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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE by Burl Richards
AN oem repair victory Thanks to scrs!
Burl Richards ABAT President
TTexas is a huge state with a lot going on, but ABAT makes it a point to look beyond what’s happening here and maintain relationships with national groups that are working on behalf of auto body professionals across the country. The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) is one such vital entity, and ABAT is proud to be one of its state affiliates. Like ABAT,
SCRS stands in full support of OEM-recommended/required procedures as the true standard of repair. Not too long ago,
ABAT’s connection with SCRS made our mission to promote such procedures a much greater reality here and everywhere. As a shop owner, I’ve always believed that if insurers and repair facilities are expected to use the industry’s major estimating systems, then these products should be based on
OEM guidelines. I also know that SCRS is in regular contact with Information Providers (IPs) in regard to potential changes and inquiries from industry members. A few months back, I reached out to SCRS Executive Director Aaron Schulenburg to share my thoughts and concerns and inquire about the possibility of SCRS driving this point home to those IPs. My objective was to help stress the importance of OEM-centric repairs that follow the manufacturers’ repair procedures. I’m so glad I made that call to Aaron, as SCRS worked with the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers (AASP) and other members of the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG)
Joint Operating Committee to develop and circulate language to the IPs based on my concerns as well as those from others in the industry. The result was tremendous. Earlier this year, CCC updated its Labor Time Premise (bit.ly/CCClabortime) to include the following language:
MOTOR recommends a review of the OE service information at the time of estimate preparation to confirm the OE manufacturer repair procedure(s). MOTOR assumes the repair facility is equipped with the necessary tools, equipment and training to complete any given repair following published vehicle manufacturer repair procedures.
“I think this is a great example of how local feedback can influence national-level activity. It demonstrates to ABAT members how in touch they are with the things that can ultimately affect them. They have the intuition to know that there are resources available that might carry greater influence that they can work with to try to initiate change. I really appreciate the foresight that Burl, Jill and others have at the state level. We’re all pulling our oars in the same direction, and it’s important to rely on each other’s support. If a collision repairer is not a member of their local association, it’s important for them to get involved.”
Thank you for those great words, Aaron! It’s a pleasure working with SCRS, and I’m thrilled and grateful that you were able to add my concerns and ideas to your greater efforts to improve this industry. Every member of ABAT is better for having SCRS at their side through our association’s affiliation with yours, and I hope they will consider joining SCRS as national-level members as well.
I presented SCRS with some thoughts and ideas, and Aaron and others clearly ran with them. I’d love to see similar language like that turn up in the other estimating systems, and I know SCRS is actively having conversations with them to work this out. I’ll keep our ABAT members posted in Texas Automotive as things develop.
When I first reached out to SCRS on this topic, the association was also looking into addressing OEMrecommended operations that weren’t necessarily reflected in these estimating systems. I offered some feedback on this as well, as I’ve always believed that it’s extremely important that repairers review the OEM procedures at the time the estimate is prepared to make sure nothing was missed. This coincided with a DEG inquiry (bit.ly/DEG17251) that identified a time assigned to a 2018 Ford F-150 pickup box outside panel that was based on an outdated procedure. That time has since been updated. This is why inter-industry communication matters!
As I was working on this message, this magazine’s editorial director, Joel Gausten, shared something that Aaron told him during a recent conversation they had on my communications with SCRS:
