Autobody News March 2014 Southwestern Edition

Axalta Racing Paint Scheme Wows Fans in Charlotte, NC, Fans Treated to Brilliant Flames for Charity Axalta Coating Systems officially unveiled the 2014 Brilliant Flames paint

scheme on the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet SS race car, driven by four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, last week at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, NC. When the cover was removed, there were gasps, claps and even an “awesome” could be heard from the crowd.

Motorsports announcer, Winston Kelley moderated a panel discussion comprised of race car driver Jeff Gordon; VP Axalta Coating Systems Rick Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, and Nigel Budden pictured with No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet SS

See Axalta Racing, Page 21

Winter Storms Provide Predictable Business in Tulsa, Bartlesville, and Oklahoma City

pairs are just scratched and dented bumpers. Some bumpers have to be ordered, painted and put back on.

Other bumpers just need a little repair work and they’re good as new.

Independent auto body owner Nathan Hostetler told local media that this is an usual time of year for him to be doing so much business.

He’s usually busier during warm, rainy months.

“There’s probably an extra 20 to 25 cars here right now. We’re usually having 40 cars in process and we’ve got near the capacity right now,” Hostetler said.

See Oklahoma Weather, Page 6

Change Service Requested

P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018

Jim Page, with Jim Norton Collision Center at 9809 South Memorial Drive in Tulsa said, “Any time we have weather events like this the shop gets stacked up quick.”

Jim Norton’s is a recipient of Toyota’s highest customer service awards, the Toyota President’s Award, and has been servicing the needs of Tulsa Oklahoma for longer than any other Tulsa Toyota dealership.

“What we’re seeing a lot of is front-rear hits,” said Page.

Collision Centers are estimating one to two weeks turnaround, depending on the amount of damage and paint work. Most winter weather re-

VOL. 32 ISSUE 3 MARCH 2014

Strong Turnout at Louisiana Collision Repair Association’s First Official Meeting More than 180 collision repairers showed up for the Louisiana Collision Repair Association’s (LaCIA) first meeting after officially becoming an association.

Lynn Lejeune of Lejeune's Body Works Inc. and chairman of LaCIA called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone. He also led the group in a prayer.

“Tonight has to be about us coming together and agreeing to make a difference,” said Lejeune.

Derek Stubbs of Expressway Paint and Body and vice chairman of LaCIA noted the large turnout and made a statement on what it indicated to him.

“We’re all here because we care about this business and we care about what happens to it,” he said.

Stubbs also mentioned that they need to put last year behind them and focus on what they need to work on this year.

“Last year is over, and we’ll still have battles to fight every day this year, but we need to face these problems together to make a difference. We have national issues that we together have to handle on a state level.”

Chris Medine of Medine’s Collision said his son is the third generation of his family in the business, and that’s one of the reasons he wants changes to be made – so his son can have a long career in the industry.

“I believe this organization can be a lot of things, and I know good things can happen when we can get together like this,” Medine said.

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

tion contributed to a surge of accidents.

Beginning on Tuesday, January 28 and continuing well into the next day, snow and ice accumulating in the southeast brought Atlanta to a screeching halt. While the city nor-

See First Meeting, Page 13

Polar Vortex Continues to Plague Southern States in Late January and Early February As predicted, the polar vortex that wrought havoc at the beginning of the year strengthened and continued moving southward in late January, resulting in more unusually low temperatures and icy winds. This winter storm system impacted most of the country with 34 states being under some sort of winter weather warning or advisory during the last week of the month.

While residents in the northern states are more accustomed to harsh winter precipitation, areas in the south were left floundering at the unusual phenomenon of snow and ice that poured down in states that generally enjoy much milder winters. This abnormal weather system raised a lot of concern and caused significant damage in many southern metropolitan areas, particularly in Atlanta, GA, and Birmingham, AL, where the combination of weather and traffic conges-

mally averages a low temperature of 28 degrees and a high of 49 degrees in January, temperatures plummeted into the teens during the last week of January with up to three inches of snow in some places. Slick conditions created by ice and sleet led to accidents which, in turn, caused an increase in traffic delays. Many cars were left abandoned on the roads and See Polar Vortex Continues, Page 40

2 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

COLUMNISTS Attanasio - Get your Brand Out There

by Going Outdoors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Attanasio - The California Autobody Association (CAA) Charts a Course for Shops in the Golden State. . . . . . . . 22 Franklin - The Sci-Fi Shop of the Future . . 36 Yoswick - I-CAR Offers Update, Committees Detail Plans at Last CIC Meeting. . . . . . 32

NATIONAL 100 Lift Inspectors Are Now Auto Lift Institute Certified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 1Collision Network Adds 2 Stores in WI and MI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 1Collision Network to Host Wisconsin Workshop for Collision Repair . . . . . . . 46 3M Automotive Expands ‘Hire our Heros’ Campaign Grants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 AAA Says Right to Repair Needs to Go Further . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 AAIA and CARE Conclude Voluntary Information Sharing Agreement with OEMs. . . . . . . 52 AASP-MO Hosts Mike Anderson for State of the Industry Report and PartsTrader Meeting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Aisan Industry Co. Agrees to $6.86M Criminal Fine for Price Fixing . . . . . . . . 52 Alcoa Foundation Awards $60K Aluminum Training Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Aluminum-bodied F-150 is Boon to Eurovac and Car-O-Liner . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Aluspot® Deluxe DF-900DX Aluminum Repair Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 ASA BOD Elections Continue through End of February . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Aston Martin Recalls Most Cars Built

Since Late 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Axalta Racing Paint Scheme Wows Fans in Charlotte, NC, Fans Treated to Brilliant Flames for Charity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Boyd Group Restructures Paint Supplier Agreement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Bridgestone Guilty of Price Fixing, To Pay $425 Million Fine . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Business Groups Urge OSHA to Dump Silica Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Car-O-Liner Added to F-150 Ford Rotunda Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Clean Rooms Becoming a Common Sight in Body Shops Nationwide. . . . . . . 9 Countdown to Northeast Tradeshow in March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Consumer Reports Says Tesla and Subaru Move Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Couple Sentenced in Glass Embezzling Case. 49 Dallas Police Still Looking for Hit-and-Run Black Sedan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Dealer Group Sues Hitachi, Panasonic and Mitsubishi in Part Fixing Dispute. . . . . . 42 Diamond Standard’s New Reflexxion Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Elektron’s Multitool Aluminum Dent Station . 49 Erie, PA, Sees 333 Accidents in 24-hour Span . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Estify is Trying to be the Startup Disrupting the Collision Industry; Many Have Tried, Few Have Succeeded. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 ETI Plans Market Research on Collision Repair Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to be Company’s New Name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Flowmaster Mobile Work Station Easy to Use . 6 Gerber Collision is Diamond-Level NABC Sponsor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Honda Develops Advanced Auto-Braking System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 In-Process Quality Assurance . . . . . . . . . 14 Iowa Parts Retailer Invents “It’s a Life Saver” to Alert Neighbors to Trouble Inside the House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Limitations On Florida’s Pip Insurance Coverage May Complicate Treating Accident-Related Injuries . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Maryland Reintroduces Insurer Parts Procurement Prohibition Legislation . . . 43 Midwest Auto Body Trade Show is March 20 in Altoona, IA . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 NABC’s Golf Fundraiser at CIC Draws a Sold-Out Crowd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 North Carolina Auto Insurers Seek No Rate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 OEMs to Play a More Significant Role in NACE/CARS 2014 in Detroit . . . . . . . 42 OEM Collision Repair Roundtable Launches Consumer-Oriented Site: Crashrepairinfo.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Perry, FL, Dealership Shot Up by Long-Term Employee, Sheriff’s Deputy Still in Serious Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 SCRS Provides Unified Voice for Industry. 44 Tesla Contests Rules in Ohio, Other States: Mixed Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Twitter Says its Users Buy Twice As Many Cars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 WIN Offers Support for Women in the Collision Repair Industry . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Winter Storms Provide Predictable Business in Tulsa, Bartlesville, and Oklahoma City. . 1

Like your favorite caption:

• Future I-CAR instructor.

• His first DRP. • Lot of plastic on these new ones.

www.facebook.com/autobodynews • For the tech who takes his work home.

• You should see the commode. It’s a floor lift.

• This is what happens when you work flat rate.

• That’s a wire brush not a toothbrush.

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst General Manager: Barbara Davies Contributing Writers: Tom Franklin, John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess, David Brown, Rich Evans, Ed Attanasio, Chasidy Sisk Advertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman, Bill Doyle, David Petro (800) 699-8251 Sales Assistant: Louise Tedesco Art Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Southwest

REGIONAL 3rd DUI, Deputy Killed, Gets N. TX Man 99 Yrs with 42 Yrs Extra . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 AkzoNobel Program Puts Cars Back on the Road. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 ASA Encourages PartsTrader Action at State Level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Caliber Collision Opens New Centers in CA (70) & TX (59) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Caliber Opens 1st Greefield Repair in NM in 10 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Colleyville’s Lone Star Collision Suffers Heavy SUV Hit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Dallas Dodge Donates 178 Jackets to Garland schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Henley’s Paint and Body Offers Laser-Guided Frame Straightening in Bryan and College Station Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Honda Dealer Harold Tipton, Texas Transplant, Dies at 97 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Houston UTI Demonstrates Painting Skills to Juniors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 NW Louisiana Collision Repairers Met Feb 4 to Talk Youth Education and Tech School Training, Next Meeting is March 4 in Shreveport . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Polar Vortex Continues to Plague Southern States in Late January and Early February . 1 Strong Turnout at Louisiana Collision Repair Association’s First Official Meeting. . . . . 1 Texas Auto, Homeowner Complaints at Record Low. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Ken Garff Automotive Group is 100% Dedicated to Wholesale Parts. . . . . . . . . 4

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Contents

Serving Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico 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. ©2014 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody News

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

A Frame Paint Booths . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Absolute Mitsubishi-Hyundai . . . . . 25 Accudraft Paint Booths . . . . . . . . . . 26 BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 43 Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA). . . . . . . . . . . 19 Chevyland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Chief Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 13 Classic BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Creative Metal Manufacturing. . . . . . 6 Dallas Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 David McDavid Auto Group . . . . . . 27 Don Carlton Auto Group . . . . . . . . . 12 Finnegan Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . . 2 Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers TX, OK, LA, NM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Fowler Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Freedom Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . 23 Gillman Acura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 48 Honda-Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-29 Houston Auto Body Association. . . 44 Huffines Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge Lewisville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Huffines Hyundai Plano . . . . . . . . . 34 Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers. 41 LKQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Malco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Matrix System Automotive Finishes . 30 Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 51 Mercedes-Benz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Mike Calvert Toyota. . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers. 47 MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 33 North Freeway Hyundai . . . . . . . . . 10 Ray Huffines Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . 35 Reliable Automotive Equipment, Inc. . 9 Reliable Chevrolet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Replica Plastics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . 17 Scoggin-Dickey Buick . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Shell Commercial Real Estate . . . . . 4 Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 21 South Pointe Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge. 11 Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 53 Toyota of Fort Worth . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Toyota of Laredo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 46 Valspar Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Volvo Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 50 Young Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

The Ken Garff Automotive Group is 100% Dedicated to Wholesale Parts

by Ed Attanasio

them, his days of selling cars were over. But Garff had realized that selling cars could be more lucrative than pumping gas, so he said goodbye to Shell and hello to a future in the automotive sales world. Rather quickly, he earned new car franchises such as Oldsmobile and Studebaker… and the rest is history.

With a combined inventory of $17 million in factory parts, the Ken Garff Automotive Group is dedicated to serving body shops in 10 states.

Wholesale is not something to casually pursue, according to DeRop, and that’s why he and his parts departments approach the wholesale side of the business seriously and with focus and passion. From the company’s Utah dealerships, they sell wholesale OEM parts to 500 body shops, and all focused on delivering the highest quality in the industry today. Company-wide the group has 377 parts department employees, providing sales, support, fulfillment and delivery for this massive operation.

“We’re continually trying to pro-

To effectively sell parts to body shops, you have to think like a body shop owner. By placing itself into that mindset and continually refining its processes, the Ken Garff Automotive Group has perfected the way of getting the right parts to the right shops quickly and accurately on a large scale. By leveraging almost a century of experience, combined with insights and knowledge accumulated The Vice President of Fixed Operations over the years, the Ken Garff Autoat the Ken Garff motive Group exAutomotive Group is Dax DeRop cels at wholesale parts operations and that’s why they’ve garnered top reviews from everyone from small independent shops to large MSOs from Texas to Idaho.

Vice President of Fixed Operations Dax DeRop, 43, is a seasoned pro at a young age, after working for American Honda for 17 years before taking a position with the group a year ago. The company owns and operates what they call 44 “rooftops,” consisting of 76 car franchises in six states, including Utah, California, Nevada, Iowa, Texas and Indiana. With six collision centers included in that number, the Ken Garff AuEnormous inventories of OE Dodge parts sitting in the tomotive Group represents warehouse at West Valley Dodge and ready to be delivNissan, GMC, Buick, Volvo, ered to body shops throughout the West Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Volvo, Hyundai, vide better service to our body shop Chrysler/Jeep/Ram/Dodge, Ford, Lin- customers and a large part of that is coln, Toyota, Scion, Chevrolet and constant communication and refining Cadillac. what we currently do,” DeRop said.

Founder Ken Garff got a liter“We have three regional fixed operaally explosive start in business back in tions managers, four dedicated sales1932, when an conflagration at a Shell people and 44 parts managers and service station in Salt Lake City nearly we’re always looking for better ways took his life. As an attendant, Garff of doing things. We know body shops was walking out of the station’s office need prompt deliveries; they need us to help a customer at the pump when to know these parts inside-and-out and the building exploded behind him. we need to give them the best prices Shell rebuilt the station, but Garff was we can offer.” left with little to do, so he started sellTo handle the huge chore of deing used cars to keep himself occu- livering thousands of parts throughout pied. When Shell completed their the West, the logisticians at the Ken building they informed the young man Garff Automotive Group created the that if he wanted to keep working for Garff Transportation System (GTS)

4 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

that handles all of the details associated with hundreds of deliveries every day. “We’ve got our own trucks at each location, but we augment it with

not along our normal routes.”

Through the efforts of its four outside salespeople, the Ken Garff Automotive Group is able to get valuable feedback from its body shop customers, including data that can be used to do even a better job. “These people are dedicated to getting out there and pressing the flesh, so to speak. Between the four of them, they cover a lot of territory and we get excellent coverage through their efforts, even in some of the outlying states where we do business. Each one of them comes with a Wholesale Specialists at West Valley Dodge include trailer, so that if a shop (from left) Corey Luke, Eldon Pulley, Bill Jackson wants to return product, we and Ian Frame can take it right there. Then, our system and it works very well,” we can update their numbers and get DeRop said. “In most cases, we can the information almost immediately to our parts managers, because we know get parts to our customers same-day, that expediting returns is vital to any because we know time is money. By body shop.” sharing inventories and routes, we Knowledge is king when it have outstanding coverage and we comes to wholesale parts and DeRop also have a great relationship with is proud to have one of the top crews Inter-Mountain Express, to deliver in the industry, he believes. “Our parts to regions of our territory that are

ur ff uy g o e tg y d e n s h a p e n, et o w y

it p s ur

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 5

wholesale associates average 20 years of experience and each and every one is an expert on their respective brands. They attend all of the training available and we stress it across the board. Because we also have collision centers, we can help body shops with information about how to do some of these repairs. That’s something we bring to the table that not many other parts departments can offer.”

In conclusion, DeRop wants to tell all of his body shop customers (or even prospective ones) that the Ken Garff Automotive Group is in it to win it when it comes to wholesale parts. “We care about body shops and we want them to succeed, for a lot of reasons. We listen to their issues and concerns and we are always looking for creative solutions to make all of our lives easier. To this end, we work with all of the car manufacturers’ price-matching programs and we work hard for any shop—whether it’s a big MSO or a small independent.”

Continued from Cover

Oklahoma Weather

Repair techs at Accurate Autobody and Glass, with locations at 5500 S Garnett Rd, Tulsa, and 220 E 2nd Street, Sand Springs, are getting cars that lost an entire wheel in the icy weather, or worse.

“Four-wheel drive or two-wheel drive, if you’re going too fast you’re not going to be able to turn and you’re going to hit a curb like what this car did and destroy,” Hostetler said.

These auto body repair shops see it all. With this winter weather, drivers can never be experts on the winter roads.

Dave Burgess, with Accurate Autobody and Glass said “It takes you by surprise every time. So the thing is yeah, slow down on a turn. You just can’t creep slow enough.”

After the snow stopped in Tulsa, it kept falling near Bartlesville.

Officials say the city of Bartlesville was ready for Tuesday’s snow storm as five trucks were out early spreading a salt/sand mixture on city streets.

The snow stated coming down

Flowmaster Mobile Work Station Easy to Use

The Flowmaster Mobile Work Station is a portable, clean air re-circulating unit that can be used for sanding, priming, spot painting using the 3 oz. rule or even as a whole shop clean air solution. It comes equipped with either 110V for universal applications or 220V. It is the most powerful unit on the market with up to 10,000 cfm and a total overall measurement of 8’4” tall, 4’ wide and 28” deep. A basic unit is finished in galvanized steel with an option of powder coating.

The four-stage filtration system is the highest in the industry as well as the most inexpensive to change.

There is no assembly required. It’s as easy as rolling into your shop, plugging it in and turning it on. The easy mobility over various terrains is possible with the 8” heavy duty pneumatic air wheels with a locking feature. Other features include a 50’ electrical cord, folding hook and a filter change indicator. The Flow-

Master does not need permits, fire suppression, plumbing or roof penetration. The FlowMaster Mobile Workstation is made in the USA. For more information, see www.creativemetalmfg.com.

6 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

just after 7 a.m. and city officials said they had just replenished their salt and sand supplies a few weeks ago. Crews were busy well ahead of the snow.

Washington County Emergency Management director Kary Cox said crews were prepared.

“I know the cold temperatures this week are going to be an additional strain, but we were pretty well prepared. The crews were out early, even before it started snowing this morning, getting ready and keeping an eye on the streets,” said Cox. The Bartlesville Police Department reported only one crash due to the weather that morning.

Officers in Oklahoma City suspended responses to non-injury accidents the morning of Feb. 3. Drivers were asked only to report accidents with injuries or parties who are not cooperating. Authorities said those involved in non-injury accidents should exchange driver’s license and insurance information and safely take pictures.

Officers said drivers can pick up accident forms at police stations after the winter weather moves out.

Paramedics also rushed to several weather-related calls.

According to EMSA, they have responded to a total of 36 injury accidents within the metro; four slip and falls.

A Semi off Memorial and I-35 was parked at Loves gas station and started to slide down a hill with no one inside. After the semi started to slide it collided into the Welcom Center across the lot. There were no injuries in this accident.

The majority of metro accidents were along I-40 and I-35.

3rd DUI, Deputy Killed, Gets N. TX Man 99 Yrs with 42 Yrs Extra

A North Texas man with two previous DWI convictions has been sentenced to 99 years in prison for the death of a deputy who was hit while directing traffic. Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown said that jurors in Sherman convicted Ricky Trent Stanley of murder and aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury to a public servant. Investigators say the Whitesboro man's blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit during the April 2013 wreck that killed Deputy Chad Key. Key was struck while directing traffic near Sherman, about 60 miles north of Dallas.

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www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 7

Henley’s Paint and Body Offers Laser-Guided Frame Straightening in Bryan and College Station Shop

According to the Texas Department of Transportation, approximately 1 automobile accident occurs in the state every 82 seconds; additionally, countless vehicles are subjected to hail, parking lot damage and other mishaps each day. In order to help combat these numbers with affordable expert vehicle repair, Mike Henley, owner of Henley's Paint and Body, has launched a campaign to increase awareness of the company's unique auto body repair options for residents of Bryan, College Station and the surrounding areas.

Henley affirmed, “When customers visit our Bryan and College Station Auto Body Shop, they can expect the best repair possible, expert service and a smooth experience in every aspect. Our facilities are manufacturer certified, and we employ factory trained technicians. In addition to paintless dent repair, are among the very few shops in the area offering laser guided frame straightening and a downdraft spray booth.”

In the past, when vehicles suffered a bent frame as the result of an accident, owners were given one of two options; they could allow their repair shop to remove the bent por-

tion of the frame and weld in a straight piece, or they could give up their vehicle as a total loss. When choosing the latter, they could only hope their insurance provider offered them enough reimbursement to cover the cost of a new vehicle. With the welding alternative, they ran the risk of compromising the vehicle's structural integrity.

