July 2017 Southeastern Edition

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Multi-National Sources Say Takata Corp. is to File for Bankruptcy Protection

by Autobody News Staff

International media sources are reporting that Japanese airbag maker Takata Corp. is preparing to file for bankruptcy as early as the week of June 18 as it works toward a deal for financial backing from U.S. auto parts maker Key Safety Systems Inc., people familiar with the matter told Automotive News. Michigan-based Key Safety Systems Inc. is owned by Chinese supplier Ningbo Joyson. Takata’s steering committee recommended Key as the preferred bidder for the entire manufacturer.

Takata is expected to file for bankruptcy in the near future before selling its production operations to a newly formed company to pay off its debts to creditors, according to Nikkei.

Fellow Japanese companies Honda and Toyota are among some of the major entities Takata is in debt to.

Takata, one of the world’s biggest automotive suppliers, has been working for months to complete a deal with Key Safety. The company faces billions in liabilities brought on by manufacturing defective airbag inflators. A person briefed on the matter told Reuters that See Takata Bankruptcy, Page 12

NACE Automechanika July 26–29, 2017 in Chicago

ers and parts distributors. A combined Automechanika Chicago and NACE show will take place July 26-29, 2017 in Chicago.

Show hours: Wednesday, July 26

See NACE Automechanika, Page 16

P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018

Automechanika Chicago, the largest U.S. trade show dedicated to high-end technical and management-related training for automotive collision and service repair shops, along with NACE (the International Autobody Congress & Exposition), the premiere event for the U.S. collision repair industry, will combine forces starting this July in Chicago.

The co-production between Automechanika Chicago and NACE is intended to create a unified stage using NACE’s strong relationships within the collision and OE community combined with Automechanika Chicago’s global strength throughout the automotive aftermarket. Working in col-

laboration, the two entities will create an unprecedented partnership focused on training and product discovery for the automotive technicians, shop own-

Change Service Requested

by Autobody News Staff

VOL. 8 ISSUE 5 JULY 2017

MS Attorney General Tells Autobody News About New Consumer Guide for Insurance and Auto Body Repair

guidance to consumers,” Hood told Autobody News during a recent interview. “They don’t have a lot of guidIn an unprecedented move, the Mississippi Attorney General’s office recently ance out there so hopefully it helps. At released the “Consumer Guide to Inleast they know their rights when they surance and Auto Body Repair.” Some get their vehicles repaired. That’s an believe it may be the first upsetting situation for people to be in.” document of its kind (from an The attorney general’s ofAG direct to consumers) and fice formed the Mississippi could be a model for other Auto Repair Task Force states across the country to nearly a year ago, bringing follow. together auto body repair Initiated by Attorney shops, the Mississippi InsurGeneral Jim Hood, the docuMississippi ment was written to give conance Department, insurance Attorney General companies, vehicle manufacsumers guidance on what to Jim Hood turers, and aftermarket parts expect in the event of an auto makers from across the country. The collision. This includes the role of body goal was to discuss concerns and find shops and insurance companies, how common ground on best practices for to choose a collision repair shop, the the future to better meet the needs of types of repair costs and warranties. consumers.

“We tried to put in writing what See New Consumer Guide, Page 18 Mississippi law says and to give some

by Stacey Phillips

Aftermarket Parts Industry Takes Aim at Restrictions on Sale and Use of Non-OEM parts

crash parts from 14 years to just 30 months. Earlier versions of legislation Federal and state legislation related to have had several House committee non-OEM parts was a key topic at the hearings since it was first introduced recent Automotive Body Parts Associin 2007, but never one in the Senate. ation (ABPA) convention. About 150 “Our mission now is to get this people, primarily representing manubill moving,” Nordwind said. “I can facturers or distributors of tell you eight or nine years non-OEM parts, attended the ago when we started lobbyevent, held in Atlanta. ing for this bill, no one knew what we were talking about.

Lobbyist Will NordEverybody now knows what wind of the Quality Parts we’re talking about. We’ve Coalition told convention ateducated the Congress. And tendees that he hopes to see a first-ever Senate Judiciary now we need to get to the Lobbyist Will Committee hearing during next level, which is to move Nordwind of the Quality Parts the bill.” this Congress on the “ProCoalition He said he held about 20 moting Automotive Repair, Trade and Sales (PARTS) Act,” pro- meetings in late April with members posed federal legislation that would of Congress or their staff.

“At each of those meetings, we slash the time that automakers can use were starting to hear that the car comdesign patents to prevent other companies from producing replacement See Restrictions, Page 26

by John Yoswick

Presorted Standard US Postage PAID San Bernardino, CA Permit #2244

2 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Contents

NATIONAL 2017 SEMA Show Education Schedule Released . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

of Level 4 automated driving for personal car use by around 2025,” said Hachigo. “We are striving to provide our customers with a sense of confidence and trust by offering automated driving that will keep vehicles away from any dangerous situation and that will not make people around the vehicle feel unsafe.” The SAE defines automated driving based on six levels of capability, from zero to five. SAE Level 4 or “high automation” means the vehicle can handle all driving tasks in most driving situations, where the driver would be required to resume control. Honda is rapidly advancing its deployment of advanced safety and driver-assistive technologies in Honda and Acura vehicles on the road today, through its Honda Sensing® and AcuraWatch™ suite of features, which serve as both a perceptual and technological bridge to the highly-automated vehicles the future.

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst General Manager: Barbara Davies Contributing Writers: John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess, David Brown, Rich Evans, Ed Attanasio, Chasidy Sisk, David Luehr, Stacey Phillips, Victoria Antonelli Advertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman, Bill Doyle, Norman Morano (800) 699-8251 Office Manager: Louise Tedesco Sales Assistant: Jessica Day Digital Marketing Manager: Cass Heckel Art Director: Rodolfo Garcia Graphic Designer: Michelle Lucas Accounting Manager: Pamela Cate

Serving Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and adjacent metro areas. Autobody News is a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Permission to reproduce in any form the material published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher. ©2017 Adamantine Media LLC.

Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 40-41 Axalta Coating Services . . . . . . . . . . 5 BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 67 CarcoonAmerica Airflow Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA). . . . . . . . . . . 33 ChemSpec USA, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Coggin Deland Honda . . . . . . . . . . 42 Dent Magic Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Diamond Standard Parts, LLC.. . . . 57 Eckler’s Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ECS Automotive Concepts . . . . . . . 20 Equalizer Industries, Inc . . . . . . . . . 38 Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 62 GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 69 Gus Machado Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 GYS Welding USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Hendrick Automotive Group . . . . . . 17 Hendrick Automotive Group of Charleston. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Hendrick BMW/MINI . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Hendrick Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Hendrick Kia Cary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Hendrick Kia Concord . . . . . . . . . . 54 Herkules Equipment Corporation. . 22 Honda-Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 36-37 Hyundai Motor America . . . . . . . . . . 8 Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers. . 66 Insta Finish Car Care . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Jim Cogdill Chrysler-Dodge-JeepRam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Jon Hall Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Jon Hiester Automotive . . . . . . . . . 11 Kernersville Chrysler-Dodge-JeepRam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Killer Tools & Equipment. . . . . . . . . 49 Lancer Insurance Company . . . . . . 44 Lexus Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 64 Lusid Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Mercedes-Benz Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 MINI Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 67 MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 43 NACE/automechanika Trade Show . 21 Nissan of Richmond . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 O’Brien Hyundai-Subaru-Mazda . . 63 O’Reilly Auto Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 64 PPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Radley Chevrolet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Reliable Automotive Equipment . . . 45 Rick Hendrick Chevrolet Naples. . . 32 Rick Hill Imports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Riverside Ford-Lincoln . . . . . . . . . . 48 Robaina Industries, Inc . . . . . . . . . . 53 SATA Dan-Am Company . . . . . . . . 15 Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26, 27 Shop-Pro Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Sorbothane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Southside Kia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Spanesi Americas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 65 Tameron Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 UniCure Spraybooths . . . . . . . . . . . 19 U.S. Chemical & Plastics . . . . . . . . 13 Valspar Refinish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 West Broad Hyundai. . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Wizards Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Yellow Jacket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Autobody News Box 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018; (800) 699-8251 (760) 603-3229 Fax www.autobodynews.com Email: news@autobodynews.com

Southeast

COLUMNISTS Attanasio - DeBeer Refinish Reds Set the Industry Standard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Attanasio - Is Tesla Backing Away From Third-Party Shops? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Attanasio - The Technology Party: Are you early, late, or indifferent? . . . . . 44 Attanasio - Two Collision Veterans Run Silicon Valley Tech School . . . . . . . . . . 56 Luehr - Lean Thinking of America’s Greatest Body Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Phillips - 83-Year-Old Chicago Body Shop Invests in Best Training & Equipment to Exceed Customer & Employee Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Phillips - Collision Repair Industry Shares Memories of Visionary Steve Schoolcraft. 38 Phillips - The State of the Industry for Body Techs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Phillips - What It Takes to Be a Great Leader at Your Body Shop . . . . . . . . . . 64 Sisk - Management Success Holds March Spring Convention and May Annual Top 20 Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Yoswick - “Who Pays for What?” Surveys Having an Impact on Billing for RefinishRelated Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Yoswick - Aftermarket Parts Industry Takes Aim at Restrictions On Sale and Use of Non-OEM Parts . . . . . . . . . . 1 Yoswick - Shop Owner’s Public Criticism of Partstrader Didn’t Cost Him With State Farm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

A Future Car May Be Protected from Hacking by Software Developed in San Antonio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 AMi Accepting Applications for $1,000 Scholarship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Blackhawk Partners with 1Collision Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Caliber Collision Collects 3.2 Million Kids’ Meals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Caliber Collision Opens New Texas Location. 66 Canada’s Craftsman Collision MSO: “There’s a What Living in this Car?”. . . 32 CARSTAR Adds Collision Repair Center to Network in Houston . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 CARSTAR ARA Collision in Seattle Opens. 62 Chief® Reintroduces Impulse Tilt Frame Rack Meets Customer Demand for a Basic Rack That Can Handle Most Jobs . 68 Chief® Vulcan ADU OK’d by Ford, Mitsubishi and Nissan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Copart Acquires Cycle Express . . . . . . . . 20 Craftsman Collision Sees How It’s Made at Pro Spot HQ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 CREF and ASE Introduce Future Collision Repair Industry Professionals to Potential Employers at 3rd Annual Cars, Careers and Celebrities Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 GM Has Started Testing Second-Generation Chevrolet Bolt EV Autonomous Vehicles Publicly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Herkules Rebates Make For Summer Savings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Honda Targeting Introduction of Level 4 Automated Driving Capability by 2025 . . 3 Insurer Pays for Use of OEM Parts After Television News Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Intel Study Predicts Autonomous Driving Will Spur New ‘Passenger Economy’ Worth $7 Trillion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Man Found Shot to Death at Baton Rouge Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Mitchell Announces Clarified Labor Hour Times for Diagnostic Scanning. . . . . . . 59 Multi-National Sources Say Takata Corp. is to File for Bankruptcy Protection . . . . . 1 NACE Automechanika July 26-29, 2017 in Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 New TX Bill Aims to Get More Driverless Cars on Texas Roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 SATA® TrueSunTM LED Lamp: the Daylight Solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes’ Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Sherwin-Williams Gets Approval on Valspar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Supreme Court Decision Delivers Patent Exhaustion Claim Benefiting the Aftermarket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 The Importance of Attracting, Hiring and Retaining Women Employees at WIN’s 2017 Educational Conference . . . . . . . 68 UK’s Thatcham Research Calls for New Thinking and Approaches to Halt Spiralling Cost of Repair. . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Waymo is Testing Self-Driving Trucks . . . . 4 WD-40™ Launches New Line of Multipurpose Greases with Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . 27 WMABA Enjoys Beautiful Day for 2017 Golf Outing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Honda announced that it is targeting the year 2025 for the introduction of vehicles with highly-automated driving capability in most driving situations (SAE Level 4). This new goal builds upon earlier-announced plans for Honda and Acura vehicles to have highly-automated freeway driving capability (SAE Level 3) by 2020. The company said these are critical steps in Honda’s commitment to contribute to a collision-free society. The announcement was made

by Honda Motor Co., Ltd. President & CEO Takahiro Hachigo at a media briefing held at Honda R&D Co., Ltd. in Japan, where media were able to test drive Honda automated vehicle technologies in several complex driving scenarios, including systems with advanced artificial intelligence (AI). A video of both driving tests can be viewed at Honda.us/Level4AD. “We will strive to achieve the technological establishment

Index of Advertisers

REGIONAL 2017 Skills USA N.C. State Championships for Collision Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Atlanta I-CAR Committee’s 8th Annual Golf Tournament Generates Over $50K to Benefit CREF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Automotive Students Receive 3M Scholarships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 CARSTAR St. Petersburg Collision Center Opens in Florida. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Chesterfield, VA Students Repair Car, Donate It to Family in Need. . . . . . . . . . . 8 Classic Collision at Gwinnett Place Earns Official Certification and Prestigious Top Automaker Recognition . . . . . . . . . 14 Ex-Chesapeake auto shop owner gets 3 years for rolling back odometers with help of Norfolk city employee . . . . 12 Former Owner of a Georgia Body Shop Sentenced for Odometer and Title Fraud . 11 Phillips - MS Attorney General Tells Autobody News His Rationale Behind New Consumer Guide for Insurance and Auto Body Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Polk County, FL: Thieves Are Targeting Your Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Sisk - NCACAR Offered May Training on Structural Steel Repair and asTech Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 US Senator: Two-Thirds of Defective Takata Airbags Still Not Repaired . . . . . . 6

Honda Targeting Introduction of Level 4 Automated Driving Capability by 2025

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

Intel Study Predicts Autonomous Driving Will Spur New ‘Passenger Economy’ Worth $7 Trillion Intel Corporation has released a new study that explores the yet-to-be-realized economic potential when today’s drivers become idle passengers. Coined the “Passenger Economy” by Intel and prepared by analyst firm Strategy Analytics, the study predicts an explosive economic trajectory growing from $800 billion in 2035 to $7 trillion by 2050.

History has proven that technology is the catalyst for massive societal transformation and that businesses need to adapt or risk failure, or worse, extinction. New digital business models ushered in by personal computing, the internet, ubiquitous connectivity and smartphones gave birth to whole new economies. Autonomous driving will do the same.

“Companies should start thinking about their autonomous strategy now,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. “Less than a decade ago, no one was talking about the potential of a soon-to-emerge app or sharing economy because no one saw it coming. This is why we started the conversation around the Passenger Economy early, to wake people up to the opportunity streams that will emerge when cars become the most powerful mobile data generating devices we use and people swap driving for riding.”

Autonomous driving and smart

city technologies will enable the new Passenger Economy, gradually reconfiguring entire industries and inventing new ones thanks to the time and cognitive surplus it will unlock.

“Not unlike the space race of the 1960s, today’s announcement is a rallying cry to the world to put its best minds on this challenge,” said Greg Lindsay, urbanist and mobility futurist. “The future of mobility, economic advancement and the emergence of new growth opportunities like the Passenger Economy demand ongoing dialogue. I am excited to partner with Intel, take this discussion on the road and look at solutions through the lens of the diverse industries that will shape our future—from automakers to investors and policy makers to startups.”

The new report frames the value of the economic opportunity through both a consumer and business lens and begins to build use cases designed to enable decision-makers to develop actionable change strategies.

“Autonomous technology will drive change across a range of industries and define a new landscape, the first green shoots of which will appear in the business-to-business sector,” said study co-author Harvey Cohen, president, Strategy Analytics. “The

Waymo is Testing Self-Driving Trucks

Alphabet’s autonomous car company Waymo is exploring self-driving trucking, according to several media reports.

“Self-driving technology can transport people and things much more safely than we do today and reduce the thousands of trucking-related deaths each year. We’re taking our eight years of experience in building self-driving hardware and software and conducting a technical exploration into how our technology can integrate into a truck,” a Waymo spokesperson told BuzzFeed.

Waymo subsequently confirmed that it was in fact testing a truck, and said it was manually driving the semi on a public road for data collection purposes. The Waymo spokesperson confirmed that the company is currently testing just one truck.

Google began working on selfdriving cars in 2009. It spun out its self-driving car program into a new company called Waymo in 2016, and earlier this year it announced it had been developing its own autonomous driving hardware. Earlier this year, the company launched a pilot program in Phoenix for people to take rides in their cars. The company had not previously announced trucking efforts.

Uber is also working on autonomous trucking. Last year, the ride-

hail juggernaut purchased an automated trucking startup called Otto, whose founder Anthony Levandowski —a former Google employee—is now at the center of a lawsuit from Waymo.

Waymo sued Uber in February, alleging Levandowski stole the company’s self-driving trade secrets before joining Uber. Waymo’s lawsuit alleges that Uber has benefitted from that information, and its lawyers have argued Otto was simply a ruse created so Uber would acquire it and obtain Waymo’s secrets.

Levandowski was fired by Uber in May. He was let go after failing to comply with a judge’s request that he turn over thousands of documents that he is accused of stealing from Google’s parent company, where he had worked as a senior engineer. The New York Times was the first to report the news.

Trucking has been predicted to be one of the major applications of self-driving technology. Uber performed its first self-driving trucking delivery in October 2016: a 120-mile beer haul for Anheuser-Busch.

The company performed that delivery after completing five consecutive tests along its Colorado route, with police surrounding the vehicle in motorcade fashion.

4 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

emergence of pilotless vehicle options will first appear in developed markets and will reinvent the package delivery and long-haul transportation sectors.

This will relieve driver shortages around the world and account for twothirds of initial projected revenues.”

The research firm further points out that autonomously operated vehicle commercialization will gain steam by 2040 —generating an increasingly large share of the projected value and heralding the emergence of instantaneously personalized services.

Key report highlights include: ● Business use of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is expected to generate $3 trillion in revenues, or 43 percent of the total passenger economy. ● Consumer use of Mobility-as-a-Service offerings is expected to account for $3.7 trillion in revenue, or nearly 55 percent of the total passenger economy. ● $200 billion of revenue is expected to be generated from rising consumer use of new innovative applications and services that will emerge as pilotless vehicle services expand and evolve. ● Conservatively, 585,000 lives can be saved due to self-driving vehicles in the era of the Passenger Economy from 2035 to 2045.

● Self-driving vehicles are expected to free more than 250 million hours of consumers’ commuting time per year in the most congested cities in the world. ● Reductions in public safety costs related to traffic accidents could amount to more than $234 billion over the Passenger Economy era from 2035-2045. ● Highlights of future scenarios explored in the study include: ► Car-venience: From onboard beauty salons to touch-screen tables for remote collaboration, fast-casual dining, remote vending, mobile health care clinics and treatment pods, and even platooning pod hotels, vehicles will become transportation experience pods. ► Movable movies: Media and content producers will develop custom content formats to match short and long travel times. ► Location-based advertising: Location-based advertising will become more keenly relevant, and advertisers and agencies will be presented with a new realm of possibilities for presenting content brands and location. ● Mobility-as-a-perk: Employers, office buildings, apartment complexes, university campuses and housing estates will offer MaaS to add value to and distinguish their offer from competitors or as part of their compensation package.

GM Has Started Testing Second-Generation Chevrolet Bolt EV Autonomous Vehicles Publicly

General Motors has started testing its second-generation Chevrolet Bolt EV autonomous vehicles on public roads, Automotive News has reported.

The all-electric hatchbacks are the first of 130 with self-driving technologies produced at the automaker’s Orion Assembly plant near Detroit.

“Production of these vehicles began in January, making GM the first, and to this day, the only automotive company to assemble self-driving vehicles in a mass- production facility,” GM CEO Mary Barra said. Testing of a small number of the second-generation vehicles has begun in San Francisco and is to expand to the Detroit area and Scottsdale, AZ, in the coming months. GM began testing a fleet of more than 50 of the first-generation self-driving vehicles last spring in California and Arizona, and in January in Michigan.

The company declined to say how many miles the vehicles have driven autonomously. The new fleet features GM’s latest array of equipment, including LIDAR, cameras, sensors and other hardware designed to accelerate development of fully autonomous vehicles.

In December, Barra said GM would begin building the self-driving EVs at

Orion Assembly alongside the Chevrolet Spark and non-autonomous versions of the Bolt EV. GM plans to first launch production self-driving Bolt EVs for ride-sharing in major cities, however the company has not put a timeline on when that may occur. GM in December said it would begin building the self-driving EVs at Orion Assembly alongside the Chevrolet Spark and non-autonomous versions of the Bolt EV. “This next generation-vehicle will allow us to increase that testing and really accelerate our development of safe, reliable and fully autonomous vehicles,” Barra said.

In 2016, GM paid $500 million for a minority stake and a board position in Lyft, the second-largest U.S. ride sharing firm after Uber Technologies Inc. The autonomous Bolt EVs include dozens of cameras and sensors, including a “sensor roof rack” that includes five LIDARs with 32 lasers each that quickly spin 360 degreeschine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to better identify pedestrians, traffic lights, lane markings and other objects,

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 5

2017 Skills USA NC State Championships for Collision Repair The Skills USA North Carolina State Championships took place April 24–28, 2017 at the Greensboro Coliseum and Koury Convention Center. The conference was the largest showcase of Career

and Technical Education in North Carolina history with more than 1,900 outstanding career and technical education students competing in 120 hands-on trade, technical and leadership contests.

These contests span more than 95 trade areas from construction, automotive, and welding to drafting, public safety, cosmetology, and more!

During the state competition, students worked against the clock and each other, proving their expertise in their chosen occupations. All contests are run with the help of industry, trade associations, and technical experts and test competencies that are set by industry. In addition, leadership contestants demonstrated their skills, which included ex-

temporaneous speaking and conducting meetings with parliamentary procedure.

Over 100 industry partners help support the competitive events.

The Skills USA North Carolina Championships are for high school and college-level students who are members of Skills USA. First place winners earn the right to compete in the National Skills USA Championships in Louisville, KY alongside more than 6,500 other competitors from across the country in more than 100 contests.

