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Former State Farm Claims Rep, Steve Plier, Now Consultant, Talks ‘PartsTrader’
earlier this month. Plier worked for State Farm for more than 22 years, starting out in 1987 as a property damage claim representative handling auto claims, and in 1993, he moved into a supervisory position where he spent the last 13 years of his State Farm career as an estimatics team manager. Today, Steve Plier is president of Consumer Auto Repair Excellence, Inc. (CARE).
Autobody News asked former State Farm Estimatics Team Manager Steve Plier about his thoughts on PartsTrader
ABN: Why did you quit State Farm? Plier: I resigned my position at State Farm because my responsibilities were being defined as ‘manage in a
VOL. 3 ISSUE 9 NOVEMBER 2012
NACE 2012 in New Orleans
Dick Cross, keynote speaker at the opening session, demonstrates the pyramid top of the organization. See story p. 36.
A New Orleans-style National Anthem kicked off the keynote address. New Orleans appears to have recovered its pre-Katrina spirit.
CARS chair Bill Moss (l) and NACE chair, Ron Nagy, address the opening session.
Mike Dolabi (l) of National Autobody Parts Warehouse and Terry Fortner of LKQ on the Parts Panel discussion.
Attendance was down on the show floor but some booths attracted record business.
ALLDATA’s Dan Espersen imparts his 37 plus years of experience in “OEM Best Practices.”
AEII’s Tony Passwater presented on designing and implementing a complete repair plan.
The Autobody News staff doing its part to cover the industry.
See Steve Plier, Page 12
George Avery Spoke on PartsTrader to GCIA Sept. 20: Parts Margins “Not Guaranteed to Remain” As Are
session at the end. Many of the attendees wanted to know how this benefits the shops. There [was concern about] additional administrative duties for both the suppliers and the shops.” Avery also talked about some of the enhancements State Farm has created since the pilot began. “The estimating systems have created an interface that will update the prices on the estimate. They have also cut the time to respond from two hours down to 30 minutes. Several shops from Alabama also attended and said that PartsTrader needed to work out some of the bugs See Avery to GCIA, Page 46
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The Georgia Collision Industry Association met on Sept. 20 and hosted guest speaker George Avery, State Farm’s claims consultant. Avery gave information about the PartsTrader parts procurement pilot program to a crowd of approximately 130, some of whom had traveled to the meeting from Birmingham, AL, one of the test markets. “Mr. Avery gave an overview of the PartsTrader program and why they started the pilot program,” said GCIA Executive Director Howard Batchelor. “He said that they spend roughly $3 billion a year on parts and needed a way to control the cost. The meeting was mainly subdued until the Q&A
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