Prairie view vehicles. However, any ideas that our industry suggests to make the repair and administration process simpler falls on deaf ears. Refer to point one—“these are our procedures and policies.” 2b: either of two persons who dance together. This one is definitely yes. Every day that I go to work with SGI in this industry seems to be a dance somewhat like a polka gone bad. We need to be constantly vigilant to see that we get paid for each and every procedure that we do (with our labour rate there is no room for error) and it seems that even though we all follow the same procedures and policies, no two SGI offices follow them the same way! 2c: one of two or more persons who play together in a game against an opposing side. Let’s assume the opposing side in this case is waste. In an age where lean thinking is standard procedure for
collision shops it seems government insurance has a different standard. 2d: a person with whom one shares an intimate relationship: one member of a
have the other’s best interests in mind. To be fair, I’m sure we have shops that don’t have the insurance company’s best interests in mind, but do they have to
Every day I go to work in this industry seems to be a dance couple. From an industry standpoint we would love to have an open, respectful, honest, two-way communication relationship rather than one where we have no choice but to submit to the demands of our insurance “partner.” 3: a member of a partnership especially in a business; also: membership. When two entities do business together on an ongoing basis in the “real world” my experience has been that both sides
treat us all like we are not to be trusted? I look forward to the day when we can all truly call the insurance companies our “partner.” Until then, I will have to refer to them as my client and hope that our relationship improves in the future. CRM
Tom Bissonnette is the owner/operator of Parr Auto Body, a collision repair facility located in Saskatoon, SK. He can be reached at tom@parrautobody.com.
Assured Automotive ENOUGH TO BE PROPERLY TRAINED D&E EQUIPPED
Cares “
NOT BECAUSE WE HAVE TO, BUT BECAUSE WE WANT TO.
TRAINING IS ESSENTIAL IN TODAY’S INDUSTRY
”
Assured Automotive honours Attilio Giancola (“Tony G”) for his commitment to the collision repair industry. Attilio was recently awarded the “Assured Automotive Lifetime Achievement Award.” As the first ever recipient of this award Attilio’s contribution and dedication to; and promotion of the collision repair industry is unequalled. Attilio is one of the founding partners of Oaktown Collision (now Assured Automotive) and his sphere of influence and inspiration has proven invaluable to Assured over the years. From today forward this Prestigious Award will be known as the “Attilio Giancola Lifetime Achievement Award”. Thank you for everything “Tony G” – Assured Automotive.
D URE ASSNORED HO
Lifetime Achievement Award
Left to right: Des D’Silva, Keith D’Silva, Attilio Giancola, Tony Canade, Tony Raposo and Rodney D’Silva.
march 2010 collision Repair 23