COLLISION DIVISION DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

By Travis Doyle, AASP-MN Collision Division Director

A Promising Future

It is the beginning of fall once again, which means the days are getting shorter, and the mornings are getting colder. The flip flops and tank tops have been replaced with boots and jackets. This leaves a lot of us thinking, “Where did summer go?” Add this summer to the blur of the COVID era, where time seems to have flown by… but that doesn’t mean there is any less work to be done. As most people are spending their time preparing for winter, we shop owners and managers are wondering, “What are we going to do with all these cars?”

We all know the main issue in the automotive industry right now: no parts, wrong parts, damaged parts, backordered parts, discontinued parts, lost parts, etc. You hear from estimators, parts managers, production managers and technicians that they are missing key parts to complete a vehicle. This has created a huge bottle neck for many shops and has drastically increased work in process. It has also left a limited amount of parking real estate, which is premium when the snow flies and starts piling up.

If this wasn’t stressful enough for shops, the current scheduling backlogs continue to grow, and the deer are starting to run. It’s not long now until we start getting snow and ice, which will increase the backlog even further. All of this is increasing the amount of time a vehicle is at a shop. For context, Enterprise Rent-A-Car reported that the average length of rental for 2022 Q2 was 17.7 days, which is a jump of 4.5 days from a year prior.

The frustration we have all felt with these issues over the last couple years can easily be considered negative. It is easy to find yourself getting annoyed, mad or even feeling helpless. But what if we looked at this situation with a positive attitude instead?

The shops that are going to thrive in the future are going to have a positive outlook. It’s time to accept we have hit rock bottom and are starting the climb back up. It is time we start executing a thorough disassembly, parts mirror matching and blueprinting process to get all the parts up front. The time of ordering all your parts from one dealership is no more. You are going to have

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COLLISION DIVISION DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE

It is the beginning of fall once again, which means the days are getting shorter, and the mornings are getting colder. The flip flops and tank tops have been replaced with boots and jackets. This leaves a lot of us thinking, “Where did summer go?” Add this summer to the blur of the COVID era, where time seems to have flown by… but that doesn’t mean there is any less work to be done. As most people are spending their time preparing for winter, we shop owners and managers are wondering, “What are we going to do with all these cars?”