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ASA and the Auto Alliance Host Third Technology and Telematics Forum at NACE | CARS
Wayne Weikel, left, senior director of State Government Affairs for The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, and Donny Seyfer, AAM, right, welcomed approximately 200 attendees to the Technology and Telematics Forum
On August 12, the Automotive Service Association (ASA) and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (The Alliance) hosted the third Technology and Telematics Forum (TTF) as part of the NACE | CARS Expo in Anaheim, CA. Telematics refers to the connected car and, eventually, the autonomous vehicle that’s not far away. From the software used in instrumentation, backup sensors, adaptive cruise control, cameras and sophisticated wireless communications systems to tomorrow’s driverless vehicles, telem-
See Post-Repair Inspections, Page 16
P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018
Leaders in the collision repair industry met to discuss the merits of post-repair inspections (PRI) in a June Verifacts Guild 21 Webinar that exposed troubling evidence for the industry. Kristen Felder, founder and CEO of Collision Hub, shared the findings of a year-long study involving 30 reinspections that took a closer look at quality control practices. Although she acknowledged the study was far from “scientific,” she stated that she found numerous flaws
in repairs within this small sample of vehicles. “I didn’t see what I was expecting to see,” Felder said. The former technician stated she assumed minor damage or relatively inconsequential faults would be found during the postrepair inspections, but was unprepared for the seriousness of the results. These ranged from poor welding to completely neglected repairs, she said. “The problems we found were significant and severe,” she said. “They were things that needed to be addressed immediately and the customers re-
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by Autobody News Staff and Contributing Writers
AGRR Companies Assess Damage from Louisiana Floods, State Farm Comments on Flooding by Jenna Reed, glassBYTES.com
Eleven are dead and more than 40,000 homes have been affected by the heavy deluge of rain and floods in Baton Rouge, LA, that began August 12. Some AGRR companies are just
See Telematics Forum, Page 22
What is the Role of Post-Repair Inspections in Your Shop?
VOL. 7 ISSUE 7 SEPTEMBER 2016
now getting back up and running while others were luckily enough to escape the water’s wrath. “We’ve been closed since Friday [August 12],” says Kristen Miles,
owner of a Clear View Auto Glass in Baton Rouge, La. “We’re all right, but our home office got flooded. We probably won’t be able to get back into the house until Monday [August 15].” Janet Mosley of Baker, La.based Baker Glass Works was putting in an application to FEMA on the morning of August 17. “We’re basically hanging on by a thread,” she says. Baker Glass Works is open, but many of the company’s employees are stuck at home due to the floods. Mosley also believes her area glass suppliers have been significantly affected by warehouse flooding. “I haven’t been able to get in contact with them in the last two See Louisiana Floods, Page 10
CIC Presentation Highlights Issues that Pre- and Post-Repair Scans Raise for the Industry
ber Fred Iantorno said. “It’s just that there’s a need in the marketplace for A Collision Industry Conference (CIC) that.” committee charged with looking at With that in mind, the commitemerging technology in the industry tee’s presentation focused on the quesargues that more guidelines and contions related to scanning that it hopes sensus is needed within the to bring automakers, insurindustry on when pre- and ers, tool-makers and collision post-repair scans are necesrepairers together to address. sary, and over fair compensaRozint noted, for example, tion for that work. that in-house scanning by “I don’t think it’s necescollision repair shops could sarily correct to say every rehave the least impact on cycle pair needs to be scanned time and repair costs, yet Jack Rozint before or after, and it’s cershops report more difficulty tainly not correct to say that only 1-in- in getting paid for in-house scans than 10 cars needs to be scanned,” com- those that are sublet to dealerships or mittee chairman Jack Rozint said at outside vendors. the CIC in Anaheim, Calif., in August. The costs related to scanning are “It’s definitely somewhere in between real, Rozint noted. Buying OEM scan there.” tools for just the Top 10 nameplates “It’s not that this body is going to would cost a shop more than $100,000, set those guidelines,” committee memSee CIC Focus on Scans, Page 56 by John Yoswick
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