The introduction of laser guided frame straightening provided a new solution. Some frames can be straightened using sophisticated software and state of the art laser alignment tools. This method is only effective when performed by skilled technicians with a firm understanding of how the process works, and Henley's Paint and Body is one of only a handful of shops in the vicinity able to offer this service.

Concluded Henley, “We also provide a full array of traditional repair methods and detailing services.

We gladly offer free estimates and insurance claim assistance. Our technicians are fully certified in both foreign and domestic vehicles, and we specialize in luxury models like Mercedes, Volvo, Porsche and Jaguar.”

8 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

AkzoNobel Program Puts Cars Back on the Road

As part of its 15th Annual Benevolence Program, AkzoNobel’s Acoat Selected collision repair centers presented the gift of transportation to deserving individuals, families and organizations during the 2013 holiday season. The AkzoNobel Acoat Selected International Benevolence Program was established in 1999 as a way for participating Acoat members to generate charitable goodwill within the communities they serve.

As of right now, member collision repair centers have refurbished and given approximately 431 vehicles to families in need.

Zara’s Collision Center in Springfield, IL, and Bates Custom & Collision Repair in Baytown and Channelview, TX, were among the 23 Acoat members that participated in the program this year. Both of these collision repair centers have participated in the Benevolence Program for many years, and each presented two cars this holiday season.

Zara’s Collision Center, owned

by Julie and Brad Zara, has participated in the Benevolence Program for 14 years now.

“We always feel thrilled to see how much these cars mean to each and every family that receives them,” said Julie Zara. “We’ve given away

26 vehicles in total and now have more than 40 other local businesses that join us in the effort by donating all kinds of things like repairs, gift cards, monetary gifts and more. This effort brings incredible joy to everyone involved.”

The cars involved in the program come from the hundreds that are written off by owners or insurance companies. Employees at participating shops donate their time and talents to refurbish and repaint the vehicles, then work with local charitable organizations to select individuals or groups who are in desperate need of a vehicle or vehicles. Other gifts such as auto insurance, oil changes, car washes, grocery store gift cards, clothing, toys and books are also donated by area merchants to accompany the car or cars, so the program typically becomes a community effort.

“It puts a big smile on my face when I see our employees still getting excited about revealing their Christmas gift of ‘wheels’ to families they’ve never met,” said Leila Bates, owner of Bates Custom & Collision Repair in Channelview and Baytown, Texas.

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Clean Rooms Becoming a Common Sight in Body Shops Nationwide

by Ed Attanasio

If you’re a body shop owner, you’ve heard the news—aluminum is here now and there’s more on the way and we’re not talking about beer cans or cooking foil--we’re talking about cars and trucks and the advent of aluminum in many of our newer vehicles. To adhere to the world’s more stringent fuelefficiency standards, aluminum is an ideal lightweight yet sturdy metal and that’s why more and more car manufacturers are producing and designing vehicles containing aluminum.

In the past, only foreign-made, high-end luxury vehicles were using aluminum, but now the domestic auto manufacturers are also joining the party. For example, the new Ford F150 will include 600 pounds of aluminum, replacing approximately 1,000 pounds of steel and pretty soon, experts are claiming that all of the other American carmakers will join the migration to aluminum.

Aluminum is not like steel and not every body shop in the country is interested in working with it, because it’s highly heat-sensitive and requires

special equipment, tools, training and certifications. But, if you want to fix cars made by Mercedes Benz, Audi, Jaguar, etc.—you will have to step up and invest in the equipment that they demand. Aluminum repairs aren’t just something you can get into tomorrow

An aluminum clean room is a quarantined cubicle dedicated to strictly aluminum work. It’s carefully sectioned off from the rest of the shop via curtains, so that steel and aluminum will never meet. Steel and other types of metal contain elements that contam-

Here is an example of what a good clean room setup looks like, courtesy of Reliable Automotive Equipment, the country’s leading provider of clean rooms to the collision industry

by listing them under you’re the Services section of your web site. It takes planning and a substantial investment in both time and equipment but most notably, it will require the installation of a clean room.

inate aluminum. Iron oxide flies into the air when technicians grind and sand steel components, which causes corrosion. That leads to adhesion and paint failures. Shops end up replacing those ruined components and eating that part

of the repair and damaging the bottom line, especially if it becomes commonplace.

Reliable Automotive Equipment, Inc. in Belford, NJ is one of the country’s leading providers of clean rooms for the collision industry. General Manager Mike Kirchoff has seen the evolution of aluminum in cars, because his company has been on the cutting-edge of this movement since 2003. “We’ve been providing clean rooms and the associated tools and equipment since before most body shops were even thinking about aluminum,” Kirchoff said. “At first, we were working with a lot of collision centers associated with dealerships selling mostly Mercedes Benz, Audi, Tesla and Jaguar, but now we’re getting calls from independent shops and small Multiple Shop Organizations (MSO’s) that want to fix these higherend vehicles.”

Setting up a clean room with the right equipment and tools is not something you can learn on Wikipedia, according to Kirchoff. “Part of what we offer is our knowledge and experience,” Kirchoff said. “Anyone can construct a

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 9

room, but do you know how to equip it with the best tools available? We know what each manufacturer requires and that’s why body shops gravitate toward working with us. Using the right welders, riveters and the correct hand tools as well as having proper lighting —these are crucial decisions. So, we sit down with every customer and discuss their specific needs. What cars do you want to pursue certifications for? What happens if you want to add manufacturers at a later date? What is the size and layout of your shop floor? By getting answers to these questions, we can identify the best package for each shop.”

What are the essential components needed in every clean room environment? Kirchoff briefly described each category to give us a general idea of what’s involved:

Tool Set: Shops need an entirely separate set of tools to be used only for aluminum. You’ll need to buy a second set of all the tools you currently use on steel, because contaminants can adhere to your tools and lead to major problems down the road.

Bonding Agents and Guns: Very specific based on each manufacturer and their use. Different adhesives require specialized equipment.

Safety Equipment: Technicians need a separate set of safety equipment for the clean room, including eye goggles and gloves.

MIG/Pulse Arc Welder: The characteristics of aluminum require the use of MIG/Pulse Arc welders.

Riveting Tools: Aluminum requires the use of high-tech riveting tools, many of which are also used on airplanes.

Explosion-Proof Vacuum: An explosion-proof vacuum is necessary to clean excess dust from the room. It draws all hazardous particles into a water bath to prevent thermite reactions and explosions. In addition, you’ll require a Gas Evacuation System to suck out all the contaminants

Parts Cart: Absolutely anything that aluminum components will touch needs to be 100 percent dedicated for permanent aluminum use. That includes parts carts, stands, workbenches and jacks. Cross-using those items between different materials causes a risk of contamination.

30 LB Class D Fire Extinguisher: A special fire extinguisher is required in the event of a thermite reaction, be-

dealerships and we have no DRPs. We get enough of these cars here in the shop to justify the costs and I

An aluminum clean room is a quarantined cubicle that’s carefully sectioned off so that steel and aluminum will never meet

cause typical extinguishers can actually spread these types of fires.

Frame Bench: Specialized frame equipment is required for measuring and jigging structural aluminum components.

Paul Sgro is the owner of Lee’s Garage in West Long Branch, NJ. Well before aluminum was prevalent in many vehicles, Sgro contracted RAE to install a clean room in his shop. And it’s been a win-win ever since, he explained.

“Eight years ago, we saw more aluminum in these cars and to get certified with Audi and Mercedes, we knew we had to step up,” Sgro said.

“We contacted RAE and they helped us in every aspect of the design and construction of our clean room. We decided to build it in a room completely separate from the rest of our shop, so that contamination would be a non-issue. The steel never even gets close to any aluminum, so it’s ideal.”

Lee’s Garage employs 21 people and fixes 200-275 cars monthly in a modest, 12,000 square-foot facility but by utilizing every inch wisely, his move to a clean room has been a productive one, he said. “It’s not cheap working on the cars we have certifications for (Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Audi and Volkswagen), especially when you include the proper tools and training. We had to ask ourselves—what do we want to be? And the answer was yes—we want to work on these types of cars, so we invested roughly $100,000 to get there. Has it been a successful venture? Yes, because we work with local

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know we’ll see a lot more of them in here, because we’re known for being skilled and have the equipment necessary to do these repairs. We have a good track record, which differentiates us from our competition.”

Sgro said working with RAE was also a smart move, he said. “Their knowledge was so important and they

gave us the best solutions possible.

They pushed us into the right direction and then everyone here bought into it.

If you’re a shop considering a clean room, I would say—don’t hesitate.

This is the beginning of the aluminum age and if you’re not on the cutting edge, you might just get cut.”

Amber Alley is the manager at Barsotti’s Body & Fender in San Rafael, CA, a shop that has been repairing high-end luxury vehicles well before the massive migration to aluminum. Alley has three clean rooms going all the time, installed with the assistance of RAE, she explained.

“Shops call us all the time to ask us about clean rooms—what they cost, how to install them, etc. I tell them, first look carefully at your part of the country and make sure people have enough of these cars to justify the investment. Here in Marin County, we get a lot of these cars and they make up about 70% of our total car count.

We fix 100-200 cars every month without any DRPs, but that’s not going to work in other regions. You can’t get into this just part-time or half-time, because these car manufacturers want you to prove that you’re 100% committed to fixing them.”

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Caliber Collision Opens New Centers in CA (70) & TX (59)

Caliber Collision Centers continues its rapid expansion with the announcement that it has acquired WIN Collision Center in Carson, CA, and B&G Collision in Temple, TX. The “opening of two new Caliber locations in California and Texas reinforces our commitment to adding centers in every Caliber market to ensure customer choice and deliver industry-leading metrics,” said Steve Grimshaw, CEO of Caliber Collision Centers. “These two new Caliber Collision centers now bring our total number of locations in California to 77 and 59 in Texas.” The 30,000 sq. ft. Carson store is at 2201 E 223rd Street, Carson, CA. Caliber’s new 20,000 square foot Temple location also opened today at 5710 South General Bruce Drive, Temple, TX. “Our Carson and Temple openings bring our total number of locations across the western U.S. to 161 as we continue to restore our customers to the rhythm of their lives throughout California and Texas,” added Mark Sanders, Caliber Collision Centers’ President and Chief Operating Officer. Caliber now has 161 I-CAR Gold Class repair centers in AZ, CA, CO, NV, OK, and TX.

Honda Dealer Harold Tipton, Texas Transplant, Dies at 97

Harold Bunn Tipton was born on Jan. 7, 1917 in Runningwater, TX, the second oldest of four to DeWitt Tipton and Essie King Tipton. He attended college for one year in Texas before serving as a private first class in the Army for one year. He moved to San Diego’s East County in the mid 1950s and began selling cars, all makes and models, including Kaisers, Fords, Chevrolets and Lincolns. His method for selling was old school by today’s tactics. “When he started in the car business, he would go out with brochures and make appointments for people to come into the dealership,” said Peterson. “That is probably as tough as it gets. But he was a salesman.” In 1956, Mr. Tipton opened Tipton Oldsmobile in La Mesa. Over the years, he held other franchises, including Fiat, Saab, Peugot, Chrysler, Plymouth, Volvo and Jeep before opening San Diego County’s first Honda dealership in 1974, in El Cajon. A Texan through and through, he loved John Wayne and westerns. The walls of his office at the El Cajon dealership were covered with the horns of real Texas longhorns, spurs, branding irons and lariats.

12 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Caliber Opens 1st Greefield Repair in NM in 10 Years

Caliber Collision Centers has entered into its seventh western U.S. state with today’s grand opening of its second “from-the-ground-up” greenfield facility in Las Cruces, NM in more than 10 years. “Our newest Las Cruces facility is our second concept store with the latest innovations including new lobby layout and design for a better customer experience, side load paint system technology for faster and better painting, and an Enterprise Rent-A-Car facility for onestop drop and go convenience,” said Steve Grimshaw, Caliber Collision Centers’ Chief Executive Officer.

“Today’s opening of our new 14,000 square foot, state-of-the-art Las Cruces center is our first entry in the New Mexico market.” The new location is at 2100 North Telshor Blvd., Las Cruces, NM. “This is our fifth new opening in six weeks and brings our total locations to 162 as we continue to grow as the collision repair provider of choice in every community we serve,” added Mark Sanders, Caliber Collision Centers’ President and Chief Operating Officer.

Caliber Collision’s new center is located at 2100 North Telshor Blvd., Las Cruces, NM.

Houston UTI Demonstrates Painting Skills to Juniors

Collision Repair Instructor Tim Butts, left, demonstrates how to use an air brush to Westville junior Antronette Mehlhorn, right, during the Monster Jam Open House on Friday, Jan. 31, at the Universal Technical Institute in Houston. The preview, which was open to the public, drew in over a thousand high school students from throughout the area for campus tours, autographs with the Grave Digger driver and crew and more.

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First Meeting

Randy McLachan of Performance Finish & Collision stated his belief that LaCIA is doing a good job in following the footsteps of the Louisiana Auto Dealers Association and taking a professional approach to running the group. He believes training and education are the two top things LaCIA can deliver to its members, and said he wants LaCIA to be “an association of education.”

Reid Heiser of Mitchell International also added his thoughts on what an association can accomplish: a sense of community, training and perspective.

“It’s a great thing to walk into a room of neighbors and not a room of competitors,” said Heiser. “The industry is rapidly changing, and if you don’t keep up with it, you will not succeed. We need to embrace those changes and plan for what is coming down the line. And unless you get out and see what others are doing and not doing, nothing will ever change.”

LaCIA Executive Director Alysia Hanks is currently drafting a formal request to send to the Louisiana insur-

ance commissioner asking him to look into the legality of PartsTrader in the state.

The Louisiana Collision Industry Association announced that the website for the Southern Automotive Repair Conference has officially gone live.

The conference will take place April 11–12, 2014 at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, MS. Speakers will include Aaron Schulenburg of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists, John Eaves Jr. of the Eaves Law Firm, Ray Gunder of Gunder’s Auto Center and John Mosley of Clinton Body Shop.

Associations supporting the event include: • Alabama Automotive Repair Industry Society of Excellence • Georgia Collision Industry Association • Florida Autobody Collision Alliance • Louisiana Collision Industry Association • Mississippi Collision Repair Association • Tennessee Collision Repairers Association LaCIA is accessible on Twitter at @LouisianaCIA and on the web at http://www.la-cia.com.

Dallas Dodge Donates 178 Jackets to Garland schools

Dallas Dodge donated 178 jackets to two schools in Garland TX before Christmas. The schools are both located about 5 miles from the dealership. They did this with the help of Shelley Ard (center back) of Ard Apparel. Shawn Swenson,

General Manager, is on the right.

Swenson has a passion for charity work and wants to expand on this later this year by reaching out to many more children. Parts Manager John Russo is on the left at back.

Dallas Police Still Looking for Hit-and-Run Black Sedan

Dallas police are looking for the driver of the car that rammed and flipped another vehicle, sending all four of its occupants to the hospital with serious injuries. Officers were dispatched to the 3600 block of N. Jim Miller Road at 2:30 in the morning; four people were reported injured in “major accident.” When they arrived officers discovered how major: They found a silver car that had collided into a street light with such force the car yanked the pole and its concrete base out of the ground. The car had turned over.

The occupants—two men and two women, according to initial reports —told police what had happened: They’d just left a club at Dilido Road and East R.L. Thornton Freeway, and, for reasons still not clear, another car began to follow them.

The car stayed with them all the way to Jim Miller, where, they told police, the driver rammed them from behind and sent them into the street light. The suspect then drove off. All four passengers were transported to Baylor University Medical Center.

The suspect, last seen in a black car, will be charged with aggravated assault with a motor vehicle.

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 13

In-Process Quality Assurance

by Lee V. Rush, Manager of Business Consulting Services, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Lee can be reached at leroy.v.rush@sherwin.com.

I am not a theory guy and happy to admit that. After nearly 20 years of managing body shops, & MSOs, I have discovered technicians do not respond well to theory. So I prefer a more real world, shop floor, “boots on the ground” approach when it comes to improving the quality process of a collision repair facility and coming up with a strategy to execute.

When it comes to the quality challenges facing our industry, many would agree that there is too much talk and far too little action. The issue is that most of us use “quality control,” QC systems, to assure that lessthan-perfect repairs don’t reach the customers. At Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes we believe a more effective system should introduce standards for identifying and correcting quality defects at each stage in the repair process, “In-Process Quality Assurance” (IPQA).

IPQA focuses on the “process” not just the outcome. Too many body shops focus on the outcome of repairs or service and not the process. By mapping processes you are able to reduce or eliminate persistent quality problems. Processes that are poorly constructed lead to poor quality.

In terms of quality improvement, we must begin with a paradigm change, which means a change in the “way we view the world”, the world of collision repair. The world of collision repair and our view of it have developed over many years and have many traditions of which most are not healthy. I am amazed that I can have basic service or tire work performed on my vehicle and it is taken for a test drive after the work is performed. Yet, in our industry, a vehicle can have mechanical and structural work performed and the technician will never drive the vehicle.

Our first order of business is to revise or change our view of the world of collision repair. Remember that small revisions in your world views will generally cause small behavioral changes, yet incremental increases in quality performance, while significant revisions cause significant behavioral changes and large quality performance improvements. To earnestly

begin your IPQA system you and your teams will need a paradigm change Problems with repair quality are frequently the result of a misunderstanding or a miscommunication rather than a reflection of the technician’s ability to repair the vehicle correctly. There are two principals at the core of an In-Process Quality Assurance system: 1. Each step in the repair process must include a well-defined set of individual and departmental responsibilities.

2. Each technician must know exactly what is expected of them when they assume the responsibility for a repair process.

Though these principles do not seem very difficult or complicated, they have proven to be elusive to many shops. You might say “no problem, we are doing this today, and our quality is fine”. The intent is to implement a process that is consistent and predictable with as little effort from management as possible. The opportunity is to eliminate the “internal redos” that cost a shop far more in productivity and through-put than any come-back. Certainly we want to eliminate come-backs, but the real gains come from eliminating “internal come-backs,” repairs returning to body from paint, to paint from body, from detail to body and paint… etc.

These internal “come-backs” are far more costly than customer comebacks. Just because they are not as obvious to the P&L statement and are not reflected in “Policy Adjustment” we have become accustomed to accepting them. Even when the final results of our quality are good, the pain and amount of effort to achieve and complete the delivered vehicle does not justify the losses in productivity and through-put. By implementing an In-Process Quality Assurance system in your shop, you can ensure the vehicle will move from department to department eliminating stops and starts, and internal come-backs.

Each step in the repair process includes a well-defined set of individual and department responsibilities from front end Sales & Service to Production. We are quick to point out the quality defects of a technician’s re-

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pairs, however very remiss to point to our own defects in Sales & Service.

The product we produce in the front

end of the business is as important to quality assurance as the repairs are to the vehicle itself. From the accuracy of our Damage Analysis (100% accurate RO) to Parts Correctness (100% mirror matched parts), the management of Sales, Service, and Production Coordination are equally accountable to quality assurance as is the technician’s repair of the vehicle.

Once we realize improving the repair means improving the process, we can begin to focus on the solution, and not the problem. By identifying the Criti-

cal to Quality (CTQ) characteristics, we can standardize the methods that best produce the desired quality of repairs and services our customers expect.

Let’s look at an example of each:

Quality Assurance Responsibilities in Sales & Service Because problems with repair quality are frequently the result of a misunderstanding or miscommunication, it is critical for the front end of the business to ensure the quality of work is such that it provides all the necessary information to production. By specifying each step in the repair process and including a well-defined set of individual and departmental responsibilities, quality can be built into the product and service provided.

Critical to Quality (CTQ) for Sales & Service 1. Customer Information Form completed 2. Customer concerns and requests documented 3. Complete Vehicle Check In Form See Quality Assurance, Page 18

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NW Louisiana Collision Repairers Met Feb 4 to Talk Youth Education and Tech School Training, Next Meeting is March 4 in Shreveport The Northwest Louisiana Collision Repair Association (NWLCRA) met on February 4 at the Country Tavern in Shreveport, LA. The meeting was opened in the usual fashion with Chris Fielder of Fielder Paint & Body, our President reading the Anti-Trust statement, and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Dick McDaniel of Car-O-Liner and Garmat gave the prayer.

Gary Weese, an instructor with Caddo Parish & Technology Center spoke first about the annual upcoming Automotive Youth Education System (AYES) “Business/Mentor Awards Banquet. It will be held on February 13, 2014. For more information, see the Calendar page on nwlcra.org. One of the most significant points Gary brought out was that the State of Louisiana has put money back in the budget for Career and Technical schools because they have now seen the importance of training our youth.

Chris stressed that everyone should get involved in programs such as AYES and others to get better Technicians. Helping these programs will develop better Technicians.

