Many years, I spend some time during the closing weeks of December or the early weeks of January thinking about some of the key things I’d like to see transpire in the industry in the year ahead. This year is no exception, so without further ado, here are my current Top 10 wishes for the collision industry, in no particular order.
1. I wish non-DRP shops could gain quicker supplement approvals -- or even non-approvals if they were at least quick. The delays waiting to hear back from insurers are killing shops and ultimately inconveniencing the consumer. That’s true whether the supplement review is being done in-person or remotely.
Many years ago, when I owned my shops, I did Top 10 list and I said I hated waiting on approvals for something that was as basic as a $200 part. At that time, Jimmy Spears from USAA reached out to me, and that conversation was part of what led to the development of CCC’s Open Shop feature. Now we see insurers that are truly taking weeks, not just days, to get back to shops on supplements. We have to find a better, faster more efficient way to get to resolution.
2. On behalf of wholesale parts departments at dealerships, I wish all industry stakeholders help give parts wholesalers a voice at industry events. Everyone needs to wake up and realize the margins for those departments are shrinking, and if we don’t quit forcing them to use multiple software solutions nor help find a way to protect their margins, they will be getting out of the wholesale business -- and that is not good for anyone in the industry or for consumers.
3. I also wish shops had similar freedom to use the software system they prefer for electronic parts locating and ordering. The amount of time that is being wasted within shops to use multiple systems required by insurers or automakers is inefficient and is impacting the productivity of the parts personnel within shops.
4. I wish all the automakers -- not just the few that have -- would come up with a clearer definition of what post-crash safety inspections need to be performed. Shops right now are caught in the middle, trying to follow OEM procedures on safety inspections but getting push-back from bill-payers.
5. I wish that insurers would educate themselves and offer up solutions -- not just denials -- in terms of these safety inspections. This friction point is not going away. We need insurers, for example, to donate vehicles to I-CAR for research purposes.
6. And not to be belabor the topic, but I wish I-CAR would take a lead role in researching and vetting an industry-accepted resolution regarding these safety inspections.
7. I wish the dealership management systems -- and the automakers -- would give dealership-owned body shops more flexibility and detail for their financial statements, so they are better able to benchmark against industry standard measures and improve their performance.
8. I wish for a simplified solution of getting parts invoice information into shop management systems efficiently. Why can a shop snap an image of an invoice that can then post it to the management system accurately, reducing the redundancy and wasted manpower keying parts into the system?
9. I have two wishes related to scanning: I wish the industry would better understand the importance of in-process scanning of vehicles -- not just the pre- and post-repair scan. I also wish that the industry also better understood the need to use an OEM scan tool -- not just an aftermarket scan tool. They are not the same!
10. Finally, I wish the shops dedicated to performing safe and proper repairs would be recognized and rewarded for doing so. That goes hand in hand with addressing the issue of the shops not doing that. The number of poor repairs I am seeing is only increasing, and that is a cause for concern.
Mike Anderson