June 2018 Southeast Edition by Autobody News

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SOUTHEAST EDITION

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Vol. 9 / Issue 4 / June 2018

CA Jury Awards Fired Allstate Employee More Than $18 Million

SCRS Meeting Includes Election, Awards, Info Related to DEG

by Denise Johnson, Claims Journal

by Autobody News Staff

A former Allstate Insurance Co. employee who was fired following an arrest has been awarded more than $18 million in damages. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported a San Diego jury awarded 55-year-old Michael Tilkey about $2.6 million in actual damages and nearly $16 million in punitive damages in his wrongful termination lawsuit. Tilkey was fired by Allstate in 2016 after he was arrested in Arizona the prior year following an argument

he had with his then-girlfriend. According to the original complaint, Tilkey had worked for Allstate for 30 years, starting with the company soon after receiving his bachelor’s degree. He worked his way up to field sales leader, advising 30 independent agents and support staff. He alleged that despite his stellar work performance, he was fired without warning in May 2015. The reason given for his abrupt termination was that “threatening anyone” was against company policy. The prior year he stated he had been See CA Jury Awards, Page 24

AMi: Out of the Shadows

for years virtually invisible to the collision repair world. But this did not The Automotive Management Insti- belie the fact that AMi provided and tute, better known simply as AMi, continues to provide a great service began in 1989 as the Automotive for both the mechanical and collision Service Association Mansides of the business. Eventually, the organization beagement Institute. Perhaps because it was came known simply as AMi. so closely tied to the AutoAs described on its webmotive Service Association site, AMi is a 501(c)(3) (ASA), which focuses heavnonprofit organization dedily on the mechanical, rather icated to providing industhan the collision side of the try-recognized professional Jeff Peevy business, and/or perhaps bemanagement designations, cause AMi did not have a high-profile certificates and career paths to the person to represent the organization service and collision repair segments to the collision repair industry, AMi of the automotive industry. As a nonSee Out of the Shadows, Page 22 stood mostly in the shadows and was by Gary Ledoux

A fourth open seat on the board was filled by Dominic During several days of Brusco of PPG, who had events in Denver in midpreviously spent five years April, the Society of Collion the SCRS board earlier sion Repair Specialists this decade. He defeated in(SCRS) elected new board cumbent Mark Bodreau of Matthew members, presented several Caliber Collision, who durMcDonnell ing his 5-year term on the awards and held a meeting that offered presentations on techni- board had sold his Virginia collision cal issues and free tools available to repair business to that consolidator. SCRS Chairman Kye Yeung said Bothe industry. dreau had been “an integral Three current SCRS part of the board,” and hoped board members were rehe would continue to play a elected to another term. Rerole in the association. taining their seats on the board were Michael BradDuring discussions and presentations at the “open shaw of K&M Collision in North Carolina, Bruce Halmeeting” portion of the association’s board meeting in cro of Capital Collision CenAmber Alley Denver, Matthew McDonters in Montana and Paul See SCRS Meeting, Page 50 Sgro of Lee’s Garage in New Jersey.

Mike Anderson’s 3rd Webinar Discusses Nissan/ INFINITI Technology

have led him to determine that shops are not researching OEM repair proOn Monday, April 23, Mike Andercedures 100 percent of the time as son of Collision Advice presented they should be. the third webinar in his Learn to ReBecause of this, Collision Adsearch, Research to Learn series. The vice will be hosting a webinar with webinar focused on “Using Nissan/ a different OEM each month to raise INFINITI Technology.” awareness of the resources He was joined by Will each OEM offers to reLatuff of Latuff Brothers, search repair procedures. Justin Miller of Nissan He will guide attendees on a step-by-step tour of each and Mark Zoba of Nissan/ specific OEM’s website, inINFINITI. The webinar was cluding logging in, areas of created by Collision Advice the website and how to imin collaboration with FCA, Mike Anderson prove search results. He but Anderson also thanked file photo will also demonstrate how CIECA for its contributions to research some common proceto the industry. Explaining why he decided to dures needed by collision repairers, host these webinars, Anderson re- explore the differences between an ported that his annual Who Pays for OEM scan tool and aftermarket scan What surveys, conducted in con- tool and investigate OEM parts injunction with the Crash Network, See 3rd Webinar Discusses, Page 28 by Chasidy Rae Sisk

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ASCCA/CAA Takes On the Capitol at 2018 Annual Legislative Day in California

CONTENTS

by Ed Attanasio Athens, AL, School Offers Students Non-Traditional Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 D&D Ford in Greer, SC, Awards Vehicle in Recycled Ride Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 FL Attorney Owes $1.8 Million for Role in

Webinar: ‘You’ve Got the Power’ . . . . . . . . . 42 Yoswick - Association Leader 5 Years Ago Called for DRPs to Include ‘Grandfather Clause’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Yoswick - Chipotle Executive Offers Concepts That Resonate With Collision Repairers . . . . 46

Auto Insurance Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 IGONC Chapter Sees Auto Fluids Presentation . . 8

NATIONAL

IGONC Triangle Chapter Gets Excited for

ABPA Annual Meeting & Convention

2018 ASTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Maaco Looks to Expand Into BirminghamHoover, AL, Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 MiCar Collision Center Named Chesapeake, VA, Small Business of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 NCACAR’s Spring Fling Meeting Features David Luehr, Jake Rodenroth. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 New John Harris Body Shops Facility to Open in Sumter, SC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Phillips - GA Body Shop Stays Up to Date With Equipment, Training. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Body Shop Serves Poplarville, MS, Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Thomas Collision Center in Valdosta, GA, to Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Victim Buys Flooded Pickup That Went From FL to TX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Welding Students in NC Learn About Changes in Auto Body Industry . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Exceeds Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 ACA Testifies Before U.S. Trade Representative on Section 301 China Tariffs . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 ACA Releases 2018 Collision Trends Report . . 58 AMi: Out of the Shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 ARA’s 2018 Hill Days and State Legislative Summit Is Most Successful Yet!. . . . . . . . . . 58 ASA Testifies on Repair Procedures Bill . . . . . . 53 ASCCA/CAA Takes On the Capitol at 2018 Annual Legislative Day in California. . . . . . . . 3 Autobody News to Collaborate with Discovery Channel on Auto TV Shows . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 CA Jury Awards Fired Allstate Employee More Than $18 Million . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Don’t Blame Self-Driving Cars for Accidents Caused by Humans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Finishmaster Donates $50,000 to CREF . . . . . 10 Free Auto Data Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 FTC’s Compliance Warning to Hyundai . . . . . . . 4 How Much Would You Trust an Autonomous

COLUMNISTS Attanasio - Does Email Marketing Still Work for Body Shops? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Attanasio - Voyomotive Takes Telematics to Whole New Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Ledoux - Dave Illg Collision Repair Center: The Risen Phoenix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Ledoux - Oldest Body Shops in America: Sirl’s Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Ledoux - The 1940s – Part 1 - An End, a Beginning and a Birthday . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Phillips - 10 Simple Steps to Collision Repair Success From VECO Experts . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Sisk - ‘Why WIN? Why Conference?’ Webinar Provides Useful Conference Tips . . . . . . . . . 48 Sisk - ASA Partners With Bosch for 4th

Vehicle? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 How Safety Shapes Driverless Car Technology . 4 Mike Anderson’s 3rd Webinar Discusses Nissan/INFINITI Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Mission 2 Hire Program: 400th Veteran . . . . . . 41 Nominations Now Open for 2018 Impact Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Nominations Open for NABC Awards . . . . . . . . . 4 Pentagon Aims to Develop Self-Driving Vehicles for Battlefield. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 School Grant Applications Due June 1. . . . . . . 12 SCRS Meeting Includes Election, Awards, Info Related to DEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 University of Cincinnati Is Researching Autonomous Vehicle Technology . . . . . . . . . 20 WAC Takes Shape at April Meeting . . . . . . . . . 60

Every year, the California Autobody Association co-hosts CAA/ASCCA /Joint Automotive Aftermarket Industry Legislative Day as automotive repair industry members in the Golden State convene at the Capitol in Sacramento to let their voices be heard. On April 24, 80 collision and mechanical repairers were on hand at the Capitol Event Center to discuss crucial issues that can affect their businesses in one way or another while preparing to meet with their representatives. Body shops are opposed to AB 2276 (Burke), the Auto Body Labor Rate Survey Bill that allows insurers to conduct an “alternative labor rate survey” but eliminates standards set forth in the CDI regulations that pro-

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS

REGIONAL

(l to r) Rick Lezcano, the owner of Simply Superior Auto Body in Concord, CA, and ASCCA/CAA Political Analyst Jack Molodanof network at ASCCA/CAA Joint Legislative Day held on April 24 in Sacramento

duce consistent, accurate and reliable labor rate results. It instead allows insurers to skew the results in a manner that will suppress market rates. “On behalf of the CAA, we must regretfully oppose AB 2276, the successor to AB 1679 which failed earlier See Legislative Day, Page 52

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst General Manager: Barbara Davies Contributing Writers: John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess, Ed Attanasio, Chasidy Sisk, David Luehr, Stacey Phillips, Victoria Antonelli, Gary Ledoux Advertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman, Bill Doyle, Norman Morano (800) 699-8251 Office Manager: Louise Tedesco Digital Marketing Manager: Bill Pierce Art Director: Rodolfo Garcia Graphic Designer: Michelle Lucas Online and Web Content Editor: Rochelle Beckel Accounting Manager: Heather Priddy Editorial/Sales Assistant: Randi Scholtes

Serving Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina 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. ©2018 Adamantine Media LLC.

AkzoNobel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Assured Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . 55 Axalta Coating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 BMW of North America, LLC.. . . . . . . . . . . 11 BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . 59 Carcoon America Airflow Systems. . . . . . . 15 CCC Information Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Coggin Deland Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Dent Magic Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Diamond Standard Parts, LLC . . . . . . . . . . 49 ECS Automotive Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 EMS Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Equalizer Industries, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . 53 GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Gus Machado Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 H.E.W And Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Hendrick Automotive Group. . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Hendrick Automotive Group of Charleston . 64 Hendrick BMW/MINI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Hendrick Kia Cary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Hendrick Kia Concord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Honda-Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31, 32-33 Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . 53 Jim Cogdill Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram . . . 24 Jon Hiester Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Kernersville Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram . . 20 Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 57

Launch Tech USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Lexus Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . 58 MarkingPenDepot.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Matrix Automotive Finishes . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Mercedes-Benz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Mercedes-Benz Wholesale Parts Dealers . 56 MINI Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . 58 MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . 37 O’Reilly Auto Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Original One Parts™. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Pohanka Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Polyvance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . 52 Radley Chevrolet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Red Kap Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Rick Hendrick Chevrolet Naples . . . . . . . . 42 Rick Hendrick MOPAR Southeast Wholesalers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-17 Riverside Ford-Lincoln . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Robaina Industries, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 SATA Dan-Am Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Smith Kia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Southside Kia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Stateline Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram. . . . . . 8 Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . 47 Symach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Tameron Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 UniCure Spraybooths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 52 West Broad Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

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autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

How Safety Shapes Driverless Car Technology by TJ Martinell, Lens

A new WA state law that takes effect in June creates a state work group that assists the Washington State Transportation Commission on making annual recommendations to state lawmakers for public policy on the use of driverless or self-driving vehicles. Meanwhile, self-driving tech companies such as Waymo intend to have driverless vehicles available for public rider service by the end of the year with level four technology,

tests that had employees operating them. “You have someone texting, not paying attention to the road, fumbling around with cords,” he said. “It’s actually very easy for humans to start trusting the technology. I made a decision at that point that we would only pursue level four autonomy, because it’s the safest.” He added that complications arise with creating level 2–3 self-driving cars where the driver frequently takes and yields control, which also compounds liability issues.

As driverless technology develops, one company is focusing solely on near-fully autonomous vehicles (AV), a move they believe will address public safety concerns Credit: National League of Cities

which means the car can operate without human control under certain conditions. The highest is level five, where the vehicle is fully autonomous under all conditions. At an April 18 event in Seattle hosted by the Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) and the U.S. Chamber Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC), Waymo Senior Counsel David Tressier outlined how it created the technology to make the vehicles work and in what ways public concerns over safety have driven development. “We are very excited at the prospect of bringing self-driving car technology to the public and improving road safety,” he said. The way to do that is by “building the world’s most experienced driver” through a combination of public road testing and aerospace simulation. Formerly the Google self-driving car project, Waymo later split off to form its own separate company in 2016. Since 2009, its AV software has driven 5 million autonomous miles on public roads. Unlike other autonomous vehicle (AV) companies, Waymo is only focused on level four technology, a decision made based on its experience with Google’s self-driving car 4

One barrier they hope to surmount is public anxiety. A 2017 Pew Research Center survey of 4,135 U.S. adults found that “although they expect certain positive outcomes from these developments, their attitudes more frequently reflect worry and concern over the implications of these technologies for society as a whole.” That worry was perhaps demonstrated after a recent deadly accident in Arizona involving a self-driving Uber vehicle. Although the driver was found to be not at fault, Uber quickly pulled those vehicles from the roads. In January, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced plans to release a new set of guidelines for autonomous vehicles this summer, in part to promote greater safety. “The deployment of self-driving cars is going to depend on the public acceptance and public trust, so we do feel a responsibility to start educating the public about how it works,” Tressier said. He also argued that part of public acceptance comes with understanding how the technology can eliminate the kind of human error that causes around 90 percent of car accidents in the U.S. In 2016, there were almost 40,000 vehicle accident

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

fatalities. There are also costs that might be saved. In 2010 alone, motor vehicle crashes cost the U.S. $871 billion in economic loss and societal harm. That same year, there were 32,999 fatalities, 3.9 million non-fatal injuries and 24 million damaged vehicles. “The status quo is not acceptable,” Tressier said. “As we think then about the future of torts and the … liability regime for this emerging technology, I think it needs to be with the consideration of the backdrop of the status quo. (It) shouldn’t be acceptable. “The prospect and the promise of self-driving cars when deployed… is to reduce these traffic fatalities and increase road safety. They don’t get drowsy … they can see 360 degrees, they can respond, and they can see up to three football fields in every direction.” A 2017 RAND Corporation study concluded that waiting for “nearly perfect” driverless cars could waste an opportunity to reduce accident fatalities. “At best, fatalities are comparable, but, at worst, waiting has high human costs. Under none of the conditions we explored does waiting for significant safety gains result in fewer fatalities.” Another RAND study released that year recommended “an approach in which AVs are introduced gradually as the vehicles meet a set of incremental, performance-based benchmarks” and “that the target benchmark of AV performance can determine the cap on vehicles’ deployment or, conversely, the number of vehicles desired can determine what benchmark should be set.” Also released in 2017 was Waymo’s safety report, the first of its kind, which described in detail how the vehicles operate. One feature of these vehicles is overlapping sensors, which Tressier said “will be important when it comes to liability, because it is so critical for safety. It (AV software) has to make sense of what it’s seeing in the world.” We thank Lens for reprint permission.

Nominations Open for NABC Awards

The National Auto Body Council (NABC) announced online nominations are now open for its Annual Awards Program. Nominations are being accepted in two award categories:  The Award of Distinction recognizes individuals who have gone above and beyond in volunteerism, charitable, selfless acts and made a difference in changing and saving lives. Any individual, business organization or group employed in a collision industry-related segment, such as collision repair facility, vehicle manufacturer, supplier/vendor, educator, insurer, independent appraiser or trade association is eligible to be nominated.  The Body Shop Image Award recognizes the most significant improvements made to a shop’s interior, exterior and operations and as a result, helped enhance the customer's experience with the collision repair process. Any body shop completing a remodeling during the calendar year 2017 is eligible to be nominated. NationalAutoBodyCouncil.org.

FTC’s Compliance Warning to Hyundai

On April 9, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a “compliance warning” to Hyundai Motor Company regarding violations of the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act's (MMWA) prohibition against tie-in sales of branded products and services as a condition of warranty coverage. FTC specified the following website statement as problematic: “The use of Hyundai genuine parts is required to keep your Hyundai manufacturer’s warranties and any extended warranties intact.” Should Hyundai fail to eliminate such statements, FTC may take “legal action.” While AOCA, Auto Care and the Tire Association of America wish that the FTC action had been stronger, they are pleased that the agency has publicly warned the companies that it is illegal under the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act to require the use of a manufacturer part or service in order to maintain a warranty.

www.autobodynews.com

autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

IGONC Triangle Chapter Gets Excited for 2018 ASTE by Chasidy Rae Sisk

The Triangle Chapter of the Independent Garage Owners of North Carolina (IGONC) met at Buffalo Brothers Pizza & Wings in Raleigh, NC, on April 3. IGONC Executive Director Bob Pulverenti stated, “This was our monthly get-together to socialize, learn new things and continue

Former IGONC President Dean Bailey (left) sits with Steven Clark of IGO Vendor Member Capital One Small Business Cards

to support each other and the aftermarket auto industry. We maintain that these events offer a lot of support to our members, who can be a great asset to each other.” When the scheduled speaker for the evening had to cancel due to illness, Pulverenti stepped up to the plate and provided an update on the

current progress made in planning the 2018 Automotive Service and Technology Expo (ASTE), which is scheduled for Sept. 28 and 29. Pulverenti shared, “The ASTE is held every year by IGONC to provide a weekend of classes, social events and a vendor trade show to keep our members on top of the latest innovations and products in the after-market automotive industry. Our members always enjoy hearing about the buildup to the ASTE, especially now that it’s growing. After selling out of vendor space last year, and even more interest by new vendors this year, we have increased the space as well as the amount of classes, and our members are really excited!” The group also heard from Randy Lisk, executive director of AAAMS, and Pulverenti introduced IGONC’s newest vendor member, Steven Clark of Capital One Small Business Cards. “After the last-minute change in speakers, everything went very well. We were all glad to see our newest vendor member already jumping into meetings,” Pulverenti said. For more information on IGONC, visit www.igonc.com.

NCACAR’s Spring Fling Meeting Features David Luehr, Jake Rodenroth by Chasidy Rae Sisk

On April 26, the North Carolina Association of Collision and Autobody Repair (NCACAR) hosted its second quarter meeting, Spring Fling, at the City Club Gibson Mill in Concord, NC.

(l to r) Brian Davies, Jake Rodenroth and Billy Walkowiak pose in front of NCACAR’s banner

Brian Davies, President of NCACAR, shared, “The meeting began with a board meeting where Augusto Carillo-Perris stepped up as treasurer for the association. The venue was absolutely beautiful, and we had around 65 people in attendance, though I hoped more members would attend to learn 6

from David and Jake.” David Luehr of Elite Body Shop Solutions, LLC delivered a presentation on “The Secrets of America’s Greatest Body Shop.” According to Davies, “David gave us a great presentation on the main concepts of his book. He discussed the relationship between shops and their customers and the importance of building passionate customers who will generate more business by word-of-mouth.” asTech’s Jake Rodenroth also spoke at the meeting about Telematics and the Future of Vehicle Communication. The association ended the meeting by raffling off a Scangrip Color Match Kit, sponsored by NCS and PPG. NCACAR’s next event will be an estimating class on May 19, held at Classic Paint and Body in Asheville, NC. The association’s next quarterly meeting will be held on August 16 in Fayetteville, featuring guest speaker Mike Cassata.

For more information on the association, visit www.ncacar.com.

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

Welding Students in NC Learn About Changes in Auto Body Industry Richmond Community College welding students were given the opportunity to learn about and experiment working with new technology that is being used in the auto body industry. Representatives from Barnes Motor and Parts Co. and Carolina Collision Equipment recently came to campus in Hamlet, NC, to give a hands-on demonstration of Car-O-Liner’s latest aluminum repair welders, repair systems and rivet tools. This new technology is used in the auto body industry for repairing Ford’s new aluminum F-150. “In order to work in the auto body industry, you have to have knowledge of these products to successfully work with today’s aluminum vehicles,” said Mickey Tyson from Carolina Collision Equipment. Tyson and Bucky Douthit from NAPA Auto Parts gave the presentation in Richmond CC’s welding lab and worked individually with students using the new technology. “It was a great opportunity for us to have these veterans of the industry working with our students and showing them the skills and knowledge they’ll need when they enter the workforce,” welding instructor Chris Cesaro said.