Bill Burnside, Secretary/Treasurer, and I-CAR instructor discussed

the upcoming I-CAR schedule that is now on I-CAR’s website through the month of December 2014. Bill also works for Tri-State Coatings, and is very active with the Skills USA competition. He gave an update on the High School level Skills competition and said that as always, judges and helpers are needed with the event. The High School level will begin on April 3, 2014. Anyone interested should contact Bill Burnside. The Post-Secondary Skills level will be held later in April. Again, judges and helpers are needed for these events.

Southern Auto Repair Conference will be April 11 and 12 in Biloxi, Mississippi and will have Attorney Eason as the speaker. Several collision centers in the Mississippi have filed an injunction against Parts Trader.

Ken Braswell with Brock’s Collision attended the Louisiana Collision Association (LCA) which was held on January 21, 2014. He said this is a newly formed association and there were well over 100 in attendance. He said multiple topics were discussed and like us, they stress the need for people in the industry to become involved with the local Colli-

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sion Industry Associations and the State level. If there are things you would like to get improved in the Industry, complaining about it never helps, but becoming involved can make changes.

The meeting was adjourned and the NWLCRA will meet next month at the Country Tavern at 6:30 pm on March 4, 2014. We would like to have another good turnout and hope that our local Collision professionals will become involved to make our Collision Industry the best for the Ark-LATex area!

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Texas Auto, Homeowner Complaints at Record Low

In 2013, Texas drivers and homeowners filed the fewest number of complaints against their insurance companies since the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) began keeping records, the Insurance Council of Texas reports. According to TDI’s Consumer Protection division, there was approximately one justified complaint for every 16,000 auto or homeowner insurance policies in effect. Auto insurance complaints have been going down every year since 2002. Last year, with nearly 15 million auto policies in effect, 900 drivers filed complaints with TDI, another record low.

“These record low numbers demonstrate that insurance companies are responding quickly and offering fair settlements to their customers” said Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the ICT. “TDI’s data shows insurers have been successful in keeping complaints down to a minimum.” The majority of complaints filed with TDI over property/ casualty issues deal with delays in settling claims. With a complaint in hand TDI’s Consumer Protection division steps into help resolve these claims for consumers.

Colleyville’s Lone Star Collision Suffers Heavy SUV Hit

A GMC Yukon crashed through the Lone Star Collision repair shop in Colleyville, Texas, last Wednesday after hitting a sedan. Police believe alcohol was a factor in the collision, MyFoxDFW.com reported.

The driver of the Yukon had previous DWI convictions and was taken into custody. His name was not released.

When the SUV slammed into the sedan, it rolled over, and slid on its roof until it crashed through the outer wall of the repair shop, Jalopnik reported. Two people in the sedan were injured in the crash and taken to a local hospital, but neither the driver of the SUV nor people inside of the building were hurt.

Still, Lone Star Collision owner Jennifer Lapier admitted being a little shaken up by the event.

“It was unbelievable. I just couldn’t believe what I saw. I’ve never seen anything like that before,” she said, according to the Metro. “It is ironic that they crashed into a building that was a collision center.”

It is unknown at press time whether the repair shop will fix up the SUV.

Countdown to NORTHEASTTM 2014 Tradeshow Begins

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

As March 2014 rolls towards us, AASP/NJ is busy gearing up for their annual NORTHEASTTM Conference and Tradeshow which will be held March 21–23 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, NJ. Planned with all aspects of the industry in mind, this year’s schedule is packed with industry events, celebrity appearances and exciting activities for the entire family, including annual favorites and brand new seminars and activities.

Executive Director Charles Bryant is excited for all of the new offerings this year. “As usual, the AASP/NJ has worked tirelessly to put together a show that offers a little of everything for everyone that attends, and I mean everything! Each event has the potential to be invaluable to the attendees. My expectations would be for everyone that attends to strive to take advantage of the hard work that went into making the show the very best possible by attending as many of the scheduled events as possible.”

On Friday morning, NORTHEASTTM 2014 will kick off with AASP’s National Spring Board Meeting to discuss ongoing business operations, to consider new membership benefit offerings, and to share updates on the programs, activities and initiatives taking place at the affiliate level.

In the afternoon, AASP/NJ and SCRS will co-host the 2014 East Coast Resolution Forum and Leadership Meeting where representatives from state associations are invited to update one another on their organizations’ activities and to share and discuss industry news. This annual meeting has proven to be an excellent outlet for networking and collaboration on issues impacting the industry nationally.

A special panel discussion entitled PartsTrader Comes to the Northeast: Now WHAT? will be held Friday evening from 6-8PM to present an overview of the system and how it is affecting collision repair facilities across the country in anticipation of plans for PartsTrader to roll out to the Northeasttm this spring. Included in this panel will be industry veterans

who have dealt with PartsTrader as well as association representatives who are finding ways to combat this program, and the panel discussion will be followed by an open forum where attendees will have a chance to express their views on PartsTrader and ask questions to glean new information.

Also on Friday night, John Niechwiadowicz of Performance Consulting Services will present “Unleashing Your Secret Power,” a seminar focused on increasing profitability, improving productivity, reducing cycle times, and increasing customer satisfaction through use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

This seminar will be repeated Saturday night to give those attending the PartsTrader discussion an opportunity to learn this useful information.

Another new seminar that will be held on Friday night and again on Saturday is “Ford’s National Body Shop Program and Related Information.”

Melissa Lester, Collision Marketing Manager of Ford’s Customer Service Division, will host a presentation and See Northeast Tradeshow, Page 39

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Quality Assurance

with customer 4. Pre-Existing Damage identified 5. Authorization to Repair Form signed by customer 6. Payment process explained to customer 7. Communication process explained to customer 8. CSI process explained to customer 9. Repair Order information marked on glass 10. Vehicle moved to Damage Analysis staging area When employees know exactly what is expected of them, they will assume responsibility for that repair and customer’s experience. Without clearly defined expectations, they will never assume the responsibility. After all, would you assume responsibility for something that has not been explained to you clearly, written and discussed to ensure everyone understands?

Once CTQ expectations are understood it is important to set up the process by which the expectations are to be managed.

Key Elements of the Sales & Service Process The CSS or CSR has overall responsibility for the completion of the Sales and Service Vehicle Drop Off Process.

1. Complete, verify, and document all process steps before removing a vehicle from drop off to staging for DA. 2. DRP requirements and the approved billing must be verified and all involved personnel informed.

3. In a professional manner contact and update the customer every other day on the repair progress.

4. Obtain insurance approval or complete DRP documentation.

5. Any vehicle that is “On Hold” for more than 2 days is referred to the Facility Manager.

6. Use the correct formula to calculate the projected delivery date.

Quality Assurance Responsibilities in Production The intent of the Production quality assurance responsibilities is to establish processes, standards, and accountability for: 1) identifying and 2) correcting quality defects at each stage in the vehicle’s repair process. The Production Process should inform and educate the technicians about the Production Quality Assurance Process

and use the appropriate Critical to Quality characteristics. These CTQ expectations should be listed on a Quality Assurance Inspection (QAI) form, and all steps necessary to complete a QAI should be addressed. Proceeding in this manner should result in the quality being built in from department to department.

Metal Technician Accountabilities * Structural areas properly welded * All welds cleaned and ground * OEM Seam Sealer applied properly * Clamp marks repaired inside and out * Corrosion protection applied to all metal repairs * Parts Labels removed from all replaced parts * Sound Deadening Panels Applied * Trim removed for paint as per repair order * No Sand scratches, pin holes * Body lines correct * Gaps match other areas * Interior of Vehicle properly protected

Key Elements of the Production Process The Production Manager or the person designated as such has the overall responsibility for the completion of the Quality Assurance Process and should: 1. Verify all inspections before moving a vehicle to the next department.

2. Verify and sign the QAI and inform all involved personnel.

3. Discuss all failures with all involved personal.

4. Obtain QAI approval and complete sign offs as soon as possible.

5. Be assertive and disciplined with QAIs. 6. A vehicle that is “on hold” for a failure for more than 2 days is referred to the Facility Manager.

7. Document all failures for Quality Assurance review.

Once these responsibly and the process is defined and understood, the Production Manager or the person designated as such has the overall responsibility for the completion of the In-Process Quality Assurance Process and will have the overall responsibility to make sure this process is completed according to expectations.

However, the repair technician is responsible for completing the inspection of their own repairs and signing off on the Quality Assurance Inspection. Now, I know what you might be thinking, “If I can get them to sign the QAI, how can I be sure they will judge

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themselves correctly”? Remember, our first order of business was to change our view of the world of collision repair and with that a new expectation.

Given the need to “connect the dots” between the grand concepts presented to us by the visionaries in our industry and the managers and techni-

cians at the shop level, SherwinWilliams Automotive Finishes has developed the Managed Collision Repair program. MCR is a tactical, shoplevel approach to lean implementation designed by collision operators for collision operators. MCR uses a series of workshops to help operators clearly understand each lean tool and develop a custom strategy to implement these

tools in their own shops.

The MCR program is not your traditional “training,” but a customized approach focused on the real-world challenges we face when implementing lean tools within our shops, such as In-Process Quality Assurance. With the emphasis on “workshop,” the MCR program is designed to help your collision facility take the implementation lessons we have learned in the past to formulate a sustainable program to drive process improvements moving forward.

By connecting the dots, together we can improve overall quality, productivity and profitability through the use of In-Process Quality Assurance. The point is that you don’t have to be a lean expert to take advantage of the many lean tools available in the industry today such as IPQA. We just need a simple, clearly defined Standard Operating Process and a Strategic Plan of how to implement in your facility.

Visit www.sherwin-automotive.com to learn more about the MCR program.

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Get your Brand Out There by Going Outdoors Outdoor advertising used to primarily consist of billboards, but now with new technologies and other emerging types of media, the signage industry includes bus boards, taxi advertising, car wraps, trade show booth advertising, bus stop and train stop mini-billboards, video kiosk advertising, sport events advertising and even grocery cart advertising. It’s gotten to the point where almost everywhere we look we see an outdoor advertising message for some brand.

Body shops and collision centers all over the country utilize billboards and other forms of outdoor advertising to get their message out there while engaging their existing and potential customer base right where they want them to be—in their cars or on busses and in cabs, etc.

But, not everyone appreciates outdoor advertising and many call it “visual pollution.” Last year, São Paulo in Brazil was the first city to enact a ban on virtually all outdoor advertising. Billboards, neon signs, and even buses and taxis have been wiped clean of advertisements in the municipality, the world’s fourth largest. According to Mayor Gilberto Kassab, the city’s so-called “Clean City Law” meant attacking pollution in every form, including air, water, noise and annoying signage.

Since its adoption, the law has eliminated some 15,000 billboards as well as other ads citywide and has generated more than $8 million in fines, according to David Evan Harris from Adbusters. While some advertising and business groups complain that the ban limits free expression, costs jobs, and makes streets less safe by reducing lighting from signage, the move has won more than 70 percent approval from São Paulo residents, many of whom appreciate the aesthetics of a city with less advertising.

São Paolo is not the only city to take action against outdoor advertising. This spring, the municipal government of Beijing, China’s capital city, began reducing ads by targeting billboards for luxury housing. “Many [of the ads] use exaggerated terms that encourage luxury and self-indulgence

which are beyond the reach of low-income groups and are therefore not conducive to harmony in the capital,” the city’s mayor, Wang Qishan, told The Wall Street Journal.

Well, as long as it’s still legal, outdoor advertising is an ideal way for

Zara’s Collision Center in Springfield, IL has been using billboards for the past seven years

collision repair companies to continue their ongoing branding efforts. Getting your name in the brain of the consumer in your area is key and if a billboard or an inflatable gorilla standing on your roof will reinforce your shop’s name and lead to people coming through the door, why not do it?

Zara’s Collision Center in Springfield, IL, has been using billboards for the past seven years and its owner, Brad Zara strongly believes they bring him business, he said, although he has no specific numbers.

“Most of the billboards we do here in Springfield are not near our shop, because we want to pull business from other parts of the city,” Zara said. “We do four different themes every year and run each one quarterly, so that there’s some variety. We usually donate one billboard per year to a local charity or cause we believe in.

Our logo is there on those charitybased billboards, but in the end we give the organization or cause most of the space.”

Are his billboards worth the cost, we asked Zara. “I have no idea, actually,” he said. “But I can tell you this—our customers mention them literally every day. People say things like ‘I saw this billboard yesterday,’ etc—but that billboard was from three years ago. But they think it’s still up there, which is good, because it shows that they’re thinking of us and they

20 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

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

still have that message in their brains.”

Zara’s gets their billboard designs and coordinates the placement of the billboards through HIP Advertising is a full-service central Illinois advertising agency offering creative, marketing, Web and media services. Mark Butler, a corporate communications executive at HIP Advertising has been working with Brad Zara on his billboard campaigns since day one. “Our relationship with Zara’s came from a cold call back in 2005, as I recall,” Butler explained. “The campaign has grown from there and by now, we have the process down. At the end of each year, we sit down with Brad and his people and go over the creative concepts for each billboard for the following year. Then we do the final designs and start scheduling the billboards for the coming year.”

When it comes to billboards in general, the key is obviously visibility, but the message is also a big part,

Butler said. “It has to be simple and direct with a large graphic supporting the message. A common mistake is when companies try to convey too much information on a billboard.

Drivers aren’t going to sit there and read it, so you have to convey your message quickly. If you’re going get 10-15 seconds of their time, that’s pretty much the max. So brevity is crucial if you want your billboard to get response. With Zara’s, we like to use a fun, whimsical and humorous approach and it really seems to work.”

Jon McKnight is the business development manager at Fife’s Auto Body, with two locations in Ohio.

Rife’s has been buying billboards and other forms of outdoor advertising for the past five years and the results are positive, he explained.

“People around here know who we are, and by asking each customer through the door how they heard

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about us, we know that the billboards are being seen,” McKnight explained. “That’s pretty much what you want from any form of advertising or marketing. We partner with charities and give us our billboards, at least one every year and we also do promotions via our billboards. We gave away a round of golf one time, by asking people to like us on Facebook and we always try to do timely things. For instance, right now we’re running a Winter Olympics theme. We’ve used every technique to get consumers to look at our billboards. We put our dogs on there and we even ran one billboard upside down, just to create a buzz and entice the public—and it seemed to work!”

3M Automotive Expands ‘Hire our Heros’ Campaign Grants Through its 2013 Hire Our Heroes campaign, 3M Automotive Aftermarket donated $250,000 to programs that help returning military veterans, and honored some 25 veterans who are currently working in auto body repair shops along with their repair shop owners at the November NASCAR race in Texas. “The message of Hire Our Heroes was directed to shop owners and managers, so it felt right to recognize those veterans working in our industry and the owners who employ them,” said Dale Ross, U.S. marketing operations manager for 3M Automotive Aftermarket Division. “The $250,000 donation was made possible due to the support from our many distributors and collision shop customers

through their purchases of 3M products, and we thank them for helping make this program a success in 2013.”

This year, 3M Automotive Aftermarket will expand the Hire Our Heroes program to continue to serve veterans. The 2014 program will again include a goal of $250,000 in grants and support for collision repair training delivered through the Collision Repair Education Foundation. And this year, the Foundation and 3M are creating a job matching service to connect graduates of the collision repair programs with auto body shops looking for skilled, qualified employees.

Grants are available for qualifying returning veterans and family members.

Grants may be used for tuition,

school fees, tools, textbooks and equipment at qualifying technical schools.

For additional information and to apply, visit: www.CollisionEducationFoundation.org.

“We are excited to be able to continue the 3M Hire Our Heroes program in 2014 and expand it to provide more resources to our returning veterans who want to pursue education, training and jobs in the collision industry,” said Ross. “We had an opportunity to meet many deserving veterans during the course of the 2013 program and were honored to help with their transition to civilian life and a new career path.”

For 2014, distributors of 3M products and shop owners can continue to help support the 3M Hire Our Heroes campaign. For every qualifying purchase by a shop owner of select popular 3M products, 3M will contribute to the campaign, with a goal of $250,000 total. This year, distributor sales professionals who lead the effort can also earn a trip to a NASCAR race in Bristol, TN, or a trip to the SEMA Show. to show their support of U.S. veterans. For more information contact Ted Guck, 3M Automotive Aftermarket, at tcguck@ mmm.com or go to www.3mcollision.com/hire.

Continued from Cover

Axalta Racing

and Head of North American Business Nigel Budden; and Hendrick Motorsports Chairman and Owner Rick Hendrick. Axalta Racing paint scheme artist Sam Bass was also available to take questions from media.

The paint scheme, designed by Bass marks the 22nd season of a historic partnership between Axalta, Hendrick Motorsports and Gordon. In addition to displaying the new car design, Axalta presented Gordon with a donation to the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation. “This is truly a brilliant partnership. We are proud to support Team 24, Jeff’s philanthropic endeavors and Hendrick Motorsports.

There is tremendous enthusiasm and mutual benefit. We look forward to a successful 2014,” said Budden.

Axalta’s first sponsored race of the 2014 season will showcase the Brilliant Flames paint scheme in Las Vegas on Sunday, March 9, 2014 in the Kobalt Tools 400.

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 21

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

The California Autobody Association (CAA) Charts a Course for Shops in the Golden State The California Autobody Association (CAA) is a non-profit trade organization made up of roughly 1,000 individual and independent businesses within the automobile collision repair industry. The main focus of CAA is to enable the auto body industry to survive and succeed by helping its members produce a quality repair for the consumer at a CAA Executive fair price for a fair Director David McClune profit. By being in-

volved in CAA, body shop owners show they care about the future of this industry and will always strive to make it better for all involved. CAA approaches its 50th anniversary in 2016.

We sat down recently with David McClune, the Executive Director who has served the organization for the past 14 years, to discuss the state of the organization and its role in California’s collision industry.

Q: Tell us a little bit about the origins and history of CAA?

Talking to Lobbyist Jack Molodanof Jack Molodanof, lobbyist for CAA, offered some perspective on CAA’s ongoing legislative efforts.

Q: Jack, tell us briefly why CAA is valuable to body shop owners through its role in Sacramento?

JM: CAA is the industry’s eyes and ears, essentially. As a body shop owner, you’re not able to stay on top all of the legislation out there that can potentially impact your business—both negatively and positively. It all comes down to power in numbers. If you’re holding one pencil, it can break easily, but if you put four or five of them together, it makes it pretty hard to break. With a group of body shops pushing the same agenda, we can get things done and make an impression, that’s for sure. We’ve done it again and Jack Molodanof again over the years and that’s why we’ve succeeded at the state level. Many of these bills can affect consumers, body shops or the automotive repair industry as a whole, so we’ve learned that the hotter the topic, the more people will step up to either support it, or more likely, to fight it. Legislators come up with new bills all the time, and if no one is there to watch the door, so to speak, things can pass through.

Q: During some years, there are a lot of proposed bills out there that that can greatly impact the industry and then, like last year, there were not as many. Is this just the roll of the dice or is there a plan behind it?

A: Yes, there are some years where there are more than a few bills on our radar and then there are other years, when less is happening—but something is always out there that we need to address and take a position on from the collision industry’s position. We’ve had some very crucial and pivotal things happening over the past few years, primarily the Insurance Department’s regulations on estimates and then the aftermarSee Jack Molodanof, Page 24

22 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

DM: CAA was formed back in late 1966, when several body shop owners in southern California formed chapters the state organization and it just grew from there. Before I became the executive director in 2000, the organization was run by a management company. CAA has evolved with the industry, basically. I think we’ve done a very admirable job on staying abreast of all the changes in collision industry and continually strive to provide the best services and advocacy we can offer.

Q: How has the industry changed since you took over leadership of CAA?

DM: The way some insurers have changed their way of doing business with many of the shops and the emergence of more and more Multiple Shop Operations (MSOs) are probably the most significant changes in the

industry since I started this job. DRPs are much more prevalent now and that’s changed the business in many ways as well. The MSO system is going to increase and we’re going to see larger MSOs gobbling up smaller MSOs as they try to strengthen themselves in different regions of the state.

But, I don’t think that will cause the demise of the independent shops, because they will always have a role and if they do a good job, they will continue to flourish. In the end, if you do good work, you will still get customers and insurance companies will want to work with the leading operators every time, regardless of whether they’re an MSO or an independent with one location. The shops that run efficient businesses and continue to market themselves in their area while taking good care of their customers— those shops will stay strong.

Q: Do you think MSOs have an ad-

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Continued from Page 22

Jack Molodanof

ket crash parts regulations that materialized and was a huge victory for the industry. But, those items could come back at any time, in the form of a new bill or new regulations from the Insurance Department. So, we can never rest or take a break from our legislative efforts on behalf of the body shops that depend on us to be their watch dogs.