This year we had 52 contestants registered to compete in collision contests. The collision contests were split into two separate contests, “Collision Repair” and “Automotive Refinishing”.

Students competed in several hands-on

areas that included: Welding, Structural Damage Analysis, Metal Working, Plastics repair, Painting, masking, color matching, and a written exam. A big thank you goes out to our long time paint

US Senator: Two-Thirds of Defective Takata Airbags Still Not Repaired

Two thirds of the roughly 2.3 million vehicles in Florida with potentially deadly Takata airbags have not yet been repaired, according to new figures released today by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL).

The numbers provided to Nelson by the independent monitor appointed to oversee Takata’s handling of the recall show that approximately 30.4 million of the 46.2 million recalled inflators nationwide have not yet been repaired as of mid-May. “It’s been two years since the first nationwide recall and we still can’t get these potentially deadly vehicles repaired fast enough,” said Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. “We’ve got to pick up the pace on boosting production of replacement inflators and assisting consumers who need to get their vehicles fixed.”

The new numbers come just two weeks after four of the nation’s top automakers – Toyota, BMW, Subaru and Mazda – agreed to provide $533 million to owners of vehicles equipped with the faulty airbags.

A portion of that money will reportedly be used to encourage owners to bring their recalled vehicles in

for repair.

To date, defective Takata airbags have been linked to as many as 16 deaths and more than 180 injuries worldwide.

In Florida, where heat and high humidity are thought to be contributing factors in the airbag failures, the new figures show automakers have repaired only 1 million of the roughly 3.1 million defective inflators believed to be in the state, which means there are still approximately 1.5 million vehicles in Florida with one or more unrepaired – and potentially deadly – airbag.

Nelson says the fact that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been without a leader since the new administration took office in January is only compounding the problem.

“We’re in desperate need of a leader who will commit to resolving this Takata mess,” Nelson said. “At the rate we’re going, we might land humans on Mars before all of these deadly inflators are off the road.”

www.autobodynews.com

6 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

sponsors BASF for running the “Automotive Refinishing Technology” contest and Crown Automotive for renting two

inflatable paint booths and a portable air compressor to make painting possible at the contest site!

Four students from two schools will travel to Kentucky to represent North Carolina at the Skills USA Nationals held in June. First place in the “Collision Repair” contest went to Brandon Melchor from the Central Academy Of Technology & Arts in the high school division and Sergio Carrizoza from Guilford Technical Community College in the post-secondary division. First place in the “Collision Refinish” contest went to Jacob Hartis from the Central Academy Of Technology & Arts for high school division and Desheik Maxwell from Guilford Technical Community College in the post-secondary division.

All collision contestants were treated like winners with a large welcome package filled with industry donated items that included mixing boards, paint respirators, air blowers, and more.

A special thank you goes out to the sponsors and judges who helped make the collision contest a success. They include: GTCC Collision Repair, BASF, 3-M Corporation, SEM, Carolina Collision Equipment, Color’s Edge, Keystone Automotive, , Snap-On Tools, NAPA Auto Parts, Rice Toyota, Cloninger Ford, Rouzer Motor Parts, PPG, Southeastern Booth, Bill Black Cadillac, Crown Au-

tomotive, Hendrick Automotive Group, Mid-Town Body Repair, Walker and Son Body Shop, Fairystone Import Parts & Paint and. Carcoon America.

For more information, visit www .SkillsUSAnc.org or SkillsUSA.org Thank you Jimmy Brown of Guilford Technical Community College for providing the original press release.

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 7

WMABA Enjoys Beautiful Day for 2017 Golf Outing

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

The Washington Metropolitan Auto Body Association (WMABA) recently held its 2017 Annual Golf Outing at the Heritage Hunt Golf and Country Club in Gainsville, VA. The golf outing

A Yeti cooler was one of the grand prize giveaways at WMABA’s 2017 Golf Tournament. (l to r) Jordan Hendler, Jake Wren of Sherwin-Williams

began with a shotgun start, and according to WMABA Executive Director Jordan Hendler, “The event went really well and was very well-attended.

The attendees seemed to have a great time, enjoying the course which was very nice. The reception and prizes were bonuses to a fun round of golf with colleagues.”

Hendler recounts, “We had a full flight of teams for the very sunny day out on the course. Following the out-

ing, participants gathered in the reception ballroom to enjoy dinner, prize giveaways and the team winner announcements. WMABA’s 2017 Golf Outing saw a better turnout than last year’s event, and the course worked very well with us to keep the costs within budget. Overall, the event exceeded our expectations, and we look forward to holding next year’s golf outing in the same fashion.”

WMABA holds its Annual Golf Outing as a means of generating awareness and funds for the association and the Jerry Dalton Memorial Education Fund which benefits collision repair industry students and educational programs in VA, MD and Washington DC. Hendler states, “These events are how

A cornhole fundraiser was featured during WMABA’s 2017 Golf Tournament

CARSTAR St. Petersburg Collision Center Opens in Florida CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts, North America’s largest Multi-Shop Operator Network of independently owned collision repair facilities, is excited to announce the opening of CARSTAR St. Petersburg

they provide ensure we will provide quality repairs to customers by skilled technicians.”

Rebranding of CARSTAR St. Petersburg is currently underway as the location officially becomes

Collision Center at 1819 11th Ave. North, St. Petersburg, FL 33713.

CARSTAR St. Petersburg is locally owned and operated by Tampa-based Impact Auto Holdings II. “We are thrilled to be opening a CARSTAR location in our local area,” said Scott Robertson, Vice President of Operations at Impact Auto Holdings II. “Partnering with CARSTAR was an easy decision for us. CARSTAR is not only a respected brand, but it makes the process seamless. The networking, training and vendor partnerships

a CARSTAR today. Robertson and his group were delighted with the key staff at the body shop and look forward to working with them as CARSTAR employees.

CARSTAR St. Petersburg will provide everything from full auto collision repair, small dent and ding fixes and paint jobs. While there are several CARSTAR locations in Florida, this is the first CARSTAR in St. Petersburg.

For more information on CARSTAR visit www.carstar.com.

8 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Chesterfield, VA, Students Repair Car for Donation

by Danielle Guichard, WRIC

ATI’s team joined in the festivities at WMABA’s 2017 Golf Tournament. (l to r) Greg Enzler, Scott Harper, Barbara Keane, Chris Barrett

we fund our initiatives and activities for WMABA as well as create a meaningful opportunity to get members together. Our vendors are also very participatory in our golf outing, and they enjoy bringing their clients; they are the reason this event is so successful for us, and we cannot thank them enough.”

For more information about the association, visit www.wmaba.com

Students at the Chesterfield Career and Technical Center and automotive partners from across the region provided a refurbished car to a family in need on Monday. The students provided a Pontiac G6 to Tywanda Auld and her family through the National Auto Body Council’s (NABC) Recycled Rides program. Recycled Rides is an NABC nationwide community service program in which the collision-repair business community collaborates with other automotive industry partners, technical schools, and vehicle insurers to repair and donate vehicles to families and service organizations in need.

Auld says she has worked diligently to become self-sufficient in supporting herself and her family, but one of her biggest challenges has been the inability to secure reliable transportation.

Her obstacle has now been resolved with the donation of the vehicle. Since the Recycled Rides program’s start in 2007, more than 1,000 vehicles have been donated nationwide. This is the first car refurbished through this program with the Chesterfield Career and Technical Center. We thank WRIC for reprint permission.

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 9

Sherwin-Williams Gets Approval on Valspar

The Sherwin-Williams Company announced it has received regulatory approval from the United States Federal Trade Commission and the Canadian Competition Bu-

reau to complete its acquisition of The Valspar Corporation. The FTC and CCB were the only remaining regulatory approvals required to close the acquisition. SherwinWilliams expects to close the acquisition on June 1, 2017, subject to customary closing conditions.

www.autobodynews.com

Atlanta I-CAR Committee’s 8th Annual Golf Tournament Generates Over $50K to Benefit CREF

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

On April 26, the Atlanta I-CAR Committee held its 8th Annual Golf Tournament, benefitting the Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF), at the Golf Club at Bradshaw Farm in Woodstock, GA. According to Gerry Poirier, Chairman of the Atlanta I-CAR Com-

The Atlanta I-CAR Committee raised over $50,000 to benefit CREF at their 8th Annual Golf Tournament

mittee, “We had a huge turnout of 210 golfers, and 42 companies sponsored the event, with many attending from all over the country.”

Attendees really enjoyed the event which featured the Annual Helicopter Ball Drop, the 19th Hole Experience, Tee-Off on Eric, and the Golf Ball Launcher. Major sponsors for the event included Hendrick, NALLEY, PPG, Enterprise, Elite Electronics, ABRA Auto Body & Glass, Single Source,

10 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Caliber Collision, and Service King.

The Atlanta I-CAR Committee holds this annual event to raise money for the collision repair industry. The money is donated to CREF who then awards it to deserving collision repair education programs and technical schools across the state. Poirier says, “The Atlanta I-CAR Committee has donated over $250,000 to the Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF).

These donations have them been awarded to local collision schools and programs in the Metro Atlanta area.

Some of our recipient schools have been Maxwell High School of Technology, Athens Technical College, and Atlanta Technical College. These schools received makeover grants, tools, supplies, job placement, and support from our committee. We are always looking to add more schools to our list of recipients as we support the future of the collision industry! This year, we raised $52,640. We raised $42,500 last year so, in two years, we are just shy of raising $100,000.”

Poirier believes, “Having people from all over the country attend shows what a great industry we all work in.

The collision industry is a huge industry that incorporates so many different companies that support one another.

There are so many great jobs in the col-

lision industry, such as paint suppliers, body shops, insurance companies, tool and equipment suppliers, and so many more. The future of the collision industry is in everyone’s best interest because there is an extreme shortage of body technicians entering the field of

The Atlanta I-CAR Committee’s helicopter ball drop is a crowd favorite every year

collision repair, and most of the longtime technicians are planning for retirement.”

The 2017 Atlanta I-CAR Committee’s Golf Tournament would not have been possible without the exhaustive efforts of the golf committee who organized and facilitated the event, attending countless meetings to ensure their success. The golf committee included Gerry Poirier, Lee Sullivan of Liberty Mutual Insurance, Lizette Mercado from ABRA, Kristi Senger of ABRA, Sara Peck from ABRA, and Robin Parker of Day’s Chevrolet.

The Atlanta I-CAR Committee’s 9th Annual Golf Tournament will be held on April 25, 2018.

Former Owner of a Georgia Body Shop Sentenced for Odometer and Title Fraud

by Joseph Njoroge, Blasting News

Paul Robinson from Lawrenceville, Georgia has been sentenced to 37 months in prison followed by three years of supervision upon release for his involvement in odometer tampering as well as title fraud. Paul’s sentence was made in the Eastern District of Virginia. The judge also ordered Paul to pay restitution worth $320,797.82 to those who bought vehicles from him that had their vehicle’s odometers rolled back. How Paul committed his crimes. Paul was an owner of Affordable Auto Body Repair Shop located in Chesapeake in the state of Virginia. He oversaw the purchase of high-mileage vehicles and the altering of the vehicle’s odometers so as to reduce the car’s mileage readings. He and others also acquired Virginia motor vehicle titles that had false odometer readings, he then used the titles to sell his cars to unsuspecting buyers. According to the judge who read his sentence, customers ended up paying more for cars they thought had low mileage; it also subjected them to incurring high repair costs for the vehicles as well as kept them in danger because they were not aware they were driving high mileage vehicles. According to investigators, the fraud was committed from the year 2012 and 2014 on more than 100 vehicles.

Some odometers were deducted up to 150,000 miles on their mileage readings.

A former title clerk also pleaded guilty last year to helping Paul secure motor vehicle fraudulently and committing title fraud. He was fined $219,552.82 and sentenced to five years in prison. He is also serving his first year in home detention. Odometer fraud is a practice of rolling back a car’s mileage meters so that a car can appear to have traveled little distance. It is also referred to as busting miles in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 450,000 vehicles are sold each year with false odometer readings. This type of fraud costs over $1 billion annually to unsuspecting car buyers. Odometer fraud is commonly done to cars that were previously used in the car rental business.

Mechanical odometers are hard to tamper with when compared to digital odometers.

A recent odometer prosecution. Late last month, two Georgia residents were sentenced to 12 months in prison and three years of supervised release for title fraud and rolling back odometers.

They both owned and operated a Georgina corporation called Lifestyle Auto Broker LLC. They committed the crimes in the year 2012 and 2013. We thank the Blasing News for reprint permission.

Polk County, FL: Thieves Are Targeting Your Wheels

by Andrea Lyon, WFTS

A warning for those living in or near Davenport, Florida: Thieves are taking advantage of vehicles left out in the open.

At least five people have fallen victim to their tires being stolen in the last week.

Stephen Boykin with Car Care Center.

Credit: WFTS

Not an often occurrence, in the small town of Davenport.

“Especially in this area, it’s not big here,” Stephen Boykin, with Car Care Center said.

Victims posted pictures to Facebook showing cars stripped bare of their tires. We asked why criminals would be targeting cars in this area, or at all.

According to Boykin, it’s an easy resale, and some can be sold for a lot of money.

“In certain vehicles rims can go for $1,000 each,” Boykin explained.

Toyota Camry’s seem to be hot choice for local criminals at three were targeted at the Bella Trae community in Davenport within the last week.

Victims say it is usually happening in the early hours of the day, and that their vehicles were not in their garages.

The most startling part, many say they live in a gated and rather secure neighborhood.

Technicians at the Car Care Center demonstrated just how easy it was by using what is called an electric gun. If the wheels aren’t locked they can be loosened up and removed in under five minutes.

Even an unnamed employee of the body shop said he was the victim of a recent auto theft.

His Lexus was stolen and later found stripped of it’s rims.

“It had a body kit on it. They stole the body kit off they stole the rims, and tires off of it and they actually put the wheel locks back on.” Denny Longworth show ABC Action News.

Wheel locks are usually the answer, and a cheap solution.

But technicians say security cameras, and keeping your vehicle in the garage will do the trick too.

Areas affected include Spring Lake, Celebration and Davenport.

We thank WFTS for reprint permission.

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Ex-Chesapeake Shop Owner Gets 3 Years For Rolling Back Odometers With Help of Norfolk City Employee

by Scott Daugherty, The Virginian-Pilot

The former owner of a defunct auto shop in Chesapeake was sentenced Thursday to three years and one month in prison for rolling back the odometers of at least 112 vehicles and selling them to unsuspecting buyers.

Paul Robinson, 37, of Affordable Auto Body Repair, also was ordered to pay $320,797 in restitution and to stop working in the automotive business.

Robinson and others rolled back odometers on high-mileage vehicles and secured fraudulent titles to cover it up, according to court documents.

They then resold the vehicles at inflated prices from Robinson’s business on Queen City Road off Providence Road.

The scam, which stretched from mid-2012 through the beginning of 2014, hinged on the assistance of a Norfolk employee who worked at a DMV Select branch in City Hall.

Steven Bazemore of Virginia Beach provided Robinson and his staff new titles with fake odometer readings, court documents said. Bazemore pleaded guilty last year to his role in Continued from Cover

Takata Bankruptcy

Key was expected to acquire Takata assets as part of a restructuring in bankruptcy.

Takata agreed in February to pay $1 billion in penalties to the Justice Department and plead guilty to wire fraud. However, 10 major automakers have taken on the the majority of the costs directly associated with its recall, reportedly totaling roughly $11.66 billion.

Bloomberg reported that the timing of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing could change, according to their source, who asked not to be identified.

The Nikkei, the world’s largest financial newspaper, reported earlier that Takata is expected to file for bankruptcy in Japan as early as this

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the scheme and was sentenced in September to one year of house arrest.

Documents say Robinson purchased the cars for an average of $1,131 and sold them for $3,818.

Many of the vehicles had over 200,000 miles at the time of their purchase. Robinson or someone acting at his direction would then disconnect or reset their odometers, lowering them by about 110,000 miles on average, court documents said.

Robinson was convicted in 2001 of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to more than 19½ years in prison. He was released early after his sentence was cut to nine years, but he was still on supervised probation when he started rolling back odometers.

Robinson also has convictions in state court dating to 1998 and has repeatedly tested positive in recent months for opiates. Defense attorney Andrew Sacks asked the court Thursday to sentence Robinson to one year of house arrest, arguing he had turned a corner and was ready to put his misdeeds behind him. He said Robinson had a child a couple of years ago and has moved to Georgia with his fiancee to start a new life.

June, with liabilities exceeding 9.02 billion U.S. The Nikkei reported that a new company created under Key will purchase Takata operations for about $1.62 billion and continue supplying air bags, seat belts and other products, leaving liabilities behind in a separate entity.

Also at stake is $850 million owed by the Japanese airbag system maker to major global automakers under a settlement agreed to earlier this year.

Major global car manufacturers have expressed concern about the company filing for bankruptcy without a deal in place because of disruption it could cause to the production of replacement airbag inflators. More than 65% of 46.2 million recalled Takata airbag inflators in the United States have not been repaired.

It is not clear how the filing will impact the pace of repairs but it is not likely to improve matters.

www.autobodynews.com

12 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Sacks said Robinson started working in February for his fiancee, whom he described as a “cosmetologist and automotive business owner.”

Sacks argued Robinson deserved a sentence in line with what Bazemore received.

Prosecutor Jacqueline BlaesiFreed countered that Robinson led the scheme and his record was far worse than Bazemore’s.

She also noted that Bazemore was responsible for only 76 of the fraudulent titles Robinson obtained.

The rest were issued by another title clerk who does not face charges.

Blaesi-Freed called what Robinson did “blatantly illegal,” saying he took advantage of unsuspecting people who found themselves owning cars they couldn’t sell and facing repair bills they couldn’t afford.

U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar agreed. He noted Robinson’s extensive record and the fact that he rolled back so many odometers.

“He just can’t seem to understand that for us to live together as a society, there has to be rules,” he said.

We thank The Virginia-Pilot for reprint permission.

Blackhawk Partners with 1Collision Network

Blackhawk has been designated as a strategic partner by the 1Collision Network. With this designation, Blackhawk® collision equipment products are a recommended choice for 1Collision Network body shop partner locations across the country.

“We want to thank the 1Collision Network for choosing Blackhawk as a preferred provider of products for collision equipment,” said David Zinkiewicz, product manager for Blackhawk. “The 1Collision Network is one of the nation’s premier providers of auto body and collision repair services and we are honored to be a strategic partner and part of their growing network.” In addition to Blackhawk collision equipment products, the strategic offering includes the John Bean® undercar service equipment solutions and Snap-on® tools and equipment. Collision Network body shop partner locations are single and multiple independent and dealer-owned collision repair centers whose owners seek to take their success to the next level as part of a network group of other successful auto collision body shop owners. For information about Blackhawk collision equipment, 1-800-558-4206 or visit www.blackhawkcr.com.

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 13

Caliber Collision Collects 3.2 Million Kids’ Meals

More than 40 food banks across the country will be able to help ensure kids in their communities do not go hungry this summer, thanks to a five-week nationwide food drive by Caliber Collision Centers that resulted in a record-breaking 3.2 million meals. Over the past six years, Caliber’s annual Rhythm Restoration Food Drive has collected thousands of pounds of food and over $1.2 million in cash, resulting in more than 10.1 million meals for food banks in the communities it serves across 17 states and the District of Columbia. “We are proud of the passion and dedication of our associates who are driven to give back to their local communities,” said Steve Grimshaw, CEO of Caliber Collision. Francie Cooper from the Tarrant Area Food Bank in Texas, one of the food banks supported by Caliber’s efforts, said, “One out of five children in the U.S. worry about where they will get their next meal, especially during the summer. We couldn’t do what we do to help these children and their families without Caliber’s amazing and generous support.”

Classic Collision at Gwinnett Place Earns Official Certification and Prestigious Top Automaker Recognition Classic Collision at Gwinnett Place has been officially Certified by Assured Performance, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization for maintaining the right tools, equipment, training, and facility necessary to repair the participating Automaker brand vehicles according to

Classic Collision at Gwinnett Place

the manufacturer’s specifications. In achieving their Certification, Classic Collision at Gwinnett Place is now an integral part of the most advanced repair capable and efficient auto body repair network in the world. Adding to their credentials, Classic Collision at Gwinnett Place is officially recognized by Assured Performance, FCA, GM, Nissan, Infiniti, Hyundai.

To become Certified and offi-

Automotive Students Receive 3M Scholarships Two students enrolled in the Collision Repair and Refinishing Technology program at Stanly Community College (SCC) were recipients of the Collision Repair Education Foundation’s 2017 3M Hire Our Heroes Veteran Family Scholarships.

Tim Hefner, Sales Representative, 3M Automotive Aftermarket Division, Charlotte, NC, presented the awards to the students.

with the Collision Repair Education Foundation and provide these scholarships and tool grants to deserving

students since 2013,” said Dale Ross, US Marketing Operations Manager.

“We hope this helps them complete their training and find rewarding careers in this great industry of ours.”

Both students will use their scholarship funding for the I-CAR Professional Development Program, an industry recognized pro(l to r) Tim Heffner, Billy Huneycutt, Adam Foster, gram for training collision Robert Richard repair professionals in esAndrew Foster was the recipi- sential role-relevant knowledge and ent of the 3M Hire Our Heroes Veter- skills. ans Family Scholarship in the amount According to EMSI data, colliof $2,500. Robert Richard received sion repair and refinishing specialists $2,000 from the 3M Hire Our Heroes can earn $22.64 an hour (medium Scholarship, plus another $4,500 from hourly income) and 1,680 jobs will the 3M Hire Our Heroes Tool Grant. be available in the Charlotte region “3M is proud to be partnered by 2020.