“It’s very important that we equip our students with real-world knowledge and real-world skills so they can meet

(l to r) Mickey Tyson from Carolina Collision Equipment, and Bucky Douthit from NAPA Auto Parts stand with the welding tools they demonstrated to Richmond Community College students in the Welding Technology program

the demands of today’s employers.” The Welding Technology program at Richmond CC is now accepting new students for summer and fall semesters. Contact Cesaro for more information about enrolling in the program and earning a certificate or diploma in welding. Cesaro may be reached by phone at (910) 410-1932 or email at: cjcesaro @richmondcc.edu. You can also visit www.richmondcc.edu for more information.

autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

Maaco Looks to Expand Into Birmingham-Hoover, AL, Market by Jon Anderson, Hoover Sun

The Maaco auto paint and collision repair company is looking to expand into the Birmingham-Hoover metro area and considers Hoover a priority market, a company official said. Maaco, based in Charlotte, currently has 513 repair and paint shops in 52 states and Canadian provinces. There are only eight in Alabama, none of which are in the Birmingham-Hoover metro area, said Dennis Elliott, the company’s vice president of development and franchising. But the company wants to be in the Birmingham area and in Hoover specifically, Elliott said. Maaco thrives in suburbs, where people tend to be more dependent on cars to get to work, and Hoover has all the characteristics that Maaco is seeking, he said. Elliott said the city appears to be a business-friendly community experiencing a lot of growth, both in housing and business. Maaco would like to open about six locations in the BirminghamHoover area over the next three to five years, probably mostly south of Birmingham, Elliott said. The company also may add more shops in

Huntsville, Florence, Jacksonville, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery and Mobile, he said. Currently, Maaco has two shops in Mobile and one each in Auburn, Decatur, Dothan, Huntsville, Montgomery and Saraland, according to the company’s website. Each Maaco repair and paint shop typically employs five to 10 people, Elliott said. Maaco has not yet identified specific locations for shops in the metro area, he said. The company typically looks for the right person to be a franchise partner first, he said. “We have zero corporate-owned stores,” he said. Maaco is not necessarily looking for someone with experience in the auto repair and paint business, but more so someone who can be a good business manager, he said. “We’ve got a proven playbook. We’ve been around for 45 years and continue to grow every year,” he said. Last year, Maaco signed 45 new franchise licenses, Elliott said. About 70 percent of those were new shops, and about 30 percent were existing shops acquired by Maaco, he said. This year, the company hopes

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

to have a substantially higher number of new licenses than last year, he said. The company recently hired a new chief development officer with experience at McDonald’s, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, he said. Less than 25 percent of Maaco’s business is due to relationships with insurance companies, Elliott said. Most of the company’s focus is working directly with individuals or companies that have fleets of vehicles, he said. Maaco typically works with single-store operators but would be willing to work with one individual who could manage multiple locations in the Birmingham area, Elliott said. It typically takes nine months to get a new store up and running, but converting an existing repair shop to the Maaco brand can be done in as little as three months, he said. People interested in starting a Maaco franchise can contact P.J. Nee, the company’s director of franchise sales for the eastern United States, at 704-998-8188. We thank Hoover Sun for reprint permission.

IGONC Chapter Sees Auto Fluids Presentation by Chasidy Rae Sisk

On May 1, the Triangle Chapter of the Independent Garage Owners of North Carolina (IGONC) met at Wheels 4 Hope in Raleigh, NC. During this monthly meeting, attendees received an abbreviated sneak peek of “Vehicle Fluids: Lubricant & Filtration Technologies,” which CARQUEST Technical Institute’s Peter Orlando will be presenting at the ASTE 2018 in September. According to IGONC Executive Director Bob Pulverenti, “The class was very interesting and informative. Our members were excited about the opportunity to learn more at the event. We were excited to be able to offer this sneak peek into a class, the style of which will be offered at our upcoming trade show. We had a good turnout, and everyone was very interested in Mr. Orlando’s presentation. “This monthly gathering is good for our members to network and share information about the industry to help support one another. Events like this improve the strength of our membership.” For more information about IGONC, visit www.igonc.com.

FL Attorney Owes $1.8 Million for Role in Auto Insurance Fraud by Paula McMahon, Sun Sentinel

We thank Sun Sentinel for reprint permission. http://www.sun-sentinel.com /news/crime/fl-reg-attorney-sentenced -auto-insurance-fraud-20180416story.html Family and friends of Jason Dalley said they know him as a concerned attorney who went the extra mile for his clients, a dedicated Little League coach and a devoted dad and husband. But Dalley wept in court April 16 as he told a judge about another aspect of his life—how he allowed his “passion for helping people to give way to greed.” Dalley was taken into custody in court in Fort Lauderdale, FL, after he was sentenced to one year and nine months in federal prison for his role in a massive $23 million auto insurance fraud case involving South Florida chiropractors’ clinics. He also owes more than $1.8 million in restitution. Dalley, 55, of Boca Raton, ran a personal injury and criminal defense law firm in Delray Beach until he pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of conspiring to commit health care, mail and wire fraud. He gave up

his license to practice law in March. “It started slowly and quickly spun out of control,” Dalley said of his involvement in the fraud. He admitted he was part of a group of corrupt clinic owners, chiropractors and attorneys who operated mostly in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. The fraud raked in at least $23 million from 10 auto insurance companies between 2010 and 2017, according to court records. Dalley admitted he illegally paid kickbacks of $2,000 to $2,500 to a clinic operator, tow-truck drivers and other so-called “runners” who broke the law by referring clients to him. Dalley filed auto insurance claims on behalf of those clients and received payments. He paid about $790,000 to “purchase those patients” while he was involved in the fraud between 2012 and 2015, prosecutors Jeffrey Kaplan and Paul Schwartz told the judge. Dalley’s defense team, Marc Nurik and Guy Fronstin, emphasized his many years of community service and his strong reputation as a generous and caring family man. Dalley’s wife said she and their three teenage sons

are devastated by his imprisonment. His 15 years of coaching young baseball players in the Boca Raton Little League stood out because he worked so hard to encourage players to be good people, as well as to play the game well, the defense said. Dalley had been facing about four years in federal prison, but prosecutors recommended a lighter punishment because Dalley cooperated extensively with federal and state investigations of the fraud. He agreed early on to cooperate and secretly record some conversations with other criminals. His undercover help convinced other defendants to plead guilty before trial, they said. U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas agreed the crime was serious and said Dalley violated his oath as an attorney. But he said it was important to recognize Dalley’s cooperation with investigators. The judge said a federal prison term of one year and nine months was sufficient punishment to deter other attorneys from going “for the quick, easy, greedy buck.” The ringleaders of the fraud, Felix Filenger, 41, of Sunny Isles, and Andrew Rubinstein, 48, of Miami, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspir-

acy charges in December. They admitted the fraud involved ripping off auto insurance providers by illegally billing for Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance funds under Florida’s no-fault law. The fraud involved making kickback payments to get people who could legally access supposedly confidential traffic accident reports to illegally steer drivers and passengers to the corrupt chiropractic clinics, investigators said. Once there, the “patients” were signed up for unnecessary and excessive treatment and referred to attorneys who tried to force auto insurance companies to pay settlements, records show. Dalley was previously disciplined twice by the Florida Bar, receiving an admonishment and a public reprimand, in 2009 and 2012.

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New John Harris Body Shops Facility to Open in Sumter, SC by Bruce Mills, The Sumter Item

Sumter, SC’s only chain brand body shop will soon be moving just down the road and into a new facility to better serve its customers, according to the collision repair store’s area manager. David Clark, Charleston area manager for John Harris Body Shops, made his comments recently about the operator’s new shop under construction at 2945 Broad St. that’s planned to open in July. John Harris has been renting its current space at 1196 Broad St., next to Jones Chevrolet, for about five years now, Clark said. He indicated that Jones Chevrolet has other plans for the property for the future, so his company decided to build a new top-of-the-line, 20,000-squarefoot shop about 1.5 miles down Broad Street. According to Clark, the new shop will also have a redesigned building layout that will increase employees’ efficiency when working on vehicles. Those operational processes, which he described as similar to a manufacturing production line fa-

The operator has done well in Sumter so far, and Clark hopes the new paint and body shop will be able to grow its business and potentially add new employees. John Harris is also building a new facility in the Augusta, GA, market. When that’s completed it will have 10 locations in South Carolina and Georgia, he said. Clark said the multishop operator considers its customer service index to be its most important business indicator. “If the customer is happy, then obviously Construction crews work at the new John Harris Body we’ll continue to have Shops’ site, 2945 Broad St. in Sumter, SC. The new customers that come 20,000-square-foot facility is expected to open in July. through the door,” Credit: Bruce Mills, The Sumter Item Clark said. “It’s not reStreet and thinks it will be a good ally about how many cars we can put spot to serve both the community out the door in a day, but how we and service members at Shaw Air can make that experience a good one so that they will go out and share that Force Base. John Harris has about 20 em- with other people, and we’ll stay ployees in its facility next to Jones busy.” We thank The Sumter Item for Chevrolet, and all will be moving to reprint permission. the new facility in July. cility, are what set John Harris apart from its competitors in the collision repair business. John Harris’ cycle times are nearly two days quicker than the average body shop, he said. He’s also excited about the new location farther down Broad

Finishmaster Donates $50,000 to CREF

FinishMaster has donated $50,000 to the Collision Repair Education Foundation in celebration of the company’s 50th Anniversary. The contribution from FinishMaster provides crucial support for the Education Foundation and its ability to support high school and college collision programs, instructors and students nationwide and help connect graduates with employers “FinishMaster is grateful for the opportunity to support the Collision Repair Education Foundation and the work it does to connect students with training and career opportunities,” said Steve Arndt, President and Chief Operating Officer of FinishMaster. Industry members interested in joining the Collision Repair Education Foundation’s roster of supporters to assist high school and post-secondary collision school programs should contact Director of Development Brandon Eckenrode at 847-463-5245 or email Brandon.Eckenrode@ed-foundation .org

The Body Shop Serves Poplarville, MS, Community by Jeremy Pittari, Picayune Item

With almost a decade of experience in providing wrecker services to the Poplarville, MS, area, Glenn Bolin decided to open The Body Shop on Highway 26 to meet the community’s repair needs. Bolin said he went to college to learn about automotive mechanics, but eventually drifted to performing body work on damaged vehicles.

Glenn Bolin and Darlon Myrick, in the background, look over a vehicle at The Body Shop in Poplarville, MS, involved in a collision recently. Credit: Jeremy Pittari

Before starting his wrecker business nine years ago, Bolin said he worked offshore as a production manager. He started the wrecker business so he could be home more often. On Jan. 25 of this year, he expanded that business by opening the doors to his newest business ven10

ture: The Body Shop. Prior to opening the shop, he and his father worked on vehicles at his father’s shop. Bolin said he likes to see the vehicles shine once their repair work is complete. Presently, the bulk of his business is in repairing vehicles damaged in accidents, but he will take a custom paint job from time to time. The Body Shop currently employs three people full time, including himself, Darlon Myrick and Mason Dedeaux. Not only can the staff pull out dents and replace broken windshields, but Bolin said his shop also has a paint booth that meets all Environmental Protection Agency standards, a lift and a frame machine to straighten out collision damage. Most of the paint products he uses come from Pro Color in Picayune. Future plans for the business include expanding the shop to make room for two more collision repair bays. While restoration work is not officially offered, Bolin hopes to make that part of the business model at some point in the future. We thank Picayune Item for reprint permission.

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School Grant Applications Due June 1

Now in its 10th year, the Collision Repair Education Foundation announced that the application for its Ultimate Collision Education Makeover school grant is now available online for high school and post-secondary collision school programs.

Students in the Marengo Community High School collision program in Marengo, IL, show off the work uniforms donated through the Foundation as well as the $1,000 grant the school received

The application deadline will be Friday, June 1, 2018. Instructors are advised to begin the application early and industry professionals are encouraged to get involved with the Makeover grant by working with their local school's collision instructors to help them apply. The winning schools will be announced during the SEMA show in Las Vegas, NV, in October 2018. Awards of up to $50,000 will be given.

MiCar Collision Center Named Chesapeake, VA, Small Business of the Year by Sandra J. Pennecke, Inside Business

When Mike and Carolyn Maddox established their auto repair business in 1997, they chose a catchy name that clearly defines the work they do. MiCar is also the combination of the first two letters of the husband’s and wife’s first names. “We wanted to provide an efficient shop that offers a higher level of quality repair and provides better customer service than what we had observed in the industry,” Carolyn Maddox said. Not only have they done that for the past 21 years, but MiCar Collision Center was also named the 2018 Chesapeake Small Business of the Year. The business offers free estimates—no appointment necessary —and works with all insurance companies. Always in Chesapeake, VA, the business started out in a small, 1,000square-foot shop where Mike Maddox was able to write estimates and do body work. “We rented a booth a few miles away and we would shuttle cars back and forth for paint,” Carolyn Mad-

D&D Ford in Greer, SC, Awards Vehicle in Recycled Ride Initiative by Staff, Greer Today

Skip Davenport, owner of D&D Ford, presented the keys to a refurbished car to Carlos Cabrera. The presentation, which took place April 27 at 10 a.m., is part of D&D Ford’s partnership with Recycled Rides and Greer Relief and Resources Agency. Recycled Rides is a nationwide community service project in which members of the National Auto Body Council repair and donate recycled vehicles to families and service organizations in need within their communities. “In suburban areas, having a car is an essential part of your daily life,” Davenport said. “The need is even more present when you depend on your car to get you to med-

ical appointments on a regular basis. At D&D Ford, we really try to positively impact members of our community, so we couldn’t be more excited for Carlos.” Cabrera is a member of the community who has struggled with a chronic medical condition that resulted in him being on Social Security disability for 10 years. His automobile is 20 years old and undependable. With his new car, Cabrera will be able to attend his frequent medical appointments as well as pick up his children from school. D&D Ford partnered with Greer Relief in identifying Cabrera as the recipient of the vehicle. We thank Greer Today for reprint permission.

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dox said. In 2003, the business moved to its current location, 928 Ventures Way in the Greenbrier area. By 2017, the Maddoxes had expanded their business to all four units in the complex, taking it from about 5,500 square feet to 16,000 square feet.

MiCar Collision Center is the Hampton Roads Chamber’s Chesapeake Small Business of the Year. Credit: Harry Gerwien

The main thrust of the business is auto body repair and paint. “Most of our work is generated by unfortunate accidents, so we work hard to make the repair process as stress-free for the customer as possible,” Carolyn Maddox said. “We replace and repair parts and then paint the repaired area, blending into adjacent panels to provide a flawless paint match.”

MiCar also offers sealants that aid in the preservation of a vehicle’s paint. Throughout the years, they have worked on all types of vehicles, including Corvettes, Bentleys, a RollsRoyce, Ferraris and a De Tomaso Pantera, an Argentinean sports car. Carolyn Maddox recalled the most complex repair was a 1953 MG TF. “The entire body came in to us disassembled and it is built around a wooden framework,” she said. While Maddox said the most difficult part of being in the automotive repair industry is finding talented and knowledgeable technicians, MiCar has built a strong team over the past several years. Last year, technicians repaired more than 1,900 vehicles. “We enjoy helping our customers the most,” Maddox said. “It’s great to meet new people every day and we feel quite privileged when they choose our shop to complete their repairs. When our customers come to pick up their vehicles, they are elated to find that it looks like it did before the accident, or even better, and that is quite rewarding.” We thank Inside Business for reprint permission.

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How Much Would You Trust an Autonomous Vehicle? how people gain trust in autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, and Would you trust a car that does the how to build trust factors into the dedriving for you? Do you trust the sign of those vehicles. Lu Feng is a adaptive cruise control available in computer scientist working on computer systems for aunewer cars? What about the tonomous cars that would traction control feature? benefit riders. And Inki Would you trust a car to brake for you in an emerKim is a human factors engineer who specializes in gency? understanding how humans Passengers’ trust of and technologies interact. these features is based on The two researchers, still many factors, most particu- Computer scientist larly their experiences with Lu Feng said that if early in their investigations, elements that can transfer a designers can’t win are using driving simulators certain amount of the driv- people’s trust, they and sensors to test the physwon’t sell many iological responses of peoing to the car. But few peoautonomous cars ple who are in simulated ple have any experience with autonomous cars, and so will autonomous vehicles on road-like need to see—and eventually experi- circumstances. Eventually Feng and ence—how these self-driving vehi- Kim plan to conduct similar tests cles work, with proof that they will using an actual autonomous vehicle. “Human factors engineering is operate safely. It takes a lot of trust to relinquish control and leave the human-centered design,” Kim said. “Instead of forcing people to adapt to driving to the car. Two University of Virginia re- the design of an engineered system, searchers in the School of Engineer- we are focused on engineering sysing and Applied Science have tems that are adapted to the needs of teamed up to begin understanding the human. In this case, we’re workby Fariss Samarrai, UVA Today

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

ing to understand what factors influ- behave in the same situation. That ence trust in autonomous systems, builds trust. Likewise, the vehicle the intersection of human and vehi- must be responsive to the human rider’s actions and intents, such as cle interaction.” when the human wants to To build trust in autake over as the driver. That tonomous vehicles, Feng also builds trust. and Kim said, there must be Feng and Kim will use interaction between the syssensors on human particitem and the people who are pants to detect brain signals, riding in such a vehicle. The eye movement, heart rate vehicle must provide to the and perspiration, as well as passengers indications of situational awareness and Inki Kim, a human collect questionnaire data to factors engineer, “intent”—that the vehicle said the cars must see how people respond to “knows,” in a sense, what it somehow signal to different scenarios while actheir human pastively driving a simulator, is doing—and then follow sengers that they while being driven around in through in an orderly, raare aware of situaautonomous mode, while actional way. For example, tions, and how they tually driving a car on the the car could demonstrate in will react to them some manner—a tone, a highway and eventually while voice warning, maybe a seat vibra- riding in an autonomous vehicle. They want to compare responses tion—that it “sees” a bicyclist or pedestrian ahead, and therefore is in experiments as people shift bemoving over in the lane. But it also tween actively driving a car and pasmust not overload its passengers sively being driven in a car, and also with too much information or un- under changing external circumstances, such as when weather condineeded communications. The vehicle must behave simi- tions change—from rain to ice, for larly to how a human driver would example. Trust levels change over

time as conditions change, the researchers said. Data from such tests will help inform the design of au-

as the technologies prove trustworthy. Building experience with a system is important to developing trust. We are interested in how trust factors can be built into the design, safety being the biggest issue—or people will under-trust, and just won’t buy autonomous cars.” Feng and Kim work together in the UVA Engineering School’s Link Lab, a new $4.8 million, 17,000square-foot facility that Using a simulator, for now, UVA researchers are probing the brings together researchers factors that lead people to feel more or less comfortable from five departments to with letting go of the steering wheel Credit: Dan Addison, collaborate on a range of University of Virginia big-issue, multidisciplinary tonomous systems for a wide range engineering problems and challenges. of scenarios, so the cars can respond very similarly to how human drivers We thank UVA Today for reprint perwould when driving safely. mission. “We know that early adopters of new technologies accept the changes to technologies better than people SUBSCRIBE TO OUR who are later adopters,” Feng said. YOUTUBE CHANNEL: “But as technologies emerge and become more commonly and widely used, even later adopters often come to trust and accept the technologies

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Thomas Collision Center in Valdosta, GA, to Move

“Our business has grown; I don’t want to say fast because we Thomas Collision has begun con- have been in business for 18 years, struction for its new location on but over time, we have seen it is North Valdosta Road in Valdosta, something we have to address,” Thomas said. GA. But new business growth isn’t the only reason Thomas Collision needs more space. “Through new technology and products such as aluminum and plastic, we need more room to do repairs in addition to our business growing,” Thomas said. The new building Thomas Collision Center has begun construction on a new will include three “statelocation and plans to be fully moved out of its current of-the-art, climate-conbuilding by Sept. 15. Credit: Jason A. Smith, The Valdosta trolled paint booths,” he Daily Times said. Construction is expected to be Thomas Collision Center has approximately 20,000 square feet completed by Sept. 1, and Thomas of space, said owner James Dude is hoping to have his business Thomas. Once construction is moved to the new location by Sept. complete, the company will move 15. We thank Valdosta Daily Times to 4532 North Valdosta Rd. The new location will more for reprint permission. than double the business’ available square footage to 50,000 square feet. www.autobodynews.com by Jason A. Smith, Valdosta Daily Times

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Athens, AL, School Offers Students Non-Traditional Education teaching kids how to do things and why they’re doing them in an authentic learning environment outside of the traditional classroom. “The Exchange is more like a laboratory where students can be creative and thoughtful, learn and explore while having a safety net,” he said.

