Looking Ahead
For owners like Kayce Smith, setting up their shop for the future is now part of the day-to-day.
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BY TIFFANY MENEFEE
Todd
Hanna
Bubser Digital ReporterLeah Marxhausen Special Projects Editor
Jason Boggs Contributing Writer
Lindsey Gainer Contributing Writer
Tiffany Menefee Contributing Writer
Kevin Rains Contributing Writer
Kimanzi Constable Contributing Writer
Jordan Beshears Steve’s Auto Body
Sheryl Driggers Universal Collision
Greg Lobsiger Loren’s Body Shop
John Magowan Ernie’s Auto Body
Stan Medina Certified Collision Works
Zach Pate Creative Services Director
Jonathan Ricketts Art Director Mitch Bradford Art Director
Chris Messer Vice President and Publisher 651.846.9462 / cmesser@endeavorb2b.com
Andrew Johnson Associate Publisher 651.846.9459 / ajohnson@endeavorb2b.com
Marianne Dyal Marketing Strategist (National Accounts) 706.344.1388 / mdyal@endeavorb2b.com
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Kenzie Verschoor
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For high-quality reprints or e-prints of articles in this issue call 651.846.9488 or email reprints@fenderbender.com. Opinions expressed in FenderBender are not necessarily those of Endeavor Business Media, and Endeavor Business Media does not accept responsibility for advertising content.
“The
THE THIRD-ANNUAL HOOD MASTER CHALLENGE and the second-annual PiN Master Challenge both took place on October 7 at the Alexander Hotel in Indianapolis.
According to a press release, around 250 guests were in attendance for the event, which was executed by the FinishMaster Team. There were 70 hoods and 38 pins on display, as well 13 winning hoods from previous challenges.
The event included a presentation for kids by FinishMaster’s Mike Cohen and Darold Moore about taping on micro-mini hoods and a virtual spray booth experience for everyone to
engage with by Sagola, an Elcometer Company. FinishMaster hosted a fundraiser at the event, and all proceeds went to the Collision Repair Education Foundation. A record-breaking total of $13,000 was raised through fundraising before and during the event.
The Hood Master Challenge displays painted mini car hoods that are painted by industry painters and refinishers. The PiN Master Challenge involves school and college-age collision repair students entering repaired retired bowling pins for the chance to win industry-related prizes aimed at helping them prepare for automotive careers.
AS EDITOR OF FENDERBENDER I’VE HAD the privilege now of being inside many body shops. It’s a part of the job I enjoy and am always very appreciative of the hospi tality of shop owners taking some time to show me around. But there was one body shop I very much did not want to enter: The one I needed.
Yes, it’s true: After a life blissfully free of accidents, my luck ran out earlier this fall. There’s a certain cosmic irony in me only being in a car accident after becoming editor of a collision repair magazine, but I digress. It didn’t really matter in that mo ment what I did or did not know about the industry, I was just like any of your regular customers needing some help.
The most important thing was the no body was hurt. Secondary to that I was also fortunate to have an insurance company that was helpful and courteous. And then I found a shop that was friendly, communi cative, and best of all, did quality work.
We talk a lot in FenderBender in the ab stract, about what to do if this/or that. But I got to see it in action. Customers who need a body shop have been through what is a jar ring and truly unnerving experience. Sim ply someone who answers the phone with the sound of a smile and gives you the confi dence that they’ll take care of it can feel like the greatest thing in the world.
Your editor’s personal drama aside, there is plenty in this month’s issue to help keep you running those helpful, re liable businesses. This month’s feature story (p. 24) is all about tech and tools,
and how owners today stay on the cutting edge. There’s also tips on how to make sure your shop is getting every dime owed to it (p. 34) and how shop managers can fill a crucial role for both employees and customers (p. 40).
Thanks for doing all that you do for cus tomers just like me.
TODD KORTEMEIEREDITOR tkortemeier@endeavorb2b.com
The Maaco Fleet Solutions Center model highlights an avenue of opportunity within the ever-growing customer base of vehicle fleet repair.