14 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

cially recognized by the various Automakers, Classic Collision at Gwinnett Place passed the rigorous Certification process essential to help ensure a proper and safe repair of the new generation of advanced vehicles. Less than 5 percent of body shops across the nation are able to meet the stringent requirements to become officially Certified and recognized. The Certified network is made up exclusively of best-in-class collision repair businesses that have met or exceeded the stringent requirements of the Certification program.

According to Classic Collision at Gwinnett Place Owner, Manfred Kammerer, “We’ve worked hard to stay ahead of the curve in the collision repair industry. This official Certification demonstrates that commitment to our customers. We take pride in our highly trained technicians who use the latest tools and equipment to deliver a top quality repair and the best customer service.”

The Certification criteria is based upon auto manufacturer requirements.

These are critical to ensure the vehicle

fit, finish, durability, value and safety following an accident. As new model vehicles are being introduced that use light weight high strength materials and advanced technology, a proper repair according to manufacturer specification is even more important than ever to ensure the passenger safety and proper performance of the vehicle.

Auto manufacturers want to ensure that consumers have the option of Certified Collision Repair wherever they live, work, or travel.

“Consumers need the confidence and peace of mind to know their vehicle is repaired by a shop that has what it takes to ensure the vehicle safety. Classic Collision at Gwinnett Place is officially a Collision Care Provider™,” said Scott Biggs, CEO of Assured Performance Collision Care™. “They represent the standard by which all other body shops are measured.”

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Continued from Cover

NACE Automechanika

11:00 AM – 6:00 PM Thursday, July 27 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM Friday, July 28 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM Saturday, July 29 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Tabletop Exhibits, Focused Training)

A full training schedule is available at https://naceautomechanika2017.sched .com/

Address: McCormick Place West Hall 2301 S. King Drive Chicago, Illinois 60616

With more than 600 exhibiting companies and 10,000 attendees, NACE Automechanika Chicago is set to lead the industry in a showcase of the latest technology covering the entire spectrum of the automotive aftermarket industry. At this leading event for automotive service and collision repair, automotive aftermarket manufacturers present their

products and innovations to a vast audience of shop owners, technicians and distributors. Check out the many special events happening at the 2017 event this July 26 – 29 at McCormick Place, West Hall.

NETWORK AND GET TRAINED AT THE SAME TIME THE 16th ANNUAL COLLISION REPAIR EDUCATION FOUNDATION (CREF) GOLF FUNDRAISER will be held on Monday, July 24, at Harborside International Golf Course, located just minutes from the Chicago Loop. It’s the only facility with two of Golfweek magazine’s “Best Courses You Can Play in Illinois” awards. Join the Foundation for a great time and help raise additional funds for a worthy cause. For more information, visit collisioneducationfoundation.org.

THE COLLISION INDUSTRY CONFERENCE (CIC) will take place from 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM on Tuesday, July 25, at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, with a reception to follow. (CIC) is a forum comprised of participants from all industry segments for the expressed purpose of discussing and exploring the challenges they share. The

Herkules Rebates Make For Summer Savings Temperatures might be rising, but the cost of investing in great shop equipment is trending downward, thanks to rebates on select Herkules products.

Quality, customer favorite Herkules

paint gun washers, carts and stands, crushers and even vehicle lifts come with cash back rebates if purchased by the end of August. These rebates range

from $15 to $200, available on eighteen different Michigan made products, from a Flex-Table to vehicle lifts.

These Herkules products must be purchased between June 1 and August 30, 2017, and the redemption form submitted to Herkules

by September 15, 2017; the rebate form and details are found at http://herkules.us/ summer-2017-rebates.

Established in 1984, Herkules Equipment Corporation is a USA-based manufacturer with three distinct product lines. The original Herkules supplies the Automotive Paint & Body Repair industry, having designed, manufactured, and patented the first Paint Gun Washer.

The BossLifts division supports the Oil Change, and Tire Service markets with innovative lifts and air jacks.

The EnKon division designs and manufactures Scissor Lift Table Systems for the assembly and manufacturing industries. Herkules products are manufactured in Walled Lake, Michigan and supported by Michigan-based customer service.

16 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

conference is open to all industry professionals including repairers, insurers, paint and material companies, equipment manufacturers, vehicle manufacturers, data providers or representatives of trade associations. There will be an “open mic” time for participants to address their concerns.

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY & DIAGNOSTIC REPAIR FORUM will be presented by the Automotive Service Association (ASA). The forum will focus on new technology including sensors, cameras, accident avoidance systems, wireless communications and more. If you are involved in the collision repair industry including repairers, executive and management staff from MSOs, networks and franchisors, insurance professionals and technology providers – this is for you. Join us on Wednesday, July 26, 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place.

MSO SYMPOSIUM allows you to get in on the discussion of the issues facing the industry. Happening on Wednesday, July 26, from 12:00 PM to 5:30 PM at the host hotel, Hyatt Regency McCormick Place.

THE BUSINESS OUTLOOK CONFERENCE is scheduled for two half-day sessions on Wednesday and Thursday.

This is another opportunity for distributors and others to receive information, insight and awareness of the economy, legislation, telematics and technology and their impact on the automotive industry and market.

CONNECT AFTER HOURS

INTERNATIONAL NIGHT: Headquartered in Chicago, the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest will host an International Night reception at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, July 26. The reception will allow attendees to meet members of the international business community and expand their networks by connecting with more than 100 of the most innovative minds of the industry.

A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: A networking event for attendees and exhibitors with free food, open bars, music and cars. From 6:30 - 10:30 PM on Thursday, July 27, at the Field Museum. The museum’s exhibits will be open to all attendees.

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Continued from Cover

New Consumer Guide

Hood said the Consumer Protection Division in Mississippi often writes publications on different issues to help educate consumers. Like many states across the country, the office receives thousands of calls every year from those who have been in a collision and have questions about the law and their rights when it comes to repairing their vehicles. Many complain about the disputes between insurance companies and collision repair shops.

Hood said the number of questions seems to have increased as a result of the technology now being used in vehicles.

“Due to the lighter space-age materials used in newer model cars, the repair procedures, machines and training for collision repair technicians are very technical and expensive,” he said.

“In order to place a vehicle back to its pre-accident condition, some body shops have to buy expensive machines or tools and have their technicians trained and certified on the repair procedures for certain makes of vehicles.”

Hood said the problem arises

when a body shop doesn’t purchase the necessary technology, computers, tools or get people trained or certified.

Hence, the shops that don’t have these certifications and tools may do a repair for less money.

“The goal of the insurance companies is to keep repair prices as low as possible,” said Hood. “Insurance companies are inclined to only want to pay the least amount whereas Mississippi law requires a proper repair.

Therein lies the conflict for consumers to navigate.”

As a result, Hood released the guide to help inform consumers about these issues.

John Mosley, the owner of Clinton Body Shop in Mississippi, was part of the task force, which consisted of nearly 40 people, including staff from the attorney general’s office and the Mississippi Department of Insurance.

He said the release of the consumer guide may come as a surprise to the industry and will surely be of interest to many shops.

“The collision industry from Mississippi was well represented on the committee and I think every major insurance company in the country was well represented by either an attorney

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or a claims person,” said Mosley. In addition, OEMs such as Honda and Audi were present to provide information and answer questions.

Mosley said that over the last few years, body shops from across the state have kept in touch with the attorney general’s office in an attempt to help resolve issues with insurance companies pertaining to labor rates and the payment of different repair procedures.

During the monthly meetings, Mosley said the taskforce discussed common issues consumers often inquire about. Some of the highlights include:

The Right to Choose a Body Repair Shop The document explains the consumer’s right to choose a body shop. “Mississippi has an anti-steering statute that expressly prohibits insurance companies from trying to steer people to go to certain body shops,” said Hood. The document explicitly states, “You have the right to select the repair facility that you want to use and to participate in the decisions regarding the repair of your vehicle.”

Defining a Proper Repair Another topic of conversation that

was included in the guide is defining a proper repair. According to Mississippi state law, Mosley said the most an insurance company must pay is the least amount they can have a vehicle repaired properly. “It doesn’t define what a proper repair is,” he said.

Prior to the consumer guide being released, a proper repair was not clearly defined other than to place the vehicle back to its pre-accident condition.

When it came to coming up with a clear definition of a proper repair, Mosley said Hood wanted to know how vehicles are tested, why scanning is necessary and how aftermarket parts are tested. “He wanted to know how these manufacturers came up with these guidelines, why they are asking for these specific procedures and try to determine what parts may affect consumer safety,” said Mosley.

Excerpt from document: A proper repair is performed pursuant to the original equipment manufacturers’ (“OEM”) repair procedures and using OEM or OEM equivalent parts that have been properly tested pursuant to or meet the manufacturers’ specifications. It is the duty of your insurance company (or the third party’s insur-

ance company) to pay for a proper repair. It is the auto body repair shop’s responsibility to make the proper repair.

The Appraisal Clause The document outlines pre-repair considerations consumers should be aware of, including the inclusion of an appraisal clause in some insurance policies. Consumers are encouraged to review the appraisal clause in instances in which they disagree with the insurance company’s estimate of repairs. “People are now aware that there is actually an appraisal clause in their policy and know at least to check their policy,” he said.

Types of Parts Used During the Repair Another issue the attorney general’s office often addresses and is included in the guide is the use of OEM and aftermarket parts. “Technology has brought us a lot of good safety features but it has also brought some controversy as to whether or not you should buy an OEM part or whether you are entitled to an aftermarket part to return the vehicle to its pre-accident condition,” said Hood. The document explains to consumers, “You have the

right to decide what type of part is used if your vehicle needs them replaced due to the accident.”

“He tried to make it fair for everyone,” said Mosley. “He told us that we’ll address any issues you have and at the end I’m going to come up with what I think is fair for the consumer.”

Mosley said the overall reaction from the collision repair industry is positive. “I think he did a great job,” he said. “He did what I would want if I was a consumer and was trying to get a repair completed. I would want to know that I was at least entitled to a repair based on OEM procedures and the parts that may affect safety would have to be OEM or equivalent to OEM with testing to prove that.”

Now that the guide has been released in Mississippi, Mosley said many shops are hopeful that other attorney generals will follow suit and produce something similar in their respective states. “You would think that with cars becoming as technically challenging as they are and with the amount of safety systems that are in place on the vehicles now, that these AGs and insurance commissioners will have to take their head out of the

sand and start looking at what actually needs to be done to make sure that a car is repaired properly to avoid people getting hurt or killed. I believe that is already happening and it is going to be more frequent if we don’t start getting proper training widespread across this country.”

He encourages all shops no matter where they are located to read the paragraph in the guide that defines a proper repair. “Then ask yourself if that is the type of work your shop is doing. Are you putting that car back in pre-accident condition? If not, why? If the reason is because insurance companies are not allowing you to or you think they are not allowing you to, you either need to become more involved or your customer needs to be involved and you need to start putting that appraisal clause into play more.”

Autobody News reached out to the Mississippi Department of Insurance regarding the consumer guide several times and received no response.

For more information about the Consumer Guide to Insurance and Auto Body Repair, visit http://www.ago .state.ms.us/wp-content/uploads/ 2017/05/AUTO-BODY-REPAIR-ACONSUMERS-GUIDE_Final.pdf

AMi Accepting Applications for $1,000 Scholarship The Automotive Management Institute (AMi) is accepting applications for the $1,000 Arrowhead Automotive Aftermarket “High Octane” Scholarship. AMi, in conjunction with Arrowhead Automotive Aftermarket, established the scholarship, which is awarded to an Automotive Service Association (ASA) Mechanical Division member who strives to be or is presently working in a management capacity.

The scholarship will be applied toward the recipient’s expenses to attend the 2017 NACE Automechanika in Chicago, IL, July 26-29. To be eligible, the following requirements must be met: applicants must work in the mechanical repair industry; must demonstrate an interest in self-improvement through education and training; must own or work for a business that is an ASA member in good standing; and, if the applicant is not the business owner, must be recommended by the owner. AMi trustees and their employees and Arrowhead and its employees are not eligible to apply.

To request an application, call AMi (817) 514-2929, or email tslaton @amionline.org.

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 19

CREF and ASE Introduce Future Collision Repair Industry Professionals to Potential Employers at 3rd Annual Cars, Careers and Celebrities Event

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

As part of the Collision Repair Education Foundation’s (CREF) ongoing efforts to aid and support students pursuing a future career in the automotive industry, the organization is again partnering with ASE to host the 3rd Annual Cars, Careers and Celebrities Expo at 11AM-5PM on Friday, September 15. The event will be held in Joliet, IL at the Chicagoland Speedway hospitality village area next to the racetrack during Chicago’s NASCAR weekend, and students, instructors and administrators who participate in the career fair will also receive complimentary tickets to Friday evening’s races.

Brandon Eckenrode, Director of Development for CREF, explains, “CREF and ASE are collaborating to bring together high school and college collision repair and auto service students from around the greater Midwest and beyond for this trade show and career fair, exclusively for them.

We anticipate over 30 companies to participate who are looking to either meet students for employment consideration or showcase their products to the future professionals of the col-

Chief® Vulcan ADU Approved by Ford, Mitsubishi and Nissan

Ford, Mitsubishi and Nissan approved the Chief Vulcan Adhesive Debonding Unit (ADU) for use in the structural repair of their vehicles.

Vulcan is designed to use infrared heat to break the bonds of structural adhesives joining automotive steel, aluminum and carbon fiber panels. Using the Vulcan ADU, the company said technicians can debond panels faster and dramatically reduce the risk of damage to underlying components.

“Most automotive OEMs are using increasing amounts of glue and epoxy adhesive bonding to add substantial strength to their cars and trucks without adding weight. Separating thin layers of material connected by these adhesives can be challenging,” said Lee Daugherty, director of collision sales, the Americas, for Chief parent company Vehicle Service Group (VSG).

“We identified the need to find a better way to remove such adhesives without causing additional damage during collision repair.” Chief’s Vulcan ADU works on any vehicle surface, including aluminum, carbon fiber and steel.

lision and auto service industries.

Many would argue that the average age of repair technicians is over 40 years old, and one of the largest concerns within the collision and other technical industries is finding entrylevel staff.”

Eckenrode continues, “Through this event, our goal is to help introduce industry employers and students. We have heard that, through these events where students interact with industry members, they find motivation to stay within their programs. Instructors may sit in front of their classrooms and ‘talk’ about the industry that is out there for them, but at this event, students get to meet the actual companies and experience the demand for their skills firsthand.”

CREF anticipates that around 1000 students will be in attendance due to the addition of automotive service students, and while the majority of these students are located in the Midwest region, CREF has already received interest from schools located in NC, PA and KS. During the Cars, Careers and Celebrities event, students will get to meet with national and local repair facilities, insurance companies and deal-

Copart Acquires Cycle Express

Having reached 200 locations worldwide and updating its mobile app earlier this year, Copart acquired Cycle Express, which conducts business primarily as National Powersport Auctions (NPA).

NPA currently operates facilities in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Philadelphia and San Diego. The company said NPA predominantly auctions pre-owned powersports units on behalf of finance companies, dealers and manufacturers.

“We are thrilled that NPA is now part of the Copart family and believe the team’s expertise will enhance our capabilities,” Copart CEO Jay Adair said. “NPA is the leader in the powersports auction industry and shares our ownership mindset, commitment to challenging the norm, and focus on delivering results.” NPA CEO Cliff Clifford added, “We are very excited about teaming up with Copart.

“Leveraging Copart’s resources and capabilities with NPA’s industry expertise and market leadership will allow us to kick NPA into high gear,” Clifford continued. “We’re looking forward to taking NPA to a whole new level of growth and success.”

20 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

erships, as well as tool, equipment and paint companies. Eckenrode hopes to see more independent repair facilities get involved, noting “Companies who are (or will be) in need of entry-level staff should attend this event in order to meet prospective future employees.

There are sponsorship levels to meet every budget, and we would encourage all companies to join us to help welcome students during this event.”

Students will be required to RSVP for the event, allowing CREF and ASE to collect their resumes and contact information to share with event sponsors and potential employers. In an effort to create more value for students, Eckenrode says that this year “SkillsUSA will be administering a mock-interview tent so that students can practice their skills, and we are also working in interactive and hands-on activities for students to participate in.”

Companies interested in participating in CREF and ASE’s 3rd Annual Cars, Careers and Celebrities Expo should contact Eckenrode at 847-463-5244 or Brandon.Eckenrode @ed-foundation.org. Companies must express interest by August 5th to be included on event signage.

2017 SEMA Show Education Schedule Released

The SEMA Show provides attendees and exhibitors with learning opportunities to support professional development and provide the tools necessary to grow small businesses.

Last year, education attendance exceeded 10,000 learners and earned an impressive overall satisfaction rating of 4.5 on 5-point scale.

Partnering with the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), Tire Industry Association (TIA) and Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR), the SEMA Show delivers a centralized and comprehensive program that addresses industry-specific training and small-business best practices, such as social-media marketing, human resources, finance and customer service.

More than 100 sessions are offered from Monday, October 30– Friday, November 3, “The 2017 SEMA Show is where the brightest minds come together and the only place to see the industry’s hottest products,” said show organizers.

Education registration is now live and available online. For more information, visit https://www.sema show.com.

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 21

Southeast Associations with Chasidy Rae Sisk

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 of NASCAR fans. She can be contacted at crsisk@chasidyraesisk.com.

NCACAR Offered May Training on Structural Steel Repair and asTech Scanning The North Carolina Association of Collision and Autobody Repair (NCACAR) delivered exceptional value to its members in May with two highly anticipated training sessions, one on Structural Steel Repair and another focused on asTech and the importance of pre and post repair scanning. NCACAR President Brian Davies ardently believes that educating collision repair professionals is one of the most valuable and important things an association can do.

The “GM Structural Steel Repair” seminar was held on May 16 at the Hendrick Operation Center in Charlotte, NC and was sponsored by Rick Hendrick City Chevrolet. The training session attracted around 30 attendees, including shop owners, technicians and several new association members who joined that evening.

Keith Glasgow of GM and ACDelco provided an in-depth presentation on the material, integrating the GM website along with late model design changes. He also discussed examples of what not to do and how liability falls on the repairer. According to Davies, “Keith did a nice job of presenting things in a way everyone could follow. He gave great examples, one of which was the paint code search by VIN number which makes it much simpler to confirm the paint code without having to search it inside the vehicle which met with great enthusiasm from the attendees. He spent a good portion of time towards the end of the class showing everyone how to navigate the website and where to look for the information which is available at no charge. The vibe was good, and everyone seemed to understand the information and asked several questions throughout the event – they were somewhat more engaged than I’ve seen at previous training events.”

The meeting concluded with Davies stressing the importance of everyone being engaged in the industry and urging collision repair professionals to join NCACAR so the group can combine resources and perform safe repairs for their customers and their families. He also thanked the organizations that support the association, stating “Hendrick Automotive

and GM have been very consistent in their efforts to help the association and ultimately our members benefit by the education given. Organizing these types of training events is essential to our main focus which is correct repairs and sustainability. The OEMs re-

alize that quality repairs support brand loyalty so it’s in all of our best interest to repair vehicles correctly. We are very appreciative to have the support of such great leaders in the industry.”

On May 17, NCACAR hosted Jake Rodenroth of Collision Diagnostic Services for “asTech and the Importance of Pre and Post Repair Scanning” at CPCC’s Huntersville Campus. Davies notes, “CCPC’s Casey Smith and David Favor were gracious hosts, organizing a large classroom and several donated example cars to scan. Jake is an outstanding presenter and always adds new and intriguing facts about what’s on the technology horizon with personal stories that tie things together effectively with a touch of humor which helps everyone engage. Also, the diagnostic team at asTech performed flawlessly, even when Jake threw in an incorrect VIN number in an attempt to trip them up – not a chance; they caught it right away! The shop owners and technicians received a clearer understanding of the complete process and gained knowledge about why scanning is essential to complete repairs correctly.”

Because the event was held in the afternoon, only 15 shop owners and technicians attended, but the time was planned in hopes of making it easier for insurance adjusters to attend and in order to allow plenty of time for Rodenroth to answer questions related to real-time scanning in a shop environment. Davies and the rest of NCACAR’s Board of Directors spent two months advertising the seminar in advance, and he observes, “We were hopeful to have engagement from our

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insurance partners. I have to say NOT ONE was in attendance! We continue to get resistance paying for scans in our market because of the lack of training, understanding and knowledge, so to put this together and have zero participation on their behalf is very disappointing to say the least.”

Davies adds, “Being passionate about our industry is something that is just in me, and I can’t wrap my head around how this is ‘just a job.’ We are entrusted with peoples’ lives so to put our head in the sand and not attempt to continually educate ourselves as much as possible, especially when it’s handed to you in a clear and concise format for free, just doesn’t make any sense. The reality is change is very difficult, and to convince people to alter their behavior is one of the hardest things ever, especially when money is involved. I know it will always be a struggle; however, I’m encouraged as we continue to organize these types of

events that the word will spread as it has with other successful associations around the U.S. Our Board, members, affiliates and business partners are filled with the same type of passion, so I’m encouraged because we all will continue to push North Carolina to be one of the best places for collision repairers in the country.”

Despite the disappointing turnout for the asTech presentation, NCACAR remains optimistic about their efforts to provide education to members and to improve the collision repair industry in their state. Davies stresses, “NCACAR is here for the long haul!”

The next official meeting for NCACAR will be held in Burlington, NC on September 21st. For more information about the association, visit www.ncacar.com.

www.autobodynews.com

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 23

Shop Strategies

Stacey Phillips is a freelance writer and editor for the automotive industry.

She has 20 years of experience writing for a variety of publications.

She can be reached at sphillips.autobodynews@gmail.com.