Renaissance School, where attending classes online gave him the flexibility to do what he loved: fix up old cars. Things got even better for the senior when he enrolled in the Exchange. Paysinger helped him get a job as an apprentice at J-3 Restorations in Columbia, TN. The auto

On any given day, Exchange students come and go freely. Some may work on their laptops completing their classwork assignments, while others head over to the Revival Center to work on the Empty Bowls project. On April 13, 11th graders Cheyenne Lopez and Caily McKinney painted the words “Antiques” and “Love Athens” on distressed wooden planks, while senior Zack Kelley discussed a moving job with the owner of the antique shop next door. Two students hopped in their car and headed back to Athens High School so they could participate in ROTC and track. “The school works however the students need it to work,” Paysinger said. “It’s nebulous and out there, but if a kid still wants to do this and activities or sports at the high school, they can. Learning does not have to be a 40hour-per-week regimented process anymore. “There needs to be some gray areas (in education), The students at the Exchange, part of the Athens City because sometimes you get Schools system, meet in a repurposed space on the Square. bogged down in standards (l to r) Caily McKinney, Dr. Chris Paysinger, Cheyenne and checking boxes and forLopez, Colin Turner and Zack Kelley hold up wood plank get about the student.” signs they made at school. Paysinger hopes the school will eventually function partially as a retailer where students That’s how Turner felt can sell their wares. Credit: News Courier, Sarah Pavlikwhen he attended Athens Hernandez Middle School. Paysinger said. “If you put a student “It was awful. I couldn’t concenin a classroom and they are not fully trate and there was nothing to do,” engaged, there are residual issues Turner said. “I was stuck in the buildthat can result in discipline probing until 3 p.m., and then I would just lems, bad grades and a lack of direc- want to go home and sleep.” tion after they graduate.” At age 13, Turner’s father introAfter teaching for 20 years, duced him to auto body work and Paysinger felt like it was time to start mechanics. He enrolled in the Athens

body fabricators are known throughout the Southeast as expert restorers of high-performance and classic vehicles. Turner wakes at 5 a.m. three days a week so he can be at the restoration shop when they open. Since he’s been there, he’s worked on the brakes of a $150,000 Porsche and helped restore Mike Wolfe’s Volkswagen. Wolfe is a host of the History Channel’s “American Pickers” series.

by Sarah Pavlik-Hernandez, The News Courier

Colin Turner pretty much hated everything about school until he started attending the Exchange—a new school in Athens, AL, that is anything but traditional. Funded by Athens City Schools, the Exchange provides high school students such as Colin with the realworld experiences they crave while still fulfilling their educational requirements. Intentionally fluid, the school meets in a repurposed space on the east side of the Square in downtown Athens and engages the 12 students currently enrolled in the program by focusing on their interests. A conversation between the school’s director, Dr. Chris Paysinger, and Dr. Trey Holladay, superintendent of Athens City Schools, led to the formation of the Exchange, which opened its doors last fall. In that conversation, Paysinger told Holladay that despite all of the new high school’s bells and whistles, it still would not be able to reach all of its students. “It’s very easy in a traditional classroom setting to focus on honors and AP (Advanced Placement) classes, which leaves a lot of students disengaged and disinterested,”

“The Exchange is more like a laboratory where students can be creative and thoughtful, learn and explore while having a safety net, — Dr. Chris Paysinger

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

“To get this kind of experience, to work on cars and go out there and do what I want to do is huge,” Turner said. “They don’t teach a whole lot of people things like that in high school.” According to Paysinger, Rich Ewald, the owner of of J-3 Restorations, thinks Turner is pleasant, hardworking and intuitive. “He’s a different kid (compared to his middle school days), because he has found his niche,” Paysinger said. After graduation, Turner will begin working full time for Ewald, learning everything he can so he can one day open a restoration shop of his own. Looking toward the future, Paysinger hopes to see a surge in student enrollment as word gets out about the individualized education program. For more information about the Exchange, e-mail Paysinger at chris.paysinger@acs-k12.org. We thank The News Courier for reprint permission.

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University of Cincinnati Is Researching Autonomous Vehicle Technology by Tommy McDonald, The News Record

The University of Cincinnati is currently conducting extensive research on the development of connected autonomous technology for vehicles.

Credit: Ford

Connected automation refers to a system in which an autonomous vehicle will share data with not only the other vehicles on the road, but also with a given environment’s infrastructure and population. “As the controllability of the system increases, we can be pushed more

into an ideal state,” said Jiaqi Ma, an assistant professor at UC with a doctorate in transportation engineering from the University of Virginia. “If designed well, the connected system will allow us to control and reduce the [greenhouse gas] emissions produced by all the vehicles on the road.” Before Ma was hired at UC, he worked as a research scientist for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Leidos/Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center. Ma now serves as the lead of the UC College of Engineering and Applied Science’s intelligent systems lab. While working for the USDT and UC, Ma has developed an algorithm that connects driverless cars to traffic lights to coordinate how vehicles respond to changing traffic signals without human interaction. Ma argues that such a system would not only increase the number of vehicles able to advance past a green light before it turns red, but

Driverless technology still must meet necessary improvements until it can be fully implemented into society, but Ma believes it is realistic to predict that fully autonomous vehicles will be on the road by 2025. Companies such as Google, Ford and Tesla are heavily investing in the development of autonomous vehicles. But, according to Ma, these companies only work on developing single cars. “I work on connecting cars to infrastructure and pedestrians in order to push the capabilities of the system forward,” Ma said. The ridesharing company Uber suspended its testing and development of driverless cars in March after a pedestrian was struck and killed by one of its autonomous vehicles. “Such low-probability incidents should not prevent the technology from being developed,” said Ma. “If anything, it should further push us to develop fixes for the problem.” We thank The News Record for reprint permission.

that it would also improve overall traffic safety. “We’ve found that by smoothing stop-and-start traffic, fuel efficiency can be improved by up to 20 percent,” Ma said, citing the increased fuel efficiency the system will provide. “It would be interesting to see in practice,” said Austin Porter, a 22year-old mathematics student. “[It] would definitely send the autonomous world to a new level.” However, Porter highlighted concerns about system errors threatening safety. “I am worried that it would cause issues if there are even minute errors in the system,” Porter said. “Improved safety systems would have to be developed in the event a flaw is exposed.” Increased safety is an oft-used argument for the advancement of driverless technology. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website claims 94 percent of “serious crashes” are caused by human error. “Humans are much less tolerant of autonomous errors [than human errors],” Ma said. “So, it’s a priority to make sure the system is flawless before being tested on the road.”

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Don’t Blame Self-Driving Cars for Accidents Caused by Humans by Eric Boehm, Reason.com

The below is an opinion article from Reason.com on autonomous vehicles in reaction to a collision involving two human-operated cars and a selfdriving car in Phoenix, AZ, on May 4, 2018.

A car accident in the Phoenix, AZ, suburbs that wouldn’t otherwise have even made the local news reports has become a national story because of the involvement of an autonomous, or self-driving, car. Involvement is the key word, because the self-driving car was an innocent bystander in a crash that was entirely the fault of two humanoperated cars. But you wouldn’t know that from some of the headlines spattered across social media, often accompanied by pictures of the dented Chrysler Pacifica sporting the blue-and-green Waymo logo. As for what actually happened, here’s how the Chandler police described the May 4 afternoon accident in their official report: “This afternoon around noon a vehicle (Honda sedan) traveling eastbound on Chandler Blvd. had to

swerve to avoid striking a vehicle traveling northbound on Los Feliz Dr. As the Honda swerved, the vehicle continued eastbound into the westbound lanes of Chandler Blvd. & struck the Waymo vehicle, which was traveling at a slow speed and in autonomous mode.” And if you’re skeptical of police officers’ ability to tell the honest truth, dashcam video from the minivan confirms their account. As both the police report and the dashcam video show, the accident was caused by the darker car attempting to enter Chandler Blvd., causing the lighter colored car to swerve out of the way at the last second. It’s not clear from the video which vehicle had the green light. One thing that is clear about this is that the self-driving car simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. If the Waymo minivan had been parked on the side of the road when the crash occurred, it would have played the exact same role in what happened. Local news playing a car accident for clicks and “likes” is to be expected, I suppose, but that sort of coverage has real consequences. First,

there is the strong implication—if not an explicit message—that these selfdriving cars are some sort of danger to public safety. Readers are quick to draw that conclusion, at least based on the responses to tweets that were released after the incident. Second, that fear metastasizes into policy. As two writers at Wired put it, the crash on May 4 is “threatening to resurrect tough questions about the safety of autonomous technology and rip the barely-crusted scab off the technology’s reputation.” That would be like blaming someone sitting in your back seat for an accident that happens three cars in front of you. No reasonable person can look at the May 4 crash and conclude that it should raise any questions—tough or otherwise—about the self-driving minivan. What was the Waymo car supposed to do? Apparate to avoid the oncoming, swerving, human-operated car? What this minor accident in Arizona really shows is that human beings are pretty [bad] drivers. We make mistakes like pulling into oncoming traffic. Around 100 people lose their lives every day in car crashes in America, and about 90 percent of all

car accidents (including the one in Chandler) are the result of human error. Americans spend $230 billion annually to cover the costs of accidents, accounting for approximately 2 to 3 percent of the country’s GDP. Autonomous cars won’t be perfect, and they should face criticism when it’s appropriate, but there is a humongous margin for self-driving vehicles to be imperfect but still better than human drivers. Within that margin, cars like the ones Waymo is currently testing will literally save lives. Even when they are at fault for accidents—and sometimes they will be—we should keep testing self-driving cars. That is the only way to find out if they can indeed be safer than human-driven cars, and it is the only way the technology will improve. Unless politicians get in the way, that is. And nothing makes politicians more likely to overreact to a perceived threat than a bunch of garbage journalism that inflates a potential threat—see: terrorism, human trafficking, letting your child play outside—like the coverage of the May 4 accident. We thank Reason.com for reprint permission.

autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

Continued from Cover

Out of the Shadows

up with Peevy and Cassata to check on their current status and future plans.

ABN: Mike, those who are able to atprofit, AMi collaborates with train- tend CIC and other industry events ing providers across the industry, re- have seen you at these events for viewing, recognizing and awarding several years. But please give our credit hours for quality management readers a quick review of your background. and leadership education. In other words, and contrary to what one may think, AMi does not Cassata: I grew up in Rochester, NY, actually create training content, but where my family had a body shop. I rather vets and approves content cre- did some repairs but knew I was not ated by other entities within the in- cut out to be a technician. But I cerdustry that fits into a pre-determined tainly knew the business, so I ended curriculum as designated by AMi. up running the shop for over 10 When the student completes the as- years. Eventually, I sold the shop and became an independent apsigned curriculum, they praiser. That led to my long earn a professional managecareer with Amica Insurment designation such as ance where, among other AAM (Accredited Automothings, I was their DRP tive Manager) or AMAM manager, catastrophe man(Accredited Master Autoager and salvage manager. I motive Manager). The curMike Cassata got to work with a lot of riculum focuses not on the technical side of the automotive busi- shops and learned a lot about the inness, but on what might be called “soft dustry. skills.” To earn the AAM designation, a student must complete courses on ABN: Mike, how did you first get insuch areas as time management, effec- volved with AMi? tive communications, customer relations, phone skills and more. To best Cassata: For years, I have been very describe what AMi does, think of it as active with I-CAR and served as the “I-CAR for the collision shop’s front Committee Chairman in Rochester. office, customer service representa- So of course, I knew Jeff Peevy. tives, estimators, shop managers or Working as the DRP manager with owners”—anyone who has direct con- Amica, I got to know our DRP shops pretty well. I knew their technical tact with the customer. With that said, there are places skills were good at making safe and where AMi works hand-in-hand with complete repairs. But for some other industry training and support shops, their customer service skills entities. For example, AMi has two and financial and business manageestimator professional designations: ment skills needed some help. This ACE and AMCE. They require veri- is true of many shops around the infiable achievement from AMi, I- dustry. AMi provides the help these CAR, ASE and estimating systems. It shops need. So when Jeff called me is the most comprehensive recogni- about the position at AMi, I knew it was a perfect fit. tion in the industry for estimators. In 2015, Jeff Peevy, former ICAR senior director, was hired as ABN: Who in particular are you trypresident of AMi and tasked with ing to reach? updating the organization’s infrastructure, designations and accredi- Cassata: I will be reaching out to tation process to ensure ongoing shop owners, estimators, shop forerelevance and value to the industry. men—basically anyone in the shop Finally, AMi had a high-profile per- who touches the customer. I also son to help raise its visibility to the want to reach others, including paint collision industry. And most recently, company representatives, insurance industry veteran Mike Cassata estimators, insurance managers, injoined the AMI team and was named dependent adjusters—basically anyDirector of Industry Outreach for one who supports the industry. In a nutshell, this would be anyone who Collision for AMi. Recently, Autobody News caught attends events like CIC. If we are 22

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

going to raise the level of professionalism of the industry, it’s important that everyone be involved. We need full industry support to continue our work.

ABN: How is AMi relevant to today’s collision industry?

Peevy: Walk into any hospital in America and look around. Most of the people that you see working there have to be accredited or have some sort of degree to work at their profession, and must take additional training each year to maintain that accreditation. Why? Because it is a profession. They do a job where people’s lives and well-being are at stake. They are expected to act responsibly and be knowledgeable about the business of medical care and what they do. This is the same for many professions. In collision repair, we have the I-CAR individual Platinum status for technicians and estimators, but little emphasis is placed on people skills or other business skills for shop management, the front office and many others in support positions. This is

what makes AMi relevant—to help increase the professionalism of the entire industry, including most support people—not just technicians.

ABN: What makes AMi relevant now?

Peevy: It’s no secret [that] the entire industry is growing more complicated in the way cars are built and repaired and in the way we do business. Customers are more sophisticated and discerning. And the industry is contracting. Fewer accidents in the future will mean a need for fewer shops. Competition for the next repair is more intense than ever. At AMi, our core belief is “Knowledge equals competitiveness; learning then is the only source of a sustainable competitive advantage.” And I believe that is true. The knowledge you gain today may be obsolete tomorrow. So we must keep learning and growing, both with technical information and with people and business skills that help sustain your shop’s business model. Cassata: The more we learn, the more we empower ourselves.

autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

ABN: Mike, what is your overall vision for your new job as Director of Industry Outreach? Cassata: I am going to start by approaching the people I know and branch out from there. Jeff Peevy and I will be attending industry events and, between the two of us, will become the face of AMi. ABN: Jeff, what are you doing to reach and communicate with shops?

Peevy: We send out email blasts called the “Management Minute” to over 13,000 shops. It contains, among other things, a note from myself, a short profile on an AMi graduate, information about one or more courses and other helpful information.

ABN: Jeff, you have been AMi’s president for about three years and already have brought AMi to a higher visibility within the industry. Besides naming Mike Cassata as your Director of Industry Outreach, what other changes have you made? Peevy: I spent my first seven months Continued from Cover

CA Jury Awards

falsely arrested based on complaints made by a former girlfriend who was under psychiatric care. The charges were later dropped. Allstate’s human resources department conducted an interview with Tilkey about the charges in late 2014. He said he had heard nothing further until his sudden termination. In his suit against Allstate, he contends he had never been convicted of a crime before or since then. Tilkey’s first cause of action alleged Allstate violated the California Labor Code, since it prohibits an employer from using an arrest that didn’t result in a conviction as a reason for termination. Tilkey’s second cause of action cited wrongful termination in violation of public policy and the third cause of action cited defamation. Additional case documentation revealed that Allstate discovered the situation when an email between Tilkey and his ex-girlfriend about 24

just looking at the company and learning everything about AMi. I had to get my arms around it, and that took a while. AMi had been basically “flat” for several years—out of sight and out of mind. It needed a “jolt.” I’m not sure that anyone had a vision of AMi out this far into the future. But we put some great people on our team—like industry veterans Darrell Amberson of LaMettry’s Collision and Bob Keith of Assured Performance, and things started happening. On June 20, 2016, we launched what we called the “next generation of AMi” initiative with a state-of-the-art website and Learning Management System with over 130 online courses. ABN: How many different classes do you have now? Peevy: We presently have about 350 instructor-led classes and 160 online courses. Some of our instructor-led courses are taught by some of the best people in the business, including veterans Mike Anderson, Mark Claypool, Frank Terlep and of course our the incident was flagged for review. Allstate conducted an internal investigation and initially determined no action would be taken; however, after the girlfriend sent an emotionally charged email directly to an Allstate CEO discussing the situation, the decision to terminate Tilkey was made. His attorney, Joann Rezzo, said the firing violated state labor law, which prohibits employers from considering arrest records that don’t result in a conviction when considering termination. She explained that on May 3, the jury found in favor of Tilkey on his two claims for wrongful termination in violation of California Labor Code Section 432.7 and coerced self-publication defamation. As a result, the jury awarded Tilkey $2,663,137 in compensatory damages ($960,222 for the wrongful termination claim and $1,702,915 for the defamation claim). According to Rezzo, “The jury concluded that Allstate had violated Labor Code 432.7 when terminating Mr. Tilkey by basing its termination See CA Jury Awards, Page 48

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

own Mike Cassata.

ABN: Jeff, do you have plans for any new or additional classes?

Peevy: We are constantly looking at new classes. It seems like every day we have different companies presenting us with great material. But it takes time to review the material, vet it and see if it fits our model. It just takes time. ABN: Jeff, what is the toughest challenge to get people to take advantage of AMi classes?

Peevy: Basically, it’s just becoming visible and letting industry people know we are out here, we exist and can help professionally and personally. ABN: Do you have any future plans? Peevy: We are working on a curriculum for high school students and will be looking for local body shops to sponsor a student. This is in the early stages. Cassata: I spoke at a high school a

short time ago about a career in the collision industry. All the students had the same preconceived idea that everyone in the industry simply bangs on fenders for a living. They had no idea there were so many other positions and career paths open to them, or that it took so many people to support that one person banging on that one fender. ABN: Mike and Jeff, what is your end game? What is your vision for AMi?

Cassata: I’m hoping to increase the visibility of AMi and obtain industry support from all stakeholders. This includes stronger participation in donations and of course, class participation. Peevy: We want to play a part in raising the professionalism of the industry. We want AMi to be the instrument of change. We want to be out of the shadows—and we have a good start. AUTOBODY

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Stacey Phillips is a freelance writer and editor for the automotive industry. She has 20 years of experience writing for a variety of publications, and is co-author of “The Secrets of America’s Greatest Body Shops.” She can be reached at sphillips.autobodynews@gmail.com.