Q: We’ve heard some very positive things about David Jones, our current Insurance Commissioner. Do you concur on that opinion?

JM: Fortunately, we currently have an Insurance Commissioner (David Jones) who believes that these issues are important. He understands them and wants to do something about them. He’s also working on labor rate surveys to make certain that the insurance companies are doing surveys that contain some type of criteria while they’re being performed and clarify the process. In addition, Jones is looking at existing law concerning steering regulations and if they’re fair and equitable.

He’s been very active in all these areas and he’s planning on doing more, and we’re working with him actively on an ongoing basis. Our members communicate with him regularly and in fact, Jones will be speaking at our upcoming board meeting, so the relationship is good.

For more information call CAA State Office at: 1-800-454-3368 or visit their Web site at: www.calautobody.com.

24 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

vantage over the smaller independent shops?

DM: The insurance companies are more and more discerning nowadays when they’re looking for shops to work with, and they are always searching for the best business practices out there when making their decisions and that will never change.

So, it does not mean that they will always opt for an MSO. If an independent is doing good repairs and has a strong track record, they will get DRPs, because it’s all about the quality in any business and the insurers want to work with shops that can perform, regardless of their size.

Q: Many shops couldn’t make it through the economic collapse of 2008 and I imagine you lost a few members as a result?

DM: It has been a tough time and all kinds of businesses have had to make changes after 2008. Competition gets more intense when there is less of the pie out there, so body shops have had to step up in some areas, like marketing and efficiency, for example. It’s adapt or survive, but in the end, the consumer

benefits, because things such as customer service and professionalism have improved significantly within the last seven years in the collision industry.

The main thing I heard more from body shops during that rocky period was that they had to increase their efficiencies and do more work with less people.

But, that made them better businesses in the end. Many of them told me that if they had run their businesses this same way 10 years ago this way, that they could have retired by now.

Q: What are some of the bigger things CAA has achieved since you took over in 2000?

DM: Back when I started, we played a major role in devising the body shop complaint form, because until then body shops had no real way to complain to the Dept. of Insurance. So now, both consumers and body shops can file complaints, so that was a big deal. A few years after that, we introduced a bill that said insurers could not own body shops. Even though that bill was defeated, it was significant for us, because it brought the issue up to the surface. It helped to bring some attention to it and eventually it became

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a non-issue, because in the end we believe that insurance companies don’t really want to be in the collision repair business.

Q: Some CAA chapters seem to thrive while others struggle to exist. What do you think are the reasons for this?

DM: In any trade organization, you’re going to have some chapters that are more active than others. We sit down with the chapters that are struggling and look for different ways to strengthen them. At our board meetings, all of the chapters submit reports, showing what’s worked and what hasn’t, and that helps all of the chapters. If you look back at our history, you’ll see that certain chapters have spiked in membership and participation and then they go back down, for a wide range of reasons. It’s usually based on leadership and also sometimes attached to what’s going on in that part of the state. Leading members drop out because they retire, for example, and if those people aren’t replaced, the chapter is impacted. If this happens, we do everything we can to bring the chapter back, and in some cases, it’s worked well.

OEM Collision Repair Roundtable Launches Consumer-Oriented Site: Crashrepairinfo.com, Aims to Educate Consumers on Collision Repair

by Ed Attanasio

Representatives from 10 of the world’s largest carmakers got together to create, design and launch a web site to get its message out there OEM Collision and provide useful Repair Roundtable information on an Chairman Gary ongoing basis to Ledoux worked on the development consumers nationteam that created wide. The main crashrepairinfo.com message with crashrepairinfo.com, a site recently launched by the OEM Collision Repair Roundtable earlier this year at January’s Collision Industry Conference (CIC) planning meeting in Palm Springs, CA, is simple—Consumer awareness is paramount and knowledge is crucial to the collision repair process.

OEM Collision Repair Roundtable Chairman Gary Ledoux, who is also the assistant national manager of wholesale parts marketing at

Honda, said that crashrepairinfo.com is meant to help vehicle owners to make educated decisions when their cars are being repaired following an accident. Featuring OE position statements, collision repair basics, what to do in case of an accident, and links to other OE sites, crashrepairinfo.com has been created to inform, educate and empower the driving public.

Members of the OEM Collision Repair Roundtable, a 16-year-old non-profit collision repair industry association, are made up of representatives from OEM vehicle manufacturers, including American Honda, Audi, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.

The group’s stated mission is to continuously improve the quality of collision repairs available to vehicle owners.

So, the powers that be sat down at the OEM Collision Repair Roundtable (it’s U-shaped to be exact) and determined that a web site was the most effective t way to disseminate its

information to consumers. Now that they’ve created a robust site full of information and featuring easy navigation, the question on every the OEM Collision Repair Roundtable member’s mind is ‘If we build it, well they come?’

“That ‘s the big question,” Ledoux said. “How do we drive traffic to the site? There are millions of car accidents every year, but the average person only gets into one every 7-9 years, depending on who you’re talking to. So, it’s a big demographic, but we know that most people will be looking at it pretty much after they’ve already been in an accident. Finding those people and getting them to visit the site is key, obviously.

“Information is king and we have designed this site with a ton of useful information,” Ledoux said. “We wanted everything on our site to be easy-to-read and with clear language because we realize that most people won’t be visiting this site until they get into an accident.”

The OEM Collision Repair Roundtable designed the site for not

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 25

Two Killed, Including Owner, in Milford, IN, Shop Fire A fire at a Milford auto body shop that left two dead on Feb. 14 was caused by an electrical malfunction, according to the Kosciusko County Fire Investigation Team. The fire happened in the morning at the Medina’s Body Repair Shop at 310 N Higbee Street

The home page of the site is easy-to-use, full of valuable content and features simple navigation throughout

just consumers but for body shops as well. Ledoux is hoping that crashrepairinfo.com will promote open communication between body shops, consumers and their insurance companies as well.

“Most consumers prefer OE parts in their repairs, but many don’t even know the difference between an aftermarket part and a factory part,” Ledoux explained. “When people found out that their insurance contracts require the inclusion of aftermarket and/or recycled parts in the repair of their vehicles, they weren’t happy about it. They told us, ‘I never knew.’ They just assumed that all of the parts in their repair were OEM, but once they looked at their entire contract from their insurance company, they were unpleasantly surprised.”

In a section of the site titled Your Insurance Coverage, consumers are instructed to carefully study their policies, in order to determine what types of parts will be incorporated into their repairs.

Here’s a sample of policy language that allows an insurance company to use non-factory parts: “CAPA certified sheet metal parts; quality salvage, rebuilt, reconditioned and/or remanufactured OEM parts as they apply and the adjuster determines they are of like kind and quality; noncertified aftermarket crash parts where the manufacturer’s warranty meets or exceeds the OEM warranty, to include headlamps, tail lamps, front/rear bumper covers, and bumper parts (excluding energy absorbers and HSLA reinforcements).”

Crashrepairinfo.com goes on to explain how the consumer can stay in

the loop on the use of OE parts in their repairs. According to Ledoux, not many people are aware of the fact that laws exist to protect consumers in this regard: “A repair facility shall not use aftermarket crash parts in the repair of a customer’s motor vehicle without disclosing the proposed use of such parts in the estimate of repairs given to the customer prior to the repair of the motor vehicle. The estimate shall be in writing and shall clearly identify each part proposed to be used which is an aftermarket crash part. No insurance company may require the use of aftermarket crash parts when negotiating repairs of the motor vehicle with any repairer unless the motor vehicle owner consents in writing at the time of the repair to the use of aftermarket crash parts.”

Other sections on crashrepairinfo.com answer basic questions such as What are crash parts?; Why insist on OE crash parts?; What are your rights as a consumer?; How can I find the right body shop? and what is the time required to properly repair the vehicle? Other consumer-related articles deal with hot topics in the news, such as the existence and proliferation of counterfeit and salvage airbags; maintaining vehicle safety systems and the safety concerns associated with the use of reconditioned wheels.

Ledoux is hoping that the new web site will empower consumers to make educated decisions. “We want crashrepairinfo.com to widen the discussion,” he said. “By becoming an advocate for consumers and educating them, I believe we’re providing a service that they really can’t find anywhere else.”

26 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

in Milford, IN. The identity of a woman found dead has been confirmed by the Kosciusko County Coroner’s Office and a man found on the first floor is presumed to be Jose Cruz Medina. Annalu Nunez, age 25, Medina’s fiance, was found by firefighters on the second floor of the building. The coroner said she died of smoke inhalation.

Police said Nunez and Medina both had the body shop’s address listed as their residence. Police had said the two people who died lived in an apartment above the body shop.

Medical examiners of the Northeast Indiana Forensic Center determined

the man also died of smoke inhalation. But, authorities are waiting for DNA testing to be completed to confirm a positive identification of Medina. The fire was ruled accidental.

The Kosciusko County Fire Investigation Team sent out a release on Feb. 18 stating that “the fire originated in the ceiling of a work bay and spread throughout the structure. Evidence found at the scene indicates an electrical malfunction in the wiring supplying power to a ceiling light.”

The fire was called in just after 7 a.m. S R 15 was closed near E. Syracuse Street while fire crews—three different departments—battled the flames. Because it is a body shop with presumed oil, gas and a paint storage area were all potential dangers for the firefighters.

The roof was also sagging in and one wall is bowed. For all of these reasons, emergency workers were at first unable to get inside to check for the residents of an apartment above the northwest corner of the shop.

“They were happy together, and they’re together again now,” said Alex Nunez, Analu’s brother. Analu was a secretary for Medina’s Body Shop. “She was always making somebody happy, her smile. That’ sjust how she was,” said Alex Nunez.

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WIN Offers Support for Women in the Collision Repair Industry

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

The collision repair industry has always been a male-dominated industry, but times are a’changing. An increasing number of women are entering collision repair in various capacities, and that poses the challenge of finding their place, whether it be as office personnel, estimators, technicians,

(l to r) 2012 WIN Chair, Victoria Jankowski (State Farm) Presents Sponsor Appreciation Acknowledgments to Petra Schroeder (Axalta) and Frederica Carter (AkzoNobel)

chemists or engineers. Fortunately, for women currently in the industry or those looking to enter it, the Women’s Industry Network (WIN) stands by to help!

Frederica Carter, an original WIN board member and one of the “founding mothers” who has served as WIN’s Conference Committee Chair and Co-Chair and is currently an integral part of their Communications Committee, shares how the association got started. “There was a group of women who met at various industry functions—these were some of the Most Influential Women in the industry honorees who had been recognized for their significant contributions - and they felt there was more that could be done to bring women into the industry.

So, we reached out to other women and worked on starting an organization. High expectations were set from the beginning.”

First, WIN created a Board of Directors, and then, realizing they needed support and funding, they reached out to various companies, acquiring a large number of sponsors from their inception, a figure that continues to grow. Soon after, WIN began to form committees, set their budget, and define their objectives which included bringing other women into the industry and creating a network. De-

30 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

ciding that the next steps would be to organize a conference, WIN held their first conference in 2007 in Phoenix, beginning an annual tradition.

Jankowski Opens 2013 Educational Conference

With a service area that encompasses all of the US and Canada, WIN’s mission is to promote women in the industry. Ruth Weniger, a WIN member for six years who serves on the Board of Directors and is the Chair of the Communications Committee, elaborates “WIN began with the goal of enhancing the collision repair industry and the women in it through networking, education and the sharing of resources.”

According to Weniger, there is a lot of fluidity between the associa-

tion’s short-term and long-term goals as they strive to increase membership, support female students through scholarships, recognize outstanding leaders in the industry, and develop support for their members via education, information and the development of a network to draw from for strength and advice. Weniger emphasizes, “WIN is committed to providing the strength of community for our members.”

Currently, WIN is preparing for their 2014 Educational Conference which will be held on May 7th–9th at the Paradise Point Resort and Spa in San Diego, CA. As always, the event will be filled with educational sessions, professional development and networking opportunities. This year, WIN is assuming stewardship of the Most Influential Women Awards program from AkzoNobel, so presenting these awards will a feature of their gala dinner.

During the event, WIN will also announce the recipients of their scholarship awards. This year, they will present $1000 scholarships to stu-

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dents entering technical schools’ collitalent acquisition and retention, hence sion repair programs, as well as $1000 their commitment to helping females scholarships to students already enthrive in this male-dominated envirolled in collision repair programs at ronment. Most of WIN’s members all post-secondary schools. The recipients share two bonds: all of them are in this of the post-secondary scholarships will industry and they are female, so WIN also receive year-long memberships to WIN, plus the cost of their travel and attendance at the annual conference. This year, scholarship recipients will also be mentored by winners of the Most Influential Women Awards, offering immediate support to these young women.

In collaboration with the Collision Repair Education Communications Committee Co-Chairs, Ruth Weniger Foundation (CREF), WIN (Airbag Solutions) and Melissa Miller (Carstar), at Conference 2013 has also developed a poster, “There’s a Place for You,” which is strives to support women across all available for sale on their website for functional positions they serve within a $20 donation to the WIN Scholarthe industry, whether it be an adminship fund. The poster has also been istrative function or as a technician. distributed to nearly 1200 technical Though WIN is an association foschools in the US to promote the in- cused on improving the role of women dustry among female students. in the industry, they still understand WIN feels that supporting stu- the value of seeking input from their dents who are interested in entering male counterparts. At NACE in 2013, the industry is extremely important they held a focus group with Mike Anbecause one of the biggest challenges derson as the facilitator and invited facing the collision repair industry is male leaders in the industry to con-

tribute suggestions on growing WIN and to find out what these men knew about their organization. Carter found this to be an interesting approach and notes, “we received great feedback, and some of the men in the focus group even decided to join WIN!” In regards to the challenges WIN faces in maintaining operations, Weniger notes that WIN is an all-volunteer, virtual organization so their members commit their time and personal resources to keep the association going. Carter adds, “our members have been very gracious to volunteer as they all have other jobs too. There’s a lot to do with starting and maintaining an organization, and WIN would struggle without our wonderful volunteers.”

Carter estimates that WIN’s members number in the hundreds and is growing at a rate of 10-20% each year.

WIN members receive many benefits, such as education and networking, plus only members can attend their annual conference, the cost of the educational program which is partially subsidized by the association’s sponsors. Additionally, members receive a monthly newsletter and gain the ability to participate in committees and in leadership positions.

When asked about WIN’s stance on legislative action, Weniger explains, “this brings us back to a fundamental philosophy our organization holds dear. In order to best support our members, WIN remains non-political and avoids becoming embroiled in current issues, allowing us to focus on the professional development of the industry. We’ve found that keeping our focus on personal or professional development is the way to attract women from competing segments of the industry. We are aware of the issues, and people engage on an individual level, but these are not discussions we deal with as an organization. Our focus remains our commitment to our female members and how they interact within the collision repair industry.”

WIN is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to encouraging, developing and cultivating opportunities to attract women to the collision repair industry while recognizing excellence, promoting leadership and fostering a network among the women who are shaping the industry. More information about WIN can be found on their website: thewomensindustrynetwork.ning.com.

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 31

—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.

I-CAR Offers Update, Committees Detail Plans at Last CIC Meeting Much of the agenda at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) held in Palm Springs, Calif., in January was devoted to CIC’s biennial planning session, where participants discuss what topics CIC committees will take on in the coming year or two. But the quarterly meeting also included a number of informational sessions for attendees.

I-CAR CEO John VanAlstyne, for example, offered an update on not only his organization’s training activities, but also its efforts to improve the availability and accessibility of OEM technical information for collision repairers. He said that I-CAR had budgeted over $1 million on that ongoing project over two years, and that the website portal I-CAR is developing to improve access to OEM technical information is being beta-tested and will launch soon.

He said I-CAR also has worked to make its training more affordable.

For the fourth year in a row, he said, there would be no price increase for training for Gold Class businesses, and pricing has been reduced for John VanAlstyne I-CAR newly-renamed “Welding Testing and Certification.” The welding program discounts increase based on the number of students a company is registering, part of I-CAR’s effort to get training to more technicians, VanAlstyne said.

He said I-CAR soon will be rolling out aluminum welding and other training courses specific to Ford’s 2015 F-150 pick-up, which hits showrooms late this year.

Time to Return to an Elected CIC Chair?

During the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) meeting in January, Scott Biggs of Assured Performance Network suggested that CIC return to the practice of allowing attendees to elect its chairmen. For well over a decade, the selection of the chairman for a 2-year term has been made by a committee made up of previous CIC chairmen.

Biggs suggested that those past chairmen instead could put forward two candidates and let CIC attendees vote for which would be the next chairman.

Two previous CIC chairmen voiced opposition to the idea of an election. Massachusetts shop owner Chuck Sulkala, who was CIC’s fourth chairman in 1989 and 1990, noted that CIC isn’t an organization; it’s simply a meeting and the chairman is the facilitator.

“As people who have been in the position (as chairmen) before, we clearly know what’s needed to make sure that the quality of the meeting is as good as we can possibly make it,” SulChuck Sulkala kala said.

He said the past chairs look for someone who has been an active participant at CIC, and someone who is “very competent and qualified, who is respectful to all segments of the industry, because you can’t chair or facilitate a meeting like this if there’s bias in your heart.”

See Time to return, Page 34

32 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

About half of the I-CAR training that students choose to take is now online, up from just 3 percent three years ago, VanAlstyne said. That and the expanded focus on being a source of technical information beyond training is part of I-CAR’s shift in scope.

“We’re working to make information on-demand and accessible, so people get the training and information they need when they need it,” he said.

Also during the meeting, CIC committees offered a preview of some of what they hope to address at upcoming meetings. Steve Regan, chairman of the Governmental Committee, said his committee will have a presentation on the topic of “most-favored nation” clauses at the next CIC, being held April 9–10 in Portland, OR. The clauses are often found in insurer direct repair program agreements, requiring participating shops to give the insurer the best pricing offered to any other.

Several states have now banned the clauses in health insurance contracts, and the Automotive Service Association has urged the U.S. Department of Justice to review most-favored nation clauses in DRP contracts.

Regan said his committee is also planning a presentation for later this year on legal and liability issues related to autonomous (or “self-driving”) cars.

Gene Lopez, chairman of CIC’s Education and Training Committee, said his committee is working on presentations related to coaching and developing mentoring and peer-to-peer training relationships within an organization.

CIC Chairman George Avery led a discussion about the future of CIC’s Data Privacy issue, which may be renamed to incorporate a broader scope of “information technology” issues.

There appeared to be general consenSee I-CAR offers update, Page 34

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Time to return

Elections, Sulkala said, are often popularity contests, where people tend to choose someone who “thinks like they do.”

“It’s not about making sure my side wins and someone else loses,” Sulkala said. “It’s the opportunity to make sure that information is shared in a fair and reasonable manner for everybody. We don’t particularly care who (the chairman) works for. We don’t necessarily care what their job is. But when they sit in that position as chairman of CIC, their total responsibility is to each of us, without favoring any of us.”

CIC Administrator Jeff Hendler, who was CIC’s third chairman in 1987 and 1988, said with an election, an organization could pack the room to ensure their representative was elected, eliminating the neutrality CIC has worked to maintain. He said it also could allow a chairman to be chosen by people who rarely if ever attend CIC. “When George Avery (of State Farm) was named as chairman, I got over 130 emails and letters from people incensed that we would name a chairman from an insurance company to a ‘collision industry association,’” Hendler said, noting CIC is not an association and that Avery was not the first CIC chairman from the insurance industry. “Research showed that over 84 percent of the people who wrote those letters had never been to a CIC meeting. Do we want to be run by people who never show up?”

34 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

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I-CAR offers update

sus the committee is still needed. Several attendees noted the recent controversy when a Ford marketing executive said the automaker tracks customers through vehicle GPS and other technology—only to later retract the statement. A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that automakers and navigation system providers gather a lot of data on where drivers have been, and there are no standards for how long the data is retained nor a way for drivChris Northup ers to ask that their data be destroyed. Avery said he would be seeking a new chairman for the CIC committee that works on data privacy issues.

Chris Northup of the CIC Parts and Materials Committee cited a laundry list of topics still to be addressed by subcommittees, including: aftermarket parts certification standards, parts inventory/availability issues, re-

cycled parts clean-up times, multiple recycled parts standards, impact of OEM price-matching policies, etc.

Randy Hanson of Allstate this year becomes chairman of the CIC Insurer-Repairer Relations Committee.

Outgoing chairman Rick Tuuri said the committee will continue to “identify areas for insurers and repairers to work together for efficiencies.” CIC attendee Rick Sherwood suggested that the committee go back to some of the recommendations the committee developed – such as best practices related to digital images, which was finalized in 2010 – to find out if insurers are aware of them and whether or not they’ve adopted them.