83-Year-Old Chicago Body Shop Invests in Best Training & Equipment to Exceed Customer & Employee Expectations with Stacey Phillips

by Stacey Phillips

In 1934, Ivan Goodmonson established Erie LaSalle Body Shop in Chicago, Illinois. As the son of farmers in Minnesota, he decided to come to the big city of Chicago to pursue a career in aviation. After hopping a freight train, he arrived looking for em-

Erie LaSalle Body Shop was established in Chicago, Illinois, in 1934

ployment and began working on cars.

It wasn’t long before he became well known as a good car mechanic. In those days, they tuned cars by ear,” said Bob Gottfred, Goodmonson’s stepson and the current owner of Erie LaSalle Body Shop. “He had a very good ear and did a good job.”

When Goodmonson decided to open a collision repair shop, he had three stalls in the back alley of a building. Eventually, he bought the building from the landlord and continued to expand his business. Erie LaSalle currently operates two locations in downtown Chicago and the Little Village neighborhood on the south side Chicago. Autobody News talked to Bob Gottfred about the growing family business, which he said is the longest continuously-owned auto body repair service of its kind in Chicago and Illinois.

Q:

Congratulations on being named one of the best body shops in the Chicago, Illinois, area by Expertise.com.

What do you attribute your success to?

Continuing education for our A: employees is number one. We focus on factory training and the OEM

certifications we qualify for. We constantly are sending people to classes covering production, management and estimating. We try not to miss a seminar that we think is helpful to our em-

ployees.

It is also very important to find the right fit of employees who get along with each other and are not too thinskinned so they can all work together as a team. My sons, Jay and Jim, are great general managers of our stores.

They promote a team concept among our 30 technicians and a family-type of atmosphere. We’ve done this all as a team and I love coming to work every day. My sons and I feel that if we offer employees the best in equipment and training, we expect the best from them.

Our mission is to minimize any disruption in our customers’ lives due to their automobile accidents. The goal is to perform quality, state-of-the-art repairs to both our Chicago and suburban customers while providing intelligent, professional service. We really do respect our customers and our employees, in the same manner. There are virtually no limits in which we will go to satisfy and exceed our customers’ expectations. For example, we offer complimentary shuttle service, free ve-

Owner Bob Gottfred said they utilize the most advanced technology available to guarantee the highest quality repair

hicle pick up and delivery, extended and weekend hours for convenience and a lifetime warranty.

We reinvest our profits in the necessary training and equipment in order to provide our customers the very finest repairs in the most timely manner. We feel this will ensure our continued growth and perpetuity of our business and continued service to our community.

How have you incorporated statein your business?

Q: of-technology

24 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Our company uses computerA: ized estimating and production processing, digital imaging, and the

latest spray paint technology to ensure a high-quality final product. We believe in utilizing the most advanced technology available to guarantee the highest quality repair.

When we attended the NACE trade show in 2015, we were interested in learning about gas catalytic drying and the lean processing system. We learned

Marco Melone and Stephanie Martinez, customer service representatives (CSRs) at Erie LaSalle Body Shop

about a company called Symach. We happened to have a completely empty 12,000-square-foot warehouse that was used as an old truck repair place. I thought the company’s technology was interesting and I went to Italy to learn more.

I liked the way it ran and we signed a deal at the beginning of January 2016.

Since then, Symach has installed the sophisticated computerized equipment.

The process is very streamlined. In a variable world of auto collision, it’s pretty cool the way we can run a job through and maximize productivity.

Can you tell us about the shop’s Q: “Express Repair Process?”

Express repair is a mindset. It’s A: more of a lean processing system than it is the machinery and equipSee Best Training, Page 71

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 25

ABPA, he said the Arkansas law was targeted because it was among the most restrictive limits on non-OEM parts use in the country. panies have already begun to lobby “We’re always on the defensive in against the bill,” he said, urging ABPA different states to protect our industry members to contact their members of from restrictive legislation,” Colas said.

Congress.

“But this year we thought that we’d acNorwind was asked if there is tually play on the offensive side.” added pressure this year given that one He argued that it makes no sense key sponsor of the legislation, 83-yearthat Arkansas law limits the use of old Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), may non-OEM parts on vehicles still under retire next year, and that another, Rep. the manufacturer’s warranty given Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.), only narrowly that the insurance policy, not the vehiwon reelection last year. cle warranty, determines what crash “Even aside from whether or not parts will be used to repair the vehithose guys will return to Congress, we cle. do feel pressure to move this, no ques“That [argument] worked for us in tion about that,” Nordwind said. “It’s the Senate [which passed the repeal], an added element that our sponsors but once it got to the House, there’s a may not be with us in the next Conranking member on the committee who gress. We’re moving as if we owns a dealership,” Colas have no more time left. This said. “So all the members is our Congress.” looked to him as the industry Despite millions of dolexpert. He again provided lars in donations to the Quality misinformation, saying how Parts Coalition from its 80 our parts are unsafe, and how members (which includes inwe need to preserve the warsurance companies, LKQ ranties on these vehicles.”

Ray Colas of LKQ Corp., and other manufacturColas said the Arkansas Corp.’s government ers and distributors of non- affairs department bill was pulled in order to OEM parts), the proposed keep it alive, and supporters legislation in the 2015-16 Congresare asking the state’s Attorney General sional session failed to pick up more to conduct a one-year survey into any than two dozen other lawmaker sponconsumer complaints related to parts sors, though it did receive a committee over the last three years. hearing in February of 2016.

“We know there aren’t any, as it Also speaking at the ABPA event applies to accident, injury or death,” was Ray Colas of LKQ Corporation’s Colas said. The study results are to be government affairs department. He disreported to the legislature and Govercussed various efforts this year within nor, he said, “so that a decision can be state legislatures to either tighten or made then by a governing body as to loosen restrictions on the use of nonwhether or not these parts should conOEM parts for insurance claims. Pertinue to be restricted.” haps not surprisingly, Colas’ perspective Arkansas isn’t the only state on some the legislation different signifwhere LKQ Corporation has supicantly from those representing collision ported legislation this year to loosen repairers. restrictions on non-OEM parts use.

Just a week prior to the ABPA Colas said LKQ pushed for bills in event, for example, Aaron SchulenTennessee and West Virginia this year burg of the Society of Collision Repair that would allow for fewer limits on Specialists questioned legislation prothe use of non-OEM parts. Like the posed in Arkansas earlier this year that Arkansas bill, the West Virginia bill is would have overturned that state’s limdead, Colas said, and with Tennessee its on the use of non-OEM parts with“now the [auto] manufacturer mecca out the written consent of the vehicle of the United States…the chance of us owner. passing [that legislation] is slim.”

“It’s concerning that there are lobBut Colas said LKQ likely will bying efforts to repeal transparency to follow the same path in Tennessee and the consumer,” Schulenburg said. West Virginia that it has in Arkansas: “Anything that reduces [consumer disasking those states’ attorneys general or closure] should be concerning to all of insurance commissioners to conduct us in the industry, no matter what segstudies into whether use of non-OEM ment you’re in.” parts has led to accidents, injuries or But in Colas’ presentation to the deaths, and “then report back to leadContinued from Cover

Restrictions

26 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

ership in that state…whether or not these parts should be restricted.”

Colas said after meeting with a New York lawmaker who introduced a bill this year that would require that vehicle owners provide a written signature consenting to the parts that will be used in the repair of their vehicle, that lawmaker “has no interest in moving the bill.” But later in his ABPA presentation Colas also said, “We have no problem with making sure the consumer is aware of the type of parts being used for repairing their vehicle.”

In Wyoming, Colas said, the Department of Insurance is proposing a change to its 1988 regulations regarding the use of non-OEM parts. Those regulations currently prohibit insurers from requiring the use of any such parts unless the parts are equal in quality to OEM “in terms of fit and performance,” and unless the consumer is notified that “he or she is not required to accept non-OEM parts” and consents to their use in writing.

The Wyoming Department of Insurance has proposed an addition to the regulation that states, “No insurer shall directly or indirectly require the consumer to pay any difference in price if the consumer elects to use OEM parts

in the repair of the vehicle.”

LKQ’s Colas said this is something his company is opposing.

“If you incentivize that consumer by telling them whether you choose OEM or aftermarket, there’s no cost impact to you, why would they ever choose an aftermarket part, if it’s essentially going to be for the same price,” Colas said. “We’re telling [regulators] that you’re effectively eliminating the use of aftermarket parts if you adopt such language. So we are in a battle there in the state of Wyoming...It is a threat to our industry in that state.”

John Yoswick, a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988, is also the editor of the weekly CRASH Network bulletin (www.CrashNetwork.com). He can be contacted by email at john@Crash Network.com.

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Announces:

2017 Third Quarter Training Schedule

All Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes training centers feature state-of-the-art teaching tools, such as iPads, to enhance the learning experience for today’s collision repair professionals. Explore our robust training programs in a variety of areas designed to improve productivity and profitability.

Training Center

Date

Training Course Description

Number of Days

Atlanta

8/15/17

Painter Certification

3

Atlanta

8/29/17

Color Adjustment and Blending

3

Atlanta

9/26/17

Painter Certification

3

For more information about Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes courses, visit our training section at: www.sherwin-automotive.com/refinish/training-support or call 1-800-SWULTRA (1-800-798-5872).

WD-40® Launches New Line of Multipurpose Greases with Superior Properties Today’s machinery is not only complex, it demands superior maintainance with superior lubricants.

This means that using the right grease for the job can prevent premature

wear and tear and expensive equipment damage. Fortunately multipurpose greases with superior properties exist and are readily available.

WD-40 is introducing WD-40 Specialist Greases, a family of convenient solutions for automotive, construction and farming professionals dealing with a variety of specialized lubrication challenges.

The WD-40 Specialist Greases line includes Superior Performance True Multi-Purpose Grease, Heavy-Duty High Temperature Grease, Heavy-Duty Extreme Pressure Grease and MarineGrade Water Resistant Grease. The products are interchangeable with each other, meaning they won’t cause crosscontamination issues that compromise performance and effectiveness. The greases also excel in extreme conditions and protect against rust and corrosion.a

versatile solution with properties even lithium greases don’t offer. Reliable at temperatures above 650° F, it also provides marine-grade water resistance and protection against rust and corrosion.

WD-40 Specialist True Multi-Purpose Grease

Engineered for high-speed and heavyduty applications, True Multi-Purpose Grease is an excellent choice for maintenance of farm and construction equipment, as well as lubricating machinery in damp conditions. Formulated with calcium sulfonate (OBCS) technology, it is interchangeable with other WD40® Specialist® greases without compromising performance through cross-contamination.

Trade professionals who need to deal with a variety of specialized lubrication challenges now can depend on a single family of convenient solutions. Whether the application involves extreme pressures, high temperatures, damp conditions or a severe marine environment, these WD-40® Specialist® greases give you the tools you need to lubricate and protect so you can fight wear, and provide longlasting rust and corrosion protection.

Not to mention that all these greases are interchangeable and won’t cross contaminate compromising their effectiveness.

WD 40 Specialist Greases Family

WD-40 Specialist Superior Performance True Multi-Purpose Grease is designed to be the ultimate high-performance, all-in-one grease. Formulated with calcium sulfonate technology, the premium product provides superior lubrication and long-lasting performance under extreme pressure, high temperature and severe marine conditions, according to the company.

“WD-40 Specialist Superior Performance True Multi-Purpose Grease is engineered to be the only grease you’ll ever need,” said Dr. Ernest Bernarducci, vice president of research and development at WD-40 Co. “It is a versatile, all-in-one solution engineered to proSee WD-40™ New Line, Page 51

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 27

UK’s Thatcham Research Calls for New Thinking and Approaches to Halt Spiralling Cost of Repair ● Repair storm brewing around increasing costs and complexity ● Vehicle manufacturers urged to engage with repair industry, to bring costs under control as average repair bills spiral by 32% over the last three years ● Advanced Driver Assistance Systems are impacting windscreen replacement, potentially increasing costs by 123% for certain new models—and affecting no-claims bonuses ● Bodyshop of the Future programme to bring insurers, repairers and carmakers together to address challenges

Thatcham Research in the U.K. is the motor insurers’ automotive research center a kind of analog to the IIHS in the US. Established by the insurance industry in 1969, the center’s main aim is to contain or reduce the cost of motor insurance claims whilst maintaining safety standards.

Thatcham Research still occupies its unique position as the UK’s only ‘not for profit’ insurer funded research center. Whilst the original aims remain intact, the center is at the forefront of the latest vehicle technology research, spanning safety, security and repair.

Thatcham Research is calling for action for vehicle manufacturers to urgently engage with the repair industry to halt spiralling costs. With the average repair bill rising by nearly 32% in the last three years, concerns are mounting around core repair challenges encompassing ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), new materials and a lack of skills.

Coping with ADAS calibration Peter Shaw, Thatcham Research CEO, addressed automotive industry leaders at the Thatcham Research Repair Focus event on June 6, highlighting the issue of escalating repair costs as ADAS technologies become more prevalent.

According to Shaw, “The average repair bill has risen by 32% over the last three years. This has been driven by the reparability of parts such as headlights, increasing complexity of vehicle materials and technology and the rising cost of spare parts, influenced to some extent by currency fluctuations. Vehicle manufacturers must bring these costs under control.

“The cost for windscreen mounted ADAS calibration spans from 0 to $900 U.S. across car manufacturers and often across similar sensors and technology.

This is unacceptable. Unless urgently addressed, these costs will challenge the current model of a no-claims bonus being unaffected by a windscreen repair or replacement.”

The average cost to replace a windscreen increases significantly with the fitment of ADAS technologies such as Autonomous Emergency Braking. For example, a windscreen replacement for a Ford Focus with ADAS can increase by 123%, when estimated calibration costs are factored in. Costs for a VW Golf can increase by 78%. Thatcham Research estimates that there are over two million cars on the roads today with standard-fit AEB systems (equating to 5% of the cars in use in the UK), and with the systems set to be more prevalent over coming years, this issue will only continue to grow.

Lifting the hood on intrusive repairs The increase in different material specification in new cars was another Repair Focus hot topic. Thomas Hudd, Operations Manager at the Thatcham Research Repair Technology Centre said, “The rising use of a mix of new materials in modern cars is leading to more intrusive repairs.

This means that where we were once able to partially replace a panel, we now need to replace it in its entirety.

This is especially true of aluminium panels, which are challenging the repair industry as it is stiffer and harder to reshape than steel.”

The Top 5 Repair Challenges 1. ADAS systems: maintenance, repair, costs, time and resource required for calibration 2. Complexity: new skills for Vehicle Damage Assessors and engineer assessors, as multiple material types, as well as ADAS and hybrid powertrains, become a regular feature of volume production vehicle construction 3. Paint and panels: new technologies such as textured paint, or crystal finishes, and refinish on multiple materials. Panel repair is increasing in cost and complexity too – as a result of pricing anomalies, missing repair data, intrusive repair methods and lack of correct stock 4. Headlights: LED and LED Matrix, Laser and soon OLED lighting continue to gain prominence, but often cost considerably more than a

28 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

bulb headlamp and some may be impossible to repair rather than replace 5. Electrified PowerTrains: diagnosis of electrified powertrains and electrical architecture. The diverse range of technologies and tools required are not acceptable investments to expect of a bodyshop

Bodyshop of the Future All of this complexity creates a further challenge for UK bodyshops today—attracting high caliber individuals, with the right skillsets, who see the repair industry as a career destination.

“There is still much to be done to ensure that the right people choose a career in this industry,” comments Dean Lander, head of repair sector services at Thatcham Research. “Repairers need a new set of skills to meet the demands of the Bodyshop of the Future. Technical expertise in diagnostics and calibration has become as vital as expertise in repairing and refinishing the physical hardware of a car. We must portray a fresh image to recruit the right people and help them to develop these new skills for bodyshops, as well as developing leadership skills

to aid long term retention. This is a key focus of Thatcham’s new Leadership and management foundation programme, delivered in partnership with BSG, which is launching today at Repair Focus.”

To learn more about the Thatcham Research Bodyshop of the Future program, visit: www.thatcham.org Thatcham Research is the independent voice of automotive safety & repair, advising motorists, insurers and vehicle manufacturers to help reduce accident frequency, severity and costs and to realise the vision of ‘Safer cars, fewer crashes’.

As well as its world-leading crash and track research, Thatcham Research tests and accredits crash repair parts, vehicle repair technicians, and a number of other products and services within the collision repair industry for insurers, motor manufacturers, equipment manufacturers and suppliers.

A founder member of the international Research Council for Automobile Repairs (RCAR), Thatcham Research has also been a member of the European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) since 2004.

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New TX Bill Aims to Get More Driverless Cars on Texas Roads probably closer than I was comfortable with,” he explained.

A Lincoln MKZ glides easily through Southwest Research doesn’t test a tight figure eight of cones on South- on public roads, despite Texas not havwest Research Institute’s San Antonio ing laws explicitly barring it.

Campus.

Texas currently has no regulations Researcher Mark Alban isn’t drivaround testing and operating driverless ing, though behind the wheel, as the car cars, but on Tuesday state lawmakers completes its route. sent a bill to Governor Abbott for his “We can pretty much drive any- signature. where the computer can plot a path” If signed, Texas would become the says engineer Kris Kozak.

16th state to adopt such a framework Kozak uses a mounted tablet to says Ginger Goodin, director of the select where the car should go and the Transportation Policy Research Center car accelerates towards the cones once at Texas A&M’s Transportation Instiagain. tute.

Kozak and Alban created the tech“I think what it does is it provides nology that allows us to move safely some definitions for these systems,” without a driver. It’s called Ranger. It she says. uses a downward facing camera to finGoodin says that while Texas doesn’t bar driverless cars, there are a number of ambiguities.

For instance, in a car where no one is driving, who is ticketed for an infraction?

Under pending legislation, “so this is just saying that the automated driving system and the owner of that system would be responsible,” Goodin exKris Kozak sets where the car will go on this tablet. plains.

Credit: Lennon Maldonado So, present or not, if your gerprint the road and uses the images name is on the title, you get the ticket. to determine where it is. Kozak says Goodin calls the Texas bill busiRanger drives more precisely than any ness friendly and there are less costs, other device. He says the car knows and regulations than other states. Driwhere it is within two centimeters. verless car developers aren’t required The technology can run pre- to get special permits, mark test vehimapped routes really well, but would cles, or get insurance beyond what a need additional technology to help traditional car requires. with situational awareness.

“We’ve seen states that through A pedestrian walking alongside regulatory action have driven innovathe campus road causes Mark Alban tion out of their state,” says State Sento take back control of the car. ator Kelly Hancock who wrote the “We would have passed them, but bill.

by Paul Flahive, Texas Public Radio

CARSTAR Adds Collision Repair Center to Network in Houston CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts announced the opening of CARSTAR Champions at 13650

Schroeder Rd., in Houston, Texas.

The new franchise is owned and operated by Kevin and Blanca Williams.

“Joining CARSTAR was an easy business decision for us,” said co-owner Kevin Williams. “We can now leverage the benefits of being part of the CARSTAR family and give our customers the service and attention that they would expect from an independent shop.

CARSTAR provides access to networks, training and partnerships to ensure we provide quality and affordable repairs to our customers.”

30 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

What we want to do here is establish a statute that addresses the new technologies, that does not impede or inhibit the innovation,” Hancock continues.

It isn’t clear that more regulations mean less interest from developers.

California has more regulations and

A Lincoln MKZ equipped with patented Ranger technology navigates cones at Southwest Research. Credit: Lennon Maldonado

more companies testing cars than Texas. It requires cars be marked, that companies carry additional insurance, that all companies have a state permit, and more.

Uber moved its self-driving program to Arizona after clashing with California regulators, only to return three months later. More than 20 other companies test in California.

Despite Tesla’s claim of a self-driving car out this year, several companies are aiming for 2020 and beyond for a production model. University of South Carolina Assistant Professor of Law Bryant Walker Smith says there are a lot of miles before companies can claim their automated cars are as safe as conventional ones.

His back-of-the-envelope estimate, “You would have to drive 300 hundred million miles of representative driving without any fatalities. That’s a lot of driving” Regardless of the miles and the obstacles, Walker Smith believes autonomous cars are a good way to address the nearly 100 deaths per day on U.S. roadways from human error.

“We should be concerned about automated driving. We should be terrified about conventional driving,” he stressed.

So in the near future, under the legislation likely to become law, you could be riding next to a driverless car, and wouldn’t know it.

We thank Paul Flahive at Texas Public Radio for reprint permission.

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Canada’s Craftsman Collision MSO: “There’s a What Living in this Car?” Craftsman Collision, the largest private, family-owned and operated auto body and collision repair chain in Canada is celebrating its 40th anniversary and 40 locations employing over 600 this year including locations in China and a single US location, in Long Beach, CA. The company has received numerous awards and accolades including a Consumer Choice Award, a Best of Vancouver ‘Best Auto Body Repair Shop’ 8 years in a row and Best of the City for 2016.

Weird and wonderful moments abound in any upstart organization, and after 40 years and literally millions of customers, Craftsman Collision has certainly had its share. Since opening on Vancouver’s Cambie Street bridge area in 1977, Craftsman has experienced

Craftsman Collision began with this shop on Cambie Street in Vancouver, purchased by Bill Hatswell in 1977. The Craftsman chain has grown to 40 locations, making it the largest privately owned collision repair business in Canada

everything from fires to a missing promotional blimp to… well, a cheetah squatting in one of their courtesy cars.

That’s right, a cheetah. For whatever reason, a customer who performed as an exotic dancer with her pet cheetah allowed the wildcat to take up residence in one of Craftsman’s customer replacement vehicles (formerly known as ‘courtesy cars’) – turning a formerly pristine interior into a tangled mess of fabric, foam and wires garnished with the stench of feral sweat and excrement.

Then there was the not-too-brilliant customer who made a large unauthorized withdrawal from an unsuspecting bank on Main Street using a Craftsman courtesy vehicle emblazoned with the distinctive red, white and blue Craftsman logo as a getaway vehicle. It didn’t take long for the Vancouver police to track him down and haul him in.