Shop Strategies with Stacey Phillips

GA Body Shop Stays Up to Date With Equipment, Training In the small city of Chatsworth, located in the northern part of Georgia, Babb’s Body Shop prides itself on performing high-quality collision repair work. The business was established by Kelly Babb in 1973. His son, Jason, began working full-time in the body shop after graduating from the University of Georgia in 1997. As their business grew, Kelly and Jason realized they needed a larger location and moved into a 22,000-square-foot facility in 2004, where Babb’s has operated ever since. As the operations manager in charge of day-to-day operations, Jason said he does “everything and anything it takes to keep things going” and ensure his staff is pointed in the right direction. Autobody News talked to Jason about the main areas of focus at the shop and the steps he takes to provide excellent customer service.

and everything to help our customers and make it less of a hassle to have their car repaired. We offer to help

The business prides itself on performing high-quality collision repair work

them with the accident report, turning their claim in and handling every aspect of the insurance company’s expectations that we are able to. We also take them home if they need a ride and help them set up a rental car. I tell my customer service people all the time that we’re not necessarily competing against the shop across the street or down the road or even the next town. Instead, we’re Can you tell us what sets your compared to the service a customer business apart from others in receives when they go to Outback Steakhouse on the weekend or when the industry? they stay at the Marriott during the We’ve always had a passion summer. for doing things right, providWhen consumers receive exceling quality service and making sure lent service in any industry, they exthe customer is happy. If we ever pect it in everything they do. I have a customer who gets upset be- constantly challenge my customer service representatives to embrace that and encourage them to provide customers the world-class experience they are used to experiencing in other places and try to bring that personalized service to Babb’s Body Shop. We try to make every experience unique for each customer, whatever their needs Babb’s Body Shop in Chatsworth, GA, was established may be, and make sure we in 1973 are handling what they need cause we had their vehicle too long to do to get them back to their lives. and they decide to go somewhere How have you found this helps else, they are usually back at our shop your business overall? the next time because of the quality we provide. I think giving them that perThe other thing that I believe sets sonal touch helps tremenus apart is our customer service. We bend over backward to do anything dously. Loyalty is huge; if someone

Q: A:

comes here and they have a worldclass experience here at Babb’s Body Shop, they are not going anywhere else. Most likely, they are going to come back to the same place. It’s similar to going to a restaurant where the food and service are wonderful. The next time you have a chance to go out and eat, you are probably going to want to go to that same place again.

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

What is the importance of educating customers on the repair process?

We’re working toward that through our customer service indexing. We need to be able to meet and exceed their expectations. Many times, customers don’t understand the procedures with each insurer and,

as we all know, the policies are different at each company. Our goal is to educate customers and let them know what to expect. If they are aware of the process and what delays might happen, then they aren’t surprised. For example, if we go through the disassembly process and find extra damage, depending on the insurance company, it might take 48 hours for them to come back out to the shop and approve it. By letting our customers know this up front, it sets an expectation. As long as we set those expectations from the onset, then we are certainly more capable of meeting and exceeding them.

How has your shop stayed up to date with the latest training and equipment?

Q: A:

We’re I-CAR Gold class, so we are very knowledgeable in

this area. When it comes to specific vehicles, we read trade magazines and industry information. As far as equipment goes, we make sure ours is current. If a new piece of equipment becomes available, you have to figure out how it cash-flows. The bottom line is that if you have to have it, you have to buy it. When squeeze-type resistance spot welders came out, we purchased one early on. Now, I don’t see how a shop can operate without one. It’s an amazing tool that has improved our productivity. We also use the asTech device for pre- and post-scans. Our industry is changing faster than it ever has and I feel that educating ourselves to be able to withstand that change is going to be essential to an independent shop being successful in the years to come.

What are some of the challenges you are dealing with as an independent shop owner?

Like others across the country, we are challenged with finding good technicians as well as

customer service representatives. Good employees are very difficult to find, and from what I hear, it’s a similar situation all over the country.

to help me and seems to connect with those kids really well. The reality is that he needs students, or the collision repair programs are no longer going to be available. So far, we’ve had good results and we’ve been able to get a lot of people interested in our industry that way. We’re also working on talking to the counselors at the local high schools a little more regularly. Another challenge we’re finding in the industry is in regard to scanning. It’s imJason Babb, operations manager, said they bend over perative to get those prebackward to do anything and everything to help customers and post-scans. No matter Young people just aren’t getting how we negotiate that with an insurinto industries where you have to ance company, it still comes back on us, so we have to make sure it’s done. work with your hands. It has been somewhat of a chalOne thing that we have done to address this is partner with the colli- lenge to work that into our procesion repair program at Chatahuci dures and determine exactly when we Technical College in Jasper, Georgia. do the pre- and post-scan, so everyWhen our local high schools call and thing is cleared up for the customer ask us to come to their career days, I when they head down the road. contact the collision repair instructor How do you maintain a posiat the tech school to accompany me. tive attitude? He has been great about stepping up

I’ve certainly had times of burnout and was ready to just throw up my hands and go home. I can thank Dave Luehr and Tony Adams, my two coaches from Elite Body Shop Solutions, for lighting a fire under me. I talk to each of them twice a month. Dave is my process coach and helps me set up and manage processes in the shop. Tony is my leadership coach and we work on leadership skills. He encourages me to read a lot of books, which I really don’t like to do. But when I start reading a book he recommends, I find that I can’t put it down. I’ve found that books are a wonderful source of information—not necessarily industry books, but management books as well. The ideas that you can take out and use are just amazing. We’ve made some leaps and bounds since I started working with Dave and Tony in December. They have kept me fired up trying to make a difference in our industry and our community.

www.autobodynews.com

autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

Continued from Cover

3rd Webinar Discusses

formation and support tools. Nissan/INFINITI has two sites, both of which require paid access. Information is available through www.nissan-techinfo.com or www .infiniti-techinfo.com. Proper access to the websites requires Internet Explorer, the most recent version of Adobe Reader and the disablement of pop-up blockers. “If your hyperlinks do not work, it’s probably because of one of these reasons,” he said. On the site, select your country and then the main screen will load. Going to “Purchase Subscription for Viewing Publications” provides the opportunity to purchase a subscription, and the page explains what is included and excluded. It includes service manuals, TSBs, TechTalk Magazine and ELearning training for both Nissan and INFINITI for model years 1989 to current. It will not include diagnostic software, ECU reprogramming files or any other item not listed as being included. Online subscriptions cost $720 for a year or one day for $19.99. Monthly and quarterly subscriptions are also available. Nissan’s certified collision centers receive a free subscription to Nissan’s technical information portal. The website provides a legend to explain the icons used throughout the website. After logging in, there will be tabs on the right-hand side. The “What’s New” tab shows additions and updates to the technical service bulletins. Clicking the “eye” icon allows document viewing. Anderson pointed out, “This is a great feature since it lets you know if something has changed since you last looked something up.” The next tab is Technical Training, which has mostly mechanicalrelated resources, but Anderson demonstrated how he found value in them. He encouraged attendees to review this document on vehicles not previously repaired to better understand the vehicle. There are also eLearning modules available for download, or users can purchase specialized training videotapes in DVD or VHS format. Accessory Instructions require 28

that you select a vehicle (model, year and accessory type), and hit “Search” to research all the accessories that may be on that vehicle. “Now you have a way to understand how this accessory feature is supposed to work,” Anderson said. Next, the menu offers subscribed users the ability to view current or back issues of Nissan/INFINITI’s TechTalk Magazine, which can be opened and printed as a PDF. “There’s a ton of information in there, and I would encourage you to print as a PDF and share with your team,” he said. Anderson was excited as he started covering the Purchase Tools/ Equipment tab. Nissan/INFINITI provides special discounted pricing on a variety of equipment and tools for certified collision centers, and certified collision centers can receive up to 15 percent bonus cash back on qualifying orders. Additionally, they now offer special financing opportunities on equipment orders for qualifying collision shops. The Recall Information tab offers the opportunity for research into any open recall on a Nissan. Anderson explained that customers are looking for trust, empathy and direction when they are choosing a body shop. “What creates more trust than inputting the consumer’s VIN and being able to tell them the specific recalls on their vehicle? It’s very VIN-specific,” he said. At the bottom of the homepage, Nissan provides links to NASTF, Nissan USA, Nissan 4 Parts and INFINITI TechInfo. To begin researching repair procedures, click “View Nissan Publications,” and choose a publication type from the drop-down. Anderson focused on the service manual during his webinar, but noted, “I found so much cool stuff for Nissan/INFINITI [that] I couldn’t fit it into one webinar. So Team Nissan/INFINITI has agreed to do a part two, and when we do that, we’ll take you through the other options available.” Users can search by publication title or for publications related to certain models or years. Explaining the search feature, Anderson said contents of all the boxes are used together to narrow the search, but an

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

empty box will not affect the search. The search is not case-sensitive, but it does match all typed characters, so it’s better to only type part of a word if you’re not confident about it. After selecting your model and year, you’ll be able to click on the service manual for the vehicle. Nissan uses an HTML 5 interface for any vehicle from 2018 forward; older models’ service manuals are viewable as PDFs. On the left-hand side, you’ll see a series of dropdowns. You can also input a symptom code to research a DTC much quicker. Looking at the Armada service manual, Anderson navigated to BRM Body Repair in the table of contents and then Fundamentals to access general repair information. Looking at electric resistance spot welding, he revealed where Nissan instructs repairers to perform a destructive test weld before welding on the vehicle. The site also explains how to perform the test weld and includes information about using the weld through primer. He reminded participants, “I’m going through this rather quickly, but the goal is to create awareness so you

will be able to find this information in the future.” Responding to a participant’s question, Anderson clarified that OEM repair procedures cannot be researched by VIN—only by year, make and model. Nissan’s representatives also clarified that shops certified through the Assured Performance Network will still need to reach out directly to Nissan for access to the site and discount programs. After Fundamentals, the site shows Repair Information Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 refers to the information available for USA and Canada, whereas Type 2 refers to information for Mexico. Under the Vehicle Information tab, the section starts by showing the exterior paint colors, trim codes and hard clear. It also identifies which vehicles are two stage, three stage, or pearl. This tab also provides the tensile strength of the steel and lists the components. Another useful item in this section is Preparation, which advises which foams and adhesives should be used. The same tab shows Body Component Parts, which complements what is found in the substrate list. Moving

autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

to Corrosion Protection provides useful information and warnings as well. Talking about his estimating classes and viewing several examples in the manual, Anderson stated, “If you want to get paid, your opinion doesn’t mean jack. The only thing that matters is what you can prove, substantiate or justify. We encourage shops to stick to the facts. Is what you’re asking for required? Is it included? Is there a predetermined time? If not, what is it worth? This is going to help us prove the things that we need to do and justify adding them as line items.” Anderson continued to look at service data and specifications that provide vehicle dimensions. He explained the quick reference index works like a home page before going to Common Repair Research Operations. In this section of the webinar, he demonstrated how clearly Nissan indicates non-reusable parts in their removal (symbolized by a black circle with a white x in illustrations) and installation process manuals. “This is why we must research every component we remove from a vehicle to make sure we know if it’s

a non-reusable part,” he said. An additional example showed that seat belts must be replaced after a collision. He covered required wait times when the battery is disconnected, required recalibrations after the battery is disconnected and wiring diagrams that show what the connector is. He also took a detailed look at repair requirements related to blind spot monitors and telematics systems. He then explored NissanConnect, which makes the car very interactive for drivers, and what this means for repairers. Anderson repeatedly stressed the importance of researching OEM repair procedures. The webinar continued with Anderson exploring sectioning procedures and demonstrating how to search the publications available on the website. He discussed painting requirements and removing the 12V battery before diving into requirements on the 2016 Nissan GT-R requirements. Nissan’s training on this vehicle, which is constructed with aluminum, is delivered through ICAR. As the webinar drew to a close, Anderson covered the steps to take

when unable to find the information being sought. First, exhaust your search of the Service Manual, then submit a question to Ask I-CAR and provide a link. If I-CAR doesn’t know, certified collision centers can email nnacollisionrepairnetwork@ nissan-usa.com. Shops that are not certified should complete the “Help Make This Service Manual Better” form on the third page of the Service Manual. Nissan also offers its Identifix Hotline, a complimentary service to help shops identify procedures or help diagnose an issue. The hotline is open Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST at 1-855-828-4018 and is available to the entire industry. Anderson also shared some other helpful websites: www.collision.nissan usa.com, www.collision.nissanusa .com/genuine-parts-advantage and http: //collision.infinitiusa.com/original -parts-advantage/. He discussed the benefits of shops acquiring Nissan /INFINITI certification. After looking at OEM position statements, Anderson stressed, “I am concerned that as an industry, we are becoming too reliant on OEM position statements to tell us how to re-

pair a vehicle safely! OEM position statements CANNOT and SHOULD NOT replace the emphasis and importance of researching OEM repair procedures.” He emphasized that researching OEM repair procedures is “the only way to guarantee a safe and proper repair!” Anderson will be doing a deeper dive into some of the other publication types from Nissan/INFINITI in Part 2 of the Nissan webinar in the near future. Anderson fielded questions throughout the webinar, but since all of the attendees’ questions could not be answered during the webinar, Collision Advice will be sending out a document containing responses to all attendees’ questions. The next webinar in the series will be held on Thursday, May 24 at 2 p.m. EST and will feature Ford. The Nissan webinar is available free of charge at https://www.youtube .com/watch?v=FEqIjoLLGk4&list= PL1aFHg6buULn0MyuhG5EkbYf AIyvRqkTG

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Autobody News to Collaborate with Discovery Channel on Auto TV Shows

Autobody News is excited to announce a new collaboration with the Discovery Channel and The Velocity Network. ABN will be running weekly features, including an exclusive video on our website at autobodynews.com. Keep an eye on our site and social channels for updates! Shows featured are: Wrench’d – with Justin Nichols and the crew at Nichols Paint and Fab. The show follows the day to day operations of the shop, which designs and fabricates some of the most appealing hot rods and custom motorcycles in the business. The show Premiered on Velocity, Tuesday May 15 2018. Currently shown on the Velocity Network, Tuesdays 10pm ET Misfit Garage follows the projects of “Fired Up” Garage Mechanics Tom Smith and Jordan Butler with fellow car pros Thomas Weeks and Scot McMillan. The venture rivals wellknown Gas Monkey garage—featured in Discovery’s series “Fast N’ Loud” and owned by Richard Rawlings. Bad blood is rampant and tensions are high between the two shops, since Tom Smith and Tom Smith and Thomas Weeks of Misfit Garage Jordan Butler worked Credit: the Discovery Chennel for Gas Monkey and were previously fired by Rawlings. Currently shown on the Discovery Channel Wednesdays at 9PM PST. For more information visit: Velocity.com, Motortrend.com, and Discovery.com 30

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

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800.229.1001 Hours: Mon-Fri 7:30am - 6:30pm; Sat 8am - 5pm

8903 West Broad Street // Henrico, VA 23294

Local 804.755.6167 804.755.1888 Fax

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Please contact these dealers for your Honda or Acura Genuine parts needs. HONDA ALABAMA

FLORIDA

GE O R G I A

Freeway Honda

Classic Honda

Rick Case Honda

Birmingham

O r l ando

Davie

Buford/Gwinnett

800-987-0819 205-949-5460

888-893-4984 407-521-1115

877-544-2249

678-318-3155

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5 greg_thomas@freewayhondaal.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 8-4 parts@classichonda.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7:30-4 robbutton@rickcase.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7-5 cdunlap@penskeautomotive.com

South Motors Honda

Milton Martin Honda

Jerry Damson Honda

Coggin Deland Honda

Miami

Gainesville

Huntsville

D e land

800-264-1739 256-382-3759

800-758-0007 386-626-1811

888-418-3513 305-256-2240

770-534-0086 678-989-5473

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-5:30; Sat 8-4 Rkeel@damson.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-5 gbennett@cogginauto.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 8-7 mfranceschi@southhonda.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6 robertthomas@mmhonda.com

FLORIDA

AutoNation Honda Clearwater C l e a r wa t e r

GEORGIA

Honda Mall of Georgia

Nalley Honda

Ed Morse Honda

Carey Paul Honda

Union City

R i v i e ra Beach

Snellville

800-232-1098 561-844-8089

770-985-1444

866-362-8034 770-306-4646

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7-6 gperkins@careypaul.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-7; Sat 8-5 hondawp@nalleycars.com

Ed Voyles Honda

Southern Motors Honda

888-205-2564 727-530-1173

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 7:30-5 tonyrocha@edmorse.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 8-5; Sun 10-3 santosr1@autonation.com

Headquarter Honda

Marietta

Savannah

C l e r mont

AutoNation Honda Hollywood

800-497-2294 407-395-7374

800-334-3719 770-933-5870 Direct

888-785-8387 912-925-1444

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7-6 hondaparts@edvoyles.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 8-6; Sat 8-5 angela@southern-motors.com

H o l l y wo o d

800-542-8121 954-964-8300 Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7-5; Sun 9-5 hernandeze@autonation.com

Braman Honda of Palm Beach G re e n a c re s

888-479-0695 561-966-5185 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-4:30 parts@bramanhondapb.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 8-7; Sat 8-5 pepe.guevara@headquarterhonda.com

Gerald Jones Honda Hendrick Honda Bradenton

Augusta

B ra denton

800-733-2210 706-228-7040

877-706-2021 941-752-2123 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-7; Sat 8-4 Kris.kitzman@hendrickauto.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-5 tdunn@geraldjoneshonda.com

Gwinnett Place Honda Holman Honda of Ft. Lauderdale F t . L a uderdale

888-792-7189 954-763-7157

MI S S I S S I P P I

Patty Peck Honda Ridgeland

800-748-8676 601-957-3400 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-5 pmartin@pattypeckhonda.com

Duluth

800-277-8836 678-957-5151 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-5 gphwholesaleparts@hendrickauto.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 8-5:30 rguido@holmanauto.com ACURA ALABAMA

GEORGIA

GE O R G I A

Jerry Damson Acura

Duval Acura

Jackson Acura

Huntsville

J a ck sonville

Roswell

Savannah

800-264-1739 256-533-1345

800-352-2872 904-725-1149

877-622-2871 678-259-9500

800-347-0596 912-232-3222

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-5:30; Sat 8-4 Rkeel@damson.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 8-5 Cecil.adams@duvalacura.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6; Sat 7:30-6 kmcmillan@jacksonacura.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-5 travis.morrison@southernmotors.com

Rick Case Acura

Nalley Acura

F o r t L a uderdale

Marietta

800-876-1150 954-377-7688

800-899-7278 770-422-3138

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-5 rubenramos@rickcase.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7-5 byoung@nalleycars.com

FLORIDA

Acura of Orange Park J a ck s o n v i l l e

888-941-7278 904-777-1008 Dept. Hours: M-F 7-8; Sat 7-5; Sun 9-3 msweeney@acuraoforangepark.com 32

FLORIDA

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

Southern Motors Acura

NO . C A R O L I N A

Flow Acura Winston-Salem

800-489-3534 336-761-3682 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-1 www.flowacura.com

NO. C A R O L I N A

NO. CAROLINA

TENNESSEE

VIRGIN I A

Apple Tree Honda

Vann York Automall

Bill Gatton Honda

Asheville

High Point

Bristol

Staunton

800-476-9411 828-684-4400

336-841-6200

800-868-4118 423-652-9545

800-277-0598 540-213-9016

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 8-1 hondaparts@billgattonhonda.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 9-5 bwimer@myvalleyhonda.com

Wolfchase Honda

West Broad Honda

Dept. Hours: M-F 8-5; Sat 8-4 appletreeparts@hotmail.com

Crown Honda Southpoint Durham

855-893-8866 919-425-4711 Dept. Hours: M-Thu 7-11; Fri 7-6 Sat 7-5; Sun 11-5 www.southpointhonda.com