“So rather than just bring a recommendation, which I understand is CIC’s mission, get some feedback that might assist in refining these things as we go forward so they are more actionable at the end of the day,” Sherwood suggested.

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Perry, FL, Dealership Shot Up by Long-Term Employee, Sheriff’s Deputy Still in Serious Condition

Earl Edward Clauge, Jr., 51, an employee of Timberland Ford in Perry, FL, crashed a vehicle into the front of the dealership, exited the vehicle, and began shooting, at about 10:30 AM Wednesday, February 5.

Taylor County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Lundy was in the dealership having his car serviced when Clauge smashed through the glass in his black Nissan truck.

On Wednesday, Clague had called in sick, but showed up a short time later, when he crashed through the front window with his truck and opened fire.

An employee of the store ran to get Lundy, who was having his patrol car fixed in the service center.

Lundy responded by firing his service weapon and Clauge was killed

by Lundy’s action, but not before Clauge hit Lundy with a shotgun blast.

Clauge also shot two other employees, said Gretl Plessinger with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Two civilians were shot and are recovering at local hospitals while three additional victims suffered minor injuries.

In addition to the Remington 12gauge semi-automatic shotgun he shot Robert Lundy and two other employ-

ees with, Clague had another fully loaded pump-action shotgun in his truck as well as a fully loaded rifle. Additional ammo was found on his person and in his truck.

FDLE spokeswoman Plesinger said: “The shooter has been confirmed as 51-year-old Earl Edward Clague, Jr. We know that he’s from Taylor County, and he was a current employee of the dealership. We don’t have a motive yet.”

Clague had worked for the dealership off and on for the past 15 to 20 years.

“While we don’t know his motive, we feel confident that his intent was to shoot and hurt as many people as possible,” said Don Ladner, Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent. “Deputy Lundy’s actions ended this situation quickly,” Ladner said.

Williams said Lundy had a successful surgery Wednesday and was in stable, but critical, condition still.

Two other employees were shot as well. They both are in local hospitals.

We do believe they will survive, and we think they’re going to be okay. We’re not releasing their identities at this time… [Clague] used a semi-automatic shotgun. We aren’t releasing any further details about the ammunition at this

time. It is still a very active investigation… [Lundy] was remarkable. He did everything he should have done. He saved a lot of lives today.”

Capt. James Cruse of the Perry Police Department said the two employees who were shot are “recovering at area hospitals at varying stages of recovery.”

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement Tallahassee Regional Operations Center, Perry Police Department and Taylor County Sheriff’s Office are investigating.

Timeline: 10:28:31 Deputy Lundy radioed shots were fired.

10:29:17 Deputy Lundy announced he had been shot.

10:29:24 In less than one minute after Deputy Lundy’s announcement of shots fired, officers arrived on scene.

11:10 Deputy Lundy went into surgery.

4:00 p.m. Deputy Lundy was in stable, but critical condition.

“The selfless actions of this deputy saved many lives today,” said Taylor County Sheriff L.E. “Bummy” Williams. “The safety of the citizens of Taylor County is our main concern,

and Deputy Lundy was willing to risk his own life today to save others. I am proud of his bravery and his heroism is to be commended. Deputy Lundy, his family and the victims are in my prayers.”

Taylor County Deputy Robert Lundy is still listed in stable, but critical condition in the intensive care unit at Doctors’ Memorial Hospital in Perry.

Motul USA Appoints Ron Aparicio Director Sales/Mktg Motul USA announced the appointment of Ron Aparicio as its Director of Sales and Marketing. A veteran of the automotive aftermarket industry, he previously served as Director of Sales for Walker Products Inc. During his 10-year service with Walker, he was responsible for aftermarket sales and the management of outside sales reps. In addition, he oversaw all aftermarket sales channels and buying groups. Aparicio currently serves as Chairman of CAWA, a non-profit trade association representing automotive aftermarket parts manufacturers, jobbers, warehouse distributors and retailers. He has served in several positions in CAWA for more than five years, including as a board member.

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 35

The Sci-Fi Shop of the Future The week of Jan 13, 2014, Ford Motor Co. announced the completely re-engineered Ford F-150 pickup truck featuring aluminum from the hood to the tailgate, 700 pounds lighter than the previous model. Mercedes Benz introduced the next C-Class sports sedan with a body built mostly of aluminum, and Audi’s A8 luxury sedan had an aluminum chassis almost 20 years ago. At the time an Audi executive said, “there are only a handful of shops capable of repairing it. It has to be shipped to one of those centers to be fixed.” For them the next step is the doors and the body.

And aluminum isn’t the only challenge for collision repair centers. The BMW Electric 13 is mostly made from plastic-like carbon fiber.

If this wasn’t enough of a challenge, Ford has teamed with MIT and Stanford University to make self-driving cars more intuitive. Radar-like LiDAR infrared sensors bounce infrared light off objects as far as 200 feet away to generate data to make a 3-D map to plan a path to safely avoid pedestrians, bicycles and other vehicles. Recently a blind “driver” at the Santa Clara Blind Center” made a completely safe shopping trip in a self-driving car, preprogrammed by a Google engineer. The repair facility of the future will also be faced with vehicle programming systems, radar-like systems, mapping devices and more.

These technical advances will strain collision shop finances as more tools, equipment and highly trained technicians are required. But how will this affect a shop’s marketing strategies?

The most forward looking shop owners may well realize the great marketing potential that these technical advances offer. The new generation of young adults is already more techsavvy than most shop owners. The Internet and cell-phone advances have made this generation well aware of the need to keep on top of new technology.

The shop that positions itself as a leader in new automotive repair technology can capture the “hearts and minds” of this generation if handled correctly. What should a shop do?

Because more and more people are turning to the web when shopping for a repair facility, a shop should turn the home page into bold advertisement for the shop’s technical know-how.

While young people may be keenly aware of applications for their tablet, cell phone and computer, they are not likely to know much about repair challenges a shop faces when repairing their late model vehicle. Images of damaged aluminum and carbon fiber parts with captions explaining a little about these challenges may capture their attention. A little research should let you know how many shops in your area are equipped to deal with these repair challenges. If you are one of the few that can do it, this is a prime time to shout out your superiority over the competition, not just in general but with specific numbers.

Photos and information about equipment may not impress a vehicle owner looking for a repair, but insurance executives who check out your website will definitely be concerned

Aluspot® Deluxe DF-900DX Aluminum Repair Station

The Aluspot® from Dent Fix Equipment is the most complete aluminum repair station on the market. From repair to proper storage the DF-900DX allows any shop to start working on highly profitable aluminum repairs on vehicles like the Audi A8, the Tesla Model S and the much anticipated all new aluminum bodied Ford F-150. The five steps for aluminum repair are covered by the tools included in this set: Expose the bare aluminum, apply heat, weld pins, pull the dent, and shaping the dent. Includes a 5 year warranty and is made in the USA.

36 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Tom Franklin has been a sales and marketing consultant for fifty years. He has written numerous books and provides marketing solutions and services for many businesses.

He can be reached at (323) 871-6862 or at tbfranklin@aol.com.

See Tom’s columns at www.autobodynews.com under Columnists > Franklin

with the makes and qualities of your frame machine, welding equipment, electric and hybrid handling processes and more. It’s important to provide educational information for these different publics on your site and in your printed literature. Most of what you put on the web can also be inexpensively reproduced in some simple printed handouts for less web-savvy customers who come to the shop.

The next step in demonstrating a future-orientation can be accomplished with employee uniforms, data-entry pads and display screens that can show a repair prospect shop areas where his or her vehicle will be processed in a way that is different from the competition. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to put technicians into star-trek-like uniforms with labels that say “hybrid specialist”, “autonomous vehicle specialist” and more. Customers should feel confident that this shop can handle the vehicle that has become a sort

of robot, sensing the driver/passenger’s preferences in temperature, seat position, music, lighting and destination.

As a shop moves more into servicing late model vehicles with these futuristic advances, it would be wise to re-imagine the shop in a futuristic way.

Even the furniture in the waiting area could be fashioned after airport seating and modernistic showroom designs.

Large blown-up photos on the wall of late-model vehicles with captions can complete the image of a forward-looking shop of the future. Website and social media sites are great places to capture images of a space-age shop, service areas and personnel. Shops that grabbed the position of first to have water-borne paint, aluminum welding and frame machines, and high-tech sensors to handle on-board computer systems, could now be the first in the area to be recognized as the Sci-Fi shop of the future.

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www.fordparts.com/helfman www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 37

NABC’s Golf Fundraiser at CIC Draws a Sold-Out Crowd

One of the NABC’s major sources of funding for its ongoing proOn Wednesday, January 15, the Na- grams, proceeds from the annual golf tional Auto Body Council (NABC) fundraiser helps to support NABC’s held their annual golf fundraiser at the work with Recycled Rides, the DisTahquitz Creek Golf Resort in Palm tracted Driving Initiative and First ReSprings, CA. Nick Notte, NABC sponder Emergency Extrication Board President, notes “this year’s (FREE). golf fundraiser was highly successful, The benefit to Recycled Rides was apparent at the event itself, as explained by Notte: “The golf event kicked off with the presentation of a Recycled Rides vehicle to a local young mother with a two-year-old son born with a congenital birth defect. A 2013 Ford Fusion, donated

by Hertz and repaired by Pacific Collision Center in Cathedral City, CA, was preA sold out field of 144 golfers enjoyed spectacular weather sented to Jennifer Valdez and golf while raising funds to support the National Auto who will now be able to take Body Council programs her son to his frequent medone of the best ever. The National ical appointments in the comfort of Auto Body Council appreciates and her own car, rather than having to rely thanks all those who, through their on friends and public transportation. sponsorships and participation in the Jennifer was selected as a recipient by event, recognize the value our collec- a local nonprofit support organization, tive efforts bring in promoting the Variety–The Children’s Charity of the image of our collision industry.”

Desert.”

A sold-out field of 144 golfers participated in the even to support the NABC and its programs. Representatives from all segments of the industry were present to support NABC’s mission, including repairers, insurers, rental car companies, parts suppliers and manufacturers, among others. In addition to Hertz, the event’s presenting Left to right Doug Webb, John Webb, and Doug Kelly sponsor, over 30 other comenjoying the golf course views at the NABC’s annual panies sponsored the event.

Golf Fundraiser Top sponsors included AudaExplore, Axalta Coating Systems, Notte believes the event “proEnterprise Rent-A-Car, PPG Automo- vided participants with fun, camative Refinish, Sherwin Williams, Sterraderie and networking opportunities ling Auto Body Centers and Team while learning more about the proPRP. grams and mission of the NABC,” and

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

Honda Develops Advanced Auto-Braking System

Honda has developed an advanced automatic braking system that can prevent a vehicle from colliding with a pedestrian even at a speed of 60 kph. The technology uses millimetrewave radar and a high-resolution camera to identify pedestrians sooner than conventional braking systems can. Honda is expected to install the new braking system in its Legend

luxury sedan slated for release this year as well as its global strategic models. The automaker has yet to set the price of the technology.

38 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

he credits its success to “the collaboration and efforts of members from various industry segments who join forces and provide valuable community service programs.”

levels of membership.

Notte added a special thanks to members of the NABC Board of Directors, the fundraising committee, chaired by Domenic Brusco and

Palm Springs resident Jennifer Valdez and her special-needs son enjoy their new Recycled Rides vehicle, thanks to Pacific Collision Centers of Cathedral City and Hertz. See Feb. ABN for more.

The visibility and value of NABC programs have resulted in membership growth momentum in recent months with the addition of four new Diamond Members and several additional members joining at various

David Merrell, Executive Director Chuck Sulkala, and the NABC staff, for the many hours devoted to making the golf fundraiser an enjoyable and successful event. www.nationalautobodycouncil.org

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Northeast Tradeshow

Q&A session on Ford’s body shop parts certification program.

On Saturday, Peter Fryzel of ICAR will teach two four-hour, tuition-based courses: “I-CAR: Vehicle Technology and Trends 2014” in the morning and “I-CAR: Aluminum-Intensive Vehicles Repairs (ALI01)” in the afternoon. The morning seminar will focus on advancements in vehicle technology that will soon be commonplace as well as what technicians will need to know to keep up with these changes.

Fryzel’s interactive afternoon course combines discussion, education and exercises in decision-making to expose attendees to considerations that should be made when repairing an aluminum structure.

Early Saturday afternoon, Lee V. Rush, Manager of Business Consulting Services (Sherwin-Williams), will present “Tactically Lean: Connecting the Dots Between High-Minded Lean Concepts and Real-World Results.”

Discussing tactically lean business development, Rush will offer realistic

implementation of this approach which is intended to help shops “formulate a sustainable program to drive process improvements.” (See his white paper In—Process Quality Assurance on p. 4 this issue.)

Additional seminar topics include Business Continuation Planning, The ‘Gauges’ of Your Business, The Traditional Buying Process Turns Digital, Best Practices for Welding and Estimating, and Painting with Nitrogen.

NORTHEASTTM 2014 will also feature two exciting demos on the exposition floor. On Friday evening, Saturday morning and Sunday morning, Ford engineers will present “2015 F150 Repair Information” which will highlight how this new model has been designed to be easily repairable.

On Saturday morning, Larry Montanez III of P&L Consultants will demonstrate “Calculating Frame/Unibody Set Up Measurement and Realignment.”

AASP/NJ has plenty of other exciting things happening on the tradeshow floor for NORTHEASTTM 2014 also! On Saturday morning, Chip Foose from television’s Overhaulin’ will be on-site at the BASF booth to sign autographs and pose for photos

with fans. From 2-4PM Saturday, Ron Ananian, AKA the Car Doctor, will broadcast his show live from the event.

VRSim will be holding a Virtual Spray Tournament all weekend, allowing painters to display their spray painting skills as they compete for an HDTV. At booth 729, Javier Soto, painter extraordinaire, will display his skills with Custom Paint Demos all weekend as he creates a custom design.

In conjunction with NORTHEASTTM 2014, AASP/NJ is also hosting the first annual NORTHEASTTM/ Natural Glass Corvette Association (NGCA) Car Show with 15–20 class cars competing. The winner will be chosen on Sunday.

AASP/NJ also has two events on their agenda that are purely for fun.

Their annual Exhibitor Appreciation After-Party will be held on Friday night to give exhibitors a chance to unwind and socialize, and attendees will also enjoy a special performance by comedian Gary DeLena.

On Sunday afternoon, the 6th Annual NORTHEASTTM Family Day offers a chance for the kiddies to enjoy indoor carnival games and free popcorn and ice cream.

Bryant admits “every year, I seem to get even more excited than the year before about the NORTHEASTTM Tradeshow. This year, with the show being basically sold out for the first time at [the Meadowlands], the excitement level is at an all-time high. I always enjoy hearing from shop owners from other parts of the country at the Leaders’ Meeting, and I am sure the PartsTrader panel will have many on the edge of their chair this year. To try and point to any one thing or event that I am most excited about is quite a difficult task; however, like many others, I must say that I can’t wait to shake the hand of Chip Foose!”

All in all, NORTHEASTTM 2014 is shaping up to be an educational good time filled with plenty of networking opportunities and a plethora of activities from which to choose. If you haven’t already done so, register today at www.aaspnjnortheasttm.com.

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www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 39

Continued from Cover

Polar Vortex Continues

highways after running out of gas due to sitting in the long-standing traffic, while other vehicles were parked in lots as their owners attempted to wait out the storm—in fact, many people are comparing the dismal images to scenes from the first season of TV’s “The Walking Dead!”

Snow covered Talladega Superspeedway

Glenn Grey, owner of Grey’s Auto Collision in Hiram, GA, and his wife experienced the effects of the storm first hand. “My wife left home at 11:30AM to pick our child up from school, and though it’s normally a 35minute drive, she didn’t reach the school until 5PM. She was further delayed by traffic and didn’t get home until after 11PM, nearly 12 hours after she left!”

Meanwhile, Grey closed his shop at noon after seeing the travesty on the roads, but he regrets not sending his employees home earlier. On his drive home, Grey saw many vehicles stuck in the snow drifts, and he and others, true to the southern tradition of aiding neighbors in need, helped pull these vehicles out.

Grey says, “I saw some pretty bad wrecks, a lot of which were caused by people just not knowing how to drive in the snow and ice because we’re not all that used to it down here. People were throwing down kitty litter for traction, and some people ran out of gas while they were sitting in traffic.”

In terms of how the storm has impacted his business, Grey has seen an increase of 20–25% in volumes, but about 25–30% of the damaged vehicles are being declared total losses.

“We are seeing a little bit of everything, both small and large repairs that may be just a bumper or window, or it could be the whole side of the vehicle from the front fender all the way to the quarter panel.”

Fortunately, Grey hasn’t had any problems with his machinery, other than the paint booth as bake cycle times are being affected by the low

temperatures.

Rusty Ravia, Manager of D & I Body Shop in Atlanta, GA, notes that he and his employees spent a night in the shop, working until 2AM Tuesday and not leaving until 2PM on Wednesday.

“We’ve seen a slowdown with repairs because the insurance companies are taking their time to come out, and we’ve also seen some steering as insurers tell customers that estimates will take less time at DRP shops. They are also estimating parts at my cost and cutting corners on repair hours, so who’s paying the shop bills? We are trying to stay positive and get business because the goal is to make our customers happy and try to make things as easy as possible by being honest with them.”

Ravia notes that D & I Body Shop is seeing larger repairs with many vehicles being declared total losses before his technicians ever touch them, so the shop is losing money when the insurers take work away and only compensate the shop for storage fees. The shop has seen an increase in volumes of approximately 20% after the storm, but since they aren’t equipped for the weather and their materials are not accustomed to the cold, their paint cycle time has also increased, making it a challenge to paint and refinish these vehicles on schedule.

At Kong’s Body Shop in Atlanta, GA, volumes have at least doubled, according to Manager Norm Kong.

Says Kong, “we have experienced more technical difficulties with some of our machines freezing up. We lost electricity, and our compressors were

also impacted by the low temperatures. The shop was forced to close for a couple days, too, which put us behind schedule with repairs so there has been both good and bad aspects to the storm for our business.”

Several Atlanta shops that were contacted are so busy with the backlog of work resulting from the storm that they were unable to discuss the weather’s impact on their businesses.

The scene in Birmingham, AL was similar to that in Atlanta with

40 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

many accidents resulting from the ice leading to more traffic jams. In an area with average January temperatures between 34 and 54 degrees, the drop into the low-twenties elicited more than a bit of chaos throughout the city.

Wally Newton, Manager at Highway 280 Paint and Body in Birmingham, notes “the storm is affecting us quite a bit so far and growing daily as people retrieve their vehicles from tow yards, so we’ve seen an increase in volumes with lots of estimates being written up. Luckily though, we haven’t had any problems with our machinery malfunctioning because of the weather.”

At Checker Auto Body Repair in Huntsville, AL, Manager Bill Goebel said “our volume has decreased roughly 25% due to school [and other business] closings; fewer people driving during the course of the day equals fewer accidents. The only problem we’re seeing is an extreme propane shortage, and since our shop is heated with propane, we have had to shorten our work days.”

Checker Auto Body has not yet experienced any other technical difficulties or problems with equipment, “except having to sub-out cleanups because we have no indoor cleaning facility and everything outside is frozen!”

For Ginger Lowrey, a member of the family that owns River Chase Collision in Birmingham, the biggest problem is an increased amount of insurer steering since her shop does not participate in any DRPs. “We have had more than an average amount of steering,” she explains.

“On February 5th, one of our regular customers called to say the insurance company was towing his car to another shop because they couldn’t send an estimator to River Chase Collision until the 13th, but when I phoned my contact at Allstate, she told me that she was assigned to view the car on the 7th, nearly a week earlier than my customer was told. I’m glad we resolved that problem, but our customer is very angry that his insurance company lied to him. Our shop isn’t backed up at all whereas the other shop may be. The insurer isn’t helping the customer since that would mean paying for a rental car even longer. The whole situation makes me worry about how much steering is really going on.”

In regards to the increase in delays for insurers to write estimates for shops not on their DRPs, Lowrey be-

lieves “there’s no limitation to what they will do, and most of the time, they get away with it. We need to change people’s mindsets so they understand that the person who owns the vehicle is in charge, not the insurer.

All too frequently, shops cut corners, putting families at risk, because they’ve made a deal with the devil and money makes good people do bad things. This unfortunate weather-related event is making it worse because a lot of repairs are needed to restore normalcy to those who were impacted, but the insurance companies are making empty promises and consumers are uneducated. We’re in a sad state right now in this industry, yet it’s hard to reach people when the insurers have deep pockets and so much influence with lobbyists. People tend to turn a blind eye to what’s right for the consumer.”