By HANNA BUBSER
WHEN YOU SEND a postcard in the mail, or click “checkout” while shop ping online, the journey from your fingertips to that object’s destination has only just begun. It doesn’t mat ter if that postcard is going across the country or that online order is going straight to your doorstep. They both
have something major in common: Transportation.
Fleet vehicles are responsible for a va riety of important measures that people rely on every single day. From the mail truck to package delivery and more, many business models are contingent on the existence of these vehicles.
The team at Freedom Brands, LLC is reliant on fleet vehicles as well. That’s because their franchise portfolio in cludes a Maaco Fleet Solutions Center in Phoenix that caters specifically to ve hicle fleet repair.
Co-presidents Jake Brown, Gene Boiseau and Jake Morrow each have a different segment focus at Freedom Brands. Morrow oversees the group’s four Meineke locations, Boiseau tackles ad ministrative duties and Brown oversees the three Maaco franchises, including the fleet service center.
“Going into the fleet model was com plete luck of the draw,” Brown says. “We found this site that was a resale from a pre vious franchisee of Maaco.”
There are several other states that carry Maaco Fleet Solutions Centers, in cluding Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, Georgia, New Jersey, Michigan and there are three in Illinois. Freedom Brands opened the Phoenix Maaco Fleet Solu tions center in July 2020, after which they went on to open the Meineke loca tions and Maaco retail locations. The copresidents have a background in logis tics, which Brown says lends itself well to the fleet service model.
“[We] fell into it not knowing exactly what we were getting into. Once we fig ured out it was the fleet center, we in a sense fell in love with it just because we are from the fleet side of things, being in logistics,” Brown says. “It was something that fit our background perfectly.”
That logistical mindset is something Chris Porcelli, senior vice president of strategy and franchise administration at Maaco, sees as an advantage for these fleet services.
“As long as you have that production mentality, it’s a great piece of the overall Maaco business,” Porcelli says.
Recognize the Distinction Porcelli explains that the actual business structure of a Maaco Fleet
Solutions Center isn’t drastically dif ferent from that of a retail center. But there are some important distinctions to keep in mind.
“The structure of the business itself doesn’t really change,” Porcelli says. “It’s really just a different customer that we’re servicing.”
Another key element is staffing. The Freedom Brands retail locations have about eight and 10 employees, while the fleet center has about 16 to 18.
This includes what the group de scribes as an intricate mix of team mem bers: preppers, maskers, painters that handle oversized vehicles, porters that drive vehicles back and forth from their locations, detailers and estimators.
“The majority of our vehicles that come in aren’t scuff and shoots like our retail centers,” Brown says. “These are the Hertz, the rental car businesses, the Amazon, the USPS … the larger logistics vehicles of the world that have damages [and] need to upkeep a good view and im age for their company.”
The larger staff is a useful compo nent of the fleet service model, seeing as the turnaround time is expected to be much quicker than it would be at a retail center.
“The tradeoff is that we have that guaranteed business, and there’s as much business as we can handle,” Boi seau says. “If we tell them we’ll take 20 vehicles they’ll say, ‘How about 40?’ It’s unlimited vehicles, it’s just how fast we can get that stuff through right now.”
Supply chain disruptions and parts shortages can factor into the turn around time as well by having the po tential to add extra time onto a job. Morrow says that situations such as this can present a unique challenge for fleet repair services.
“It is very difficult to explain to a business owner, who makes money off a vehicle being on the road, that we are short on parts or short on staff or short on paint or materials … whatever the case may be,” Morrow says.
Brown says the goal for their fleet service is about 40 vehicles a week. But it’s worth noting that the customer base for fleet services looks a little different than a retail one.
“Instead of going out and finding 40 different retail customers, we deal with five different customers that can get us to that unit amount each week,” Brown says. “Obviously, there is a downside to that. If you lose one customer, you lose 10 to 15 units per week. There’s pros and cons to each side.”
In terms of fleet, Porcelli has seen customers that range from rental car companies to local fleets such as mu nicipalities, local government, police departments and more.