Hendrick Honda Ch a r l o t t e

800-277-7271 704-552-1149 Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 8-5 rob.thomas@hendrickauto.com

Leith Honda Raleigh

800-868-6970 919-790-8228 Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7:30-5 parts@leithhonda.com

McKenney-Salinas Honda Gastonia

888-703-7109 704-824-8844 x 624 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30 parts@mshonda.com

Metro Honda Ind i a n Tra i l

866-882-9542 704-220-1522 Dept. Hours: M-F 6:30-6:30; Sat 7-4 www.copytk.com

NO. C A R O L I N A

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-3 SO. CAROLINA

Breakaway Honda G re e n v i l l e

800-849-5056 864-234-6481 Dept. Hours: M-F 8-6; Sat 8-5 fmarshall@breakawayhonda.com

Midlands Honda Columbia

877-273-4442 803-691-8585

Bartlett

Richmond

800-982-7290 901-255-3780

800-446-0160 804-672-8811

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7 ekerr@wolfchasehonda.com

Dept. Hours: M-Fri 7:30-6:30; Sat 8-5 wbhonda@aol.com

VIRGINIA

Checkered Flag Honda Norfolk

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7-4 www.copytk.com

800-277-2122 757-687-3453

Piedmont Honda

Dept. Hours: M-Sat 7:30-6 honda.checkeredflag.com

Anderson

800-849-5057 864-375-2082 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-5 swhite@piedmontcars.com TENNESSEE

Airport Honda Alcoa

800-264-4721 865-970-7792 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6:30; Sat 7:30-5 parts@airporthonda.com

AutoNation Honda West Knoxville

Colonial Honda Chester

800-564-9836 804-414-1960 Dept. Hours: M-F 8-7; Sat 8-4 rreese@i95honda.com

Hall Honda Virginia Beach

800-482-9606 757-431-4329 Dept. Hours: M-F 8-7; Sat 8-5 fox@hallauto.com

Knoxville

Hendrick Honda Woodbridge

800-824-1301 865-218-5461

703-690-7777

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6 rossd1@autonation.com

TENNESSEE

Woodbridge Dept. Hours: M-Fri 7-6 Sat 8-5; Sun 10-4

VIRGINIA

Hendrick Acura

Gary Force Acura

Charlotte

B re n t wo o d

Falls Church

800-768-6824 704-566-2288

800-653-6723 615-377-0500

800-550-5035 703-824-5785

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-5 justin.taylor@hendrickauto.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-2 jtrail@garyforceacura.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-6; Sun 10-5 jimgraf@radleyauto.com

Leith Acura Cary

800-868-0082 919-657-0460 Dept. Hours: M-F 8-6; Sat 8-4:30 parts@leithacura.com

Valley Honda

Radley Acura

VIRGINIA

Karen Radley Acura Wo o d b r i d g e

800-355-2818 703-550-0205 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 8-3 coreythompson@radleyautogroup.com autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

Historical Snapshot

—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, 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.

with John Yoswick

Association Leader 5 Years Ago Called for DRPs to Include ‘Grandfather Clause’ 20 Years Ago in the Collision Repair Industry (June 1998) Caliber Collision Centers has announced the appointment of Bill Lawrence as its chief operating officer and senior vice president. Lawrence, a 28-year veteran of Allstate Insurance, was an architect and corporate strategist responsible for Allstate’s “Pro Shop” direct repair network. He also previously served as president of Allstate’s “Tech-Cor” subsidiary, which includes a collision repair shop research center. Lawrence will have responsibility for all of Caliber’s collision repair operations as well as the associated corporate support functions. “Bill is a highly talented, wellknown and highly regarded insurance industry executive who’s been thinking ‘outside the box’ about collision repair for more than a decade,” Caliber’s Chief Executive Officer

Matthew Ohrnstein said. “We are pleased to welcome him as our head of operations, and we expect he will continually lead change in the industry.” Founded in 1991, Caliber is a consolidator with operator collision repair facilities in California and Texas. In addition to its corporateowned centers, it also manages a preferred provider network of 120 independently owned collision repair centers. – As reported in The Golden Eagle. The first to bring Wall Street investment into collision repair, Ohrnstein left Caliber after seven years and launched a private consulting firm involved in many consolidation transactions; he died in 2013. Lawrence left Caliber in 2004. He is now an executive with the 7-shop 1st Certified Collision Centers chain in Southern California, which is also

the parent company of Certified Collision Group, a national network of more than 200 OEM-certified shops.

15 Years Ago in the Collision Repair Industry (June 2003) Maaco announced that is it beginning a new campaign to “expand the brand” and give greater emphasis to collision repairs. Maaco is changing its name to “Maaco Collision Repair & Auto Painting” from “Maaco Auto Painting & Bodyworks.” Maaco has traditionally been a repaint operation offering little in the way of crash damage repairs. The new slogan is “America’s Body Shop.” Maaco’s 530 franchisees claim to paint more vehicles than anyone else in America—about 800,000 a year, and 20 percent of that is fleet work. It recently offered its franchisees additional collision repair training.

Maaco has been “so busy owning the repaint business that it forgot to remind the public that it also performs collision and spot repairs, and does them well, even on newer vehicles,” the company said. While maintaining its core paint business, Maaco will target “newer vehicle spot paint and repairs,” which it identifies as lease returns and outof-pocket paid collision work. – As reported in Autobody News. Maaco’s website says it still has more than 500 locations (though prior to that it had dipped to as low as 470 in 2015). It was acquired in 2008 by Driven Brands, operated by the same private equity firm that acquired CARSTAR in 2015. 10 Years Ago in the Collision Repair Industry (June 2008) Mike Poulard, State Farm estimatics section manager, wrote in a letter last

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week that after several months of review, the insurer will no longer include a full rear-body sectioning procedure (or “clip”) on State Farmprepared estimates. “As a result of this review, we have determined that this repair method is less feasible on newer model vehicles which incorporate special or alternative metals,” Poulard wrote to Pam Pierson of Princeton Auto Body in Princeton, IL.

In 2013, Dan Risley of the Automotive Service Association said insurers that change requirements for a direct repair program should give participating shops a “grandfather clause” to decide whether to adopt the change or drop the program

He said although full rear-body sectioning may be practical in some situations, State Farm will not include it on its estimates and will leave that

decision to the customer and shop. “If your repair facility, while working on a vehicle involved in a State Farm claim, receives a State Farm written estimate for a full body section, please contact the assigned claim person,” Poulard wrote. Pierson has been doggedly contacting State Farm and shop association leaders on this issue for several months after seeing the procedure called for on State Farm estimates. – As reported in CRASH Network (www.CrashNetwork.com), June 16, 2013. 5 Years Ago in the Collision Repair Industry (June 2013) Now that State Farm has said it will begin rolling out PartsTrader to more markets this summer, the trade associations are focusing their criticism less on PartsTrader itself and more on the broader issue of insurers requiring the use of any particular product or service. “Insurance company mandates don’t work,” said Dan Risley, executive director of the Automotive Service Association (ASA). “We went through a similar thing many years

ago with the estimating systems, and we had shops paying for three different estimating platforms that all did the same thing. And who’s to say that a product won’t come out tomorrow that’s three times better than one being mandated? So now I have to use an inferior product because of a mandate from an insurer?” Risley said although direct repair agreements obligate a shop that wants to stay on the program to accept changes made to the insurer requirements, he thinks insurers should give shops more time to make a decision and prepare for either implementing the change or dropping the program. “I would like insurance carriers to consider what I’ll call a grandfather clause, where shops have six months to adopt the change in the program,” Risley said. “At least then you have six months to start building a business model moving away from that program so that dropping it doesn’t have such an immediate negative impact on your business.” – As reported in CRASH Network (www.CrashNetwork.com), June 10, 2013.

Nominations Now Open for 2018 Impact Award

On May 6, the Auto Care Association announced it is accepting nominations for the 2018 “Impact Award: Four for the Future.” The annual award recognizes four aftermarket professionals aged 40 or younger who have made outstanding contributions to the auto care industry. The recipients will be awarded at Auto Care Association’s 2018 Fall Leadership Days, taking place Sept. 5–7 in Austin, TX. The Impact Award provides businesses within the auto care industry the opportunity to highlight the success of individuals in their roles who demonstrate hard work, dedication, professionalism and exceptional abilities. The online nomination form is now available and the deadline to submit nominations is June 30, 2018. A resume or professional biography must accompany the nomination. Nominees must have at least two years of relevant work experience in the auto care industry and applicants can be self-nominated or nominated by a peer or manager.

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Media and Publicity for Shops with Ed Attanasio

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

Does Email Marketing Still Work for Body Shops? How many emails do you get every day and how many of them should really be in your spam folder? Did you sign up for something and then the company sold your email address to everyone on the planet? Every once in a while, so-called marketing gurus announce the death of email marketing, but Luke Middendorf, the owner of WSI Connect in Northern California, is happy to tell the world that it’s still alive and actually thriving. “I think it was about a decade ago that I first read an article boldly proclaiming that email marketing was dead,” he said. “I laughed at the time as I could plainly see from our internal metrics that email marketing was still highly effective. Year after year, new technologies try to make the elimination of email marketing their claim to fame. Yet, year after year, email marketing continues to produce a better ROI than just about any other marketing strategy. “Email marketing is still the best way to put your message in front of your target audience. You don’t have to wait for them to Google the types of products or services that you offer and you don’t have to hope that they will notice your Facebook campaign. Email marketing delivers the content directly to them.” Email marketing does not need to be expensive, Middendorf explained. “It’s relatively low-cost,” he said. “We actually utilize the free version provided by MailChimp for a number of our clients. Their only costs are content development and building out email lists.” What are the key elements of a successful email marketing campaign? “There are two critical components to any effective email marketing campaign: providing high-quality content and building a great list,” Middendorf said. “Building a list is the second important component of any successful email marketing program. There are tons of different ways to build an email list. The first one is just good old-fashioned net-

working. If you exchange business cards with another professional, you have their email address. I recommend sending them a personalized email before you add them to any email marketing campaign.” Educating and engaging your readers is paramount because they’re savvy and can see an ad from a mile away. “One of the best newsletters that I subscribe to is produced by a business consulting firm,” Middendorf said. “Each week I receive 2–3 emails from them and I learn something useful in each email that I read. That’s the key. I learn something that I can apply to the growth of my business; therefore the content is very valuable to me. After receiving six months of valuable information from them, I decided to utilize their services. By giving away valuable information, the consulting firm was able to establish themselves as industry experts and convert me into a client.” Trading useful and pertinent information for an email address also works well. “We often create an eBook or white paper, set up a landing page and give it away in exchange for an email address,” he said. “Mine your LinkedIn contacts. Most people make their email addresses available to their first degree connections. I still recommend a personalized email beforehand. We also often experiment with lightboxes. We use SumoMe on a couple of the websites that we support. This provides an easy way for readers to add their email to the subscriber list.”

pages. • Think mobile: Most of your customers are perusing email on their phones today, so design your emails to be mobile-friendly. • Present small bites: Separate content using headlines, subheads and bullet points. Give your readers information that can be quickly scanned and absorbed. People will not read lengthy articles, because they just don’t have the time. • Make it personal: Email is a personal form of media, so cater your campaigns to be as personalized as possible. • Avoid spam: Set up a regular contact routine, but don’t flood your contacts with advertisements and products. You want your readers to look forward to hearing from you, so be consistent and courteous. • Unsubscribe link: Make it easy to unsubscribe. Small or hidden un-

subscribe links are very annoying.

So, the $64,000 question is: Does email marketing still work? “Absolutely,” Middendorf said. “Email marketing is considered an important part of any robust online marketing campaign. Your company should still consider other well-established marketing strategies, such as blogs and branded websites; however, email is an affordable way to reach more people with minimal expense. For the best results, turn your online marketing campaign over to a company experienced in the field that is able to assist you with keyword strategies and reaching target audiences.”

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Other tips for email campaigns:

• Specialization is key. Some body shops do separate email campaigns for their customers and insurance partners with specialized content that caters specifically to each. • Present your email using the same tactics as you use for blogs or social media. Open with interesting, engaging content and funnel readers through to your company’s landing

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

John Hiester Chevrolet www.hiesterautomotive.com

3100 N. Main Street Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526

autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

Tips for Busy Body Shops with Stacey Phillips

10 Simple Steps to Collision Repair Success From VECO Experts Collision repair facilities can typi- “This is where the disconnect often cally increase profits by raising prices comes in,” said Olson. “We have to and/or working to become more effi- follow the procedures, and this recient, according to Mark Olson, quires a culture shift.” CEO of VECO Experts (Vehicle ColHe used the example of technilision Experts, LLC). cians welding. “Raising your prices can some“Even great techs will say, ‘I times be difficult,” said Olson. “There took 20 welds out; I’m going to put are a number of ways to achieve effi- 20 back in.’ Well, sometimes they are ciency in your body shop and have a going to want 30 back in or a slot predictable high-quality reweld or a MIG braze,” he pair outcome.” said. “We may repair the VECO Experts provehicle differently than it vides onsite assessments was built originally.” and repair inspections at When repairers tell body shops across the counOlson that they have been try to ensure manufacturers’ doing it a certain way for processes and materials are more than 30 years, his reMark Olson followed. sponse is that if you want Olson shared 10 steps to provide to repair cars with 30-year-old techquality collision repairs as part of nology, work on cars that are 30 Dave Luehr’s Elite Body Shop Solu- years old. He recommends looking tions webinar held in April. Luehr, the closely at the following procedures: founder of Elite Body Shop Solu- weld count, electronic reset, corrotions, hosts monthly webinars to help sion protection, sectioning locacollision repair shops reach their busi- tions, parts removal/location, etc. ness goals and achieve their true personal potential. 5. Proper welds Olson’s “10 simple steps to collision repair success:”

1. Pre-health check scan (post and electronic reset /calibration) on every car 2.

Procedures at time of estimate

In addition to ensuring shops are utilizing the proper welding equipment, Olson suggests doing a test weld and destroy every time. “This is not new—I-CAR has been saying this and teaching this since the 1980s and it is in accordance with American Welding Society (AWS) standards,” he said.

Olson stressed the importance of knowing as much as possible about a vehicle prior to the repair and including the information on the original estimate. He recommended accessing repair information from the I-CAR Repairability Technical Support Portal (https://rts.i-car.com/); information providers, such as ALLDATA and Mitchell; OEM 1 STOP (www .oem1stop.com) and position statements from the car manufacturers.

Olson advises shops to be aware of how much cavity wax they are buying. “If you aren’t buying a can a week per technician, you’re probably not properly corrosion protecting,” he said. “If you don’t corrosion protect it, whatever work you do is likely not going to last.”

4. Procedures followed

Although the majority of body shops use a QC sheet of some kind, Olson

3. Procedures given to technician or sublet vendor during the final repair plan meeting before beginning repairs

6. Proper corrosion protection

7. Proper use of quality control (QC) sheet

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

said they are often not used correctly. “It’s either being ‘pencil whipped,’ meaning you put it [the QC sheet] on a car and at the end of the job, the detailer checks every box, or it is in the paint department not filled out yet, but miraculously at the end of the job it is,” said Olson. “That’s not a quality control system; that’s a pencil whip form. You might as well not even have it because what you are teaching your techs to do is just fill in the boxes.” 8. Proper refinish

When doing a repair, Olson pointed out the importance of a proper refinish. “The color has to match the exterior as well as the underhood,” he explained. This means the vehicle needs to look the same as it did before, rather

than painting the underhood color the same as the exterior. He also said to pay close attention to the texture, back sides and gravel guard. 9. Proper use of intake (check-in) SOP

“The proper use of an intake checkin SOP is to fill out every blank every time,” said Olson. “If you have a box on the form that you aren’t going to use, take it off the form.” A free check-in form can be obtained by emailing info@elitebody shopsolutions.com with the subject line “Request Check-in Form.” 10. Proper vehicle protection

Are the vehicle’s windows rolled up or the openings covered? Are fluid lines capped and pigtails covered? These are just some of the items

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Olson said to be aware of in regard to proper vehicle protection. Risks to Avoid Every month, VECO Experts visits body shops throughout the United States to help them find their weak spots and elevate their operations. Part of this includes addressing the 10 steps to quality collision repair. Those that have been completed the way they were designed are marked green, the ones partially done are marked yellow and red is for tasks not being addressed at all. “When you look at these 10 checkpoints, you can see very quickly what the scope of your shop is,” he said. “The goal is to get all of these green, [indicating they’re] appropriate.” He highlighted the “Big Rocks” he notices in shops—those things he considers high risk to their companies. “These are the things that could possibly put you out of business,” he said. They include not using the quality control sheet as designed, 200 amp welders not being used when appropriate and neglecting to review and follow OEM procedures. Olson recommends reviewing all of the information relevant to the vehicle with the technicians and manager, having them sign it, then taping it to the car and taking a photo. “Accountability will go way up with that very simple step, and that way you know it happened,” he said. Another high risk for body shops is not using enough cavity wax. “Every technician—if doing heavy structural repairs—should be using at least a can a week of cavity wax,” said Olson. “What we find is that they might buy two or three cans a month or they might buy one can per quarter. That’s clearly not enough.” Olson said many shops do not understand the importance of doing a test weld and destroy. He suggested documenting this test every time in the file in case the information is needed later. In addition, he reminded participants on the call to ensure equipment is properly maintained and operable. “Equipment that is not being maintained properly definitely cuts into your profitability,” he said. 40

Also, he talked about buying a new set of welder tips to be used on a squeeze-type resistance spot welder for every single major collision repair that is done in the shop, and then including the cost on the invoice. Afterward, the tips can be given to the customer or saved so the copper can be traded in later and the shop can buy the technicians lunch with the money. Some of the “Medium Rocks” he notices in shops are risks that are customer service-oriented and may or may not affect the body shop. These include check-in sheets not being completed, electronic files not being fully documented and frame measurements not being completed. In some shops, Olson has noticed copper weld-through primer being used instead of zinc. “No manufacturer recommends copper,” he said. “It should not be in your shop under any circumstance because no manufacturer recommends it.” In addition, he said epoxy primer is often not present or it is used incorrectly, vehicle protection is not complete and painting is done under urethane set glass. The other medium-risk item he mentioned is having self-etch primer in the body department. “Many technicians use it under seam sealer or body sheets, and it doesn’t belong there,” he said. Is your company embezzling from you? During the webinar, Olson also talked to attendees about their business process and how to avoid the net profit being negatively affected. He then explained the “Canary in the Coalmine” principle. “A Canary in the Coalmine is an advanced warning of some danger,” Olson explained. “The metaphor originates from the times when miners used to carry caged canaries while at work; if there was any methane or carbon monoxide in the mine, the canary would die before the levels of gas reached those hazardous to humans.” In this case, Olson said the canaries are the problems in your shop that can affect profitability. 10 “Canaries” to look out for:

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

Come-back rate

The first is when a technician receives a vehicle from another department, notices something that needs to be repaired and does the work himself/herself. “That technician is going to lose 10–15 minutes of productivity and you’re going to spend more on materials,” said Olson. “If that technician is a 200 percent effective tech, you just lost 20–30 minutes of production from your shop.” A second type is when a technician receives a vehicle and brings another employee over to repair something. “Now you have two technicians wasting time,” said Olson. The third is when a technician receives a vehicle and sends it back to a prior department. “If you track that, you’ll be shocked at how much inefficiency you have,” he said.

This is when a car comes back to your shop for any reason to have something repaired, even if it is parked outside and a customer notices something before driving away. “For shops that properly track this, the average we find is 20 percent come back,” said Olson. “We haven’t found one below 10 percent.” He said the minimum average cost of come-backs is $400–$500 per vehicle. “If you take the number of cars you repair every month and 20 percent on average are coming back, multiply this by $400–$500 to calculate what is being embezzled from your company,” said Olson. “Track it for 30 days and it will blow your mind. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but the exception is not the rule.” 2) Internal come-back rate between departments

Olson said the internal come-back rate can also cost a shop more than $400–$500 per vehicle. He mentioned three different types.

