37 YEARS
NORTHEAST EDITIO N
AUTOBODY CT / DE / ME / MD / MA / NH / NJ / NY / PA / RI / VT
AUTOBODYNEWS.COM
Vol. 10 / Issue 2 / May 2019
NORTHEAST 2019 Features OEM Panel on ‘The Changing Landscape in Certified Repair’
Mike Anderson Debuts ‘Scanning Best Practices’ at NORTHEAST 2019
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
One of the highlights of the 2019 NORTHEAST automotive services show was the OEM repair panel on “The Changing Landscape in Certified Repair and Understanding the OEM Repair Procedures.” Moderated by Ron Reichen of Precision Body & Paint and Barry Dorn of Dorn’s Body & Paint, the panel consisted of Aaron Clark from Assured Performance, Leigh Guarnieri from Honda, Mark Allen from Audi, Kenneth Park from Volvo, Dave Gruskos from
Reliable Automotive Equipment, and Rick Miller from Wadsworth International. After explaining the purpose of the panel discussion, Reichen jumped right in with his first question regarding how shops manage the equipment required by certification programs. Gruskos explained, “There’s no magic piece of equipment to keep everyone happy. OEMs do a lot of testing, so you have to get the specific list of equipment from the OEM. Yes, things will change, and See Changing Landscape, Page 4
Sponsor, Repairer: Texas Insurer-OEM Procedure Bill Needed to Give TDI Power by John Huetter, RepairerDrivenNews.com
The bill’s sponsor and the head of the Auto Body Association of Texas told a Texas House Insurance Committee on April 9, that House Bill 1348 was necessary following what they said was the Texas Department of Insurance’s view that it was powerless to check certain insurer behavior. HB 1348 will hold insurers to OEM repair procedures. It declares that a carrier can’t “disregard a repair operation or cost identified by an estimating system, including the system’s procedural pages and any repair,
process, or procedure recommended by the original equipment manufacturer of a part or product.” In addition to demanding insurers acknowledge repair procedure, the bill defines “(r)easonable and necessary amount” as “the amount determined by the original equipment manufacturer’s manufacturer and estimating systems required to repair a vehicle to the condition before the covered damage to the vehicle occurred.” It also defines “like kind and quality” for aftermarket parts and adSee TDI Bill Page 6
Based on information from his quarterly “Who Pays for What?” On the first night of AASP/NJ’s surveys, Anderson shared that, on NORTHEAST® automotive services average, when a vehicle system calshow, Mike Anderson from ibration requires the use of Collision Advice debuted a OEM targets or weights, new course, “Scanning Best shops say they obtain the Practices,” to a jam-packed necessary equipment to do room of eager pupils. calibrations in-house 27 percent of the time. AddiAfter having attentionally, only 15 percent of dees introduce themselves and providing his own Mike Anderson of shops perform a pre-scan on background information, Collision Advice de- every vehicle, while 1 perAnderson explained that buted a brand new cent of shops never pre-scan the evening’s presentation course, “Scanning vehicles. Twenty-one perBest Practices.” cent of shops reported they would be a condensed version of an eight-hour class he re- perform post-repair scans on every cently developed on scanning and vehicle, and less than 1 percent reSee Best Practices, Page 10 how to overcome objections.
Truck Topics is a new series of articles by Gary Ledoux to appear periodically in Autobody News covering the collision side of the heavy-duty truck market, see pp. 50 & 64
APCIA: OEM Procedure Bill Lacks Provision Preventing Body Shops Committing Fraud in Texas by John Huetter, RepairerDrivenNews.com
An APCIA representative on April 9 testified against a Texas bill compelling insurers to pay for the cost of repairs done to automaker specifications, arguing that the measure lacked confirmation body shops used them and suggesting some repairers might lie about it. American Property Casualty Insurance Association state government relations Vice President Joe Woods’ questionable testimony opposing House Bill 1348 also described adjusters as the line of defense for repair quality. HB 1348 will hold insurers to OEM repair procedures. It declares
that a carrier can’t “disregard a repair operation or cost identified by an estimating system, including the system’s procedural pages and any repair, process, or procedure recommended by the original equipment manufacturer of a part or product.” In addition to demanding insurers acknowledge repair procedure, the bill defines “(r)easonable and necessary amount” as “the amount determined by the original equipment manufacturer’s manufacturer and estimating systems required to repair a vehicle to the condition before the covered damage to the vehicle occurred.” It also defines “like kind and See APCIA Opposition Page 6
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