And that car wasn’t even the first Craftsman car used in a bank job, recalls company Chief Operating Officer Rick Hatswell (son of founder and owner Bill Hatswell). One of them had to be shipped back to Vancouver from Knoxville, TN. As you might expect from a

bodyshop chain marked by consistent and successful expansion to 40 locations in three countries (including China),

Anybody seen a missing blimp? That was the question asked by major media in 2006 when this 20-foot blimp promoting Craftsman’s Bag A Jag contest was swept away in a windstorm, never to be seen again

Craftsman is generally a very buttoneddown operation. So it was genuine news, one windy day in 2006, when Craftsman’s advertising blimp was found missing from its Maple Ridge shop on Lougheed Highway. Arriving to open in the morning, the shop manager was shocked to find only half of a frayed rope where the 20-foot, helium-filled behemoth had been anchored.

Craftsman head office immediately issued a press release offering $1000 reward for its safe return, but despite widespread exposure in the major papers and on the 6:00 TV news that night, the blimp was never found, and the reward never claimed.

On another bad weather day in December, 1986, a gust of wind took out some of the roof supports at Craftsman’s Main Street location. The heavy roof overhang landed right on top of Bill Hatswell’s Jaguar XJS parked in front, totalling the nearly new vehicle.

two giant fibreglass appendages.

Expecting the unexpected is part of what keeps collision repair interesting to founder and still-owner and president Bill Hatswell, even after 40 years. And it must be said that today’s customers expect a much loftier level of service than they would have received 40 years ago – thanks in large part to Hatswell’s pioneering efforts. He is widely recognized in Western Canada for taking the industry from rag-tag storefronts thick with cigarette smoke and pin-up calendars to the clean, friendly, shirt-and-tie environments that are pretty much the norm in bodyshops today.

Craftsman employs more than 600 staff under the banners of Craftsman Collision and Distinctive Auto Works, managed by professionals and tooled with equipment that would have seemed like science fiction 40 years ago. Included are antistatic surface preparation devices to and heated-nitrogen spray painting and computer-guided frame straightening systems. Most employees participate in a generous array of company-sponsored social events: annual boat cruises, golf tournaments, ski trips, family days and gala Christ-

mas parties at premium venues including, for employees working in BC’s Lower Mainland, the swanky Pan Pacific Hotel ballroom.

“Employees who genuinely enjoy themselves on social outings bring a

Craftsman’s 2005 Take A Spin Contest winner was thrilled with her vehicle, requiring only the simple addition of Texas longhorns mounted onto the hood (illustrated above) to make her prize complete

greater sense of caring to the workplace, to one another and to customers, and to doing a better job,” says Bill Hatswell. “By continually aiming to create a work environment that feels like one big, happy family, we set new sales records every year, and keep winning all the top consumer awards.”

Also playing a pivotal role in See Craftsman Collision, Page 58

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Over the years, Craftsman has given away several news cars in promotions. In Craftsman’s 2005 Take a Spin contest, the winner of a new Mini (apparently a rodeo fan) was delighted with her prize, but asked for one custom modification: full-size, 3-D Texasstyle bull horns. The job required a grimacing Craftsman body technician to take a drill and welding equipment to the Mini’s virgin hood to mount the

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National News

Is Tesla Backing Away From Third-Party Shops? with Ed Attanasio

For many years, body shop owners all over the country expressed their desire to become Tesla certified, but in the end is it really a good deal for them?

Are Teslas just too difficult to repair and require too much training? If you’ve owned a Tesla for even a short time, you’re already probably a big fan of the brand, but where can Tesla owners take their vehicles to get them fixed accurately and in a reasonable amount of time?

In an effort to enhance the customer experience with out-of-warranty body repairs, Tesla recently announced that it will soon be opening its own auto body shops in a letter to its shareholders. The OEM also announced plans to enlarge its existing network of third-party Tesla certified body shops in areas where more people own Teslas.

In addition, the carmaker also announced in May that it plans to add more service facilities in key locations internationally and developing a team of mobile technicians to service vehicles on the go. The plan is to build 100 new retail, delivery and service locations globally, representing an overall 30% increase in facilities.

In the letter from Tesla, one sentence got peoples’ attention, especially if you are a current Tesla certified shop or planning to pursue certification. “To significantly improve the customer experience with out-of-warranty body repairs, we intend to open the first Tesla-owned body repair shops later this year and expand the existing network of third-party Tesla certified body shops.”

By not providing any further details, this statement has created more questions without answers in sight.

Exactly how many of Tesla’s own body shops are they planning to open and when? Will they open a few to see if it works before jumping in with both feet? Will the OEM create a significant network of first-party body shops or only in areas that justify their existence? Will these Tesla collision centers work solely on Teslas or other high-end brands as well?

Everyone pretty much knows at this point that Tesla’s recent buildup and expansion is happening in antici-

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at era39@aol.com.

pation of Tesla’s Model 3—the allelectric four-door compact sedan that was unveiled last March. The Model 3 will deliver an all-electric range of over 215 miles (346 km), with base model pricing starting around $35,000 before applicable U.S. government incentives.

entire process would be better for the weeks and put them up in a hotel and Tesla owners. Tesla owners have in- pay all of their expenses.” vested in these amazing cars and they Although the shops I talked to have deserve high-end service as a result encountered some speed bumps along and we are always striving to do that, the way, they are proud to be associated but by not getting parts promptly, it with this cutting-edge and green comcan be an issue at times.” pany and looking forward to a great fuOne sage move that the ture as Elon Musk comes up with his carmaker recently made, ac- next innovative vehicle. “Tesla is a cording to the Tesla approved growing company, so they will logishop owner we interviewed, cally go through some changes at an acwas that Tesla recently made celerated rate,” one shop owner said. their training program easier “By establishing their own collision to complete, he said. “They centers, it will only help all of us. The have put all of the training brand is exploding and there are going online, so that it’s more at- to need more shops to repair these cars tainable and more conven- in the future, so we’re happy to be in the Tesla is evidently gearing up for the Tesla Model 3, which ient. We can now train more right place at the right time.” may be flooding the market soon and requiring more people and get them up to We reached out to Tesla for comshops to repair them speed more quickly. We have ment, but had no response was had by Its production is scheduled to begin this two Tesla certified technicians here time of publication. month and is planned to ramp up to exand to get them trained before the ceed 5,000 vehicles per week during classes went online, it was not easy the fourth quarter and 10,000 vehicles and surely not inexpensive. We had to www.autobodynews.com per week at some point in 2018. send them to Tesla school for five Within a week of announcing the Tesla Model 3, company officials said they had taken 325,000 Model 3 reservations, and are now reportedly within the 400,000 to 500,000 range, although Tesla did not give a specific number in its quarterly finance report.

From what experts are saying, Tesla’s recent announcement is more about performing better repairs as opposed to making more money.

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Leith Honda R al ei gh

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Collision Repair Industry Shares Memories of Visionary Steve Schoolcraft

by Stacey Phillips

Steve Schoolcraft, often referred to as a visionary by many in the collision repair industry, died peacefully in his sleep and unexpectedly on May 19.

He is survived by his wife Alexis, his two sons, Nicholas and Michael, and granddaughter Noelle.

“His passion, drive and dedication to the collision repair industry was unparraled,” said Tina Biancalana, vice president of client development for Phoenix Solutions Group, based outside of Chicago, IL. “Steve touched many lives and left a lasting memory on everyone he met.”

Steve graduated from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, and was educated in behavioral psychology. He spent many years of his career at Illinois Tool Works and Sun Chemical in executive sales and marketing roles.

In 1989, Steve established Phoenix Solutions Group as a marketing firm for the dealership community. It eventually evolved to become a marketing consulting company focused on enhancing the customer experience for

collision repair facilities through strategic marketing and CRM advisory services. Over the years, the company has

Many remember how animated Steve Schoolcraft could be while giving a presentation

helped approximately 700 body shops across the United States learn how to drive revenue, increase retention and improve their marketing efforts.

38 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

In addition, Phoenix Solutions Group assists collision repair businesses complete the OEM certification process and is the exclusive distributor of the Body Shop Booster technology, which helps simplify the estimating process for both consumers and body shops.

Ryan Taylor, founder and CEO of Body Shop Booster, met Steve nearly three years ago while introducing the technology to the U.S. market.

Taylor found the companies that performed best with the product were also associated with Phoenix Solutions Group.

He reached out to Steve and flew to Illinois from Calgary, Alberta, Canada where he is based. “In classic Steve style, he said, ‘Man, we have to work together!’” recalled Taylor. That led to a partnership between the two companies.

“I look at Steve Schoolcraft as the Steve Jobs of collision repair,” said Taylor. “He built an amazing company and platform and he was masterful at

attracting like-minded individuals.”

After countless hours of collaboration with the Phoenix Solutions Group team, Taylor said, “They are what really drove Steve’s vision and drive the machine on a daily basis.”

He said Phoenix Solutions Group is focused on what he refers to as “…actionable intelligence, which focuses on giving shops the intelligence to make smart decisions for their businesses to drive tangible results,” explained Taylor. “Despite our horrific loss of Steve, he built something that was designed to last and carry on.”

Biancalana said the Phoenix Solutions Group leadership team and staff remain committed to continuing Steve’s vision and legacy, which is putting customer needs at the heart of all that Phoenix Solutions Group does.

Steve’s oldest son, Nicholas, has already joined Phoenix and is committed to delivering and moving Steve’s vision forward. “Like his father, Nicholas is results-driven and will be a tremendous asset to the team,” said Biancalana.

Nick has an extensive background in marketing and customer experience

strategy. In his recent role as a global consultant with Accenture, Nick led many projects where he identified and assessed complex customer experience problems and developed solutions to increase customer and employee engagement.

“Steve leaves the industry with a legacy; he leaves the world and all of us who knew him with very heavy hearts,” said Biancalana. “We will ensure his passion for excellence will continue for generations to come.”

Memories of Steve Schoolcraft from some of his colleagues and friends in the collision repair industry: With a heavy heart it saddens me deeply to be commenting about Steve instead of talking with him. Steve’s vigor and passion greatly affected everyone. His drive to make the collision industry better leaves a permanent and lasting mark that lives on through Phoenix. I thank God that he lived and will miss him greatly every day!

—John P. Conlon, President/Coowner, Elite Autobody & Paintworks

Often flying in the face of conventional wisdom, Steve Schoolcraft fought to

bring the truth to the collision industry.

No one has done more to teach us about marketing and buying behaviors of collision repair consumers than Steve. He will be greatly missed.

—Dave Luehr, CEO of Elite Body Shop Solutions

Definitely a “tree shaker…” in the collision repair industry. Great friend and a huge, huge loss to our industry.

Our families are deeply saddened.

—Xavier and Rosa Murrieta, Owners, Big Sky Collision Centers

Such a great man! His love and service to our industry does not go unnoticed! Love and prayers to his family!

—Judy Nelson Robarge, Vice President, Robarge Collision, Spanish Fork, Utah

Steve was very knowledgeable and intelligent, as well as an inspiration to us all within the industry. Being customers of the Phoenix Solutions Group, we enjoyed his seminars and help with our business. Our prayers and thoughts are with his family and friends. He will be missed.

—Chad Ogle-Riccelli, Action Auto Body

Through his unique way of understanding behavior, he single-handedly altered the way businesses viewed marketing. He truly was a visionary and affected many business owners within the industry in an incredibly positive way. He has left a legacy of relationships where his interaction with people was genuinely treasured. For me personally, he was a friend and mentor who touched my life in a very personal way. His advice and compassion will stay with me forever!

—Tim Ronak, Senior Services Consultant, AkzoNobel Automotive and Aerospace Coatings

Steve was one of the most energetic people I’ve ever met in this industry.

His zest for life and enthusiasm made him a highly sought-after speaker. His company delivered value for people all over the country. He and I regularly spoke about industry-related topics and how his company could help AkzoNobel sell more paint business.

Through my relationship with Steve, I’ve grown to know others at Phoenix and consider them all to be great friends. Because he was filled with so much passion, he never stopped walk-

ing or moving during his presentations either. He had to be in the best cardiovascular shape! I’ll miss our conversations as well as the chance to work with him and his great company.

—Ryan Ross, East Region Services Manager, AkzoNobel

Steve was a marketing genius. I will miss him greatly. He was a GREAT friend as well. So sad!!!

—Steve Trapp, director at Axalta Automotive Refinish

Steve was in constant pursuit to provide shops the ability to market with solely the best customer experience possible. His mission was to help shops create new market share by word of mouth. His integrity was proven daily by doing what he said he would but at the same time he would hold you to the same accountability. He was fun to talk too. He got it.

—Bobby Wiese, Office Manager, BStreet Collision Center

A public memorial service was held at Holy Family Church in Palatine, Illinois on May 25. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 39

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Flow Audi Charlottesville 434.951.6160 434.293.5151 Fax M-F 7:30am-6pm; Sat 8am-1pm

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www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 41

Product Innovation DeBeer Refinish Reds Set the Industry Standard with Ed Attanasio

If you’re a fan of rock ‘n roll, you know that Sammy Hagar loves red and if you’re a follower of the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds or Atlanta Falcons, among others, you’re also probably a big red fan too. But, whether you like the color of red or not, almost everyone can agree that when a car is painted in red and done right, it has that wow factor that can turn heads and make a lasting impression.

Josh Wilson is the manager at Fortune Collision Centres in Lexington, KY, an MSO with four locations in the Bluegrass State. This high-volume shop fixes roughly 140 cars every month and relies primarily on two painters and two preppers to get the work done right and on schedule.

All four Fortune Collision Centres have been spraying DeBeer Refinish’s solvent basecoat system for the past six years with outstanding results, especially when it comes to the color red.

While other shops encounter anxiety when they need to paint a car red, the crew at Fortune is confident that DeBeer Refinish’s new Metallic Bright Red toner will help them to create an outstanding finished product each and every time.

moving smoothly,” Wilson said. “We get great support from our paint rep and we couldn’t be happier with the relationship we have with DeBeer Refinish.”

(l to r) Painter Lester Jones, Preppers Isaac Jones and Ryan Craig with Shop Manager Josh Wilson at Fortune Collision Centres in Lexington, KY

Lester Jones is the lead painter at Fortune Collision Centres and has been painting cars for 32 years. He paints approximately 75 cars every month, so he encounters the color red almost daily.

“We do quite a few red pearls here and some candies once in a while and the DeBeer Refinish red toner works great,” Jones said. “The customers come here

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at era39@aol.com.

first car I painted by myself was a 1968 Barracuda and I painted it in solid red, that’s a fact.”

Spraying DeBeer Refinish since 2011, Jones has the application process down to where he can do it in his sleep, he said. “The pearl is a three-stage product and we paint quite a few cars with it and always get a great result,” he said. “Red is always a little tricky, but we have had a lot of luck using DeBeer Refinish Metallic Bright Red. Once in a while, we run into some red jobs that are a little more complicated, but that is the nature of the beast. We can knock it out usually with two or three coats on the top and two or three max on the bottom, so it works well.”

At age 64, Jones isn’t slowing down and has no plans to retire, because he still loves painting cars. “I have used them all and I would have to say that the DeBeer Refinish is the best, without a doubt,” he said. “It makes my life easier, that’s for sure, especially when

it comes to spraying red.”

DeBeer® Refinish introduced its Metallic Bright Red toner technology to the collision repair market for the first time at the 2016 SEMA Show and featured a 1966 Ford Fairlane customized by Anton’s Hot Rod Shop in Cleveland painted with DeBeer’s new Metallic Bright Red OEM-approved toner—in Ford RR (Ruby Red) Metallic.

“This is a real breakthrough in color design and refinish technology,” Paul Goedhart, global director of color technology, Valspar Automotive said at the show. “With color and our customers are at the core of our business and all of our brands, we’re continually working to deliver innovative, solutionminded products that make repair and refinishing processes easier, and shops more productive. OEM-approved DeBeer Refinish 900+ Basecoat, featuring our Metallic Bright Red toner, accomplishes these goals.”

aCompetitive Pricing aFree and fast delivery aKnowledgeable Wholesale Parts Staff Fortune Collision Centres paint approximately 75 cars every month and red is one color they don’t have trouble with.

If you’re a painter, you know that reds, especially candies can be problematic, but Wilson said that with DeBeer’s new red toner technology, a three step system, his crew hasn’t had any issues. “My two painters tell me that they are really comfortable with the product and that’s a big deal, because we want to keep our production

to pick up their cars and they are surprised, because the color match is deadon and the paint is perfect.”

When Jones discusses automotive painting, you can easily surmise that the man knows what he’s doing. “I started painting cars as soon as I could walk,” he said. “My dad had his own shop and I learned a lot from him. The

42 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

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Media and Publicity for Shops The Technology Party: Are you early, late, or indifferent? with Ed Attanasio

by Ed Attanasio

It seems like technology is going to change our lives whether we want it to or not. Some people think it overly complicates things while others rush to embrace it because they believe that it makes their lives and businesses better. In the collision repair industry, technology has helped body shops to do a better job across the board, especially on cars that have were made within the last 3-4 years. With new high-performance plastics, aluminium and sophisticated computer onboard systems on today’s newer cars, collision repairers are either changing with the times or being left behind when it comes to technology.

We have seen this same scenario play out many times before. A new form of technology hits the market and some panic and run for the hills while others test the new technology and make their own decisions. I re-

member when California mandated the use of waterborne paint a decade ago. Some painters freaked out and avoided the switchover as long as they could. I even encountered one veteran painter back then who quit his job and went to another shop so that he could spray solvent for the next six months before it became law.

When I first started writing about the collision industry more than 12 years ago, some body shop owners were still fighting the personal computer, shop management systems, social media and other forms of emerging technology.

One veteran shop owner told me back then that his computer was a “silly box on my desk” and that social media was for soccer moms and people with too much time on their hands. Since then, the entire industry has become savvier about all forms of technology and more open to using it to do better repairs, which is obviously the idea.

Back in 1962, Everett Rogers, a

44 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at era39@aol.com.

professor of communication studies wrote a book called Diffusion of Innovations in which he presented a theory that attempts to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. Rogers argued that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system and then identified five distinct personality types.

So, are you an innovator or a laggard or something in between? Take a look at each of these designations and decide for yourself:

Innovators (2.5%): Innovators will camp out in line for the new iPhone while most of us will wait at least until we read the reviews and get feedback from the innovators in our lives. These people are willing to pay top dollar to be the first on shop in their area to have the latest piece of equipment or tools.

They are willing to take risks; are nor-

mally younger; usually have financial resources and are extremely outgoing and interact with other innovators. Innovators end up being the beta testers of the collision repair industry; love going to shows like SEMA to find the latest and greatest and will embrace technology 2-3 years before it becomes mainstream. Innovators love reading operating manuals cover-to-cover and can’t wait to tell their friends about the newest equipment they just bought for their shop.

Early Adopters (13.5%): These people are considered influential leaders whose opinions are respected. Early adopters are typically well-educated; have attained a higher social status; possess more financial lucidity; have and are more socially active than late adopters are. They are more discerning in their adoption choices than innovators are, but are still willing to take a chance on any type of training,

tools or equipment that will help their daily operation.

Early Majority (34%): Individuals in this group will normally implement something new into their shop but only after the innovators and early adopters have set the table. They’re willing to accept change, but wary and unwilling to take chances, in most cases. They usually possess above average social status, and many of their friends, colleagues and associates are early adopters, but they rarely hold positions of opinion leadership in a system. For example, innovators and early adopters hold office in collision industry trade organizations, while early majority people are just happy to be members. They’re willing to participate, but don’t want to lead.

Late Majority (34%): People in this category will adopt an innovation, but only after almost everyone else has.

These individuals will approach an innovation with a considerable amount of skepticism. They will wait for all of the others to use a piece of equipment, management system or tool for a while and get some feedback before acting, but suffer from waiting as a result. Late majority people usually have below av-

erage social status; limited financial lucidity and possess very little opinion leadership. These people are still on the fence about things like OE certifications, plastic welders and even sophisticated measuring systems, but can be persuaded with solid information.

Laggards (16%): Individuals in this category are the last to adopt any innovation and proud of it in many cases. Showing little or no opinion leadership, laggards will typically fight change at every opportunity and tend to be 50 or older in age. They love to call themselves “old school” and likely have the lowest social status from anyone on this list with the lowest financial fluidity and the least education. Laggards are still using outdated tools; don’t value training and think social media is still for soccer moms and teenage girls and that’s why they’re likely not in the top 20% of all shops in this country.

Curtis Nixon was a second-generation shop owner who was been an innovator his entire life. In 2009, he sold his family’s shop and founded UpdatePromise, a leading communication and technology provider to auto

insurers, repairers and dealerships throughout North America. In the last eight years, UpdatePromise has grown at a tremendous rate and communicates with millions of consumers and services throughout the United States.

Nixon has seen the industry change through innovation at a lightning fast rate, and has also encountered many of the people in each of these categories.

The percentages will always change as people gravitate toward or step away from technology, but technology is unavoidable, he explained.

“The paradigm is shifting and more and more consumers are starting to use technology in every interaction they make,” Nixon said. “At first, it was all about entertainment and people connecting with family and friends through social media. That was the starting point of a major shift. Initially, it was primarily younger people connecting via sites like MySpace, but then it migrated to Facebook and now we have more than 60% of the people in this country with a profile on a social media site.”

Are more laggards becoming early adopters or vice versa? “We’re seeing a huge change in the consumers’ adoption rate of technology, but we still encounter

what we call ‘legacy employees’ who are still reluctant about change `and holding onto the past. Business is run by technology and there isn’t any disconnection or loss of that personal approach when people use it, because that’s what they actually want. Sometimes our customers will tell us they think they can do something better without using the technology. They’re still attached to their paperwork and their notes and they pick up the phone and call their customers rather than use the technology that is available to them. The problem they run into is that their customers are moving faster than they are and they can’t keep up.”