Average start-stop rate

This is when a vehicle comes in and the work has to stop for some reason. That might be due to parts not being available or another car becoming a

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priority. Olson advises shops to look at how many times technicians stop during a repair. 4)

Supplement number record

“If there are one or two supplements, it’s not a real big deal,” said Olson. “Every time you find more damage or change the repair, that is a change that hurts productivity.” However, he often says shops have eight to 12 supplements. “That’s killing productivity,” he said. “All you have to do is track it. If you can’t measure it, you can’t fix it.” 5) Are SOPs used the way they are designed? 6) If you are using SOPs the way they are designed, do they work? 7) Gross profit/net/expense percentage

Olson said it’s very important to a shop’s success to understand these three basic principles—gross profit, net and expense percentage.

Days to repair (keys to keys)

Keys to keys is the total amount of time the car is at the shop—from the time it is dropped off until it is picked up. “A lot of people call this cycle time, but it’s not,” said Olson. “It’s how long the car is there. A car might be there for a week before it is touched.” 9)

Cycle time or touch time

This includes the time the vehicle enters production through the day it is ready for delivery. 10) Safety

Olson asked webinar attendees how many of their technicians wear safety glasses in the shop. “You can talk about safety all you want, but you need to demonstrate it in your shop,” he said. In addition to wearing safety glasses, he said safety includes a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), training plans, safety meetings and respirators. “People have different concerns

in the shop and every business runs a little differently,” said Olson. Rather than trying to focus on changing everything, he recommends picking one or two items and working with technicians to address them to be successful. “Take it one step at a time,” he said. “Everything has to go in a process. You can’t do it all at once.” To watch a replay of this webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar .com/register/7978064457470349825. All registered attendees will automatically be notified of upcoming Elite Educational Webinars held each month. For more information about Elite Body Shop Solutions and to sign up for the next monthly webinar, email info@elitebodyshopsolutions.com.

For more information about VECO Experts, LLC and the 10 steps to quality collision repair, call Mark Olson at 206-771-2111.

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Mission 2 Hire Program: 400th Veteran

On May 2, Service King Collision Repair Centers officially welcomed its 400th U.S. Military veteran to the family as part of the organization’s ongoing Mission 2 Hire initiative. With the recent milestone, the company remains ahead of its original goal to successfully recruit and hire 500 U.S. Armed Forces veterans and family members in five years. Service King President Jeff McFadden stated, “We are always looking for top-tier talent to join our growing team and recognize the intangible qualities that so many U.S. Armed Forces veterans provide.” All U.S. Military Veterans, spouses and family members interested in a career at Service King are encouraged to visit the dedicated veterans hiring page at Mission2Hire.careers; providing an intuitive platform to learn more about current opportunities at Service King, connect with the company and even features a skills matcher that connects prospective candidates with positions based on their military experience.

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National Associations with Chasidy Rae Sisk

Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware, who writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family of NASCAR fans. She can be contacted at crsisk@chasidyraesisk.com.

ASA Partners With Bosch for 4th Webinar: ‘You’ve Got the Power’ On April 18, ASA partnered with Bosch for the penultimate webinar in their Advanced Collision and Diagnostic Training Webinar Series. Titled “You’ve Got the Power: Diagnostic Power in Your Hands,” this fourth webinar focused on key scan tool procedures for collision and mechanical repair and was facilitated by Bosch’s Duane “Doc” Watson and Pat Pierce. The webinar began with ASA Vice President Tony Molla

welcoming attendees and explaining that the techniques taught during the webinar are transferable to many other professional diagnostic tools. Watson began by talking about scan tool assets and emphasized the value of getting as much from your scan tool as possible. He pointed out, “Your scan tool can do more than just read codes. It can bring diagnostic and repair information to you, and it can be paired with other tools to enhance your diagnostics and repairs, but it needs to be easy to use and must have embedded user-assisted diagnostics. “If you replace the battery, certain model vehicles require a reset tool or scan tool to reset the battery life in the vehicle’s computer when an old battery is replaced. This is done to keep the electrical system running at maximum efficiency since many newer vehicles automatically adjust charge cycles and alternator settings based on battery age and mileage. When the battery is replaced, the new battery might need to be electronically reset within the vehicle’s computer system to ensure that it is properly recognized as a brand-new battery. Failure to do so may create an over charging system, thus shortening the battery life. Battery reset is a very simple and straightforward procedure. You 42

can purchase a standalone battery reset tool, but some scan tools have the function built in.” During the battery registration process, battery capacity is set to 80 percent, the current odometer reading is stored and stored battery statistics are deleted, so there is no need to worry about completing the steps individually. “The battery reset saves the vehicle’s onboard diagnostic memory and other onboard memory components such as anti-theft radios, digital clocks, radio presets, seats, mirrors or comfort settings when the vehicle’s battery is removed or disconnected,” Watson said. “Using the memory saver during a battery replacement is highly recommended, but you have saved the previous battery charging settings as well. You still need to perform reset procedures when using the memory saver.” Watson demonstrated the Ford model truck battery reset and showed how to check DTCS on a vehicle with a check engine light on. He stressed the importance of following the steps under scan test and showed how to use the links and diagrams on the scan tool to learn more about what needs to be done. Watson also showed webinar attendees how to test the heating circuit and how to determine if the heating element is bad, noting “Always test—don’t guess!” Turning to tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), Watson explained that if a vehicle manufacturer recommends 35 pounds of pressure, the tire is considered significantly underinflated at 26 pounds, but may not look low until it hits 20 pounds. Reasons for the tire light to come on could be low tire pressure, a broken sensor or the wheel sensor not being recognized by the vehicle. Tools to be used for properly servicing TPMS include sensors/valves, service packs, scan/learn tools and accessories. Watson advised, “Never use a brass valve core with an aluminum TPMS sensor. Always use a nickelplated valve core with aluminum TPMS sensors.

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

“What should you be replacing on a TPMS-equipped vehicle? What’s included in a service pack? Service packs provide the sealing components for each applicable sensor (clamp-in or snap-in) and can be replaced just as valve stems are today. Always use new grommets, nuts, valve caps and valve cores when performing any tire service.” It is important to replace all components within the service pack because rubber grommets replace old seals that may have taken permanent compression and may leak. The valve stem nut replaces the old nut, which may have been over-torqued and contain invisible hairline fractures. Nickel-plated valve cores prevent galvanic corrosion and ensure the integrity of the primary seal. Valve caps with seals prevent dirt and moisture from entering the sensor, and they also act as a secondary

pressure seal. Old valve caps may have a seal that is compressed or missing. A washer replaces the old washer, which may also have hairline cracks from over-tightening. Watson recommended seeking the following types of damage when inspecting a TPMS sensor: broken casing, broken antenna, tire sealant clogging holes, internal and external thread damage and galvanic corrosion. He explained that valve stem caps are important to take care of because they could impact the output, and he warned that the sensor may not relearn because it’s the wrong cap. He demonstrated how to start testing the sensors with a walk-around, pointing the tool at the valve stem on each tire. Using a scan tool with TPMS/ TPR capabilities makes the job easier because it displays additional information, allows access to quick referSee ASA Partners, Page 47

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Dave Illg Collision Repair Center: The Risen Phoenix by Gary Ledoux

“Make integrity your first priority,” said Dave Illg, owner of Dave Illg’s Collision Repair Center in Nashua, NH. “Charge for what you do, don’t charge for what you don’t do, treat everyone with respect and your shop can’t help but be successful.” Sage words for sure, from a man who learned through some extreme strife and struggle. Lesser men would have bailed out of the bad situation Illg found himself mired in a few years ago. You might say the body business is in Illg’s blood. In 1977, at 19 years old, Illg went to work at a shop partially owned by a family member. An uncle, John Illg, was the “I” in BIG&R Auto Body (Belowski, Illg, Gurette and Rantilla), one of the oldest, largest and most respected shops in the city. The shop had been in business since the early 1950s in a large

BIG&R Auto Body circa early 1970s. Vehicle owner unknown

purpose-built building right off one of the city’s main thoroughfares. All of the principal owners had worked in dealer body shops prior and thought they could do a better job as an independent shop. At one point, in the days before companies such as Garmat, Accudraft and such, Dave Illg’s father, Victor Illg, built the shop’s two spray booths—out of 2X4’s and drywall, high-tech for their time. For the next eight years, despite being a relative of one of the owners, Dave Illg worked in the shop as a regular employee learning the trade and doing quality work. He became adept with his pick-hammers and dollies … and lead filler. Despite plastic filler being introduced in the mid-1950s, the body men at BIG&R used body lead right up until the late ‘70s. Around 1985, there was some upheaval amongst the owners. Of the four original owners, two were still 44

active in the business, with one running the shop and the other running the front end. Neither saw eye-to-eye with the other. The man running the shop felt the entire operation could be run “from the hood of a car,” meaning there was little concern for

“It was rather odd to go to work at a place where I had picked up my new washer and dryer only a few years before,” said Illg. The building obviously was not designed as a body shop and was very tough to work in.

office procedures, keeping records and the like. The man running the front end, of course, had different ideas. Ultimately, the “front-end” man left, leaving a hole. Dave Illg was named General Manager and filled the position. For the next three years Illg ran the front of the business, writing estimates, scheduling work and so forth. He was able to increase business and profits. But the internal strife between himself and his uncle, the last remaining owner, put a big strain on Illg, so he decided to leave the shop. His next stop was as an independent appraiser. “This was a welcome relief from the everyday grind at the shop,” noted Illg. “I learned how to negotiate. I worked fewer hours and made more money. Life was good … for a while.” Then the appraisal company’s business took a down-turn. “It got so bad that at one point, I would walk into the bank to cash my paycheck and if I was fifth or sixth in line, the cashier would see me and check the account,” Illg said. “If there was no money to cash the check, she would just wave me on so I wouldn’t have to wait for five or six people only to walk away empty-handed.” And then came another job offer—one that would set him on the path to the lowest depths of his life and to his crowning success. The local Lincoln-Mercury dealer was in need of a body shop manager. Its body shop had been through four managers in the last year. It was losing thousands of dollars per month. It was located a few blocks away from the main dealership in a small brick building that had once been the warehouse for the local Sears store.

Illg laughed, “If we had to bring a truck in the shop, we had to take the mirrors off. That’s how small the door was!” Nevertheless, Illg made it work and the shop showed a profit within the first month. Once again, he had taken a shaky business and turned it around and the dealer-principal, Dick Stahl, appreciated it. Time went on, and eventually Stahl decided to sell the Lincoln-Mercury business and buildings. Unlike some dealer buy-sells where the new

“It got so bad that at one point, I would walk into the bank to cash my paycheck and if I was fifth or sixth in line, the cashier would see me and check the account,” — Dave Illg

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

dealer “cleans house” and removes all existing managers and employees, the new dealer kept all body shop personnel. It was a blessing, as everyone was able to retain their jobs. But it was a curse, because of what would eventually happen. As part of the new dealer’s plan, the shop moved out of its “Sears building” and into a large, modern building a block away that had been built as a service department for a Ford dealership, also owned by Stahl, but that had been purchased by the same party that purchased LincolnMercury. It had recently been outfitted with over $100,000 worth of brandnew equipment, including a frame machine and spray booth. Things were looking good. But then, things began to unravel under the tutelage of the new dealer. Vendors who provided paint, parts and other services were not getting paid. Long-time vendors would not sell to the Lincoln-Mercury body shop any longer. Some would only deliver if they got paid in cash—on See The Risen Phoenix, Page 54

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Industry Insight with John Yoswick

Chipotle Executive Offers Concepts That Resonate With Collision Repairers

Why did the chief financial officer of food that he was proud of. You have can always be fresh and the process ver, who participated in the panel the 2,400-location Chipotle Mexican to start with what you stand for. Then is efficient and easy to master for discussion with Hartung. Nylund’s Grill chain speak at this spring’s make sure the business model sup- employees. (Hartung said Chipotle’s shop specializes in luxury vehicles, “Repairer Roundtable”? ports that.” fastest location can serve 300 peo- including Lexus, Mercedes, Audi Aaron Schulenburg of the Sociand BMW. ety of Collision Repair Specialists “I think we may start paring off “Trust is an incredibly valuable, intangible (SCRS), which organizes the event, brands, and specialize more in standcapital investment,” — Jack Hartung said he invited Chipotle CFO Jack alone facilities for [each of] those Hartung to speak to help shops “think brands,” Nylund said. “We could get outside the box” about how compaHartung discussed the importhose people really underple an hour, with a cusnies differentiate themselves in terms tance of building trust with customers, tomer moving through the standing those particular veof their commitment to—and invest- something that he acknowledged had burrito line every 12 sechicles, so they’re the very, ment in—quality. suffered at Chipotle following an E. onds.) Chipotle’s entire very best.” “Communicating that message coli outbreak in 2015. The company’s menu includes only 52 inHartung also offered [to consumers] can be challenging,” stock, trading at nearly $750 at the gredients. By comparison, shops a number of tips reSchulenburg said. “Creating sustain- time, tumbled and was trading at half he said, just the sauce alone garding employees. He said able business models that support that when Hartung spoke at the event for a McDonald’s Big Mac investing in people through Robert Grieve that also can be really challenging.” this spring. (In the weeks following, has 30 items in it. training is a great way to Hartung said that’s it rose by about $100 to Part of this has been enabled by motivate them and demonstrate that something his company has above $400.) the company’s decision to open other the company appreciates them. accomplished, paying more “Trust is an incredibly restaurant chains rather than adding “There’s nothing worse than for humanely raised, horvaluable, intangible capital more items to the Chipotle menu. working a job where you’re insecure mone-free meat, for examinvestment,” Hartung told That resonated with Robert Grieve [because] you’re not sure if you’re ple, but not charging more shops at the SCRS event. of Nylund’s Collision Center in Den- doing it right, because no one really than comparable “fast ca“When they trust you, they sual” restaurants. trust you all the way. When Aaron Schulenburg You’re Going To “We find efficiencies you break their trust, it takes throughout the rest of our P&L so we time to get it back. We’re on that The Way You’re Treated! can invest more in the food,” Har- page right now. We’d built the trust, tung said. “We looked at the restau- the expectations, so high. We said Local Toll Free Fax rant: Can we make it smaller? We you should expect more from food, (205) 443-7651 (800) 467-0699 (205) 823-4697 don’t spend much on advertising. in terms of where it comes from and Would your customers rather have how it’s cooked, keeping the impact you spend more money on advertis- on the animals and the environment ing, or on the materials you use to re- as low as possible. We care about all pair their cars?” those things. We taught our cusHartung said the company tomers to expect that.” founder originally opened a Chipotle He said shops can do the same in 1993, hoping to generate enough thing, pointing to the trust he’s deDavid Bonnett Mike McKoewn Frank Jackson cash-flow to eventually veloped in the shop that (205) 443-7655 (205) 443-7654 (205) 443-7651 open a fine dining restaurant restores his small collecdbonnett@tameron.com mmckoewn@tameron.com fjackson@tameron.com (which he never did, given tion of muscle cars. They Chipotle’s growth), so from do that through time and the start he wanted to use transparency, he said, takthe type of quality ingrediing him back in the shop to ents he planned to use at that show him things, taking higher-end restaurant. Peotime to educate him. Outside Sales Jack Hartung ple told him at the time that “I’m learning while getfew customers really thought or ting to know them, even getting to Dale Nall David Cartee cared about where or how their food know their family,” Hartung said of (205) 443-7653 (205) 443-7651 dnall@tameron.com dcartee@tameron.com was sourced. the shop. “There’s a bonding that hap“He didn’t care. He had a vi- pens.” sion,” Hartung said. “He wanted to He also said part of what has elevate the food. He didn’t care if his made Chipotle successful is keeping customers noticed. He knew. And he the menu simple, not trying to be 1595 Montgomery Hwy. / Hoover, AL 35216 knew he was going to serve them “all things to all people,” so the food

Love

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

trained you,” Hartung said. Trained employees who understand the company’s vision “will work really hard for you,” because “people want to work for something bigger than themselves,” Hartung said. “If you just tell people to work hard and kick them in the ass now and again, keep kicking them and they’ll keep working hard,” he said. “But when you leave, their energy level will drop dramatically.” He said it’s also important to not keep mediocre employees around because doing so can cause good employees to leave. “They will feel underappreciated. ‘Why am I working so hard to cover for the person next to me who is just mailing it in?’” Hartung said. Those employees will assume management is dumb if they don’t know who the weaker workers are.

If you really don’t know, Hartung said, take some employees aside and ask. “You’ll be shocked at how much they’ll tell you,” he said. “Be ready with the flood gates. You’ll get an earful.” He said young motivated workers want to be someplace where they see a chance for growth and a career path. He said his son worked at a dealership after graduating from an automotive tech school, but found the company didn’t respond to his desire to do more. “Eventually he quit and ended up at Tesla, because there wasn’t a system [at the dealership] to satisfy this young guy’s appetite,” Hartung said. “He’s a kid with passion. Imagine what can happen when you can find people like that, who have a passion, and then you have a leader who can channel that passion.”

Don’t Miss the www.autobodynews.com Weekly AUTOBODY Industry NEWS Your Shop Needs.

