Congress ordered this ruleissued in three years, they meant threeyears, not seven,” said Scott Michel-man, an attorney for Public Citizen, aconsumer advocacy group.

Neither the DOT nor the U.S. De-partment of Justice would comment on

the lawsuit. DOT has added the safetydevice to the list of recommended fea-tures under the federal New Car As-sessment Program.

The move does not impose anyrequirement on automakers but it “willencourage both automakers and con-sumers to consider more vehicles thatoffer this important technology,” La-Hood’s successor, Anthony Foxx, saidin a statement.

“While adding this technology toour list of safety features is important,I remain committed to implementingthe rear visibility rule as well,” Foxxadded.

Opposition and supportThe rules still face resistance fromsome car companies, though somesuppliers stand to gain from a man-date.

Trade groups representing au-tomakers challenged the rules in meet-ings with the White House in 2011,saying that backup cameras would beless cost effective than other featuresrequired in cars, such as electronic sta-bility control.

DOT said rearview cameraswould replace electronic stability con-trol systems, which are now requiredby law, as a recommended advanced

technology feature in the NCAP pro-gram.

According to NHTSA estimates,an average of 292 fatalities and 18,000injuries occur each year as a result ofback-over crashes involving all vehi-cles, the agency said in a December2010 report. NHTSA said 228 fatali-ties of those fatalities involve light ve-hicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less.

“Two particularly vulnerablepopulations—children and the elderly—are affected most,” the report said.“Approximately 44 percent of fatali-ties involving light vehicles are chil-dren under five—an unusually highpercentage for any particular type ofcrash. In addition, 33 percent of fatal-ities involving light vehicles are eld-erly people 70 years of age or older.”

Cost per lifeAlso in 2010, NHTSA estimated thatadding a backup camera to a car wouldcost $58 to $203, depending onwhether the car already has a displayscreen, and would save 95 to 112 livesper year—and up to $18 million perlife.

Even without a mandate, backupcameras have become more commonin recent years. They were standard oroptional in 77 percent of 2013 model-

year vehicles, according to Ed-munds.com, up from 32 percent of2008 models.

Trucks, minivans and crossovers,which tend to have more limited rearvisibility than cars, have often been thefirst vehicles equipped with the cam-eras. But some automakers have de-cided to put them into smaller cars, aswell.

When the redesigned 2015 HondaFit subcompact arrives in showroomsnext year, Honda’s entire lineup willhave backup cameras as a standardfeature.

Ami Gadhia, senior policy coun-sel at Consumers Union, said all typesof cars could use better visibility. Evenif backup cameras gain widespread ac-ceptance across the market, that is nosubstitute for a government mandate,she said.

“We don’t see a need for a com-promise on safety,” Gadhia said in aninterview. “We think it should be of-fered across the board.”

Consumer Groups Go to Court to Force Obama Administration’s Hand on Back-Up Cameras

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The Automotive Aftermarket ProductsExpo (AAPEX) 2013 Learning Forumwill offer several sessions on successfulsales and marketing approaches to helpbuyers grow their business. AAPEX isset for Tuesday, Nov. 5–Thursday, Nov.7, at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas.

AAPEX Learning Forum sessionswith a focus on evolutionary tech-niques will cover turning phone shop-pers into buyers, how to build brandstrength, tactical team planning andselling to increase a team’s selling suc-cess. Revolutionary techniques willfocus on marketing and selling to mil-lennial consumers, the latest in salesand marketing technology, mobilemarketing and taking advantage of the

import parts explosion.The following marketing, sales

and branding sessions will be pre-sented by professional speakers and in-dustry experts:

• Brand Supremacy: Building BrandStrength in the Automotive Aftermarket

• Marketing and Selling to Mil-lennial Consumers

• Import Parts Explosion: Are YouTaking Your Share?

• SWAT Team Selling: LeadingYour Team to a Competitive Advantage

• Implementing Account Planningto Increase Your Team’s Selling Success

• Sales and Marketing Trends:The Latest Technology That Will In-crease Your Cash Flow

• The Three Quickest Ways toGrow Your Bottom Line with MobileMarketing

• Handling the Phone Shopper:Turning Phone Shoppers Into Customers

This year’s Learning Forum willfeature nearly 40 free sessions, thehighest number ever offered at AAPEX.Sessions will begin on Monday, Nov. 4– the day before the official start ofAAPEX – and continue through Nov. 7.Attendees are encouraged to make theirtravel plans accordingly.

All sessions are accredited by theUniversity of the Aftermarket towardthe Automotive Aftermarket Profes-sional (AAP) and Master AutomotiveAftermarket Professional (MAAP)

professional designations. Sessionswill be held at the Venetian Hotel, onthe Venetian/Palazzo Congress CenterLevel 1, Marco Polo Rooms 701-707.Since the sessions are free-of-charge,seating is first come, first served.

For a list of topics, speakers,session descriptions and a schedule,visit the AAPEX Learning Forum,www.aapexshow.com/education.

AAPEX represents the $477 billionglobal motor vehicle aftermarket and isjointly sponsored by the Automotive Af-termarket Industry Association (AAIA)and the Automotive Aftermarket Suppli-ers Association (AASA). For more in-formation, visit www.aapexshow.com ore-mail: [email protected].

AAPEX Learning Forum Amps Up Business Selling Skills to Benefit Buyers

The recent surge in U.S. auto produc-tion is hurting vehicle quality becauseautomotive parts suppliers have lesstime to fix problems that emerge on theline, Ford Motor Co.’s new global pur-chasing chief told reporters for Auto-motive News.

Hau Thai-Tang, who led the over-haul of Ford’s Mustang sports car in2005, also said the No. 2 U.S. au-tomaker is exploring a cost-cuttingstrategy that requires Ford to tweak the

design of its global models for specificregions.

Auto parts suppliers, which closedscores of factories during the financialcrisis, are operating around-the-clock tomeet consumer demand for cars andtrucks that is marching toward pre-re-cession levels.

“Everyone is running flat out andit’s contributing to some of the qualitychallenges that we’ve seen,” said Thai-Tang, who oversees Ford’s $100 billion

global budget for everything from rawmaterials to marketing to paper towels.

U.S. auto sales are on pace toreach 15.6 million units this year, ac-cording to J.D. Power and LMC Auto-motive. Many analysts expect autosales to exceed 16 million vehicles in2014, possibly topping the 16.1 millionvehicles sold in 2007.

J.D. Power and LMC forecast thatU.S. auto production will rise 3 percentto 16.5 million next year.

To meet increased demand, sup-pliers have less time to do preventativemaintenance on their equipment be-cause the are working to meet risingU.S. vehicle demand, Thai-Tang said.

One of Ford’s vehicle programshas a “yellow” rating, meaning that toomany suppliers are operating at full tilt,Thai-Tang said, without naming the ve-hicle. In the past, Ford executives havesaid supply problems hampered thelaunch of the Lincoln MKZ sedan.

Rate of Auto Production Leads to Poorer Vehicle Quality According to Ford’s Global Purchasing Chief

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