What would Nixon say if he could talk to every shop owner, tech, estimator or painter in the industry who is fighting technology every step of the way? “In today’s world where technology changes at a rapid rate, you can’t compete anymore if you’re losing opportunities and efficiencies by ignoring it or rejecting it,” he said. “Consumers now anticipate a certain level of service, which means that they are less forgiving and have higher expectations, so those that can embrace the technology more quickly will be the ones that will continually succeed.”

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National Events

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 of NASCAR fans. She can be contacted at crsisk@chasidyraesisk.com.

Management Success Holds March Spring Convention and May Annual Top 20 Meeting with Chasidy Rae Sisk

Management Success is dedicated to bringing value to their clients, and this was evident at their Spring 2017 Convention and Annual Top 20 Meeting.

The organization is also preparing for its Fall 2017 Convention.

Management Success’s 20th Annual Spring Convention was held March 24–26 at the Omni Orlando Resort in Championsgate, FL. During the three-day weekend, over 300 attendees, comprised of shop owners from the U.S. and Canada, participated in interactive workshops, team-building drills, and educational panel discussions facilitated by industry experts and Management Success clients. This year, the company added a brand new element an exhibit hall.

On Friday, the event began with a welcome reception, providing networking opportunities for old friends as well as introductions to new acquaintances.

cated to acknowledging significant achievements made in the industry by automotive, collision and truck repair facilities. Fourteen awards were presented to recognize levels of achievements attained in the Management Success Consulting Program, including Master Elite of Shop Management, Master of Shop Management, Competent Shop Owner, and Effective Shop Manager.

Saturday’s sessions featured a crowd favorite, the Masters Panel, which is comprised of some of the in-

cise that reinforced the importance of patience, listening skills, and working together as a team,” Doche says, calling the Convention “a huge success.”

James Krell of K-O Auto states, “I always look forward to networking opportunities and seeing what other shops are doing. I’ve made lifelong friends through the Management Success conventions that I connect with just about every week.” TC Smith of AutoSmith adds, “Networking with the other shops is fantastic! There is al-

Over 300 attendees participated in Management Success’s 2017 Spring Convention

dustry’s top shop owners who answered questions from the audience and “shared best practices for navigating and succeeding in today’s competitive automotive repair landscape,” Doche recounts.

That evening, attendees donned costumes for a Disney-themed dinner, dressing as their favorite heroes and villains as they danced and enjoyed an evening with friends. Dino DiGiulio of Body Best Collision, notes, “I love Management Success conventions, es-

ways good information that is brought up in the seminars and meetings. It’s awesome! Bring a pen and paper to write it all down! Jump in with both feet and take advantage of the infor-

mation that Management Success gives you.”

Arkansas Event Management Success held its Annual Top 20 Meeting on May 18-31 at A&J Collision Repair in Conway, AR. This event provided an opportunity for shop owners, their spouses, part vendors and Management Success staff members to address a variety of hot topics in the industry, including scanning, DRPs and employee management. Attendees shared best practices and learned about new innovative tools to help them implement organization in their shops, thereby increasing efficiency.

According to Steve Kotik from International Auto Body & Paint, “It was great to see first-hand unique ideas implemented by other collision shops. For example, Jody has his customers drive-in for an estimate. After See Management Success, Page 52

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According to Roxanne Doche, Director of Marketing for Management Success, “Throughout the day, shop owners shared best practices, participated in various competitions, and learned about the newest developments in management and technology.”

On Friday evening, Management Success held its Awards Banquet, dedi-

pecially the parties. It’s great seeing other shop owners in a social environment, away from the shop.”

Management Success’s 2016 Spring Convention concluded on Sunday with “a high-energy team-building drill that challenged attendees to construct towers made solely of balloons and tape. It was an entertaining exer-

46 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

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Historical Snapshot

—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop 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 jyoswick@SpiritOne.com.

Shop Owner’s Public Criticism of Partstrader Didn’t Cost Him With State Farm with John Yoswick

20 years ago in the collision repair industry (July 1997) Veteran collision repairers Rick Halopoff and Erick Bickett have launched a new Southern California collision repair enterprise, Fix Auto Buena Park. The two recently acquired Buena Park Auto Body, a 37year-old repair facility. The new venture marks the beginning of what could become a trend for individual business owners who want to increases their market share, but control costs without sacrificing quality and service.

Halopoff said the days of a small business operating alone are over.

“As individual shop owners, we can no longer afford to fix one car at a time or buy one box of sandpaper at a time,” Halopoff said. “Our customers demand and deserve a better product priced more competitively.

Working alone it is impossible to get the economies of scale necessary to compete with large, well-capitalized organizations.”

“Unlike the consolidation efforts currently underway, the business plan we’ve developed allows the entrepreneur to maintain control of his or her business and at the same time take advantage of the resources available to a large organization,” Bickett said.

– As reported in The Golden Eagle. Bickett and Halopoff’s venture eventually grew into Fix Auto USA, which now has more than 100 branded franchises in eight states (other Fix Auto networks operate in Canada, France, the U.K. and Australia).

15 years ago in the collision repair industry (July 2002) Brian Sullivan says collision repair shop owners don’t necessarily have to like insurance companies, but they better understand them.

“The insurance industry is not your friend,” cautions Sullivan, editor and publisher of two newsletters in the property and casualty insurance industry. “The insurance industry is not your partner. They aren’t happiest when you make a lot of money. But the next point is even more important: You have to deal with them. You have to understand where they are going.

You have to sympathize with their problems. Because what will flow from that is their decision-making, and their decision-making is what’s going to make you happy or miserable.”

By 2002, insurance industry journalist Brian Sullivan had shared what he felt shops needed to know about auto insurers at not one but two NACE conventions

His advice to shops as the keynote speaker at not one but two NACE conventions: Understand trends in the insurance industry so that you are prepared for the impact those trends will likely have on shops.

– As reported in Autobody News.

Sullivan continues to publish subscription newsletters in the insurance industry, including Auto Insurance Report.

10 years ago in the collision repair industry (July 2007) Comedy Central’s new series, “American Body Shop” is a half-hour narrative that explores the completely

includes Rob (played by Nick Offerman), a savant-like technician whose solutions are usually far more complex than the problem.

– As reported in Autobody News.

Not even Offerman could save the series (check out a promo for the show at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= PgvjDqrM448), which was canceled after just one 10-epidsode season.

5 years ago in the collision repair industry (July 2012) Following presentations at CIC by George Avery of State Farm and Rob Cooper of PartsTrader, Aaron Schulenburg of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists, told the two that one thing that association members are upset about is the fact that PartsTrader in entering the U.S. market as an insurer-mandated system, rather than one that gains shop customers by offering a value proposition to them.

“What we stand in opposition

against is when insurers mandate solutions that don’t bring tangible benefits to anyone other than themselves,” Schulenburg said. “For State Farm, I believe this is a step backward, for a company that has promoted open platforms in other areas.”

David McBroom of the Florida Autobody Collision Alliance, said he has spoken with shops and vendors using the system in all four markets where State Farm is testing PartsTrader. Without exception, McBroom said, they told him, “It is inefficient. It is cumbersome. It creates additional work. It causes delays, adding cycle time of one or more days. It requires additional personnel at both the shops and the vendors.”

Dan Hunsaker was the only shop owner who spoke at CIC who has actually used PartsTrader at his shop, located in Tucson, Ariz. He said vendor participation among Tucson See Public Criticism, Page 52

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Lean Operations

David Luehr is the owner of Elite Body Shop Solutions, LLC, a collision business consulting firm based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a 30 year veteran of the collision repair industry.

David is an expert in Body Shop Operations and specializes in Lean, and Theory of Constraints methods. Email him at dluehr@msn.com

Lean Thinking of America’s Greatest Body Shops with David Luehr

When mentioning the word lean, most people in the collision repair business conjure up images of large corporate

Dave Luehr teaching a lean blueprinting workshop

lay-offs attempting do more work with less people. Others think of lean as an attempt to do car repairs faster, also

conjuring up false images of people working harder with less resources. To America’s greatest body shops, lean means something entirely different.

The word lean was popularized decades ago in James Womack’s book, The Machine That Changed the World, which described some of the innovative production systems being utilized

by Japanese manufacturers. Toyota Motor Company popularized it through their Toyota Production System (TPS) which caught the attention of many as they became leaders of the auto manufacturing business. But to understand the true meaning of lean one must simply understand this…

• Value stream = the process required to get the customer what they want from start to finish • Value added activity = the activities in the stream that the customer is willing to pay for • Waste = any activity in the stream that the customer is not willing to pay for

Lean is a way of thinking and the actions taken to remove waste from the value stream. As my good friend Rich Altieri says, “Lean means hands on car!” In other words, a practitioner in the collision repair business, is a person who develops systems or takes some kind of action to keep technicians continuously touching cars!

Hands on car = Lean Hands off car = Waste Lean does not necessarily mean a particular vehicle moves faster through your production system. Lean thinking seeks to remove the obstacles and waste from the value stream, so most vehicles do end up getting finished faster and without the chaos usually experienced in traditional body shops.

Think of it like a freeway. The purpose of a freeway is not to get you to your destination faster, it is to get everyone to their destination on time.

The reason we experience traffic jams is because of “variables” caused by

factors such as everyone driving at different speeds. Some people are going 80MPH while others, 45MPH, all sorts of problems occur and soon we have a traffic jam. A lean freeway system would have everyone driving at the same speed and everyone reaching their destination in a predictable manner. On-time, every-time!

What a “lean” high volume shop looks like.

(Body Shop Express – San Diego, CA)

Sadly, most collision repairers operate like the first freeway system I mentioned, where some vehicles are

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expedited because they are behind schedule or because an insurance partner requires favoritism. You feel like you are stuck in a traffic jam when you visit most of the body shops in our country!

Variable reduction A big part of lean thinking in collision repair involves removing the variables from a vehicle repair prior to entering it into our production system’s flow lane. It is a process of adding some “essential waste” in order to remove a much larger amount of “unessential waste” later on. Like an attempt to get all the cars traveling down the proverbial freeway at the same rate and making sure none of them break down and stall the roadway for everyone else.

The most popular method for achieving this variable reduction is what we all know as repair planning or “blueprinting.”

Many other industries remove variables in their systems, and they don’t call it lean, they call it preparation. Imagine if in an operating room the doctor would cut open a patient before prepping the person; forgetting to verify what part of the body is supposed to be operated on, and not lo-

cating the tools in advance he or she may need to keep the patient alive throughout the process. In the restaurant business, chefs frequently perform prep work (Mise en Place – French for “put in place”). Chef would quickly be terminated if he just heated up a pan, threw in the chicken, and then began searching for the kitchen tools, spices, diced vegetables and other things required to successfully create a delicious dish. Unfortunately, these are the very behaviors that many body shops make when working on a modern, high-tech, vehicle! They stick the car in a body man’s stall and start the repairs before we even know the full extent of the damage. This madness must stop!

In the lean world of America’s greatest body shops, they are disciplined enough to take the extra time required at the beginning of the process to properly diagnose vehicle damage by incorporating OEM information, scanning for diagnostic trouble codes and then disassembling the vehicle completely to find any potentially hidden damage.

Only then, do they order the parts and have them delivered in one single order on one invoice to further reduce

wasted activities. This my friends, is lean thinking.

At many body shops they employ a person with the title of “production manager.” At most shops, this person would be more appropriately be titled “Chief Fire-fighter!” In a lean shop, most administrative efforts are laser focused on the pre-production activities such as blueprinting, mirror matching parts for correctness, etc. When vehicles are properly prepped, the guys out in the shop don’t usually require much supervision or “management” because they will have everything they need to properly repair the vehicle without all the obstacles experienced in traditional shops. At many of America’s greatest body shops that apply “fire-prevention” a production manager is non-essential!

Dave Luehr is co-author of “The Secrets of America’s Greatest Body Shops” and founder of the collision coaching and consulting organization “Elite Body Shop Solutions.”

To learn more about The Secrets of America’s Greatest Body Shops, visit www.bodyshopsecrets.com To reach Dave Luehr email david .luehr@elitebodyshopsolutions.com

Continued from Page 27

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Continued from Page 46

Management Success

collecting their information and permission, he will pull their vehicle into the shop for an initial estimate. His team will even perform a light disassembly and then go through the damage report. I think this is great because even though they run a large operation, they still find the time to add that personal touch. In my opinion, it really demonstrates the level care they are providing to their customers.”

On Thursday, attendees visited an O-Reilly distribution center where they studied organizational flows and SOPs on employee management. Friday featured a tour of a Snap-On Tools facility where participants observed research projects and learned about newly introduced equipment for the collision repair industry, followed by a seminar on leadership and communication.

The highlight on Saturday morning was an interactive workshop on “Mapping Success,” presented by Management Success consultant Wenceslao Severi. Severi states, “Success comes through study, application and discipline. Don’t look for shortcuts - those Continued from Page 48

Public Criticism

dealerships is poor. His GM dealer, he said, withdrew from the program because of the time involved in quoting prices for many parts that never

In 2012, Arizona shop owner Dan Hunsaker pulled no punches in letting State Farm knew how he felt about PartsTrader’s impact on his business

turned into orders. Mostly, however, Hunsaker said he found the system more cumbersome than the electronic parts ordering system he’d already had in place.

“I feel like a donkey that got dumped into the Kentucky Derby,” Hunsaker said. “It’s not efficient.”

ARE the shortcuts!”

According to Doche, “With a total attendance of more than 30 people and 15 shops, collectively totaling gross sales of $25 million in 2016, the Management Success Top 20 Collision Meeting was a huge success, and all attendees left with a clear understanding of both their short-term and long-term

my shop was the ‘gong’ that Jody uses.

When a customer is satisfied with our technicians’ work, they bang the gong.

That catches a lot of attention, especially from our first-time customers.

When they get to witness someone’s satisfaction, their reaction is priceless.

I have also implemented the vacation calendar. I always had an idea of when

Management Success’s events provide plenty of networking opportunities for old and new friends alike

goals as well as a developed action plan for immediate implementation.”

Steve Morrow of Capitol Collision shares his feedback: “My favorite part of the Top 20 meeting was networking and learning from other shops. I liked sharing ideas from a like-minded market. We are all non-competitor shops.

Shop owners don’t usually share their ideas and what has worked for them. In the Top 20 group, everyone shares their ideas without wanting anything in return. An amazing idea I learned at the Top 20 meeting that I implemented at Hunsaker told Avery that the pilot has impacted how shops view and trust State Farm, and he’s sadly undecided whether he will remain on the Select Service program.

– As reported in CRASH Network (www.CrashNetwork.com), July 30, 2012. Despite publicly sharing his negative views about PartsTrader and State Farm’s mandate throughout 2012 and 2013, Hunsaker’s shop remains on the Select Service Program today. “If this thing goes national, then I’ll sit down and pencil it out and I will make a very informed business decision” about whether to stay on the program, Hunsaker said in the spring of 2013. Hunsaker at that time also was asked if his company had experienced any blow-back from State Farm because of his outspokenness about PartsTrader. “State Farm is entitled to their opinions, and the collision industry is, too,” Hunsaker said. “No, I’ve haven’t had any repercussions yet. So far I’m saying what I think and I share all this with State Farm, too.

I’m very clear with them about how I feel.” By late 2014, State Farm had rolled out mandatory use of PartsTrader nationwide.

52 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

my techs planned to use their personal time but it wasn’t organized. Now I don’t need to worry about having overlapping vacations.”

Networking is a key component of the events hosted by Management Success as well. Jeff Yokum of Yokum’s Body Shop adds, “My favorite part was connecting with other shop owners on a different level. I always stay in contact with other shops, but now that I know them on a personal level, we share more ideas. 15 Minute phone calls have now turned to hour long con-

versations about our families. I can say that I built lifelong relationships with the top 20 group. The comradery of the top 20 group is pretty amazing. We are close and help each other all the time.

We hold each other accountable in work and in personal lives. We care about each other like we are family. I don’t know where you could get that anywhere else.”

Kotik shares, “Networking is one of the key benefits of meeting with the other shop owners twice a year. What I’ve realized is each shop owner may have a certain strength in an area of their business and they are willing to share their knowledge. When the group comes together, you can be in the middle of a conversation and before you know it, someone just provided a solution or an idea that you can take back and implement in your own shop.”

Morrow adds, “The friendships that I have made through Management Success are getting even better and stronger.

We get to grow together as a family and that’s a nice feeling.”

Management Success will hold its 2017 Fall Convention on September 22–24 in Pomona, CA. For more information or to register, visit http:// managementsuccess.com/conventions/.

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—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop 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 jyoswick@SpiritOne.com.

Industry Insight with John Yoswick

“Who Pays for What?” Surveys Having an Impact on Billing for Refinish-Related Operations Mike Anderson of Collision Advice even included some of the operations on said he sees several ways to measure their estimates or invoices. After all, whether his quarterly “Who Pays for when those shops are asked why they’ve What?” surveys, now in their never asked to be paid for one third year, are having an imof those procedures when it is pact. necessary and done, about 75 The industry trainer and percent of them say they were consultant said the first way is either not aware that the item whether the surveys find an inwas “not-included,” or it simcrease in the percentage of ply never occurred to them to shops successfully getting paid charge for it.

Mike Anderson for some of the “not-included” By that measure, the surlabor operations the surveys ask about. veys are clearly having a positive impact, The most recent survey found that for Anderson said. The survey conducted in each of the 21 procedures detailed in the January, for example, found that nearly survey, more shops this year reported inevery “not-included” refinish operation surers are paying them “always” or asked about had a higher percentage of “most of the time” compared to the shops (compared to a year earlier) now same survey last year. negotiating to be paid for them.

But a second way Anderson said he “If you don’t bill for it, you will is measuring the surveys’ success is a litnever be paid for it, yet the biggest pertle more subtle. He hoped the surveys centage of shops not billing for these would raise awareness of not-included procedures say they never thought of operations and reduce the percentage of billing for them when they are required shops who acknowledge they’ve never as part a repair,” Anderson said. “These

surveys were designed to help raise that awareness.”

The latest of the 2017 “Who Pays” surveys, focused on frame and mechanical labor operations, is being conducted throughout the month of July;

ent aspect of collision repair, asking shops about which “not-included” procedures they bill for, and about how frequently each of the largest auto insurers pays for those procedures. More than 900 shops across the country re-

Although about 66 percent of shops report being paid to “refinish pinch welds after clamp damage” always or most of the time when it is necessary and performed, about 1-in-7 shops say they never have billed for that “not-included” operation

click here (https://www.crashnetwork .com/collisionadvice) for more information or to take the survey.

Each of the quarterly surveys, conducted by Collision Advice and CRASH Network, focuses on a differ-

sponded to the January “Who Pays” survey on refinish operations.

The surveys have continued to show even when there are a majority of shops routinely being paid for a particular “not included” operation, there can

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be a significant percentage of other shops not even putting it on their estimates. “Mask sunroof opening” is a good example of this. Although 56 percent of all shops taking the January survey said they are paid for this operation “most” or “all” of the time when it is

needed and billed for, 43 percent of the shops responding to the question are not even billing for it.

“While this procedure is clearly necessary to perform on some jobs, it has no automatic formula in the estimating systems, so it is up to the shop to determine the appropriate charge and itemize it on the estimate,” Anderson said.

The surveys now break the results down by 11 different geographic regions, and they have found some modest regional differences in shop billing practices. Shops in the Pacific Northwest region, for example, are more likely to charge for the “not-included” refinish operations asked about in the January survey than are shops in other

regions. The Northeast region had the highest percentage of shops saying they “never asked” to be paid for the not-included operations listed in the survey.

The regional differences are not large, however, with 24.8 percent of the Northeasterners saying they “never asked” compared to 16 percent of shops in the Pacific Northwest.

Interestingly, shops in the Northeast are no less likely to be paid “always” or “most of the time” when they do add a “not-included” item to their estimates. On average, across all regions, when the data for all the operations are combined, 60.3 percent of shops are paid “always” or “most of the time.” In the Northeast, that figure is 60.1 percent – statistically identical to the national average. In other words, this particular survey found Northeast shops aren’t less likely to be paid for a “not-included” refinish procedure when they bill for it; they are just a little less likely to bill for it.

Anderson said the consistent responses to some of the survey questions this year compared to last year are an indication of the accuracy and reliability of the surveys. Like last year, for example, about 47 percent of shops this year said paint shop em-

each take about 15-20 minutes, and should be completed by the shop owner, manager or estimator who is most familiar with the shop’s billing practices and the payment practices of the largest national insurers. Individual responses are not released in any way; only cumulative data is released.

At the website, shops also can download the results of previous surveys, reports that break the findings down by region, by insurer and by DRP vs. nonDRP. The reports also include analysis and resources to help shops better understand and Nearly three-quarters of shops report that 75 percent or use the information presented. more of vehicles require either the “denib” or “finish sand Anderson has yet another and buff” operation way to know the “Who Pays Anderson said more than 2,500 for What?” surveys are having a posishops have taken one or more of the tive impact: the participating shops say “Who Pays for What?” surveys since they are. A record 84 percent of shops they began in 2015, and he says they who took the “Who Pays for What?” often tell him that “just participating survey in January said they have been in the surveys is a great reminder of able to use previous such surveys to procedures they are performing every improve their business. day, but may not be listing on esti“That number has typically mates or invoices.” bounced around the 70 percent range in Shops can take the current survey the past,” Anderson said. “The fact that (or sign up to be notified about future a growing number now report the sursurveys) at https://www.crashnetwork veys are helping makes me very proud. .com/collisionadvice. The surveys Knowledge is key in this industry.” ployees perform the feather, prime and block operation, but nearly 52 percent bill for this procedure as body labor rather than refinish labor.

In addition to the refinish labor operations, the January survey also asked shops about their choice of CSI vendors, and how they calculate charges for refinish materials.