Due to the storm, River Chase Collision is busier than normal with at least twice the amount of work they usually have at this time of year. Because they closed early on the 28th and stayed closed on the 29th, the shop opened on Saturday, February 1 to accommodate their workload.

Lowrey says that they are “receiving different types of repairs.

Only a few have structural damage—the repairs we’re getting are mostly aesthetic, small damages to bumpers and doors from slipping and sliding on the ice. It was kind of like bumper cars out there! We can flip these repairs quickly, though, if the insurers get on with their business. I don’t work for them, but I’ll work with them to get the consumer taken care of as quickly as possible.”

Forecasts for February indicate the Polar Vortex may finally be letting up in the southern region of the US, but the Northeast and Midwest can expect the icy winds and snow accumulation to continue through February.

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OEMs to Play a More Significant Role in NACE/CARS 2014 in Detroit Chrysler and Mopar, Ford, General Motors and ACDelco, Honda, and Nissan have already committed to a strong presence at NACE/CARS 2014, each with larger exhibits than in recent years. With so many positive changes taking place around the event, it makes sense for these companies to play a key role in the show.

“The car manufacturers have the most current information and knowledge on the latest advancements in technology and repair methodologies.

Their participation is critical to the success of the show since the industry leaders attending will be seeking to expand their knowledge and remain current with the quickly changing automotive repair industry,” said Dan Risley, ASA Executive Director.

With a position in both collision repair and mechanical repair, the OEMs have an opportunity to serve two important market segments at one industry event. And in addition to displays, attendees can expect to see presentations, seminars, and training on the most up-to-date OEM technologies.

“We are excited to continue the launch of the all-new Ford F-150, the toughest, smartest and most capable to ever be introduced, at this year’s NACE in Detroit,” said Paul Massie, Ford’s

powertrain and collision marketing manager. “Ford has a long-standing history with ASA and the 2014 NACE and CARS show is a great venue to deliver information to repair professionals about this exciting, new truck.”

“We’re excited about exhibiting at NACE/CARS again and showing our support for the collision and mechanical repair industries,” stated Gary Ledoux, Assistant National Manager for American Honda Motor Company. “I think this is going to be a great show and another opportunity to interact with Honda customers and business partners. All roads lead to Detroit in July!”

The two biggest changes to NACE/CARS 2014 include the new location in Detroit and the new summer dates, July 28-August 2. The anticipated growth or “renaissance” of the event coincides with the renaissance and revitalization of Detroit. “The Motor City” is a logical place to take advantage of growth in the automotive industry and improvement in the overall economy while NACE and CARS see a renaissance from recent years.

“Our team, including members of the ASA Board of Directors, ASA Michigan members and staff, our event management company, and show con-

Dealer Group Sues Hitachi, Panasonic and Mitsubishi in Part Fixing Dispute

A group including dozens of car dealerships hit Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd., Panasonic Corp., Mitsuba Corp. and others with separate putative class actions in Michigan federal court on Feb. 7, alleging a scheme to fix prices for a number of auto parts in a conspiracy that prompted criminal charges.

The suits come a month after Nippon Seiki Co. Ltd. announced it would pay $4.56 million to settle with consumers in a related auto parts price-fixing multidistrict litigation. In the new suits, Martens Cars of Washington Inc., Landers Auto Group No. 1 Inc. and more than 30 other car dealership plaintiffs seek damages and injunctive relief for conspiracies to fix prices for air flow meters, electronic throttle bodies, steering angle sensors, high-intensity discharge ballasts, automatic transmission fluid warmers, electronic-powered steering assemblies and power window motors.

“The U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is currently conducting a broad criminal investigation into illegal price-fixing and bid-rigging in the automotive parts industry,” the complaints say. “The

ongoing cartel investigation of pricefixing and bid-rigging in the automotive parts industry has yielded $1.8 billion in criminal fines, already surpassing the total amount in criminal fines obtained by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division for all of last fiscal year.”

In each suit, the plaintiffs say the DOJ announced that the defendant company has agreed to plead guilty for its role in the conspiracy to fix prices of car parts. The dealers who bought the parts at inflated costs deserve justice, according to the slew of complaints.

Those named as defendants in the suits filed Friday include Hitachi, Panasonic, Mitsuba, T.Rad Co. Ltd. and JTEKT Corp. The broader MDL stems from the DOJ's blockbuster investigation into a series of price-fixing conspiracies in the auto parts industry that has already yielded more than $1.6 billion in fines.

Last September, nine Japanesebased auto parts makers, including Hitachi, T.Rad, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and others, agreed to pay $740 million in fines as a result of their roles in international price-fixing conspiracies that increased the cost of cars sold in the United States.

42 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

tractors, have spent significant time in Detroit planning NACE/CARS 2014.

Everyone has been impressed, and the city will be a great host. We believe visitors are going to be thrilled with the hotels, restaurants, convention center, amenities, safety and security, family attractions, and overall friendliness of Detroit,” said Risley.

Along with NACE/CARS, a series of automotive repair industry events and co-located meetings will take place July 28-Aug. 2, 2014. Early in the week there will be a series of Board and other private meetings. Tuesday will host the CIC quarterly meeting. Wednesday will highlight the I-CAR conference and gala 35th anniversary networking reception. Thursday and Friday will be the NACE/CARS expo along with numerous NACE and CARS business and technical sessions, the MSO Symposium, the Mechanical Symposium and on-site I-CAR training. Technical presentations end at noon Saturday, August 2.

For exhibit or show information, contact ASA’s trade show management team at: Stone Fort Group (832) 932-7868 10575 Katy Freeway, Suite 330 Houston TX 77024

Gerber Collision and Glass Opens Three New Centers

The Boyd Group has opened three new repair centers, two of which are located in Arizona and one in Maryland. The new Mesa-Hampton Avenue facility is the fourth location in Mesa, AZ. This repair center is approximately 15,500 square feet. The second facility, in Tempe, AZ, on 3rd Street, is approximately 15,000 sq ft and will be the third location in Tempe. Both locations were previously operated under the Kustom Koachworks name and will now operate under the Gerber Collision & Glass brand. The company offers AGRR services through Gerber’s glass division. Gerber Collision & Glass did not purchase Kustom Koachwork’s Scottsdale, AZ, location. The repair center in Ellicott City, MD, is located in a newly renovated building with one of the largest dealership groups in the market. It will be Boyd Group’s second location in Ellicott City and is approximately 12,500 sq ft. It will operate under the Gerber Collision & Glass brand.

“With the addition of three new repair centers, we continue with our growth rate of 6–10 % through single storeadditions,” said Tim O’Day, president and COO of U.S. operations.

Maryland Reintroduces Insurer Parts Procurement Prohibition Legislation Bills introduced this week in Maryland House and Senate seek to eliminate insurance company mandated procurement processes. Bills also provide for “Genuine” parts for three years after manufacture.

Bills prohibiting insurance companies and their employees from specifying specific collision repair parts procurement processes were reintroduced in both the Senate and House of the General Assembly of Maryland this week. Senate Bill 487, sponsored

by Senator John C. Astle and its companion House Bill 574, sponsored by Delegate John A. Olszewski, Jr., would prohibit “… a specified adjuster, appraiser, insurance producer, or employee of an insurer from requiring a motor vehicle repair facility to use a specific vendor or process for the procurement of parts or other materials necessary for the repair of a motor vehicle; requiring an insurer that issues or delivers in the State a policy of motor vehicle liability insurance that provides coverage for the repair of physical damage to the insured motor vehicle to authorize specified repairs to be made using genuine crash parts; etc.”

Cosponsors of the Senate Bill include Senator David Brinkley, Sena-

tor Richard Colburn, Senator Brian Feldman, Senator Katherine Klausmeier, Senator Mathias, Senator Catherine Pugh, Senator Ramirez, Senator Jamin Raskin, and Senator Norman Stone, Jr. Cosponsors of the House Bill include Delegate Charles Barkley, Delegate Conway, and Delegate Kramer The bills largely mirror House Bill 1375 that was introduced by Delegate Mark Fisher, a former repairer, during last year’s legislative session in Maryland.

In addition to prohibiting insurers from requiring specific procurement processes, the bill also requires insurers to authorize “genuine crash parts” that are defined as OEM, or authorized to carry the name or trademark of the OEM, for a period of three years after the date Jordan Hendler, of manufacture.

Executive Director Last year’s bill reof the Washington quired a five year Metropolitan Auto period. Consumers Body Association can, however, authorize the use of aftermarket crash parts.

The Washington Metropolitan Auto Body Association (WMABA) supported last year’s legislative effort and will do so again.

According to Jordan Hendler, executive director of the WMABA, the association has met with sponsors of the bills and particularly supported what the association believes are the consumer protection aspects of the legislation.

“For members of the Washington Metropolitan Auto Body Association these bills are about protecting consumers,” said Hendler. “Our members are seeing more and more people are opting out of rental coverage, so while any delays caused by insurance company parts procurement processes might not hurt the insurer, consumers will have to spend that money out of their pocket.”

Additionally, the three year period where insurers must authorize OEMs helps consumers and is simi-

lar to consumer protection laws in other states. “Several other states have similar laws placing a timing restriction on aftermarket parts,” said Hendler.

The association had a lobby day scheduled last week to meet with representatives about this and other legislation. That meeting was postponed until next month due to inclement weather. Details will be release by the association shortly.

“Repairers need to get involved with the legislative process,” said Hendler. “They can send a letter to their legislator asking for their support of these consumer-oriented bills. Yes, it does help the repairer in the end, but the reason it matters most is that it protects the interests of the consumer to be made whole after an accident. Without it, they just simply are subject to insurer cost-containment tactics that have no regard for subsequent harm to that consumer.”

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SCRS Provides Unified Voice for Industry

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

If you’ve been involved in the collision repair industry for longer than a month (if that!), you’re probably aware of the existence of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), yet you may not know exactly what their role is within the in-

dustry. Sure, you can search their website to find their mission statement – “to educate, inform and represent the collision repair professional in all aspects of the industry” – or their vision – “to promote, support and encourage exemplary businesses committed to the future of the collision repair industry, while providing the visibility and leadership needed to raise the professional image of the industry and advance the business conditions of those whom we represent” – but who is SCRS, and what do they do? Executive Director Aaron Schulenburg graciously agreed to answer these questions and more.

In the 1970s, before SCRS was founded, the collision repair industry was fragmented with shops functioning independently. Due to a lack of communication, shops were very competitive and suspicious of one another, and as the new decade approached, signs of an imminent industry upheaval emerged due to advancements in technology and materials as well as the absence of the industry-accepted training which caused shop owners to feel that they were losing control of their businesses. Believing that the lack of a collective voice left the industry vulnerable, a group of perceptive shop owners in the Kansas City area began contemplating the possibility of forming a group to help them improve as collision repair professionals.

This group gathered to listen to John Loftus who reminded them that they were all in the same business and thus alike, making it obvious that they had a better chance of solving their problems together rather than individ-

ually. Conversations continued until, at their next meeting at Gene Parks’ Body Shop in Riverside, MO in 1982, this group of repairers had decided to form an association with Loftus as their leader. Realizing the need for more members if they wanted to effect meaningful change, the group began looking beyond their locality as they considered creating a national collision repair association; thus, SCRS was formed.

As seen by the events leading up to the creation of SCRS, their work was inspired by the concept “Working Together Is the Most Important Work We Do,” and this belief has influenced the work and decisions of SCRS for the past three decades. Schulenburg notes that the association’s purpose has not really changed since its inception; “SCRS started because a group of grassroots shops believed the industry needed a unified voice, and though our approach, scope, abilities and funding have progressed over time, we are all really proud that there has been no deviation from our purpose which remains as grassroots as when we first started. Our focus is still the same – to be a voice for repairers – and since SCRS was founded in 1982, we continue to strive for the same things, staying true to why we started the association.”

Since 1982, SCRS has become the largest national trade association solely representing and dedicated to collision repair facilities across the continent. Through their direct members and affiliated associations, they represent over 6,000 collision repair businesses and over 58,000 industry professionals. According to Schulenburg, their “goals as an organization are to make this industry better in every way we can. We ask ourselves, ‘what is the best way to support collision repair businesses?’, and then we try to make the biggest difference possible for our members and the industry as a whole.”

In terms of the challenges SCRS faces in order to maintain operations, Schulenburg notes that they really aren’t that dissimilar from their affiliates; “it all comes down to industry engagement. The issues we face are often defined by the lowest denominators in our industry – expectations are set by the floor, rather than the ceiling – so how do you reach people who aren’t engaging in industry activ-

44 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

ity, or even following industry publications, news and developments? This also impacts the question of how to grow consistently. Despite SCRS’s yearly growth in every member category, we can only reach so many people, and we want to get to everyone with a collision repair sign in the doorway of their business so that they’re aware of changes in the industry and know how to handle them.”

Expanding, Schulenburg notes that the issues are the same across the country, and the main difference between SCRS and local associations is the scope of activity, emphasizing the

importance of why SCRS is structured to support a network of associations. Many issues, such as how insurance is governed, are handled at a state level, so how state associations address these issues locally is different from what SCRS can do on a national scale. By talking to their affiliate associations and coordinating collaborative discussion amongst state and regional groups, SCRS gets to see the bigger, global picture and help support those local efforts through enhanced communication.

Schulenburg believes this structure works well and is efficient.

Of course, SCRS also plays a large role in contending with problems impacting the industry. According to Schulenburg, some of the biggest of these challenges are the future of cars and an increasing loss of control and intrusion into collision repair businesses. “As technology develops, the need for costly training, equipment and specialization will become more prolific; we are also cautiously looking decades down the road at the developments of self-driving vehicles and those

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with sophisticated accident avoidance systems which promote increased safety, but could prove to be dangerous to the trade. If so, what does the evolving future of the industry look like? The intrusion of third-party entities into the collision

repair industry is also a huge concern today, and as more repairers become frustrated, many are taking more vocal stands and removing themselves from insurer programs; many are even taking a litigious approach – all of this is an indication of the boiling point the industry is experiencing.”

As SCRS keeps an eye on things potentially impacting the industry and serves as a source of information for many in the repair community, they are looked to for leadership and positioning regarding the current issues facing their members’ business.

When asked about insurance pro-

grams mandating parts procurement providers, Schulenburg made note that they take exception to all insurer mandates, particularly the mandated use of parts procurements system, a hot topic pervading the country.

“SCRS believes this control falls outside of the scope of the insurance business [and] SCRS supports efforts that rightfully seek to eliminate such intrusion into the collision repair business, and enforcement of existing laws, regulations and codes that currently prohibit such actions. It is the opinion of SCRS that voluntary agreements cannot include stipulations which violate existing laws, rules and regulations. SCRS believes that collision businesses are capable of establishing successful vendor relationships and internal processes that will best accommodate the needs of the consumer, and that service providers will continue to respond to the market with increasingly creative solutions that drive performance for their customers and the respective market entities. We believe that solutions with tangible value propositions will be utilized and supported by the

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marketplace without the undue influence of insurer mandate.”

Regarding the PARTS Act, Schulenburg understands why OEs want to protect their designs in order to recover their investments on the research and development involved in creating a vehicle, and also why the aftermarket industry objects to this protection; however, the biggest concern is that the PARTS Act does nothing to ensure the quality of parts entering the marketplace, which is perhaps the biggest struggle SCRS’ members face when expected to use the alternative parts in question.

Which parts are used in a repair should be decided based on quality and consumer choice. Insurance companies commonly push shops to use the cheapest parts, but this can result in consumers being taken advantage of..”

Currently, SCRS has many projects in the works, but Schulenburg doesn’t believe that 2014 will see any tremendous changes in their objectives as they “continue to focus on what’s most important to members’ interests.” SCRS continues to examine how to address parts procurement mandates, the arbitrary reduction of refinish times on repaired panels and finding ways to support the development and use of OEM repair procedures for the most proper repair. . The association will also continue developing education for their acclaimed Repairer Driven Education series at the SEMA Show, and Schulenburg believes that the anticipated increase in attendance for 2014 “speaks to our mission to educate and inform our membership.”

SCRS has also been actively monitoring current trends with new vehicles being released. For example,

the 2015 Ford F150, just formally announced at the beginning of this year, is unique in that it is going to be constructed of weight-saving aluminum, and many repair shops still need to prepare for the investment in equipment and training that this will necessitate if they wish to continue to repair the most popular vehicle in America. Looking further down the road, Schulenburg indicated that SCRS is already examining a burgeoning interest from carriers into analytical estimating, how it could potentially change the way losses are settled, and the effect it will have on the industry altogether. He notes, “it’s going to be a busy year because there’s no shortage of things for which our members need a unified voice.”

On January 15, SCRS held their first Open Board meeting of the year in Palm Springs, CA. Schulenburg notes, “the meeting was great because it provided an opportunity to interact with members and share what’s going on in the industry.” The association’s committees also shared their work on current projects, and Schulenburg particularly enjoyed the presentation on tools given by Kye Yeung and Toby Chess, the findings of which will be published on SCRS’s website soon. They reviewed a broad range of tools, from basic to advanced, that could make a significant difference in the repair process.

Since being founded, SCRS has strived to provide a unified voice for the collision repair industry in their efforts to better the trade, and their belief that meaningful change is only possible through working together has inspired many positive improvements in the industry. As Schulenburg has stated many times, “we are stronger together.”

Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) PO Box 909 Prosser, WA 99350 877-841-0660 www.scrs.com

Mon-Fri 7am - 7pm Sat 8am - 3pm ktaylor@vtaig.com www.vanhyundai.com www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 45

1Collision Network Adds 2 Stores in WI and MI

The 1Collision Network, a Midwest chain of independently owned collision repair businesses, has announced the addition of Wilson Collision Centers’ three locations to its family. With this addition, 1Collision now has 19 facilities throughout Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan. The three Wilson Collision Centers are owned

by Kevin Wilson, who has been in business for 12 years. “I was impressed with the 1Collision value proposition, with many programs designed to enhance our success and planned business growth,” said Wilson. “I also see great value in affiliating and networking with other high performing, successful business owners.” 1Collision Network President Jim Keller commented, “We are proud to welcome Kevin and his organization as our newest 1Collision partner. I first met Kevin at the MSO Symposium at NACE and knew from our first conversation he was a high quality business owner, serious about his business, in touch with industry trends and was thriving in the marketplace because of his successful qualities. Visiting his businesses verified the commitment Kevin and his staff have to service excellence.”

Erie, PA, Sees 333 Accidents in 24-hour Span

Erie, PA, accident investigators received reports of one car accident every 30 minutes, from Tuesday, Jan. 29 through Wednesday, Jan. 30.

As of Thursday morning, 333 accidents were reported to the Erie Police Department so far this winter; that’s 62 more accidents than they saw last January. The increase in accidents is largely due to icy roads and sub-zero temperatures. Prestige Auto Body Shop has seen a big increase of vehicles needing repairs, just in the past week. “We have definitely seen a spike in business, you know, cars getting hit, people sliding into ditches,” said Victor Irizarry of Prestige Auto Body.

The number of cars in the lot at Bonnell’s Collision Center has also gone up. Of the 60 vehicles Bonnell’s see’s every week, 60–70% of cars have ice-related damages. “A lot of front-end, rear-end collision, sliding into one another out there,” said Jody Barto, Operating Manager at Bonnell’s. “We’re also seeing a lot of vehicles leaving the roadway often sliding into guard rails and fences. Your average accident is probably you know, $1,500 to $2,000.”

1Collision Network to Host Wisconsin Workshop for Collision Repair 1Collision Network will host a workshop for collision repairers seeking information on how to navigate the world of consolidation.

“Thriving in a Consolidating Marketplace” will take place at the Bella Vista Suites in Lake Geneva, Wis., on Tuesday, March 4 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The program is designed for progressive, forward-thinking single and multi-shop owners, managers and marketing staff who are interested in discovering ways to thrive in a consolidated, DRP, Web, social and mobile world.

Attendees will be introduced to strategies, products and services that will help them be more successful in gaining market share and competing with regional and national chains. Attendees will also learn how they can use the latest sales and marketing techniques to capture, service and retain more customers, revenue and profit in a consolidating marketplace.

The presenters have more than 100 years of combined collision industry experience: Brandon Thomas is the COO at GMG EnviroSafe, serving as a risk management strategist for the collision industry. He is a former leader of a top 10 MSO with 30 locations in the

Midwest and has a background in acquisitions, DRP relationships, lean implementation and Six Sigma.

Jim Keller has been a single- and multiple-shop owner, franchisee and consolidator and is currently president of the 1Collision Network. He is a former board member and past chairman of the Automotive Service Association (ASA), former 3M/ARMS management workshop instructor, inductee to the Collision Industry Hall of Eagles and 2003 BodyShop Business Executive of the Year.