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ASA Partners

ence data, automatically uploads sensor IDs and saves time, making technicians more productive. The tool can also automatically read the sensor ID and upload information to the vehicle’s ECU as seen on the scan tool. Watson provided a system demonstration on a 2008 Honda CRV EX tire pressure monitor system, showing how the sensor ID memorization procedure instructs you to turn it off and wait five minutes for the sensors to active sleep mode before the procedure can begin. Then, select Special Test and Tire Sensor Special Registration. Go to the TPMS sensor to see searching, and once found, it will transfer information to the scan tool and then advise Process Completed. Watson stressed, “Just follow exactly what the tool says.” Watson mentioned that the key fob may also be part of the TPMS and can affect how TPMS relearns, and reminded that the NHTSA has developed a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard that requires the in-

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stallation of TPMS that warn the driver when a tire is significantly under-inflated, which could mean an amount of four to 10 psi. Watson concluded, “Everyone in your shop deals with TPMS, from your lead tech to the lube tech, so remember: It’s not just a nuisance for the customer; TPMS is a safety feature as well. If you’ve done anything to render any safety system inoperative, due to negligence, accident or lack of knowledge, it can open liability issues for you. TPMS is a safety system, and all vehicles sold in the U.S. since 2008 have it.” Zak then provided a demonstration of using the scan tool for power window testing. He emphasized, “Use the scan tool to ensure things are performing as designed by the vehicle manufacturer. It can help you diagnose quicker and more accurately.” The webinar concluded with Zak offering a brief summary of what will be covered during the last ASA-Bosch webinar, “Recalibrating Safety: The Road to Repairing Autonomous Vehicles,” scheduled for May 16 at 11:30 a.m. CST

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National Associations with Chasidy Rae Sisk

‘Why WIN? Why Conference?’ Webinar Provides Useful Conference Tips by Chasidy Rae Sisk

On Wednesday, April 25, Michelle Sullivan, Membership Committee Chair for the Women’s Industry Network (WIN®), hosted an informative webinar highlighting what to expect during WIN’s 2018 Educational Conference in Indianapolis, IN, on May 7–9. Sullivan began by identifying WIN’s mission to engage women in collision repair and explained that WIN is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging, developing and cultivating opportunities to attract women to collision repair. WIN recognizes excellence, promotes leadership and fosters a network specifically for and among women. All segments of the industry are represented. WIN’s purpose is to offer educational and leadership development opportunities, such as WIN board and committee opportunities and scholarship programs, to build skills that are important for success. The group provides networking opportunities for women in the collision repair industry through its annual educational conference, industry events, panels, webinars and regional events. Additionally, WIN recognizes the contributions and achievements of female industry leaders through the Most Influential Women (MIW) award. “For decades, a small group of female pioneers made significant contributions to a highly male-dominated industry,” Sullivan said. “Recognizing the critical need for an organization to support this group and attract more women to join them, WIN was born in 2006. Over a decade later, we achieved a milestone of over 500 Continued from Page 24

CA Jury Awards

decision on records of his arrest and/or participation in a diversion program. The jury also determined 48

WIN members, and we continue to grow! Members include females and males from all segments of the collision repair industry across the U.S. and Canada.” WIN is supported by sponsors and powered by its all-volunteer membership. The Board of Directors makes up the association’s Executive Committee, and WIN currently has 12 active committees with specific descriptions, time commitments and KPIs.

events as well as the two additional events held earlier this year. Additionally, WIN has increased its presence by participating in major industry events, such as NACE, SEMA, CIC and more. Sullivan believes that the industry needs WIN because “women influence the majority of the buying decisions in households so we ask, ‘What does the face of your business look like?’ We help position your organizations for growth by encourag-

“WIN is one of the best ways to expand your network and demonstrate an ability to step up to a leadership position,” Sullivan stated. WIN began strategic planning in 2008 and narrowed its focus to two goals in 2015: facilitate the growth of the WIN network and build organizational capacity to better serve WIN’s growing network. Both goals include key initiatives with KPIs and dashboards for each committee, and WIN holds a monthly board review to track progress. Turning to the benefits of WIN membership, Sullivan shared information about WIN scholarships, noting that six scholarship winners will be recognized at this year’s conference. She also talked about the MIW program and mentioned that four MIW honorees will receive awards this year. In 2017, WIN also began hosting regional network events in Atlanta, Chicago and Southern California due to member requests. More than 150 women participated in last year’s

ing gender diversity and ensuring industry sustainability. Scholarships help attract women into the industry, and membership in WIN helps retain them.” Encouraging webinar participants to get involved with WIN, Sullivan emphasized the value of engaging in WIN committees, encouraging women in their businesses to join WIN and becoming corporate sponsors. She also suggested attending regional network events and WIN’s Annual Conference. Turning her attention to the 2018 Conference on May 7–9 at the Hyatt Regency in Indianapolis, Sullivan shared details about the conference agenda. She urged attendees to attend a member orientation on Monday afternoon and explained that the following seminar with Dr. Goldstein was scheduled because members have expressed the desire to learn more about themselves and others. After the Welcome Reception, attendees will have a free evening during which they are encouraged to find new friends or

that Allstate’s stated reason for the termination (i.e. alleged threats made by Mr. Tilkey) was not true and that Allstate failed to use reasonable care in determining the truthfulness of the stated reason for termination. The jury also concluded that Allstate had

acted with malice, oppression and/or fraud (a prerequisite to an award of punitive damages).” The next day, the jury awarded Tilkey $15,978,822 in punitive damages, making his total award $18,641,959.

“WIN is one of the best ways to expand your network and demonstrate an ability to step up to a leadership position,” — Michelle Sullivan

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

connect with old friends. Tuesday will be a full day. It will begin with the WIN Scholarship Walk, which benefits the association’s scholarship programs. At 9 a.m., Dr. Louis Frankel of Corporate Coaching International will deliver the keynote presentation, “Leadership is a Women’s Art.” Additional seminars on Tuesday and Wednesday will focus on a variety of beneficial industry topics. After sharing the rest of the agenda details, Sullivan provided some tips for making the most of the conference experience. “Attend an orientation session at the start of the conference,” Sullivan said. “It’s a great way to meet people you don’t know. Sit with people you don’t know, and set a goal to meet 10 new people a day to expand your network. Stay engaged and resist the See Conference Tips, Page 61

urge to use breaks to be consumed in email or texts; use that time to network instead. Introduce yourself to the board members, scholarship winners and MIW honorees. Sign up for the scholarship walk and wear what makes you comfortable. Most come in business casual apparel, but the Gala is a festive event, and most people dress up. The most important thing is to have fun.” Reporting that 202 attendees were signed up as of that morning, Sullivan concluded, “Bring your business cards, be comfortable, be ready to engage with other members and have fun!” For more information on WIN and the 2018 Educational Conference agenda, visit: thewomensindustry network.site-ym.com/

An Allstate spokeswoman said the company disagrees with the verdict and plans to appeal. The Associated Press contributed to this article. We thank Claims Journal for reprint permission.

autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

finishing the repaired panel to 320 grit. Gredinberg shared information from the estimating system providers related to this not-included process— nell of Big Sky Collision in Montana such as whether it is identified as a (who was appointed to the board ear- paint labor operation rather than lier this year following the departure body—noting there are some differof another board member) said he had ences among the systems. “One thing that all three [estifound some discrepancies between the owners’ manuals for some vehi- mating system providers] mention is cles and the automakers’ repair pro- that the material allowance for feather prime and block, if necessary, is not cedures for those vehicles. For two different automakers, included,” Gredinberg said. John Yoswick of CRASH Netfor example, “Within the repair procedures, it says that [seatbelts] need work provided an update at the meetto be inspected for frays or any dam- ing on the “Who Pays for What?” age” following a collision, McDon- surveys his company conducts with nell said. “But within the owners’ Mike Anderson of Collision Advice. manuals, it says to replace every seat- He said the four quarterly surveys belt” that was in use during the crash. (www.CrashNetwork.com/collision “So we just want to [know] advice), each of which asks about whether or not we are to look at the shop billing (and insurer payment) owners’ manual, which is crazy, or is practices for about 25 different notthere something like a position state- included operations, also ask shops ment we could get that [states] one if participating in the surveys has will override the other,” McDonnell helped them improve their business. “We consistently have found said. He said he suspects the discrep- that 80 percent or more say that it has,” Yoswick said. “But ancy is likely the result of those of you who know documentation for the ownMike know he won’t rest ers’ manual and the repair until that percentage is procedures being prepared closer to 100 percent, so we by different groups within keep working with him on any given automaker. He other ways to pack more insaid the vast scale of all the automakers’ operations hit Danny Gredinberg formation into the survey reports to help shops.” home for him when he reHe said the latest such addition cently had an opportunity to tour the Fiat Chrysler of America headquar- will be links to DEG inquiries that ters, which encompasses 5 million relate to the procedures being asked about in each survey. Gredinberg has square feet. “So the left arm might not al- been tracking down those inquiries ways be talking with the right arm,” so they can be included in the 2018 reports on the “Who Pays” survey McDonnell said. Also during the meeting, Danny findings. “In addition to providing survey Gredinberg of the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG) (www participants with more information .DEGweb.org) shared a presentation and resources for using the results, on what’s often referred to as “the we think this will keep the DEG in gap.” That’s the necessary process front of a lot of shops regularly between when repair work ends throughout the year, and will help get (with the technician finishing off a DEG resources out to the industry,” panel at 150 grit), to getting that Yoswick said. During an awards luncheon folpanel to the equivalent of new and undamaged, which is when the esti- lowing the meeting, SCRS recognized mating systems say paint labor times the “Who Pays for What?” surveys begin. To get to that level requires with an “Industry Service Award.” the feather, prime and block process, SCRS board member Amber Alley, Continued from Cover

SCRS Meeting

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SCRS Board Member Brett Bailey, who chaired the association’s awards committee, said the award is not presented every year but recognizes organizations that “provide the industry and its members with a critical resource.” Past recipients include I-CAR, the National Auto Body Council and the Collision Repair Education Foundation. He said the “Who Pays” surveys are well-deserving of the award because “the tool that they have put in place is delivering information to shops that aren’t able to be in this room, information that is invaluable to shops … across the country.” PPG Director of Business Development Bill Shaw was also honored at the luncheon, receiving the SCRS “Humanitarian Award” for his work as president of the Collision Industry Foundation (http://collisionindustryfoundation.org). The nonprofit organization assists members of the industry impacted by natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. Most recently, the Foundation helped 78 families with ties to the industry in Texas and Florida after hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

who presented the award, said the surveys have “helped reshape the conversation that so many of us have on a daily basis.” “It has provided the industry with a tool that has made negotiations more transparent, and for many of us has made this complicated industry feel a little more manageable,” said Alley, who manages Barsotti’s Body & Fender, an OEM-certified shop in San Rafael, CA. “As a shop operator, I find this resource to be valuable beyond words. It has given me and my shop the confidence to say, ‘I know I’m not the only one.’” Yoswick accepted the award, noting that Anderson regretted that he couldn’t be there as well. “But he is out on the road doing what he does 300-plus days of the year, which is helping improve this industry,” Yoswick said. “Mike and his team at Collision Advice, and Chuck Cogan and I at CRASH Network, while we’re grateful to receive this, feel it’s actually the 3,237 shops that have taken at least one of the surveys over the three years … that are the ones who make possible what we have done with the surveys.”

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

with Ed Attanasio

Voyomotive Takes Telematics to Whole New Level Voyomotive, a 7-year-old company in San Francisco, has developed VOYO, a highly sophisticated telematics system that increases driving safety, convenience and fuel efficiency. VOYO connects your car to your phone to stream data to the Voyomotive Cloud and to the OBD-II port of any car that has been sold in the U.S. since 1996. In addition to the VOYO device, Voyomotive will release wireless relays later this year that can be used for additional security. Company CEO Peter Yorke has identified a wide range of advantages for VOYO, many of which will improve the referral and scheduling process for body shops. “The VOYO system can tell us about defective systems or worn parts so that they can be repaired before an accident occurs,” Yorke said. “We can determine when a vehicle’s systems are out of specified values,

such as low tire pressure. It can also determine if vehicle safety systems are not operating correctly, including ABS, traction control and stability control, all of which are vital to main-

Continued from Page 3

Speakers this year included Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham (San Luis Obispo), who discussed AB 1743 (O’Donnell), the Career Tech Education (CTE) Incentive Grants Bill; Betty Jo Toccoli, California Small Business Association; and Pat Dorais, Bureau of Automotive Repair. Cunningham discussed AB 1743 and the importance of CTE in California. “CTE programs like auto shop have the potential [to engage] students who may be otherwise disengaged and at risk of dropping out,” he said. “These programs provide hands-on learning and can lead to solid careers down the road, so we need to keep funding these programs and make them available to our young people. It’s important to the future of our workforce, and that’s why AB 1743 is so important. By providing $500 million annually to these programs, this is a vital bill and we need to support it in every way we can.”

ASCCA/CAA

this year in the Assembly Appropriations Committee,” CAA stated in a letter to Assembly member Burke, the bill’s author. “Although AB 2276 offers improvement over AB 1679, concerns are still present and the bill remains fundamentally flawed.” ASCCA/CAA Political Analyst Jack Molodanof always opens with a joke or humorous anecdote, but after that he’s all business. Coaching the members of ASCCA/CAA about how to approach their local representatives is always crucial, which is why Molodanof always sets down the rules first. By strategically scheduling appointments throughout the Capitol’s offices all day long, ASCCA/CAA members break into smaller groups to cover as much territory as possible and then hit the halls immediately after their morning briefing. AUTOBODY

taining vehicle control and avoiding collisions. In addition, with data analytics it will be possible to determine when key vehicle components, including brakes and tires, need to be inspected and/or replaced. VOYO

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can also use odometer values and other vehicle data such as remaining oil life to determine when service is due, which provides an opportunity for a wider vehicle inspection.” Yorke knows that his company is smack in the middle of a rapidly evolving industry and is happy to be announcing his company’s newest feature: VOYO with Scan Pro. It runs an advanced diagnostic on the vehicle once every minute and enables users to know what diagnostic codes were set just before and immediately after a collision. “The codes set by the collision will provide some indication as to the extent of vehicle damage, what type of roadside/towing service is required, and possibly which shop might be best suited for a specific

type of repair and parts needed,” Yorke said. “It will also give an insurance company a record to determine what type of repairs should be covered or not for collision-related reimbursement. The diagnostic data combined with odometer values and accelerometer data may also allow a determination for First Notice of Loss (FNOL) at the time of the collision. FNOL is the process by which an insurance company determines whether a car is a total write-off or should be repaired.” By monitoring every system within a vehicle, VOYO is covering all its bases and providing consumers, insurance companies, and mechanical and collision repair companies with more pertinent information than ever before. “We can look at things like tire pressure and changes in tire pressure, coolant temperature and battery health—things that are relevant to

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the operating condition of the vehicle and how they can tie into a repair and things such as first notice of loss,” Yorke said. “We can also then look at things such as driver behavior—has the vehicle been swerving, were the car’s doors open and were the passengers wearing their seat belts, in addition to the activation of safety systems. We’re also in discussions with mapping and navigation

trollers is made for the consumer market and utilizes Bluetooth low energy to connect to the Cloud via the driver’s cell phone,” Yorke said. “In addition, we have a line called Passport that is designed for commercial fleets [and] has a cellular modem embedded and does not require a cell phone.” Voyomotive also provides a plethora of useful data for its various applications.

companies that need more precise weather data, such as barometer, temperature and the usage of windshield wipers, and VOYO can make a car a rolling weather station. So, what you get is the ability to use multi-factorial data in order to reconstruct the operating condition of the vehicle, the conditions it was driving in and what the driver is doing at the time of a collision.” VOYO is penetrating several markets with its product offerings. “Our VOYO line of OBD con-

Yorke said, “Our partners can transfer data using our Web API on the backend, or an App API if they want to create their own application. That way, our data can appear in a body shop’s app, for example, so that they can control their customers’ user experience rather than going through our app.” With so many new vehicles coming out every year, Voyomotive has to be able to stay current and adapt quickly to car manufacturers’ rapid changes in design and functionality.

“The VOYO system can tell us about defective systems or worn parts so that they can be repaired before an accident occurs,” — Peter Yorke

“The core of our strategy is an ability to acquire various advanced data off of vehicles that rivals that of an OEM telematics system,” Yorke said. “We have a program where we reverse-engineer data off of vehicles in our R&D center near Ann Arbor to learn what data is available and how we can acquire it from that vehicle’s architecture. We then download our software to adapt the hardware to the architecture of that specific model. “Vehicle data is increasingly becoming central to the driving experience, and we are only now seeing how data can be used to create new services for drivers and owners that will impact the service business. With the advent of onboard telematics systems, OEMs intend to make themselves the central players to decide who gets access to the data, how it can be used and what it will cost. Service providers and collision shops need to keep abreast of both emerging technologies and changing policies in this rapidly developing field. The availability of VOYO will provide alternatives to an industry looking to connect to their customers.”

ASA Testifies on Repair Procedures Bill

On April 24, the RI House Committee on Corporations held a hearing on House Bill (HB) 8013. Certain provisions in the bill would not allow insurers to require “repair specifications or procedures” not in compliance with vehicle manufacturer recommendations. ASA submitted written testimony—in support of the OEM compliance requirements within HB 8013—that outlined the importance of adherence to OEM repair standards for the shop, as well as the consumer. “Vehicle manufacturers issue recommended repair procedures for a reason,” said Scott Benavidez, ASA Collision Division director and owner of Mr. B’s Paint & Body in Albuquerque, NM. “The use of materials such as highstrength steels, and the need to recalibrate modern electronic vehicle control systems, demand specific processes, tools and equipment in order to achieve a proper and safe repair. ASA Collision Operations Committee strongly supports the position outlined by House Bill 8013 to protect both the repairer and the consumer.”

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In Reverse with Gary Ledoux

Gary Ledoux is an industry veteran with 48 years’ experience in the automotive and OEM collision parts industry. His column appears exclusively in Autobody News. He can be reached at YesterWreck@yahoo.com

The 1940s – Part 1 - An End, a Beginning and a Birthday The 1940s marked the end of the Great Depression as America was thrust into WWII. It was a time of great uncertainty. Several years of global war would bring about cultural, economic, political and social change that had never before been seen in the U.S. and around the world—not the least of which would be dramatic changes in the American automotive industry in general and the collision repair industry in particular. In fact, many collision industry leaders and long-standing collision industry suppliers agree that the post-war period beginning in 1945 marked the birth of what we know today as the modern automotive collision repair industry. Interestingly, in December 1941, just before America’s entry into the war and in the face of lingering difficult economic times, new car produc-

tion hit a peak in the U.S. A financial analyst employed by State Farm insurance estimated there were 30,000,000 cars on America’s roads, and less than half carried adequate insurance. Subsequently, State Farm agents were selling record numbers of new auto insurance policies. Every week, records were broken. It seemed like there would be no end to the ravenous selling of auto insurance policies. And then all hell broke loose on a Sunday morning in Hawaii, on a U.S. Navy base that few Americans were aware of. The war years were marked by shortages of just about everything, including tires and gasoline. In 1942, civilian car production was curtailed so that factories could turn out war materials. Auto travel and just about everything associated with it were brought to a standstill. Car dealers had to sur-

vive on service and parts sales. Auto parts jobbers were selling fewer parts and less paint and body supplies, so some turned to other items to generate a profit, including lawn mowers and bicycles. Many companies now associated with the collision industry did their part to the war effort. DuPont, longknown for its superior gunpowder, contributed 4.5 billion pounds of explosives for the war effort. SherwinWilliams was ready to help the cause with a newly constructed $37 million facility and a workforce of 6,000. The company made more than 10 million ammunition shells, several million aerial bombs and anti-tank mines. The U.S. was building ships—which needed paint—and Sherwin-Williams was ready. More than 400,000 pounds of Sherwin-Williams paint was applied to the USS Iowa. The war accelerated

the development and production of special aviation and industrial coating that would later fit peacetime applications. More than 2,700 SherwinWilliams employees served in the US Armed Forces. Sadly, 25 never returned home. Industrial color designers who had spent the 1930s trying to figure out what color car would sell best were relegated to designing camouflage patterns. Despite the death of new automobiles and severe slump in vehicle miles traveled, automotive technology continued to plow forward. The decade of the ‘40s saw such automotive innovations as automatic transmissions, safety-rim wheels, two-speed electric windshield wipers, electro-hydraulic power windows and seats, disc brakes and some unit-body construction. Car design was influenced by aviation and

Continued from Page 44

shop and run it himself. And he knew he could do it; he had already turned two other shops around. And now it was his turn to help himself. Illg was able to purchase the shop from the then-current dealer. The original dealer, Stahl, showed him how to work with the banks, purchase the business and get back on an even keel financially. He was

the Lincoln-Mercury franchise. Stahl suggested simply calling it Dave Illg Collision Repair Center, noting, “The name Illg is different; people will remember it. In business, you want people to remember your name.” As soon as he started getting the shop back on its feet, he was able to get some of his former DRP agreements reinstated—insurance companies that had bailed when they saw the trouble the shop was in. He made arrangements with the local paint jobber, Towers Motor Parts, for an open line of credit as well as a Ford dealer in a neighboring city, as he worked on so many Ford products. On Feb. 3, 2010, Dave Illg Collision Repair Center opened for business as a “reborn” shop—a phoenix risen from the ashes of a financial meltdown. Illg now not only owns the business, but the property it sits on and some adjacent property for parking. Illg explained, “People tell me how brave I was going into business for myself. I laugh and tell them brave had nothing to do with it. I had no choice. My family was depending on me. The shop personnel were depending on me. I couldn’t let them

down. I just had to do it.” Those who have done it know that going into business for yourself is a big undertaking—not for the faint of heart. When asked what went “right” with the process, Illg replied, “I had a lot of support, both financial and emotional from a number of family members—my brother, my motherin-law and my wife all believed in me. I also had a lot of help from the original owner of the Lincoln-Mercury dealership, Dick Stahl. Not only is he a mentor, but he believed in what I could do with the business.” When asked what he might have done differently, Illg said, “I should have gone into business for myself a long time ago. I turned BIG&R around, and basically, there was no reward for it. I turned the Lincoln-Mercury shop around, and for my efforts, I took a financial beating. Now, this shop—my shop—feels right … for the right reasons.”

