From the Desk of Mike Anderson with Mike Anderson
Mike Anderson is the president and owner of Collision Advice, a consulting company for the auto body/collision repair industry. For nearly 25 years, he was the owner of Wagonwork Collision Center, an OEM-certified, full-service auto body repair facility in Alexandria, VA.
A Reasonable Price for a Vehicle Scan Depends on What You’re Including I get asked quite regularly by both shops and insurers, “What is a reasonable charge for a vehicle scan?” Our “Who Pays for What?” surveys have found there’s not much consistency for what collision repair-
house charge a flat fee. Just over 40 percent charge up to one labor hour at a mechanical labor rate. But the remaining 35 percent of shops conducting scanning in-house were all over the map. There was similar variety in
Up to one hour of mechanical labor is the single most common charge among shops for conducting a vehicle scan in-house, according to a 2018 “Who Pays for What?” survey, but almost 70 percent of the industry uses a different pricing methodology
whether and how shops bill for their labor—such as hooking up the vehicle—when they use a remote scan-
ers charge. In 2018, of about 1,000 shops responding to the survey, about 1 in 4 of those who perform scans in-
ning service. So whenever I get asked, “What’s a fair and reasonable charge for scanning?” I just say it depends on what steps you’re including as part of that charge. I’ve been asking people in my classes to write down all the steps involved in scanning. Only a handful of people are able to list all the steps. Think about it:
labor time included or do you lineitem it separately?
• You have to gain access to the vehicle battery. Depending on where
• You may have to allow the vehicle to get to operating temperature. This might not often be an issue in Southern California or other warm
the battery is located in the vehicle— under the hood, under a seat, in the trunk—you may have to remove trim or other items. Is that additional
climates. But if you’ve pulled the vehicle in from outside during the dead of winter, in many parts of the country it may take some time to get that
• You need to access the battery because you have to hook up battery support in order to ensure you have the proper voltage to perform the scan.
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