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Old School Know How

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at era39@aol.com.

Two Collision Veterans Run Silicon Valley Tech School with Ed Attanasio

With Nathan Chukes and Robert McTaggert, two veterans of the collision industry who are now collision repair instructors at the highly-regarded Silicon Valley Career Technical Education (SVCTE), this tech school in San Jose, CA creates the metal technicians, painters and estimators of the future. By showing high school-level students about the latest technological

Nathan Chukes (right) is the school’s auto body refinishing teacher at Silicon Valley Technical Education in San Jose, CA. In this photo, he shows second-year student Javier Serano how to polish a vehicle after painting

changes in the industry and by working with local body shops and vendors, this school is making all the right moves and receiving unprecedented industry support as a result.

Chukes teaches Auto Body Refinishing and McTaggert handles the Auto Body Repair curriculum , but together they run the department. Both were hired at the school in 2001 and are passionate about what they are doing and it shows. Since these two have been hired, approximately 2,700 students have graduated from SVCTE’s automotive tech department during that time.

Chukes was a journeyman painter and McTaggert worked as a technician, assistant manager and estimator for 40 years before he was hired at SVCTE. Both instructors have ASE certifications in both structural and non-structural repair and continually refine their classes to accommodate the industry as repair techniques, tools and equipment change at a rapid rate.

Formerly known as the Central County Occupational Center (CCOC) before changing its name five years ago, SVCTE currently features a two-semester program for high school students from six school districts in the South Bay Area area who are interested in careers in the collision repair industry.

After teaching for so long, Chukes

said that it is no longer a job and more like a calling. “We’ve been doing this for so long that it’s in our DNA,” he said. “We have seen so many young people who have come here with no knowledge and two years later, they’re employable and have some confidence.

They get to work on actual cars and they’re using the identical tools that they will be using on the job. Our goal here is to replicate the real world out there as much as we possibly can, so we teach them OE procedures and always emphasize safety and working in an organized way. We also teach them life skills that they are going to need out in the working world, such as being punctual and communicating clearly. We want them to have the skills, but we also want them to be successful as people too.”

Once the students have completed the program after one year or two years, depending on what they choose to learn, Chukes and McTaggert will assist them to find internships and jobs at local body shops. “We are constantly reaching out to the body shops and many of them are willing to help us with old parts that the students can practice on, for example,” Chukes said.

“When we see a graduate that is working at a local shop and we get good feedback about their performance and attitude, that is very satisfying.”

here—they set up their own booths, brought employees to the fair and displayed products. We would like to thank Anderson Behel in Santa Clara; Fix Auto in San Jose, Advanced Auto Body in Morgan Hill and Golden West Collision Center in Sunnyvale for their participation in our Job Fair, an event we plan on doing every year now.”

Robert McTaggart (left) has been teaching all of the auto body repair classes at SVCTE since 2001

Joe McKenna, the owner of Golden West Collision Center saw definite value in SVCTE’s Job Fair and ended up hiring four students as a re-

sult, he said. “We spoke to 40 kids and they all impressed me. It was a great opportunity to get to know them and interview them so that they can develop their interviewing skills. We now have four SVCTE students working here—three on the body side and one on the paint side—all of which I met at the Job Fair. I am a second-generation owner and I learned the industry from my father, so helping these young people is my way of giving back.”

It’s a satisfying job being a teacher after so many years working out in the industry, but McTaggert still loves teaching young people. “We teach them tangible skills, instead of simply imparting information or theory,” he said. “We work extremely hard here to give them a more complete education, so that they can hit the ground running and flourish in this industry. We want them to have jobs, but more importantly, careers that they can do for their entire lives.”

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Recently, SVCTE held a Job Fair, where they invited body shops to meet with the students and give them a look at the industry from a different perspective. They also conducted on-site interviews and brought in some additional speakers to give the students the complete picture.

“This was the first time we did an event like this and it was definitely a great experience for the students,” Chukes said. “Four local shops were

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SATA® TrueSunTM LED Lamp: the Daylight Solution

The selection of the correct color shade for refinishing a vehicle often requires a source of light that preferably reproduces the entire color range of visible light (daylight) as accurately as possible. The SATA® trueSunTM LED lamp, which was especially designed for this purpose, allows a quick and precise professional color shade evaluation and identification within the paint shop, according to the company. Accurate color retrieval, correct application of metallic paints or special-effect materials, and detecting critical mottling or other surface imperfections are playing a crucial role in the refinish application process. The SATA® trueSunTM LED lamp was designed to allow the almost perfect reproduction of daylight. This enables reliable color identification inside the shop and helps prevent expensive mistakes and rework costs. The trueSun’s light intensity can be adjusted into nine different positions depending on the color. “The SATA® trueSunTM lamp enables the painter to retrieve colors very quickly and precisely as well as evaluate the quality of the painted surface at the end of the application process with a secure and exact methodology,” the company said.

Continued from Page 32

Craftsman Collision

Craftsman’s ascent to the summit of the Canadian auto body industry are smart marketing decisions. From the earliest days, Craftsman’s sparkling fleet of ‘free rental cars’ were often more clean and comfortable than the vehicles being repaired. Disruptive ad campaigns including the popular ‘Bad Driver Award’ radio spots earned chuckles from commuting drivers.

Participation in the Air Miles rewards program from its beginning in the early 1990s is yet another reason for customers to smile when picking up their repaired vehicles while continuing to be a unique advantage in a mature, ultra-competitive industry.

Craftsman’s success has trickled down to the community at large, with more than $2 million in donations to dozens of charitable causes through the years. Among the most prominent are the Salvation Army (whose food bank is replenished by Craftsman’s annual Making a Dent food drive), the Heart & Stroke Foundation, the BCIT Foundation and School of Transportation, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foun-

dation, the Vancouver Symphony, and the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation, to which Craftsman has donated more than $1 million and helped create the hospital’s Craftsman Collision Cast Clinic.

Craftsman has donated over $1 million to the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation. Thecompany has also supported BCIT (Foundation and School of Transportation), the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Vancouver Symphony, and the Heart &Stroke Foundation, and has donated close to $150,000 in cash and food items in itsannual Making a Dent food drive for the Salvation Army

“Creating a successful business and building stronger communities go hand in hand,” says Stacey Cook, Marketing Manager for the Craftsman Group of Companies. “Our corporate charitable ventures are often paralleled by our

shop managers also getting involved in charities, sports or volunteer efforts in their local communities. Giving back is as important to us as financial growth.”

Most recently, Craftsman has paid $150,000 to sponsor the Craftsman Collision Signature Aquarium—a 14foot, 3-tonne acrylic structure soon to be towering over the new Gibsons Public Market on BC’s Sunshine Coast.

Notwithstanding the many speed bumps, early struggles with ICBC, two fires, sluggish economic times, expansion hiccups and other temporary setbacks, Bill Hatswell says he has enjoyed every moment.

“I could write a book on the many things that have happened in the last 40 years,” he smiles from the North Vancouver head office. “Sad things, exciting things, disappointments and fun. They are all part of the Craftsman success story, and have helped us make our mark, make Craftsman a household name, and create the great working environment we enjoy today.

But with our continuing rapid growth, expansion into new markets, acquisitions, real estate developments and other successful ventures, it would be a bit premature. The book is still being written.”

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Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes has released its latest third quarter 2017 training schedule was recently announced outlining the courses taking place nationwide at training sites from July 11 through September 21, 2017.

The series is designed to develop and enhance the skills of participants across a variety of courses, from Painter Certification to Color Adjustment and Blending. These courses address key topics, trends and challenges faced by technicians in a quickly changing workplace. To accommodate various learning styles, courses are offered in a combination of classroom, digital and hands-on settings at various metropolitan Sherwin-Williams Automotive

Finishes training centers. “Successful careers in this industry are built on continual learning and education,” says Rod Habel, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Director of Training Operations. “It’s a continually evolving industry that rewards technicians who keep up with trends and best practices.”

“These trainings also put a big focus on efficiency,” Habel adds. “We want to make clear to participants how a strategic approach to the entire process improves production targets and maintains the highest quality repair.” Further details regarding the 2017 third quarter schedule for training centers, dates, specific course descriptions and locations, are listed below:

Mitchell Announces Clarified Labor Hour Times for Diagnostic Scanning Mitchell, a provider of technology, connectivity and information solutions to the Property & Casualty (P&C) claims and collision repair industries, announced enhancements to its estimating solutions related to scanning and diagnostics. The first enhancement clarifies that the stated labor times in Mitchell Estimating do not include labor time specifically related to diagnostic scanning. The current release of the Mitchell Estimating solution will include updated Procedure Pages, noting that labor times do not include: Time required to aim, calibrate, diagnose, re-set or scan electrical items.

Time required to perform pre-repair and post-repair scan operations. The time required for these procedures is in addition to the stated labor times. “While these changes are minor, they reflect Mitchell’s ongoing commitment to create, aggregate and deliver the industry’s most comprehensive, accurate and consumable vehicle content,” said John Gilmartin, VP of Service Operations for Mitchell International. In the second enhancement, the current release will include Reference Sheet line items to allow repair facilities to document the times and costs associated with both pre-repair and post-repair scans.

Insurer Pays for Use of OEM Parts After Television News Story A CBS affiliate television station in Utah reported that Farmers Insurance reversed course and paid for OEM parts for the repair of a vehicle after a shop owner showed a news reporter differences between the OEM and non-OEM parts. Trace Coccimiglio of Valet Auto Body in Draper, Utah, said he’d repaired the vehicle with OEM parts despite Farmers’ original refusal to pay. Farmers told the station that “what occurred is not consistent with our expectations

or practices” and paid Coccimiglio for the difference in price for the OEM parts. “If an auto body repair shop believes that an unsafe vehicle is being put on the roads, they have every reason to raise their hands and tell the auto insurer and the policyholder that they’re unwilling to do it,” Michael Barry of the Insurance Information Institute told the Utah television reporter. Coccimiglio was elected to the national board of the SCRS.

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Shop Strategies The State of the Industry for Body Techs with Stacey Phillips

Most in the collision repair industry would agree that the demand for qualified and motivated auto body technicians is extremely high. A recent report prepared by the Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF) and co-sponsored by the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR ) provided a snapshot of collision repair business environments and the technicians working in them.

Some of the issues addressed include compensation, benefits, training, recruitment and turnover.

“Previous surveys, conducted every three years, confirmed the need for a continual supply of qualified entry-level technicians, while also showing changes concerning business operations and the collision repair technician workforce,” the executive summary stated. More than 630 businesses responded to the online survey, which was conducted in 2016 and represented over 4,500 technicians.

“The auto body industry is facing the same ‘skills gap’ that skilled trades are experiencing across the United States,” said George Minehart, the senior manager of human resources for Gerber Collision & Glass. “We all have an aging workforce without enough people with the required skills entering the labor market.”

“I believe technicians in today’s collision repair industry have the greatest opportunities of all times,” said Elisabeth Sobczak, performance training coordinator for I-CAR. “There is an enormous need in the industry for highly-skilled and trained body technicians who, if they choose, can become leaders and experts as a result.”

The following is a summary of the information from the report:

Current Technicians Overall, it was found that while the total number of collision repair businesses has increased slightly, the number of technicians has increased significantly.

“The percentage of small shops (with annual sales under $300,000) has declined significantly since 1995, while the share of large shops (over $1 million) continues to increase,” according to the report.

The largest source of hiring technicians (49 percent) came from another body shop. The analysis of the industry showed that “just over 25 percent were hired from the non-automotive industry or as their first job, which was higher than in 2013 (20 percent)” when the survey was last conducted.

More than 11 percent came from the automotive industry.

Stacey Phillips is a freelance writer and editor for the automotive industry.

She has 20 years of experience writing for a variety of publications.

She can be reached at sphillips.autobodynews@gmail.com.

steadier work than other careers due to the demand across the country. Armando Soto, associate vice president for talent acquisition at Service King Collision Repair Centers, agreed.

“A repair technician is certainly a desirable career path for anyone looking for a rewarding, in-demand and lucrative profession,” said Soto. Like other forward-thinking companies, he

Three out of five shops surveyed said they hired at least one entry-level technician in the past year

The report also showed that the average technician age has increased to almost 41 years old, rising about 13 percent since 1995. “A particular concern for this industry is the growth in the percentage of technicians over 50 years old,” according to the executive summary.

Compensation Many shops across the country are providing technicians with an attractive earning potential. After an analysis of the industry, it was found that the average income for a technician has increased and is still higher than most comparable trades. Just under half (48 percent) is based on flat rate (commission) plans. Survey respondents reported that nearly one in four technicians receive a yearly salary of $70,000 or more each year. Minehart said body techs at Gerber Collision & Glass can earn up to six figures plus annually while doing what they are passionate about.

2016 National Annual Income Averages (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics): Collision Repair Technician $53,857 Electronics Technician $53,270 Machinery Mechanic $51,470 Tool & Die Maker $51,130 Chemical Technician $47,890 Carpenter (Gen/Maint) $46,870 Heavy Truck Driver $42,500 Medical Lab Technician $39,635 Welder $40,970

Tech Benefits Minehart said body techs can expect

60 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

said Service King offers a litany of benefits to technicians. “Because of our growth and national support team, we are able to provide our family of technicians with competitive pay and benefits and a myriad of growth opportunities.” The company also offers repair technicians a 401(k) with em-

ployer matching.

The survey found that most shops across the country now offer paid vacations to employees. More than half provide health insurance and retirement benefits, although there was a significant decrease in health care coverage in 2016. Nearly half of shops currently offer life insurance and a growing number also provide disability and paid tuition.

Tasks Techs Can Expect Those who responded to the 2016 survey were asked about the specific tasks they would expect a graduate of a technical school program to be able to perform with little supervision.

The top four tasks included prep for paint, R&R bolted parts, repair steel metal dents and final detailing. The least expected skill was repair electrical systems. Some of the new tasks mentioned were: perform diagnostic See State of the Industry, Page 63

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Supreme Court Decision Delivers Patent Exhaustion Claim Benefiting the Aftermarket In a major victory for the auto parts aftermarket industry, the Supreme Court upheld the legal precedent of patent exhaustion, which states that a company’s right to protect its patent ends when the product is sold to the end user, reports the Auto Care Association. Information from an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court by the Auto Care Association was used by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in reversing the Federal Circuit decision that would have been damaging to the manufacture and sales of aftermarket parts.

The case, Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., involved the ability of Lexmark to restrict purchasers from reusing their printer

cartridges or providing the used cartridges to anyone other than Lexmark.

The Federal Circuit case determined patent holders can retain rights after sale as long as the restrictions on use are clearly communicated.

“While the case applied to printer cartridges, the impact of the Federal Circuit decision would have been extensive, restricting the ability of companies to produce and sell aftermarket and remanufactured parts based on the fear of violating a car company’s patent,” said Bill Hanvey, president and CEO, Auto Care Association.

If upheld, the Federal Circuit decision would have provided patent holders with extensive power over how

CARSTAR ARA Collision in Seattle Opens

CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts, North America’s largest Multi-Shop Operator Network of independently owned collision repair facilities, announced the opening of CARSTAR ARA Collision Seattle at 946 N. 127th St., Seattle, WA 98133. The CARSTAR location is co-owned by CARSTAR multi-store franchise owners Kevin

Parsons and Jeff Middleton.

“We are thrilled to be opening our second CARSTAR location together,” said co-owner Parsons. “Jeff Middleton and I began our partnership in 2014 with a store in Kirkland and now we have expanded to a store together in Seattle. We have been opened for business since May 1 and it’s doing very well. The

consumers repair and maintain the vehicles that they own. Understanding this impact, Chief Justice Roberts used the following analogy in the Supreme Court ruling: “Take a shop that restores and sells used cars. The business works because the shop can rest assured that, so long as those bringing in the cars own them, the shop is free to repair and resell those vehicles. That smooth flow of commerce would sputter if companies that make the thousands of parts that go into a vehicle could keep their patent rights after the first sale. Those companies might, for instance, restrict resale rights and sue the shop owner for patent infringement. And even if they refrained

community has welcomed us and we are excited to provide quality repairs for the area.”

The Seattle location makes eight CARSTAR stores between Parsons and Middleton. They each own three CARSTAR shops individually and two together—including CARSTAR Northwest Collision in Kirkland, WA.

from imposing such restrictions, the very threat of patent liability would force the shop to invest in efforts to protect itself from hidden lawsuits. Either way, extending the patent rights beyond the first sale would clog the channels of commerce, with little benefit from the extra control that the patentees retain.

And advances in technology, along with increasingly complex supply chains, magnify the problem.”

“This important decision is clearly a victory for the consumer and for the independent auto care industry, which provides motorists with an affordable, convenient and effective alternative to the vehicle manufacturers’ parts and service network,” said Hanvey.

There are now 24 CARSTAR locations in the greater Seattle area to serve the region’s drivers.

CARSTAR ARA Collision Seattle will provide comprehensive services from full auto collision repair, small dent and ding fixes, storm damage repair and paint jobs.

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Continued from Page 60

State of the Industry

scan, repair aluminum dents and aluminum welding.

“As vehicles become more technologically advanced, the training and experience required to work on them will only exacerbate the existing skills gap,” said Minehart. “Well-trained body techs will benefit from this situation in terms of both earning potential and job security.”

Minehart said entry-level body techs at Gerber focus on becoming proficient by working on smaller jobs like bumper repairs. They eventually build skills to perform plastic repair (both two-art and plastic welding), assist with tear downs and R&I and small filler work.

“At Gerber, we are very focused on hiring entry-level body techs with the ‘soft skills’ required to be successful,” he said. Ideally, he said entry-level techs will be able to meet I-CAR’s Pro Level One requirements when they start their careers.

“Having the right attitude and mindset is so important to use that we require all our apprentice candidates

to go through a 30-day working interview at one of our locations so we can ensure they have the ability to follow instruction, show up to work on time and work independently,” said Minehart.

Training Opportunities Survey results showed that 68 percent of technicians have participated in ICAR training over the last two years and 36 percent said they have undergone some OEM training as well.

“While some in the industry are running away from the technical tsunami, those who run into it have everything to gain,” said Sobczak. “Our industry doesn’t have a choice on these changes so those willing to be proactive in their education across the board, especially ICAR training, will reap great rewards.”

Some companies across the United States, such as Service King, offer apprentice programs for new repair technicians entering the field. Not only does this help develop their skills, but Soto said it also provides a support system and promotes the industry.

Recruitment Three out of five shops surveyed said they hired at least one entry-level

technician in the past year. When asked what they found to be the most effective recruitment method, the top three responses were asking vendors (44.9 percent), technical schools (38.1 percent) and online postings (37.9 percent.)

Respondents ranked general career fairs as being low on the list of effective recruitment methods. As a result, CREF said it has launched collision repair specific career fairs in 2016 to help increase success rates.

It was also found that more shops are participating on technical school advisory committees. “Of those businesses that have hired from a collision repair school program in their area, almost all would hire again,” according to the report’s findings.

Many businesses are now requiring technicians to attend technical school or have prior industry experience. Soto said that Service King requires a degree or certificate from a technical school or one year of industry experience.

Turnover With a total of 187,800 technicians surveyed, approximately one of every seven (14.5 percent) left their jobs over

the last 12 months, according to survey results. The majority of technicians went to work at another shop (57 percent). “This is turnover within the industry and, while disruptive to an individual shop, does not increase or decrease the pool of available technicians,” the executive summary stated.

In regard to industry turnout, it was found that approximately one in 16 collision technicians (6.2 percent) exited the trade in the last year. Some moved to a different position in the automotive business, while others left completely or retired.

As the industry continues to grow, so will the need for more technicians.

With a combination of industry outreach programs, proactive body shops and more communication overall, shops throughout the industry say that technicians will be assured of having a great career path to follow.

“Becoming a body tech enables anyone who has a passion for cars to turn that passion into a career,” said Minehart. “For those who like working with their hands and love cars, I can’t think of a better trade to join.”

Stay tuned for more information about upcoming initiatives involving hiring technicians of the future.

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www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 63

Shop Strategies

Stacey Phillips is a freelance writer and editor for the automotive industry.

She has 20 years of experience writing for a variety of publications.

She can be reached at sphillips.autobodynews@gmail.com.

What It Takes to Be a Great Leader at Your Body Shop Most body shops would agree that “This will put tremendous pressure on excellent leadership is critical to run- the development of those who are ning a successful business. “Leadergoing to take over and also put pressure ship is a balance of many aspects that on those who are currently in charge can build a company into a dynamic and have to shepherd that transition,” force when done correctly he said. or can destroy a lifetime of The average supervisor is work if done poorly,” said typically in a position of Jay Perry, owner of Ally leadership nine years prior to Business Coaching and coreceiving any leadership deauthor of Success Manifesto, velopment training, accordduring a recent Guild 21 weing to recent research Perry binar. shared. “That is shocking,” Jay Perry, owner Passionate about the imhe said. “How much damage of Ally Business portance of leadership develhas been done because of a Coaching and coopment, Perry addressed some author of Success lack of understanding of the Manifesto of the relevant issues facing job and being equipped to do business leaders today: the job of the leader? There is a cost associated with poorly-trained lead■ Legal compliance: Perry said it takes ers.” a village to manage legal compliance, He said 30 percent of people who especially with the issue of liability asquit their job are actually quitting their sociated with it. boss. He said this creates more than $146 billion annually in turnover costs.

■ Diversity in the workforce: This inAfter realizing the serious consecludes cultural influences, religious quences of not addressing leadership considerations, age-related issues and development, Perry was prompted to language barriers, which can all cause write the book Success Manifesto, communication problems. along with Brian Tracy. The book addresses how to master health, wealth ■ Consolidations in all industries: and lifestyle and deals with the fundaWhen businesses are affected by con- mentals of leadership. solidation, it puts additional pressure During his Guild 21 presentation, on leaders to perform at increasingly he shared the eight tenets of leaderhigher levels. ship:

■ HR challenges: Most are aware of the competition in regards to attracting and retaining good employees. Not only are companies competing with those in their industry, but against other industries as well. There are five generations now active in the current workforce, according to Challenge Factory. This can be a tremendous challenge in the style and form of communication used to address a multigenerational workforce.