Frank Terlep is CEO of Summit eMarketing Sherpas, focused on helping auto body and repair shops capture, service and retain more customers, revenue and profit through the use of its e-MarketPlace platform. Over the past 28 years, he has launched three start-ups, designed dozens of technology solutions, held executive positions at Mitchell International and AkzoNobel, wrote a book on lean and is former chairman of CIECA (Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association) and co-chairman of the CIC E-Commerce Committee.

Mark Claypool is owner and CEO at Optima Automotive and SOP MD. He offers attendees a vast knowl-

edge of Web presence management and search engine optimization. He is also a contributing editor at BodyShop Business and is the former executive director of the National Auto Body Council and Collision Repair Education Foundation.

Steve Jones is an accomplished insurance industry consultant, providing a wealth of insight and experience as a former claims manager in Illinois with Progressive Insurance and as a former vice president at the Innovation Group.

The cost to attend is $99, which includes lunch and refreshments.

Hotel rooms are available for a special rate of $89; call (800) 773-5119 to book and ask for the collision industry program rate. Attendance will be limited to 50 independent and dealership body shops to maintain program quality. The deadline to register is Feb. 28, or until the workshop is full.

To register by phone, contact John at (414) 289-7650 or email: info@1collision.net.

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Tesla Contests Rules in Ohio, Other States: Mixed Results

The face-off in Ohio continues Tesla’s state-by-state conflicts with dealers over factory-owned stores (see story this issue.)

In 2013, the company battled dealers in several states, including Massachusetts, New York, Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota and Virginia. Results have been mixed.

Tesla lost a prominent showdown with Texas dealers over Teslabacked bills that would have carved out an exemption to state law restricting factory-owned dealerships. But in Minnesota, North Carolina and New York, Tesla held at bay dealer-backed legislation that might have crimped the EV maker’s plans. The company also won court decisions in dealer lawsuits in Massachusetts and New York.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said he will consider seeking action on the national level, either through federal legislation or a federal lawsuit.

According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, 48 states have restrictions on factoryowned dealerships. Of those, Tesla has said, about 20 have statutes that make Tesla’s factory store model difficult.

46 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

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Iowa Parts Retailer Invents “It’s a Life Saver” to Alert Neighbors to Trouble Inside the House Terry Beswick, an auto body parts retailer, repair man and new Clinton, IA, business owner, has established himself as an auto body mechanic in Fulton but, his newest creation, the “It’s a Life Saver” device is something he calls his best idea yet.

Beswick said, “I spend a lot of time thinking about things that can help people and save them money and a lot of people have told me this is the best idea I’ve had.”

The “It’s a Life Saver” device is similar in purpose to a car alarm, which is designed to alert the owner of criminal mischief to a vehicle. By taking that concept, Beswick created, essentially an alarm for the house that is triggered by a small remote button, just like a vehicle alarm.

Beswick designed it to be activated in emergency situations including medical crisis or home intrusion scenarios in which getting to a phone to dial 911 is not easily accessible.

When activated, the apparatus sounds an alarm that can be heard within approximately one block of the home, alerting neighbors that trouble is abound.

“People have car alarms so I started thinking why don’t houses

have similar alarms?” Beswick said.

“This is different than a security system too because those are hundreds of dollars plus annual fees that you have to pay. This is a one time cost of $250 plus a $50 installation fee.”

Not only does Beswick offer the device at the one-time flat rate, he also guarantees that if it does indeed save a life, a full refund will be rewarded to the victim.

“I figure if this thing saves your life, you’ve already had a pretty rotten day so why not put $250 bucks back in your pocket?” he added.

While the new store on the corner of South Second Street and Fourth Avenue South is designed to promote the alarm, he also obtained the active corner location to help boost activity at his Fulton-based auto body shop.

In addition to selling the device, he also will offer auto body parts for people interested in car restoration or who just need to replace a part on their car.

“My store is mainly going to be focused on letting people know about my shop and for the do-it-yourself guys who like to fix up cars,” Beswick said.

AASP-MO Hosts Mike Anderson for State of the Industry Report and PartsTrader Meeting

On Monday, February 10th, AASPMO hosted a State of the Collision Industry Report and PartsTrader meeting, presented by collision industry expert Mike Anderson, to help attendees plan how to handle the PartsTrader mandate. The special event was held at Syberg’s, located at 270 and Dorsett in Maryland Heights, MO, from 6:309PM. AXALTA and Colormaster sponsored the event, so there was no fee for attending and complimentary hors d’oeuvres and iced tea were served.

The meeting began with the State of the Collision Industry Report which comprised most of the meeting. Ron Reiling, Executive Director of AASPMO, offers his praise: “Mike did a great job of letting the shops know where they stand compared to their peers. Many of them will go back and take a good hard look at their businesses and make changes to improve.”

During the second part of the meeting, “Mike gave his opinions on PartsTrader and reminded them that when making decisions that affect their businesses and employees’ wellbeing, they shouldn’t be taken lightly

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or be made hastily without thinking outside of the box; however, once that decision is made, you have to live with it,” Reiling recounts. “So, if you want to belong to a DRP, you have to be willing to follow their rules and make the best of it. Also, he gave examples of mandates from the past that are now part of everyday business, and they got better as time went on.”

Overall, the meeting went very well with 156 attendees representing 83 different businesses, a fact that exceeded Reiling’s expectations. He also notes that he received great feedback from attendees, several of whom claimed it was the best meeting they had ever attended.

Reiling believes these types of sponsored events are important to the association’s members and the industry as a whole “so shops realize they are not out there all alone and that through associations, you can bring change to the industry much easier and faster than on your own… AASP-Missouri works diligently to provide our membership with these types of meetings and information to assist them in making good business decisions.”

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www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 47

North Carolina Auto Insurers Seek No Rate Change North Carolina auto insurers say no rate increase is needed for auto insurance policies in the coming year. Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said the Department of Insurance has received the annual auto insurance rate filing from the North Carolina Rate Bureau. The Rate Bureau, which represents the auto insurance companies writing business in the state, submitted a filing on Jan. 31 that requests no change in rates for private passenger car and motorcycle insurance policies for the coming year.

The rates currently in effect are the result of a rate cut and freeze initiated in 2009 that lowered car insurance rates to just below 2006 levels and required insurers to issue $50 million in refunds. Rates have not gone up since then.

“The fact that today’s car insurance rates are no higher than they were in 2006 shows that North Carolina continues to have a strong and stable auto insurance market,” Goodwin said.

“In North Carolina, we have more than 150 active auto insurance companies competing for our consumers’ business, and we have some of the lowest average rates in the country.”

According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, North Carolina has the sixth-lowest average auto insurance costs in the nation.

The current filing will be reviewed by the insurance department.

Additionally, the department said it is reviewing the auto insurance territories, which is required to be done every 10 years under state law.

North Carolina’s method of setting automobile insurance rates is unlike any in the country. Instead of each insurer filing their rates separately with the state Department of Insurance, all 160 companies operating in the state file their rate requests with the North Carolina Rate Bureau. The bureau in turn proposes a statewide base rate on behalf of the companies, which must be approved by the insurance commissioner.

Companies can only adjust individual policies by offering safe driver and other discounts, along with dividends.

There have been some legislative attempts to change the rate approval system but due to the state’s low rates and opposition to change by some insurers and Goodwin have thwarted those moves.

Limitations On Florida’s Pip Insurance Coverage May Complicate Treating Accident-Related Injuries In January of 2013, changes to Florida’s laws governing “personal injury protection” (PIP) coverage in automobile insurance policies went into place. The law was intended to limit fraudulent insurance claims that were reportedly costing the state nearly $1 billion annually in the form of increased insurance premium rates. Once in effect, the revised rules limited claims on PIP policies that were not brought in a timely fashion (within 14 days) of an accident. Furthermore, to receive coverage, injuries resulting from car crashes need to be treating by an accepted medical care provider like a doctor, dentist, paramedic or chiropractor.

Claims for injuries that were not treated by an acceptable provider or within the 14-day timeframe could be denied.

One year from the date when the reformed PIP rules went into place, the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation estimates that auto insurance premiums around the state should drop an average of 13.2 percent due to the decrease in fraudulent claims. Prior to the passage of the law, the National Insurance Crime Bureau had listed several Florida cities as having among the highest number of “questionable” PIP claims in the country.

Background Florida, like several other states, is a “no-fault” insurance state. This means that, should injuries result from a car accident, each driver’s car insurance will be

responsible for his or her injuries, regardless of fault in the accident. For example, if Bill is driving his car and runs a red light, striking Jane’s car, Bill’s insurance will be responsible for covering his injuries, while Jane’s insurance will cover her injuries, even though Bill caused the accident. This is not to say that legal actions are not allowed in car accident claims, just that immediate medical care is typically funded by each driver’s PIP coverage.

Logically, the “no-fault” system makes sense, and it should be a relatively easy way to sort out payment issues following an injury-causing car wreck. As designed, “no-fault” insurance reduces delay claims by the injured policyholders and allows payment issues to be settled without the need for lawsuits.

Unfortunately, there are issues related to no-fault and PIP coverage that were not easily foreseen by legislators.

Supporters of the new, stricter PIP rules say that the old system lent itself to fraud by not having sufficient time constraints on injury claims or by limiting the types of providers. They say that allowing relatively unregulated industries like acupuncture and massage therapy be counted with established, “legitimate” care providers for PIP payment purposes, and by not placing a reasonable time limit on claims, the state was all but endorsing fraudulent claims.

48 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Estify is Trying to be the Startup Disrupting the Collision Industry; Many Have Tried, Few Have Succeeded Estify’s story reads like a success checklist for tech startups. Young, savvy coders see an industry they can disrupt. Their idea wins university contests and scores an $800,000 seed round of funding. They enter an accelerator. They move to sunny California to make their fortunes. One twist though: the industry. Rather than social media or travel or entertainment or fashion, Estify’s founders set out to modernize what they see as an antiquated sector—collision repair.

“The industry’s really outdated, and to be honest, that’s why we wanted to work with it,” says Jordan Furniss, who founded Estify in 2012 in Provo, Utah, along with fellow Brigham Young University business student Taylor Moss and Arkansas transplant Derek Carr. “A lot of [shops] are family businesses, and some of the stuff they do is just how they’ve always done it.”

Specifically, the trio wanted to address the mind-numbing process of reconciling the actual cost of repair jobs with the estimates the shops submit to customers’ insurance companies. Comparing estimates to costs—part for part, labor hour for labor hour—is a big time suck, says

Danny Panduro, vice president of J&L Body and Paint Shop in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. “If our system doesn’t match the insurer’s estimate, it messes up accounting ridiculously,” he says. A big repair job can take two hours to reconcile, and J&L does about 20 estimates a week, in line with industry norms. Estify Reconcile completes this task automatically, comparing two scanned or PDF estimates line-by-line via algorithm and creating a report, so differences can be quickly addressed. “I upload the PDFs, and literally within five minutes I have a reconciliation,” Panduro says. “It’s gold.”

Estify, now based in the greater Los Angeles area, sells its software to repair shops and adjustors for $99 to $500 a month, depending on how robust a system the shop wants and the number of estimates and reconciliations processed.

Within several weeks of its first big public push last October at an industry trade show, Estify had signed up close to 100 shops.

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Bridgestone Guilty of Price Fixing, To Pay $425 Million Fine

Anti-Vibration Parts Sold to Toyota, Nissan, Fuji Industries, Suzuki, and Isuzu

Bridgestone Corp., a Tokyo, Japanbased company, has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $425 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices of automotive anti-vibration rubber parts installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced.

According to a one-count felony charge filed today in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Toledo, Bridgestone engaged in a conspiracy to allocate sales of, to rig bids for and to fix, raise and maintain the prices of automotive anti-vibration rubber parts it sold to Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Corp., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., Suzuki Motor Corp., Isuzu Motors Ltd. and certain of their subsidiaries, affiliates and suppliers. In addition to the criminal fine, Bridgestone also has agreed to cooperate with the department’s ongoing auto parts investigations. The plea agreement is subject to court approval.

In October 2011, Bridgestone pleaded guilty and paid a $28 million fine for price-fixing and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations in the marine hose industry, but did not disclose at the time of the plea that it had also participated in the anti-vibration rubber

parts conspiracy. Bridgestone’s failure to disclose this conspiracy was a factor in determining the $425 million fine.

“The Antitrust Division will take a hard line when repeat offenders fail to disclose additional anticompetitive behavior,” said Brent Snyder, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program. “Today’s significant fine reaffirms the division’s commitment to holding companies accountable for conduct that harms U.S. consumers.”

According to the charges, Bridgestone and its co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy through meetings and conversations in which they discussed and agreed upon bids, prices and allocating sales of certain automotive anti-vibration rubber products.

After exchanging this information with its co-conspirators, Bridgestone submitted bids and prices in accordance with those agreements and sold and accepted payments for automotive anti-vibration rubber parts at collusive and noncompetitive prices. Bridgestone’s involvement in the conspiracy to fix prices of anti-vibration rubber parts lasted from at least January 2001 until at least December 2008.

Said Special Agent in Charge

Stephen D. Anthony, “The illegal activity in this case threatened the basic tenet of free competition. We are pleased with the acceptance of responsibility along with the significant penalty which will be paid by Bridgestone for this conspiracy to fix prices.”

Bridgestone manufactures and sells anti-vibration rubber parts, which are comprised primarily of rubber and metal, and are installed in suspension systems and engine mounts as well as other parts of an automobile.

Including Bridgestone, 26 companies have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty in the department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the automotive parts industry. The companies have agreed to pay a total of more than $2 billion in criminal fines. Additionally, 28 individuals have been charged.

Bridgestone is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries maximum penalties of a $100 million criminal fine for corporations. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

Couple Sentenced in Glass Embezzling Case

“We settled on a plea and she and her husband will be at least paying a little back,” says Lynette Hackworth, office manager for A2 Auto Glass based in Washtenaw County, MI. Oral and Janice Molden were sentenced to probation this month for allegedly embezzling from the automotive glass company. They have been ordered to pay a combined total of $189,881 in fines. “We’re glad for it to be over,” said Hackworth. “It took way too long and it’s a shame this ever happened. It’s a very sad situation and cost the business a lot of money in attorneys’ fees. Our company is much healthier now and we’re glad to move on.” The couple was accused of embezzling the money over a three-year period. Janice Molden was a bookkeeper for the company and Oral Molden did computer work there. Janice Molden was sentenced to five years of probation and has been ordered to pay $166,440 in fines, according to a report. Her husband was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $23,441 in fines. Plea deals in the case were reached in October with the sentencing taking place this month.

Elektron’s Multitool Aluminum Dent Station

Elektron’s new MultiTool Aluminum Dent Repair Station is a complete mobile workstation equipped with the tools technicians need to properly repair dents in aluminum sheet metal body panels and hoods.

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Elektron’s MultiTool Aluminum Dent Repair Station includes a work area as well as space for storing the tools used exclusively on aluminum components.

“The new MultiTool Aluminum Dent Repair Station is self-contained and mobile, making it easy to use in shops with dedicated aluminum repair bays as well as those that only work on aluminum occasionally and need something that can be pulled out as necessary,” explains Mike Cranfill, vice president of collision for Vehicle Service Group (VSG), Elektron’s parent company. “Many vehicle hoods are already made out of aluminum and the use of aluminum in vehicles in North America will continue to increase. The Elektron MultiTool Aluminum Dent Repair Station represents an affordable investment in a shop’s future by providing equipment necessary to work on the next generation of cars and trucks.”

The fully equipped MultiTool workstation comes complete with the new MultiSpot M22 AL stud welder.

This 115V aluminum capacitor discharge welder includes a stud gun and two-clamp grounding cables. A starter kit of aluminum studs and zinc-plated steel eye-bolts is included.

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 49

Aluminum-bodied F-150 is Boon to Eurovac and Car-O-Liner

“This is the biggest thing in the history of our company,” said Rob Retter about what the 2015 aluminum-bodied Ford F-150 pickup means for Eurovac, the Concord, Ontario, equipment firm his family owns in Canada. “Right now we have 25 employees. We’re expecting that will grow substantially.

We’re working hard.”

Retter was at the Ford Motor Co. stand at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention showing off two pieces of equipment his company makes for collision repair shops. One of them, the Eurovac II, carries a price tag of $10,125.

It’s designed to vacuum aluminum dust off shop floors. Ford is encouraging dealers to buy the equipment if they want to make their body shops aluminum capable. Eurovac manufactures industrial equipment for removing dust and fumes. A Eurovac portable fume extractor on display is optional.

Until now, aluminum bodies largely have been limited to high-end cars such as the Audi A8 and Jaguar XJ. But the F-150, the top-selling vehicle in the country, changes all that.

With the F-150, aluminum moves into the mainstream, and some analysts predict more vehicles will follow.

100 Lift Inspectors Are Now Auto Lift Institute Certified

The Automotive Lift Institute (ALI) has certified the 100th lift inspector through the ALI Lift Inspector Certification Program, making it easier than ever for lift owners to find qualified individuals to perform mandated annual lift inspections.

Nicholas Lewandowski of Allied, Inc. in Ann Arbor, Mich., is the 100th lift inspector to complete the program. More than 650 additional candidates, representing 417 companies across the United States and Canada, are enrolled in the program and working toward certification.

Enrollment grew significantly in the final week of 2013, when 45 new companies signed up. “2013 was the first full year of the Lift Inspector Certification Program and we made great progress,” says R.W. “Bob” O’Gorman, ALI president. “We set out to build a resource for lift users, and there is now a stable of 100 Certified Lift Inspectors ready to provide service whenever and wherever inspections are needed. I’m happy to welcome Nicholas to the Certified Inspector family and look forward to hitting many more milestones as the current candidates work their way through the program.”

A steady stream of dealers flowed through the Ford stand looking at aluminum work stations, rivet guns and other equipment. Ford estimates the average dealer will have to spend $30,000 to $50,000 to get set up.

Dealers can purchase the equipment through Rotunda, Ford’s tool supply unit. Ford is offering dealers a 20 percent discount, up to $10,000, on equipment they buy before Oct. 31.

“Right now they’re trying to get their heads wrapped around all the requirements,” said Retter.

The F-150 is great news for companies such as Eurovac and Car-OLiner Co. with U.S. headquarters in suburban Detroit. Car-O-Liner President Jeffrey Kern said his company is prepared for a surge in business.

“We’re capable of handling the additional volume,” Retter said.

“We’ve had rollouts before with manufacturers, but not to this level.”

At the NADA convention, Douglas Bortz, Car-O-Liner’s national sales manager, shows off some tools designed specifically for repairs of aluminum body panels on the Ford F150.

The aluminum buzz at the NADA convention wasn’t confined to the Ford stand. Car-O-Liner displayed a full aluminum work bay at its booth

featuring a damaged aluminum-bodied Audi R8.

Ford is encouraging dealers and independent collision shops who want to perform aluminum collision repair to set up separate areas in their body shops. Ford and experts in collision repair say that aluminum and steel do not mix in work areas, making separate areas advisable.

In a statement Ford said: “The majority of collision repairs can be completed by most body shops today (e.g. bumpers, grilles, mirrors, dings, dents). Major collision repairs should be performed by aluminum capable Ford Body Shops or Ford National Body Shop Network members (dealers and independents).”

Car-O-Liner supplies the heavyduty floor-to-ceiling curtains dealers need to set up a separate station along with welding equipment, sets of aluminum body-working tools, and lifts and racks of various sizes. They help dealers set up aluminum work areas.

Ford will not require dealers to set up a separate “clean room” for working on aluminum. So dealers can curtain off areas, do the body work, clean the area and convert back to steel. For suppliers such as Car-OLiner and Eurovac, the aluminum F150 is a gift that will keep on giving.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to be Company’s New Name

Chrysler and Fiat will be known as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV as they move forward as a single company. Fiat’s board of directors agreed on the new name Wednesday, with headquarters for tax purposes in the United Kingdom. But the board sidestepped the thorny political issue of whether the true headquarters would be in the United States or Italy.

Fiat and Chrysler also announced fourth-quarter and fullyear earnings. Chrysler’s strong profits once again propped up its parent company, which otherwise would have lost money. Shares of the combined company will trade jointly on the New York Stock Exchange and in Milan, Italy, by Oct. 1. The shares will trade under the symbol FCA, which also appears on the new company logo. FCA now includes the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler brands as well as Fiat, Maserati, Ferrari and Lancia and Alfa Romeo. The new company will maintain significant research, engineering and financial operations in Fiat’s hometown of Turin, Italy, and at Chrysler’s sprawling office complex in Auburn Hills, MI.