The Risen Phoenix

the spot. They had not been paid in months. But there were still cars in the shop and work to be done. Illg broke out his own credit card and started paying people himself and purchasing parts and supplies, not knowing exactly how he was going to be reimbursed, but hoping that it would all work out. Customers were depending on him, and his crew and their families were depending on him. He couldn’t let them all down. It didn’t take long for things to turn desperate. Vendors still weren’t getting paid. Illg had run his personal credit cards up to their limit. There was no longer any health insurance or 401K plan. The shop had essentially gone out of business—but nobody told the customers, who kept coming. And nobody told the body shop crew, who kept on working. It was time to take drastic action. The shop needed some strong leadership—immediately. Illg knew he had no choice. He had to buy the

even able to purchase all the shop’s fairly new leased equipment for virtually pennies on the dollar. Illg was never reimbursed for all the purchases made on his personal credit cards but eventually, he was able to pay those off as well. The shop needed a new name, as it was no longer associated with

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

See The 1940s, Page 59

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autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

Oldest Body Shops in America: Sirl’s Automotive by Gary Ledoux

From November 2017 to February 2018, Autobody News ran an ad looking for the oldest continuously operated body shops in America.

Sirl’s Automotive is documented as being the third-oldest towing company in the United States

The oldest was George V. Arth and Son in Oakland, CA, founded in 1877 and still going strong. However, we received information from a number of other long-running businesses, several of which will be featured in this column over the next few months. Sirl’s Automotive It was 1914. Ford Motor Company initiated the eight-hour work day. A worker on Ford’s assembly line made

other “side lines” of work. In one season in 1939, he built 80 to 100 trailer hitches. His fame at this type of manufacturing spread over northern Ohio. Eventually, Ralph’s son, Dale, also joined in the family business and has been the owner since the mid-1960s. While running the business, Sirl’s Automotive is currently a full mechanical and Dale was also a vocational collision repair shop, along with 24-hour towing service. Sirl’s Automotive has ranked on the Towman automotive school teacher for 500 “Most Experienced Towmen in America.” Valley Forge High School, in Parma, OH. Some of his stuLike other blacksmiths of dents are still working for Dale in the his time, he could see that body shop, mechanical and towing dechange was coming. He partment. Dale is the third-generation owner. knew automobiles would be the next wave of personal Dale’s sons, Dale Jr. and Gary, are curtransportation, and he could rently working at the business, looking see that the blacksmith trade at taking over as the fourth-generation was disappearing. He knew to own Sirl’s. Sirl’s Automotive is documented he had to turn to repairing automobiles. Michael’s son, as being the third-oldest towing comRalph, joined him in the pany in the United States. Sirl’s Automotive is currently a auto repair business. At one point, Michael de- full mechanical and collision repair cided to build trailer hitches shop, along with 24-hour towing servfor the new motorized vehi- ice. Sirl’s Automotive has ranked on Dale is the third-generation owner. Dale’s sons, Dale Jr. cles. It was not uncommon the Towman 500 “Most Experienced and Gary, are currently working at the business, looking at taking over as the fourth-generation to own Sirl’s for service garages to have Towmen in America.”

a minimum of $5 per day—good wages and hours in those times. Babe Ruth made his debut with the Boston Red Sox and WWI was under way in Europe. On August 14, 1914, Michael Sirl started Sirl Automotive at 7541 York Rd., Parma, OH. Like many “transportation businesses” at that time, Sirl’s started out as a blacksmith shop shoeing horses and mending farm equipment. Before long, “horseless carriages” started appearing on Ohio’s muddy roads. Michael became curious and bought one.

Pentagon Aims to Develop Self-Driving Vehicles for Battlefield by Mark Prigg, Daily Mail

The Pentagon claims it will beat carmakers to produce widely used self-driving vehicles. “We’re going to have self-driving vehicles in theater for the Army before we’ll have self-driving cars on the streets,” Michael Griffin, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, told the House Armed Services Committee members on April 18. “But the core technologies will be the same.” It comes amid a race between Waymo, Uber, Tesla and others to get self-driving cars on roads around the world. However, the Pentagon is targeting the battlefield for its self-driving vehicles. Griffin claimed 52 percent of casualties in combat zones can be attributed to military personnel delivering food, fuel and other logistics. “You’re in a very vulnerable position when you’re doing that kind of activity,” Griffin said. “If that can be done by an automated unmanned vehicle with a relatively 56

simple AI driving algorithm where I don’t have to worry about pedestrians and road signs and all of that, why wouldn’t I do that?” The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which Griffin oversees, has been funding research into self-driving cars for years and sponsored its first competition for the vehicles in 2004. More than 3,000 Google employees have penned an open letter calling upon the internet giant’s CEO to end its controversial “Project Maven” deal. Calling the deal “business of war,” they said Google boss Sundar Pichai should “cancel this project immediately.” It was revealed in April that Google is allowing the Pentagon to use some of its artificial intelligence technologies to analyze drone footage. Google employees were reportedly outraged by the project from the beginning, but took their opposition a step further by publishing the open letter. We thank Daily Mail for reprint permission.

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

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autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

ACA Releases 2018 Collision Trends Report

The Auto Care Association recently announced the release of its new report, “Collision Repair Trends: Industry Statistics and Analysis,” which delves into the latest data on the collision repair industry. The report aggregates industry sources available from government entities, independent research supplier databases and the Auto Care Association’s internal research. The 2018 Collision Repair Trends report provides in-depth insight into the U.S. collision repair sector of the auto care industry, including the paint, body and equipment (PBE) industry, and also provides an overview of key industry trends in Canada. According to new data, Americans drove a combined 3.2 trillion miles over the last recorded 12-month period, which resulted in $45.8 billion in collision repair-related sales and services— representing nearly one in every five dollars spent in the automotive aftermarket (16.5 percent). The 54-page report is $225 for Auto Care Association members and $450 for non-members. Contact: publications@autocare.org.

ARA’s 2018 Hill Days and State Legislative Summit Is Most Successful Yet! Members of the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) from around the United States gathered in Washington, DC on April 9 and 10 to participate in the association’s annual Hill Days and State Legislative Summit.

automakers to provide OEM parts data for recalled parts,” he said. “The Congressional feedback from the ARA member visits has been astounding, and ARA staff has already met with numerous Congressional offices to follow up on the issue. We have several more meetings scheduled for the coming weeks.”

ARA President David Gold called this year’s event “one of the most informative and productive Washington D.C. events yet.” “Recyclers from nearly two dozen states participated in over 60 Congressional appointments to ask their federal representatives for assistance in putting pressure on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to implement a 2015 federal law requiring

During the 11th Annual ARA State Legislative Summit, ARA members focused on in-depth state legislative activity that impacts the professional automotive recycling industry. As usual during this event, ARA members gathered to identify and prioritize legislative issues, share strategies and experience and enhance ARA’s grassroots advocacy. Norman Wright, Chair of ARA’s Governmental Affairs Committee,

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

led the day’s program. It began with a roundtable discussion that included updates from more than 20 states and topics that included state association lobby days, storm water fees, environmental regulations, used tire legislation, de-titling bills, taxation and counterfeit airbags. ARA Director of State Government and Grassroots Affairs Jessica Andrews shared, “Attendees spent additional time focusing on the impact that OEM repair procedures are having and will have on the recycled parts market, relationships with environmental groups, electronic reporting and the continuing problem of illegal dismantlers. The success of the state of California’s government-backed task force on illegal dismantling was reviewed and is a great example to other states. During this same time, a delegation of Canadian recyclers visited the Canadian embassy along with ARA staff to discuss a variety of issues impacting recyclers on both sides of the border.” ARA will hold its 75th Annual Convention and Expo on November 1–3, 2018 in Orlando, FL. For more information on the association, visit www.a-r-a.org.

ACA Testifies Before U.S. Trade Representative on Section 301 China Tariffs

U.S. as there are no U.S.-based factories producing some of these products,” said Lowe. “At the same time, minimal alternative sources exist, as China is the primary supplier to the world.” Earlier this week, the Auto Care Association submitted comments to USTR regarding the impact of the proposed Section 301 actions on the automotive aftermarket industry. As outlined in the comments and a recent multi-industry letter, of which the association was a signatory, the association and its members believe that the imposition of tariffs will disrupt complex global supply chains “that cannot be shifted to different countries or facilities without compromising contracts, compliance, quality and value for the consumer.” The Auto Care Association urges the Trump administration to continue engaging in dialogue with China to construct a fair and enforceable bilateral trading system that will level the playing field and protect U.S. companies doing business in China.

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

All The Genuine Lexus Parts You Need For A Lexus Finish i

On May 15, the Auto Care Association’s Senior Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs Aaron Lowe testified before the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on the anticipated negative effects of the Trump administration’s Section 301 tariffs on automotive parts and components imported from China. The tariffs are part of a proposed action by the administration to address unfair acts, policies and practices by China that are related to technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation. The Auto Care Association supports the administration’s efforts to address China’s unfair trade policies but cautions the administration to evaluate the potential economic harm and unintended consequences as the imposition of additional tariffs could raise prices for U.S. consumers and cause U.S. companies to be less competitive in the U.S. and in global markets. “Our members report that a number of products included on the tariff list cannot be sourced in the

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Continued from Page 54

The 1940s

the air war over Europe and the Pacific theater. The once-boxy auto design was becoming sleeker and more stylish—adding new challenges to their repair. Way before the 2015 Ford F150 truck was introduced with a “high strength, military-grade, aluminumalloy” body, the Boeing Aircraft Company designed an automobile slated for post-war production in 1943. Its design, not surprisingly, was heavily influenced by aircraft design, with a 75HP rear engine and an all-aluminum body. It never reached production, but its development underscores the fact that using something other than steel for car bodies is not an entirely new idea. In fact, Ford introduced the first “plastic” car in 1941. The “plastic” was 70 percent cellulose derived from hemp, sisal and wheat straw with a resin binder made from soybeans, wheat, cotton and a few other “proprietary” materials. The car material was supposedly lighter than steel and could withstand 10 times the impact. (This

sounds like today’s high strength steel!) Henry Ford was truly a man ahead of his time. The 1940s also saw improvement in automotive refinish technology. Paint booth fires in the 1930s led to improved paint booths of the 1940s being made of cement blocks or metal—non-flammable materials. Lights were also placed in housings to keep them out of the path of atomized paint. Doors were put on the front of the booth to create a drive-in structure and keep overspray from permeating the shop and every other car in the shop. The first modern spray booths were born. The 1940s also saw the introduction of better overspray, capturing media filters made with treated paper. This also marked the natal beginnings of specialty auto body repair tools, metallic paints, improvements in custom paint mixing and production at the shop and jobber level and early estimating guides, which included parts. Perhaps most important to the coalescence of the collision repair industry was the early formation of the auto body and auto repair associations and the early newsletters that they

sent out to their members during the 1940s. Some of these led to the development of today’s trade magazines. In 1940, the Independent Garage Owners of California became one of the earliest associations dedicated to the independent garage owner. The organization catered to both mechanical and collision shops. At the time, the line between these two very different businesses was still quite blurred, but would soon be better defined. On Oct. 3, 1945, civilian car production resumed with new designs and new technology. Car makers worked frantically to keep pace with new demand. Multi-car families soon became commonplace, adding to the aggregate miles traveled and commensurate accidents. Body shops and auto repair businesses were sprouting up on every corner. Hundreds of thousands of GIs were returning from the war. Some returned to their prior jobs. But many, having joined the service right out of high school, were looking for work. With the influx of new cars and increased availability of gasoline and tires, and given the rather crude state of automotive technology and ease of repair, many ex-GIs went into the mechanical or body repair business. The U.S. government even helped by providing “How-To” books on starting a car repair business. There was nothing about an early (and for several years later) body shop

that could be called “professional.” Technicians were untrained (except possibly those who were trained to repair military vehicles during the war), the shops were a mess, there were no standards on how to repair the cars, no standards on how to estimate the damage and nobody catered to the customer. There was very little overhead at the time. Not having to pay for estimators, office staff, tooling, equipment, computer program subscriptions, etc. led to high net profits. One might compare it to the “Wild West” days of the collision industry. Shop owners made up the business rules as they went along. The shop owner provided repair estimates---sometimes verbally, sometimes on a piece of scrap paper. The collision industry, in its formative years, had no business model to pattern itself after, so everyone bumbled along as best they could. Fortunately, the 1940s was also the time when collision industry leaders began to emerge. Between them, a few collision industry associations and some industry periodicals—which were quite localized at first, and then went regional and then national—the industry finally began to form and take shape. The war in Europe ended in May 1945. On August 14, 1945, hostilities in the Pacific theater ceased and the war was over. So it is safe to say that the modern collision repair industry was born in the summer of 1945.

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A young man who bought a pickup truck in Houston is now warning buyers to follow the advice of the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) before closing a deal on a used vehicle. Kenton Basinger shelled out $14,000 for a 2012 Chevy Silverado that normally would sell for about $18,000. But the good deal he thought he was getting quickly turned into a nightmare when he realized he had purchased a pickup that had been flooded. The NICB was contacted by the investigative reporter at KPRCTV in Houston after the victim went to them for help. NICB determined the pickup was originally in Florida and appears to have been up for sale at a dealer there when Hurricane Irma hit the state with devastating winds and rain. The pickup was not insured at the time and no claim for flood damage was ever made. So the vehicle did not have a salvage title and did

not appear in the VINCheck® database that consumers can go to to see if an insured vehicle was given a salvage title. Instead, the truck eventually ended up in Texas where it was sold at an auction with a clean title. Basinger purchased the truck from the dealership that had bought it from the auction. Basinger began to notice problems within days of buying the vehicle. The engine light came on and the power windows stopped working. He took it to a mechanic who said it looked like the truck had been flooded. NICB and the TV news crew were on hand to have it inspected by a trusted mechanic who found numerous signs of flood damage, including possible damage to the electronics that set off the airbags during a crash. Basinger advised consumers to follow NICB’s advice and leave it to a professional to examine the vehicle before you buy.

autobodynews.com / JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS

ABPA Annual Meeting & Convention Exceeds Expectations by Chasidy Rae Sisk

On April 24–27, the Automotive Body Parts Association (ABPA) hosted its 2018 Annual Meeting and Convention at the Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa in San Diego, CA. According to Edward T. Salamy, executive director of ABPA, “The event went extremely well and exceeded our

expectations. Attendance was at an alltime high and we set a record with corporate sponsorship. The annual ABPA convention is a gathering of aftermarket collision part distributors, manufacturers, insurers and other industry partners. “Our members lead busy lives running their businesses and have little time to travel to related industry events where they may or may not be able to meet. The ABPA convention is important for our members as it is

the perfect opportunity for them to meet with the leaders of their industry as well as make new business connections. In short, if you are a distributor or manufacturer of aftermarket collision parts, you need to be at this event. “In addition to being our best annual convention in years, the ABPA is proud to have partnered with the National Auto Body Council (NABC) in once again participating in their Recycled Rides program. This was the second time that the ABPA has done this, and once again, the event did not disappoint. A disabled Marine veteran was the recipient of this year’s vehicle, a 2016 Sentra. ABPA members such as Quality Plus Automotive in San Diego and LKQ donated parts to the cause.” Tuesday featured a Board of Directors meeting and Open Reception with a golf tournament, cocktail reception, tradeshow and reception dinner. In addition to a keynote by Steve Fodor of Customs Services & Solutions Inc. on “The Ever-Changing World of Importing into the USA,” Thursday and Friday both offered many educational seminars for attendees to choose from, presented by

WAC Takes Shape at April Meeting by Chasidy Rae Sisk

Women in Automotive and Collision (WAC) members gathered in the NHRA Suites at Gateway Motorsports on April 17 for their monthly meeting with dinner, sponsored by ABRA. WAC Vice President Jess Crump said, “The monthly meeting was held in order to give officers reports, discuss

Women in Automotive and Collision (WAC) members pose in front of the NHRA Suites at the starting line of the drag strip at Gateway Motorsports on April 17 for their monthly meeting with dinner, sponsored by ABRA

details of upcoming events and projects, and share leads for new members and sponsorship. I think we had a fantastic turnout, and attendees really en60

joyed hearing the progress we have made thus far.” WAC’s newest officer, Sponsor Coordinator Sheena Wagner, shared that she has elicited over $1,000 in donations from companies eager to support the association’s efforts. WAC President Shelly Jones added, “Another surprise that Sheena and Jess brought to the meeting was a WAC welding helmet that Sheena personally assisted in painting. This will be a great conversation starter when talking with young people about jobs in the industry.” “The meeting went great. The organization is really starting to take shape, and we are so excited to start talking to young people about the automotive industry,” Crump stated. “It definitely seems like we are gaining some more members and interest in the St. Louis area.” Sarah Young of Original One Parts, who attended as a guest, decided to join the association during the meeting. Within a day, she designed a career information sheet for WAC members to hand out at industry events. The fact sheet covers career options, training paths and potential wages. It is designed to attract young people to the

JUNE 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com

companies such as LKQ, NSF, Intertek, Car-Part.com and PartsTrader. “The response from attendees was overwhelmingly positive. In addition, initial results from the attendee survey are coming in with a 35 percent response rate as of this morning. One question we ask is if they felt the ABPA meeting was a valuable experience, and all respondents have answered ‘yes.’ This is something we take pride in as we try to not only offer our attendees many educational topics, but we also incorporate a fun social atmosphere,” Salamy noted. “The event exceeded our expectations with a higher than expected attendance rate and record sponsorship. At the last minute, we had to raise meal counts with the hotel and add tables to our ballroom meeting space. This is a problem that we do not mind having.” The ABPA represents the interests of the aftermarket collision parts distributors and manufacturers, primarily in the United States and Canada. The site for the association’s Annual Meeting and Convention is chosen by the ABPA Convention Committee, which is led by association Chair Kim Hicks and ABPA President Dolores

automotive industry in accordance with WAC’s mission statement. Jones noted, “I’m impressed with all of our members. They all lend their expertise to the group. Although this is a women-led group it’s not just for women. In fact, we have a few

Wagner and Crump presented a WAC welding helmet for the association to use during events to attract young people to talk about industry jobs

men that haven’t missed a meeting.” WAC plans to meet on the third Tuesday of each month at various locations. The next meeting will be held on May 15 at Gateway Motorsports. For more information on WAC, visit its Facebook group.

Richardson. Richardson shared, “This being a male-dominated industry, Kim and I are humbled to have been voted by our board to serve as Chairman and President during the past year. We worked with Ed for our 2018 conference and will continue for 2019. Since his debut in this position, he has done a tremendous job increasing membership and sponsorship.” ABPA’s 2019 Annual Meeting and Convention will be held April 30–May 3, 2019, at the Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort in FL. Salamy added, “After we made the announcement in San Diego, the ABPA members seemed extremely pleased with the selection, and there is already interest raised from sponsors.” For more information on ABPA, visit autobpa.com.

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Free Auto Data Labels

Auto Data Labels has announced it will continue to supply vehicle replacement labels (VIN labels, tire, emission and under-hood labels) free of charge to collision repair training programs at schools across the United States and Canada. Offering this service recognizes the important role students in these programs play in the future of the industry, as well as the importance of bringing the vehicles students work on back to factory specifications with these labels. The students in these programs are being educated on the importance of the safety data on such labels, which often indicate federal emissions information, vehicle production date, recommended tire pressure, towing weight, paint codes, seating capacity and wheel base specifications. In some cases, the lack of availability of replacement labels, or the cost of such labels, can be a challenge for schools, giving them no choice but not to install the labels. Now Auto Data Labels is ensuring they can. Instructors can orders labels at schools@autodatalabels.com

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