■ Education: Perry said education has typically lagged when it comes to leadership. “Only now do we see leadership making its way into educational curriculums of a very few select schools,” he said.

Perry said 1.1 million businesses will change hands over the next 10 years.

1) Leadership skills can be and are learned abilities Perry said there is no such thing as a born leader. “Seventy percent of what we know is learned through modeling,” he said. Therefore, the emphasis should be on the type of environment leaders are in and how that environment supports them when learning leadership skills.

Similar to the game of golf, he said you may have certain skills that help your game, but to become really good, you have to invest time and money to develop your skills. “I feel it is very important for those of us who are desiring to improve our leadership or those of us who are in leadership and need to help others, to take this to heart,” said Perry. “If your environment does not provide that education, then seek it out now or if you are in po-

64 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

sition of responsibility to help others in their development, start to create it so talent can be molded into the right form.”

He stressed the importance of creating a progressive company that values continuing education for advancing and rewarding performance.

2) Be very specific in your goals and how you measure your success “People with clear written goals accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine,” said Perry. When it comes to leadership development, he said it’s imperative that goals are outlined in detail so progress and effectiveness can be measured.

The goals might be associated with KPIs such as employment engagement, retention, reviews and exit interviews. He encouraged all shops to be open-minded, listen carefully and take notes. “There will be nuggets of

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gold and information in these reviews,” said Perry. “Without goals that can help measure your progress, you’ll wander aimlessly, wasting a lot of time and money.”

3) Stay humble and practice active listening In order to be an effective leader, active listening is a necessary trait. “It allows us to access empathy and have a better understanding of those around us,” said Perry. “Active listening is actually bringing concentrative powers to bear so you can repeat or rephrase back to a speaker what was just said to you.” This helps the other person realize that they are being listened to.

However, he said it can be very difficult to put into practice. This is because we speak at 120 words per minute; however, a person listens at 400 words a minute. “What are you doing with that surplus capacity for See What It Takes, Page 66

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www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 65

Continued from Page 64

What It Takes

thought? I know you are forming thoughts because it must be filled. But I don’t know what the thoughts are unless you are working on repeating or rephrasing back what I just said.”

He said another important factor is the conditioned learning that has taught us to go into “solution mode” as soon as someone speaks to us.

From an early age, most of us were rewarded for coming up with the right answer.

“Without bringing concentrative powers and focusing on how we are going to rephrase back to a person what they have said, we will miss a lot of their content,” said Perry. “We will also set up for ourselves a defensive posture that defends our existing beliefs and not being open to a potential variation that could bring benefits to us in our organization.”

4) Follow up There are many benefits to following up. Perry said it is a key attribute that will keep people on track and improve a leader’s image. “It actu-

ally improves our image and the perception our followers have of us,” he said. Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, a revered thought leader, said that follow up shows you care about getting better and you value the opinions of coworkers. Goldsmith found that following up changed the perception followers had of a leader. The effectiveness of those leaders was perceived to improve even though the only difference in their behavior was they followed up with their charges.

He said the benefits of following up include the reinforcement of content you have shared, improving the perceptions of what others have of you as a leader and keeping others on track.

5) Procrastination can derail many people Although procrastination can contribute to the downfall of many people, Perry said it doesn’t have to derail you.

Instead, it can be managed by using what he called “touchpoints.” By setting the way we plan for ourselves and our charges, we can move things back on track. We do this through touch points—setting interim goals to measure progress along the journey. He rec-

Caliber Collision Opens New Texas Location

Caliber Collision Centers, the largest collision repair company in the U.S., celebrated a major milestone in the company’s history with the opening of its 500th location in Ft. Worth, Texas this week. Caliber Collisions’

500 centers are located across 17 states and the District of Columbia.

“The continued growth of our company is a direct result of the dedication of our 10,600 teammates to restore the rhythm of life for our customers, teammates, partners and the communities we serve,” said Steve Grimshaw, Caliber Collision Chief Executive Officer.

“Their commitment to serve while exceeding our customer expectations is what fuels our continued growth across the U.S. as we become the collision repair provider of choice in every community we serve,” said Grimshaw.

Caliber’s commitment to serve also includes community involvement

programs like the Caliber Rhythm Restoration Food Drive which annually raises millions of meals to feed children during summer months.

Through its Recycled Rides™ program in partnership with the National Auto Body Council, Caliber teammates donate personal time to repair and gift vehicles to families in need of reliable transportation. Over the past five years, Caliber has gifted more than 150 cars to primarily active military and veteran families across the U.S. As part of the company’s commitment to support military service members, Caliber recently launched its Changing Lanes program, the first and only program that provides soldiers transitioning from active duty to civilian life with no cost training for a rewarding career in the collision repair industry.

“We are proud and humbled reaching this 500-location milestone, and thank our customers, business partners, and teammates who have all contributed to the continued success of our company,” said Mark Sanders, Caliber Collision Centers’ President and Chief Operating Officer.

66 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

ommended planning projects to include touch points for ourselves and those who work for us.

6) Success is accomplished in small doses like a brick wall is built one brick at a time Whether you’re building a successful career, business or relationship, Perry said there is no magic bullet. “If it came in a bottle, everyone would have it,” he said. “What sets people up for failure in this area is they believe there’s one special thing and if they can tap into it they would be successful leader.” Instead, it takes investment, time, money and blood, sweat and tears.

He said we have become acclimated to an instant society where we can get everything we want overnight and sometimes the same day. Leadership development on the other hand doesn’t work that way. It takes time and it’s critical to be patient. This is where guidance from professionals who do this on a regular basis can be worthwhile.

7) Provide for others the opportunity for growth and a supportive pathway to realize advancement

It’s important to create pathways at your organization so you don’t lose good employees. One way to do this is to design a career path for people so they have the opportunity to move upward. This might mean technical training that could eventually lead to top recognition. You can also offer routes to advancement that may lead to other positions in the organization. Finally, take the time to plan with your employees and get them involved under your guidance. “If you take into account that it’s their future and nobody is more interested in it than they are, then they should be involved,” said Perry. This is especially true when dealing with younger workers who are open to doing multiple things throughout their careers. However, it can also apply to older workers who might require more challenging settings or take on a variety of jobs.

8) Look for aptitude and glimpses of leadership ability in others, and then nurture and mentor it Perry said to pay close attention to specific aptitudes that your employees will display on occasion. These can be developed with certain techniques and methodologies. “You’re looking for

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the initiators people look up to, even if they don’t have the title,” said Perry.

These are often the “go-to” people in your organization. There are certain ways to go about doing this. First, Perry highly recommended having employees assessed. “It is a fantastic way to discover many useful things about them as well as making leadership investment a little more secure,” he said. Relatively inexpensive, there are a variety of assessments available that will identify and validate the process. It’s often helpful to obtain professional assistance in this area.

Consulting with human resources experts, whether internal or external, can also be valuable. If they are forwardthinking individuals, they will be able to share ideas on how to improve efficiencies and boost profits.

Born in Canada to a family of entrepreneurs in the automotive field, Perry ran a multi-million-dollar collision-repair business in Toronto, Ontario before he was 30. He has served on boards of directors and advisory councils including NABC, State Farm Collision Advisory Board and the CCIF Steering Committee. Perry now runs Ally Business Coaching, a North American leadership coaching com-

pany that assists shops with process improvement and leadership development.

Perry said the company’s mission is to build great leaders inside great companies. “We do it every day and see the profitably of companies increase as the contributions of the developing leaders start to take hold and they move toward becoming superstar leaders,” said Perry. He and Tracy offer several programs that address different levels of leadership goals.

For more information, contact Jay Perry at 416-587-1748; jayperry@a-b -c-inc.com or visit www.allybusiness coaching.com.

He also sends out a daily tweet with a leadership thought. Follow on twitter @jerryperryally

Your leading source for SOUTHEASTERN Collision Repair News! southeastern.autobodynews.com

A Future Car May Be Protected from Hacking by Software Developed in San Antonio

by Paul Flahive, Texas Public Radio

Someone looking to hack into your car probably isn’t trying to steal from your bank account... but the results could be far more damaging.

[Sound of grinding] “OK, hold on tight...hold on.” [sound of impact] “Oh, Bleep!”

That’s WIRED magazine’s Andy Greenberg being gently driven into a ditch by a couple of hackers. These guys could cut his breaks, turn off his transmission turn on or off just about every function while they sat in a living room, all by hacking into the computer for the car’s entertainment system—a system called Uconnect—and installing a software update.

Chrysler issued a recall on all 1.4 million vehicles affected by the above hack and issued a software patch. Car manufacturers are starting to take this seriously. Here’s GM CEO Mary Barra at a tech summit last year: “Cyber security is one of the most serious challenges we face and we need to make it an industry priority,” she said.

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light to your automatic transmission, and as cars become more complex they need to be updated.

“If you can exploit an update system, it is like the golden entryway,” says NYU Professor of Engineering Justin Cappos. Many of the computers are networked together, but made by different vendors. Without many cyber security standards, he says it is getting easier and easier to hack car computers.

Right now, it’s researchers who are doing it, “But it would not surprise me if we saw people with more criminal intent or nation-state actors start to launch these kinds of attacks in the near future,” says Cappos.

He says if you can hack into one car computer, you can probably hack into a fleet of the same car. He and his collaborators have released what may be the beginnings of protection for those vulnerable computer update systems.

Uptane is the name of the software just released and according to collaborator Cameron Mott from the Southwest Research Institute the car crash WIRED magazine demonstrated would never have happened with Uptane.

“That update would have been detected and refused by the ECU. It would have been able to perform its own protection against that particular attack.”

That’s the hope anyway. Mott, Cappos and their research teams, which includes NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, the University of Michigan and SwRI, are asking white hat—or ethical—hackers to tear their anti-hacking protection apart and find vulnerabilities.

“Already there’s been some investigations into the code that has resulted in someone suggesting an improvement that could be made that was accepted.”

This isn’t a silver bullet, they say, it is a beginning. And this is the ideal time. Car hacking is in its infancy. As cars become more complex with “driver assist,” driver-less technologies and increased internet connectivity— remote software updates will proliferate.

“This is that perfect spot for being able to incorporate these kinds of elements into the design process and make sure things are being futureproofed for efforts coming up soon.”

The Uptane software isn’t ready to be put in cars yet, but when it is researchers hope auto makers and parts manufacturers take advantage of it. The framework is free and open-source.

We thank Texas Public Radio for reprint permission.

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www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 67

The Importance of Attracting, Hiring and Retaining Women Employees at WIN’s 2017 Educational Conference

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

Among the three breakout sessions offered on Tuesday afternoon during WIN’s 2017 Educational Conference was “Why Is It So Important to Attract, Hire and Retain Women Employees?” presented by Jody DeVere, CEO of AskPatty.com. DeVere began by observing that most women enter the collision repair industry by accident, but there is something special about the automotive industry, and it makes for a fun, challenging and interesting career.

Starting with some statistics on female consumers, DeVere noted that women buy more than half of new cars, influence up to 80% of all vehicle purchases, and request 73% of service repair work, spending over $200 billion on new vehicles and vehicle servicing annually. Despite their strong role in the market, women continue to report poor automotive retail experiences, largely because women process information and make purchasing decisions differently than men. On average, women speak 20,000 words daily compared to an average of 3000-4000 for men who are prone to thinking and speaking in bullet point format. While women communicate through storytelling, this approach causes men to

stop paying attention.

Some of the barriers to the industry hiring and promoting women include an unconscious bias among managers, a lack of work/life balance, a lack of female role models, a lack of

Jody DeVere’s breakout session addressed the importance and value of employing females in the collision repair industry

qualified incoming talent, and women’s confidence and aspirations. DeVere cautioned, “If you don’t understand female consumers, you won’t understand your female employees.”

Although most companies in the automotive industry are interested in hiring females, they cannot retain them.

Obstacles include women not applying for these positions, women wanting more base salary (especially millennials), and long hours creating child care

issues. Additionally, there’s a lack of a clear career path, HR benefits aren’t competitive with other industries, and there’s a risk of sexual harassment lawsuits.

“Sexual harassment is prevalent in the automotive industry, and we should all be armed with how to respond,” DeVere stated. “We will only move forward together, along with the men who support us. We need everyone to be advocates for the industry and invite talented women to apply for jobs because they will bring new energy to your organization.”

Culture is important to women as well - women tend to prefer teamwork, they like seeing other women in leadership roles, and they value mentorship programs. It is beneficial for companies to hire a mix of genders, races and cultures, and companies that hire women have proven to be more profitable, DeVere insisted.

DeVere recommended using keywords in job descriptions to attract women from female-dominated fields, to employ a scripted and professional interview, and to onboard in days rather than weeks. It’s helpful to attach a new hire to multiple department heads to help a woman feel like she’s part of the organization, and providing ongoing

Chief® Reintroduces Impulse Tilt Frame Rack Meets Customer Demand for a Basic Rack That Can Handle Most Jobs

Chief is bringing back the impulse Tilt frame rack in response to customer requests for a basic frame rack that’s reliable and affordable.

The impulse Tilt rack offers easy loading with interchangeable driveon ramps and a tilting platform. Its low pressure air-over-hydraulic system provides plenty of power and tight control for performing fast, high-quality repairs. It can handle most vehicles, including light trucks and smaller SUVs – and is available at a value-oriented price.

“The market was showing a renewed interest in an entry-level frame rack that offered both strong value and a simple design,” explained Lee

Daugherty, director of collision sales, the Americas, for Chief parent company Vehicle Service Group (VSG).

“That’s a perfect description for the impulse Tilt, so we are once again making it available. Our large network of distributors in North America really

helps us stay in touch with the needs of collision repair shops across the country, and we’re proud to respond quickly to meet those customer needs.”

The impulse Tilt offers true 360-degree pulling capability. It comes equipped with two towers that each provide 10 tons of pulling power at the hook. The towers are designed to allow ganging around the deck – even at the corners – for increased pulling control. Pinning and securing of the towers is ac-

68 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

complished with one easy movement using the patented Sure-Lock™ mechanism. Additional towers can be added for increased pulling capabilities.

The deck on the impulse Tilt is designed to work at a single height. The frame rack comes with Chief’s Universal Anchoring System with eight working heights, so techs can adjust it to most vehicles for precise four-point positioning. The system features Chief’s Uni-Clamp design, which uses a hardened saw tooth design, so technicians can quickly secure the vehicle in the clamps and get to work.

To learn more about the Chief impulse Tilt frame rack, visit www. chiefautomotive.com/frame-machines /impulse-tilt/, contact your local Chief distributor or call (800) 445-9262.

Chief is also active on Twitter, twitter .com/ChiefAutomotive and Facebook, www.facebook.com/ChiefAutomotive.

For video, visit chiefautomotive.com /video-library.

www.autobodynews.com

UPDATED DAILY

training and certifications will create loyalty as she’ll feel the company is investing in her. It’s also vital that companies promote top-performing women within the organization.

Addressing the question of what is a female-friendly culture, DeVere shared the following: ■ Be intentional in hiring and recruiting women.

■ Maintain a culture women can thrive in.

■ Create flexibility to increase work/life balance.

■ Women must be shown a clear career path.

■ Strive to promote women. Women need other women as role models and mentors.

DeVere advised companies to include more women in leadership roles, encourage senior leaders to become sponsors, and create a culture of diversity and inclusion. Men should become members/sponsors, make networking opportunities more inclusive, and check for bias in their decision-making. DeVere urged women to “seek mentors and sponsors, expand your networking, take charge of your career, and set your own priorities. Women need to help one another and reach out to each other.”

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Craftsman Collision Sees How It’s Made at Pro Spot HQ

Pro Spot International, specializing in quality welding and repair products for the collision repair industry, proudly hosted the Craftsman Collision Management Team this past week at Pro

Headquarters in Carlsbad, CA. They visited the facility to tour the manufacturing plant, check out new products and grab lunch with the Pro Spot team.

“Our team was extremely excited to see how our equipment is constructed and assembled and the new products being sold. The managers were able to see the innovation and quality built into the products to add Spot’s headquarters and manufactur- confidence to our operations and qualing facility in Carlsbad, CA. ity of repair,” said Rick Hatswell, The managers of Craftsman Col- Craftsman Collision Chief Operating lision stopped by on their annual man- Officer. Craftsman Collision was ager’s conference to visit the Pro Spot started in 1977 by Bill Hatswell. They have the largest family owned body shop chain in Canada, with 38 locations and counting.

“On the tour they were able to see how we make our products from start to finish.

They saw where engineering designs the latest Pro Spot products, the machine shop and sheet metal shops that create the parts from scratch, all the way to final testing, shipping & training”, explained Ashley Olsson, Pro Demonstrating the PR-5 Rivet Gun system, special dies Spot Director of Communiand extension cations.

Continued from Page 24

Best Training

ment. The express repairs we have been doing involve pre-ordering parts, pre-painting them and getting them all ready so the customer can come in and wait for a repair. Now with our new technology, we don’t have to pre-paint them and can turn around cars in one to two days where it would normally take three or four.

After being in operation for 83 Q: years, how have some of the changes in the industry impacted your

body shop and what will it take to be successful in the future?

ing up in the car that could perhaps put them in a dangerous situation. It’s also going to take training for our technicians to properly repair vehicles and educating our customers so they fully understand what it takes to fix a car today. It’s not as cut and dry as it used to be. If you get a bump in your rear bumper, technically the OEMs say you are supposed to pre-scan and post-scan the vehicle to make sure all codes are clear. Those are things that haven’t been done in the past and right now there are only a handful of shops doing it.

How has it been helpful for Q: your business to get involved in associations both in the community

I’ve been in the business for A: over 40 years and I’ve seen the I do very little advertising outtransition from having old, standard A: side of networking and associcars with big chrome bumpers to the ations. I actually went to a networking

sleek unibody cars of today. Technology is changing exponentially in vehicles and going forward, that is what is going to take us to the next level.

I believe it’s going to take an investment in training and proper scan tools to ensure that customers are put on the road safely with no codes com-

and professionally?

event last night. You meet great people and great leaders in the community. It’s nice to talk to people, get to know them and engage with them. I can hear their stories and they’ll hear mine.

We belong to many professional associations including Assured Per-

new space we’ve designed for industry and product training” expressed Ashley.

“A big thank you to Craftsman Collision and we welcome you back anytime!”

Pro Spot owns three patents for special welding equipment and applications, and works with the majority of the largest auto manufacturers in the world. Pro Spot’s CarlsManagers of Craftsman Collision with Pro Spot Staff bad-based turnkey facility includes design, engineering, machine and sheet metal shops, powder coating, assembly, training and technical support. The Pro Spot equipment line includes resistance spot welders, dent repair systems, pulse MIG welders, rivet guns, dust-free sanding systems, and more.

Showing the machining of parts for a Spot Weld Gun

After a renovation, Pro Spot added almost 10,000 sq feet to their plant and expanded their training classroom and workshop. “We were extra happy to host Craftsman Collision as they were the first to enjoy the

formance Network, Automotive Service Association (ASA), Inner Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR), Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), the Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF) and local state associations such as the Association of Automotive Service Professionals of Illinois (AASPI).

We have been part of Mike Anderson’s MSO business council group with Axalta for the last several years and attend conferences across the United States with best-of-class shops.

In addition, we are members of civic associations including several Chamber of Commerce organizations, and the River North Business Association that named us Business of the Year.

When you serve your community well, people learn about it. Not only will they respect you, but they will think of you. The idea is when someone has a mishap with their car I want them to think of me first.

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Man Found Shot to Death at Baton Rouge Shop

by WAFB Staff

Police are investigating a shooting after a man was found dead inside an auto body shop early morning of June 12. The Baton Rouge Police Department reported the victim was found on Victoria Drive

Victoria Drive off Airline Highway.

Credit: WAFB

off Airline Highway around 4 a.m.

The victim was identified as Billy Thomas, 26. Investigators said he was found dead inside the business on Victoria Drive off Airline Highway around 4:30 a.m. Detectives have not yet identified a suspect or established a motive behind the shooting. Anyone with information is urged to call Crimestoppers at 344-7867. We thank WAFB for reprint permission.

www.autobodynews.com | JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS 71

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ONLY ORIGINAL MINI PARTS MINI OF CHARLESTON 1518 Savannah Hwy. Charleston, SC 29407 855-516-4682 Fax: 843-573-8302 Hours: M-F: 7:30 - 6 / Sat: 8 - 5 ©2017 MINI, a division of BMW of North America, LLC. The MINI name, model names and logo are registered trademarks.

Rick Hendrick Fiat of North Charleston 8355 Rivers Ave. › N. Charleston, SC 29406

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Parts: 800.456.5337 Fax: 843.553.0657

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Rick Hendrick BMW Charleston

Original Equipment BMW Replacement Parts 1518 Savannah Hwy., Charleston, SC 29407

Lexus of Charleston 2424 Savannah Hwy. › Charleston, SC 29414 Parts: 843.852.0333 Fax: 843.852.4834

Mon-Fri: 8-6 • Sat: 8-5

Volvo of Charleston 1518 Savannah Hwy. › Charleston, SC 29407

Parts: 843.402.6516 Fax: 843.402.6520 Mon-Fri: 7:30-6 • Sat: 8-5

Toyota Scion of North Charleston 7151 Rivers Ave. N. › Charleston, SC 29406 VOLVO GENUINE PARTS

72 JULY 2017 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Parts: 800.342.9682 Fax: 843.553.5723

Mon-Fri: 7-7 • Sat: 7-6

Parts: 800.763.0283 Mon-Fri: 7:30-6 • Sat: 8-5

Fax: 843.763.8493