Aston Martin Recalls Most Cars Built Since Late 2007

Aston Martin is recalling most of its sports cars built since late 2007 after discovering a Chinese sub-supplier was using counterfeit plastic material in a part supplied to the luxury sports carmaker. The recall totals 17,590 cars, including all of its lefthand-drive models built since November 2007 and all righthand-drive models made since May 2012, affecting about 75 percent of all vehicles produced in that period, a spokeswoman said. Aston Martin is owned by Kuwaiti and private equity investors, found that Shenzhen Kexiang Mould Tool Co. Ltd., a Chinese subcontractor that molds the affected accelerator pedal arms, was using counterfeit plastic material supplied by Synthetic Plastic Raw Material Co. Ltd. of Dongguan, according to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The cars are being recalled from model years 2008 through 2014 because the accelerator pedal arm may break, increasing the risk of a crash, according to the NHTSA documents. This recall replaces the recall announced last May and expanded in October.

50 MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

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Boyd Group Restructures Paint Supplier Agreement

Boyd Group Income Fund says it has now entered into a letter of intent with its existing paint supplier for a new or amended agreement, Canada’s Collision Repair Magazine has reported. Under the new or amended agreement, Boyd will continue to benefit from a back-end purchase discount structure that was put in place as part of the amendment and restructuring of its paint supply agreement in October, 2013.

“We are pleased to have taken the next step towards finalizing a new long-term paint supply arrangement that better reflects our current size, purchasing scale and access to capital, as well as changing paint market conditions,” said Brock Bulbuck, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Boyd Group.

“Under the new arrangement, we will continue to benefit from the accretive nature of the higher, marketdriven, back-end purchase discounts achieved by amending and restructuring our previous arrangement last October. We are also very pleased to be able to continue to work with our incumbent paint supplier, who has been a valued business partner since 2006.”

Gerber Collision is DiamondLevel NABC Sponsor

Gerber Collision & Glass increased its commitment to the goals and mission of the National Auto Body Council (NABC) with a top level Diamond membership. A member of the National Auto Body Council since 2010, Gerber Collision & Glass has teamed up with insurers, rental car companies and others in the collision industry on numerous Recycled RidesTM events and other community service projects.

“Our involvement with the National Auto Body Council and its program initiatives continue to grow year after year as we witness the benefits and value this brings not only to recipients of our Recycled Rides vehicles, but also how it has enriched our team members and the industry as a whole,” said Tim O’Day, President & COO of Gerber Collision & Glass. “We look forward to working even more closely with our peers and colleagues through the National Auto Body Council to help promote a positive image of the collision industry.”

Gerber joins 29 other companies at NABC’s top-tier Diamond member level. NABC’s overall membership includes over 200 members, more than 600 shop locations.

Alcoa Foundation Awards $60K Aluminum Training Grant The Collision Repair Education Foundation announced that the Alcoa Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Alcoa, the aluminum company, awarded the Collision Repair Education Foundation a $60,000 grant that will provide aluminum repair focused training and technical presentations to high school and college collision school instructors and industry professionals attending the NACE 2014 show (the International Autobody Congress and Exposition) at Detroit’s Cobo Hall July 28–August 2. Working together with the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I CAR), collision school instructors will attend aluminum specific training sessions in Detroit the week of NACE and aluminum technical presentations and panels will be conducted on the NACE show floor. As more and more of today’s and future vehicles are being constructed with aluminum, it is crucial that current and future repair professionals complete aluminum repair technical training in order to repair consumer’s collision damaged properly.

“Aluminum is the second most used material to build cars and has grown every year for the past 40 years, so it’s not a new material to the auto industry,” said Michael Murphy, Vice President, Commercial for Alcoa Automotive. “However we know that some in the market would like to understand better how they can work with and repair aluminum. Our

goal in teaming-up with the Collision Repair Education Foundation, I-CAR and all the partners at NACE is to educate people and have them understand that repairing aluminum isn’t difficult… it’s just different.”

Collision Repair Education Foundation Executive Director Clark Plucinski noted, “After the overwhelming success of the 2013 Alcoa Foundation grant where collision instructor and student pairs attended aluminum repair technical training at the I-CAR Tech Center, we were thrilled to hear that Alcoa has increased their level of support with this new grant. Working together with I-CAR and in conjunction with the NACE 2014 show this grant will help bring additional aluminum repair training to both collision school instructors and attending industry professionals.”

The Automotive Service Association (ASA) President Dan Risley added, “Alcoa’s commitment to educate instructors and the collision repair industry on aluminum repairs is unparalleled. In addition to the classes and material presented by ICAR on aluminum, we will be assembling a showcase on the show floor highlighting current model vehicles that are aluminum intensive.

We anticipate providing live demonstrations on proper aluminum repair techniques to further supplement an already outstanding lineup of aluminum content and information.”

Midwest Auto Body Trade Show is March 20 in Altoona, IA

The Iowa Collision Repair Association (ICRA) sponsored Midwest Auto Body Trade Show convenes for its 4th year on March 20 at the Prairie Meadows Event Complex in Altoona, Iowa. Organizers have assembled a wealth of new resources focused on the future of the collision repair industry. In addition to 60+ booths, attendees will get the latest on all the industry’s hot topics from an impressive speaker list—including Iowa State Senator Brad Zaun.

Topics include exciting info on the new aluminum Ford F-150 with information fresh from Ford Motor Company along with profit centers, aluminum welding, insurer mandate updates, IT best practices and more.

A wealth of training programs & vendor exhibits make this year’s show a must-go for anyone in the industry: 8:30-11:30 am – ICAR’s New Technology for 2014 Makes & Models Instructor Scott Schuerman

12:00- 1:30 pm – “There is No Free Lunch” Industry Luncheon ($30) Iowa Sen. Brad Zaun and ICRA Lobbyist Scott Weiser: “Update on Insurer Mandates” NuGen IT’s Pete Tagliapietra: “Information Technology & the Future of Collision Repair” 2:00 – 7:00 pm - Trade Show Feat. 60+ Vendor Booths plus free “Training in the Round” Ford’s Video Introduction To Aluminum F-150 Pickup Truck Parts Procurement Training Social Media Training New Revenue Stream – Wire Repair vs. Replacement The Prairie Meadows is offering attendees a special discount on accommodations until March 10th: Mention code 031920141W when booking your reservation. More information about the show is available on the ICRA website.

For more information go to: http://www.iowacra.com.

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AAIA and CARE Conclude Voluntary Information Sharing Agreement with OEMs The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (Alliance), the Association of Global Automakers (Global), the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA), and the Coalition for Automotive Repair Equality (CARE) announced their collective acceptance of a national agreement to ensure consumer choice in post-warranty auto repair, decisively ending the longstanding “Right to Repair” debate within the industry.

The national agreement is based on the recent law finalized in Massachusetts.

The signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) extends the essential provisions for all light vehicles negotiated in the Massachusetts law nationwide; it impacts all companies and organizations that are currently members of the signatory associations. Unlike the recent changes to the law in Massachusetts, the agreement does not include heavy duty trucks, nor does it include motorcycles.

Should a consumer or repair shop be unable to obtain information, software or a tool from a automaker, the complaining party would first be required to contact the car company either directly or through the National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF), to request access to the information, tool or software. A car company has 30 days to respond to this request.

If the shop or consumer are still not satisfied, then the individual or shop can take the issue before a five-person Dispute Resolution Panel established under the MOU comprised of representatives from the four signatory groups and chaired by an independent professional mediator. If the dispute cannot be resolved amicably, the panel will make a ruling based on the terms of the MOU. The Automotive Service Association, in September 2002, reached a voluntary agreement with vehicle manufacturers.

That agreement provided that manufacturers would provide independent repair shops with the same service and training information related to vehicle repair as is available to franchised dealerships. It also specified that NASTF would work to resolve issues that might arise, but did not include the more formal Dispute Resolution Panel.

“ASA is a long-time supporter of industry solutions to service information, tool and training issues. ASA signed an agreement in the fall of 2002, addressing these issues, at the urging of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee. We believe this agreement has made a significant contribution to the automotive independent repairer,” said Bob Redding, ASA’s Washington representative.

“It is encouraging to see the automotive

industry continue to come together on non-legislative solutions for the service information issue. On these most important issues, a government solution should be the last option not the first.”

This national agreement ensures the Alliance, Global, AAIA, and CARE will stand down in their fight on “Right to Repair” and work collectively to actively oppose individual state legislation while their respective groups work to implement this MOU. In the meantime, the parties agree that further state legislation is not needed and could serve to weaken the effectiveness and clarity of the MOU. “Automakers manufacture high quality, innovative vehicles that provide strong value, safety, and convenience to our customers,” said Mitch Bainwol, President and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. “Accessible, efficient, accurate, and competitively-priced repair and service are paramount, and franchised dealers and the aftermarket play unique and important roles in the repair process.”

“We are excited that consumers and independent repair facilities around the Nation will have the same access to the information, tools and software needed to service late model computer controlled vehicles as is required under the Massachusetts right to repair statute,”

Aisan Industry Co. Agrees to $6.86M Criminal Fine for Price Fixing Price-Fixed Electronic Throttle Bodies Sold to Nissan Motor Co. and Subsidiaries

Aisan Industry Co. Ltd., an Obu, Japan-based company, has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a criminal fine of $6.86 million for its role in a price fixing conspiracy involving electronic throttle bodies sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced.

According to a one-count felony charge filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, Aisan engaged in a conspiracy to rig bids for and to fix stabilize and maintain the prices of electronic throttle bodies sold to Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. and certain of its subsidiaries in the United States and elsewhere. In addition to the criminal fine, Aisan has also agreed to cooperate with the department’s ongoing auto parts investigations. The plea agreement is subject to court approval.

“The Antitrust Division will continue to hold companies accountable for anticompetitive conduct that impacts the automobile industry in the United States,” said Brent Snyder, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program. “To date, 25 companies have been charged as part of

the Antitrust Division’s ongoing auto parts investigation.” Aisan and its coconspirators carried out the price fixing conspiracy through meetings and conversations in which they discussed and agreed upon bids and price quotations for electronic throttle bodies.

Aisan’s involvement in the conspiracy to fix prices of electronic throttle bodies lasted from at least as early as October 2003 until at least February 2010.

Aisan manufactures and sells automotive electronic throttle bodies, which are part of the air intake system in an engine that controls the amount of air flowing into an engine’s combustion chamber. By controlling air flow within an engine, the electronic throttle body controls engine speed.

Including Aisan, 25 corporations have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty in the department’s investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. The companies have agreed to pay a total of more than $1.8 billion in fines. Additionally, 28 individuals have been charged.

Aisan is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act,

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which carries a maximum penalty of a $100 million criminal fine for corporations. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

The prosecution arose from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging, and other anti-competitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by each of the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement sections and the FBI. The charges were brought by the San Francisco Office of the Antitrust Division with assistance provided by the National Criminal Enforcement Section of the Antitrust Division, the Detroit Field Office of the FBI, and FBI Headquarters’ International Corruption Unit. Anyone with information concerning this investigation should contact the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 1-888647-3258, visit www.justice.gov/atr/ contact/newcase.html, or call the Detroit Field Office of the FBI at 313965-2323.

said Kathleen Schmatz, President and CEO of the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association. “We believe that the resulting competitive repair market is a win-win for car companies, the independent repair industry and most importantly consumers.”

“Much like with fuel efficiency economy and greenhouse gases, a single national standard regarding vehicle repair protocols is imperative,” said Mike Stanton, President and CEO of the Association of Global Automakers. “A patchwork of fifty differing state bills, each with its own interpretations and compliance parameters doesn’t make sense. This agreement provides the uniform clarity our industry needs and a nationwide platform to move on.”

“Since the first Right to Repair Act was introduced in Congress in 2001, CARE and the automotive aftermarket have worked to ensure our customers continue to have the right to choose where they buy their parts and have their vehicles serviced,” said Ray Pohlman, President of CARE. “This agreement will ensure vehicle owners will have competitive and quality choices in their repairs while strengthening the auto repair industry nationwide. This illustrates what can happen when organizations put customers and consumers first,” Pohlman said.

Twitter Says its Users Buy Twice As Many Cars

Twitter Inc. is seeking a bigger slice of the more than $15 billion auto-advertising market, saying that households with users of its service were twice as likely to buy a new car as the average U.S. household. About 6 percent of households with Twitter users bought a new car during a six-month period measured by partner Datalogix Inc. last year, the San Francisco-based social network said in a blog post. Those households bought new vehicles at double the national rate from April to October, according to Datalogix and IHS Automotive’s Polk. The car-buying data “moves the conversation from ‘why Twitter?’ to ‘how should we use Twitter?’” said Jeffrey Graham, ad research director at Twitter.

“The measurement shows that Twitter works and there’s a huge opportunity there.” Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is focused on reversing a slowdown in user growth. The more significant measure to monitor is the company’s advertising revenue given the “tremendously under-developed potential for monetization” of the platform, according to Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group in New York.

Consumer Reports Says Tesla and Subaru Move Up

Consumers continue to distinguish Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet as the leading brands overall, but several others, including Tesla and Subaru, are moving up the rankings, according to Consumer Reports’ annual Car-Brand Perception Survey. Toyota has a 25-point advantage over second-place Ford, reflecting a five-point gain over the year prior for Toyota and a threepoint improvement for Ford. It could be interpreted that the safety concerns that saw the Toyota score stumble a few years ago have faded, returning the brand to its position as the perceived industry leader. Consumer Reports brand perception scores reflect how consumers perceive each brand in seven important buying factors, ranked here in order of the importance to consumers: quality, safety, performance, value, fuel economy, design/style, and technology/innovation. Combining those factors gives us the total brand-perception score.

While the scores reflect a brand’s image, they do not reflect the actual qualities of any brand’s vehicles. “The key word is ‘perception’.

Car-O-Liner Added to F-150 Ford Rotunda Program

The Car-O-Liner CMI3000II MIG /MAG Pulse Welder, along with additional approved aluminum repair equipment, comprises more than 150 collision repair products currently in the Ford Rotunda Tool and Equipment Program.

As an approved equipment supplier to the Ford Rotunda program for multiple years, Car-O-Liner’s breadth of products provides technicians with the tools needed to perform high quality, safe and efficient repairs—a complete solution to improve efficiencies and productivity.

“We are excited to be a supplier to Ford Motor Company’s 2015 F-150 Collision Repair Program. Our extensive experience through many years of collaboration with global OEM repair programs has established our reputation for quality repairs,” says Peter Richardson, key accounts manager for Car-O-Liner Company.

Car-O-Liner’s powerful truck clamping system and EVO universal anchoring system eliminates the need for specialized adapters and tools in favor of solid, proven technology that is approved and universal in application.

Diamond Standard’s New Reflexxion Website

Diamond Standard Brand Parts Manufacturer Reflexxion Automotive launched a new website, located at www.reflexxion.com, dedicated to provide an easy, interactive portal to Reflexxion’s market leadership in cowl hoods featuring on-truck hood views and paperless Flip-Page 2014 catalog. “We are pleased to provide a clear leading edge website designed to help insurers, collision centers, distributors and consumers by arranging content in a logical path to find the right part solution among more than 100 applications available for General Motors, Ford, Chrysler Dodge light duty truck and SUV models. As the manufacturer of steel and aluminum cowl induction design replacement hoods we felt it important to address in a bold way the growing need for replacing a cowl induction hood in collision repair and the increasing consumer demand for exterior components to enhance and personalize vehicle appearance” said Mike O’Neal, President of Diamond Standard. The website provides numerous features to enable a streamlined process of easily finding information, parts and sourcing solutions effectively reducing clicks required and eliminating menus.

ASA BOD Elections Continue through End of February

Elections for the 2014 Automotive Service Association (ASA) national board of directors are being held now through the end of February. All regular/shop members and corporate members are eligible to vote for one position of general director; mechanical shop members may vote for the ASA mechanical division director; and collision shop members may vote for the ASA collision division director. (Division assignments are made at the time a member joins ASA).

Cast a vote at www.ASAshop.org.

ETI Plans Market Research on Collision Repair Equipment

The Equipment and Tool Institute (ETI) will launch a series of market research projects geared toward the collision repair industry. The projects include a survey to find out more about collision repair facility familiarity with different repair equipment.

It is already available to complete.

Gathered research will be used to help the industry acquire better products, ETI said. The findings will be made available to all ETI member company attendees at ToolTech 2014 in Sonoma, CA, on April 28.

Business Groups Urge OSHA to Dump Silica Rule

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Business groups are sparring with labor and environmental groups over a rule the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says would protect workers from harmful silica dust.

OSHA originally proposed the silica rule last August before twice extending the deadline to file comments. Public hearings are set to begin March 18.

Labor and environmental groups argue the proposed silica rule would set in place much needed protections for construction and manufacturing workers who are exposed to silica.

OSHA says the rule would prevent 700 deaths each year. But business groups argue the new regulations would “unnecessarily” cut jobs and hurt the economy. Dan Bosch, manager of regulatory policy at the National Federation of Independent Business, said the silica rule would hit small businesses particularly hard.

“NFIB strongly urges OSHA to withdraw the rulemaking because it has not shown that it is necessary, it will be extraordinarily expensive and complex to attain compliance, and it has failed to adequately consider the impact on small businesses and their employees,” Bosch wrote in a comment letter.

In a comment filed with OSHA, the National Industrial Sand Associa-

tion (NISA) argues that the agency has “no basis” for strengthening its silica dust regulations because the current standards are adequate.

“We strongly believe that OSHA’s proposed drastic reduction in the permissible exposure limit is not necessary to protect workers and will unnecessarily cost jobs and hurt the national economy,” NISA President Mark Ellis told OSHA. But Ron White, director of regulatory policy at the Center for Effective Government, pointed to an OSHA study that estimates the silica rule would create jobs, contrary to industry arguments.

“It actually creates job; it doesn’t harm jobs,” he said in an interview.

The AFL-CIO called the rule “long overdue. The proposal will significantly reduce workers’ exposures to deadly silica dust and prevent thousands of deaths and diseases a year,” Peg Seminario, safety and health director at the AFL-CIO, wrote in her comments to the agency.

White also submitted comments to OSHA saying he supports the rule, but would like to see it go even further in reducing workers’ exposure to silica dust. “There are still very high risks for workers,” White said.

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 53

ASA Encourages PartsTrader Action at State Level The Automotive Service Association (ASA) has announced that, as part of its 2014 legislative initiatives, it will continue to work with independent repairers and their state affiliate associations that have taken an active role in addressing insurer parts procurement mandates on a state level.

Although a few states in 2013 saw bills introduced to stop insurermandated parts procurement programs, none of these bills advanced to become law in their states, ASA noted.

The association anticipates that 2014 will see more legislative activity on parts procurement and other similar insurer mandates. ASA contacted state attorneys general and insurance regulators in the fall of 2013 asking that they review these programs to determine if they violate their state laws.

ASA has had discussions with a number of these states that have submitted inquiries for additional supporting information. Important to note, ASA states, is that subsequent to its announcement relative to sending letters to each state, State Farm sent states letters arguing the legitimacy of such

mandates. To view an example of these letters, visit www.TakingTheHill.com.

“Our goal was to resolve this [State Farm PartsTrader issue] without government oversight, interference or legislation,” said Dan Risley, ASA executive director.

“As such, we have persisted in our efforts to work with State Farm to change the current PartsTrader mandate policy. This has included multiple meetings and other discussions that continued throughout 2013.

ASA believes that there are potential solutions provided State Farm is willing to work toward an amicable resolution that benefits State Farm, collision repairers and the consumer.”

AAA Says Right to Repair Needs to Go Further

According to AAA the Right to Repair Agreement should help consumers with auto repair, but it does not go far enough in ensuring access to car data as vehicle technology advances.

“Most consumers want the ability to choose their preferred mechanic,” said Bob Darbelnet, President and CEO of AAA. “While this agreement has benefits for consumers, it is not a comprehensive solution. Vehicles are changing rapidly and more must be done to guarantee consumer choice and control of vehicle data in the future.” AAA believes that automakers must help ensure the consumer rights of transparency, choice and security as cars increasingly transmit data outside the vehicle.

AAA Consumer Rights on Car Data Transparency—Consumers

have a right to clearly understand what information is being collected from their vehicle and how it is being used.

Businesses and the government should be transparent about the collection and use of vehicle data.

Choice—Consumers have a right to decide with whom to share their data and for what purpose. This includes ongoing monitoring of vehicle systems, repair and any data of the vehicle owner’s choice. Customers should not be forced to relinquish control as a condition of purchasing or leasing a vehicle or of receiving a connected-vehicle service.

Security—Consumers have a right to expect that connected-vehicle manufacturers and service providers will use reasonable measures to protect vehicle data systems and services against unauthorized access and misuse.

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