“On the local fleet level, that’s where we encourage our franchisees to just be a part of the community,” Porcelli says. “If they’re sponsoring local little leagues or they’re just out in the com munity … things of that nature. The name gets out there.”
“THE STRUCTURE OF THE BUSINESS ITSELF DOESN’T REALLY CHANGE. IT’S REALLY JUST A DIFFERENT CUSTOMER THAT WE’RE SERVICING.”
—Chris Porcelli, Maaco senior vice president of strategy and franchise administration
On a national level, Porcelli explains that Maaco has a dedicated team within their parent company of Driven Brands that seeks out business for their franchi sees. Porcelli says they vet every poten tial partnership for profitability for the franchisee, and then they reach out to different franchisees to gauge interest in participating in those national part nerships. Porcelli also says that Maaco vendors such as Sherwin-Williams, Ax alta and PPG help reel in some of those national customers as well.
Looking ahead, Brown says the amount of fleet service does not seem likely to slow down anytime soon.
“There are unlimited amounts of ve hicles. There’s always going to be logistics around, [and] there’s always going to be
deliveries,” Brown says. “It’s only growing from here. These vehicles are on the road seven days a week, so damage is bound to happen … it’s never-ending work for us.”
Porcelli agrees with the continued po tential for growth. It’s a good thing, too, because Porcelli says the interest in Maaco Fleet Solutions Centers is apparent.
“We have a ton of interest from folks. More importantly, it’s about finding the right owner in the right location,” Por celli says. “Ultimately, we rely on data to decide where it makes sense to put a loca tion that is dedicated to fleet based on re lationships that we have and the available business that’s there.”
Porcelli encourages anyone who is interested in learning more about the Maaco Fleet Solutions center model to visit maacofranchise.com and reach out to discuss opportunities.
“We absolutely love, and it’s one of my favorite parts of my job, talking to poten tial franchisees and just showing them all of the value and benefits of becoming a Maaco,” Porcelli says.
The group at Freedom Brands has found success with this fleet model. It has taken dedication, hard work and an understanding of the customer. For Brown, it’s all been worth it, and he’s looking forward to the future.
“We are finally to the point where we are making it work. We figured out that special potion to make us move on a daily basis … this shop has been one of our biggest successes, and it’s only go ing to grow,” Brown says. “I believe, out of our three Maaco shops, this should be the number one shop, and should push to the top of the state just with the amount of fleet work we can have.”
NEVER: 26%
YEARLY: 5%
NUMBERS QUARTERLY: 9%
B y TODD KORTEMEIER Photos by TODD KORTEMEIER
IN EARLY NOVEMBER, FenderBender joined with more than 100,000 professionals from across all segments of the automotive industry in Las Vegas at the 2022 SEMA Show. Among the countless exhibitors on display were the latest tools, technology and processes from the collision repair industry. Here’s a look at just a few of the sights from around SEMA.
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1.THE HUNTER BOOTH displayed the company’s latest in alignment and cali bration technologies.
The experience at Windermere Collision Center in Winter Garden, Florida, starts as soon as the customer pulls up under the shop’s massive awning, spanning the length of the building. Frequently lined up outside are representations of the latest in automotive technology. There’s Tesla, there’s Rivian, even the occasional Lucid or two.
“We’re kind of carving out ourselves as like the niche shop that does the EVs in Central Florida,” says General Manager Steve Baker. “Just looking into the future, we’ve positioned ourselves to be way ahead of the curve and be like the place.”
Towards that goal, the shop is embarking on an expansion. On the same lot will be another 30,000 to 40,000 square feet of space. That building will feature dedicated power just for 400amp chargers and keep the shop growing with the times.
One of the defining exterior features of the shop is its awning, really more of a cutout straight across the front of the building that results in a massive shady space. Customers are able to drive up for estimates or dropoffs and get out of whatever common Florida climate condition is prevailing that day: sun or rain.
“During a rainy season, especially in Florida, you come under there, you can jump in your rental or drop off, whatever, nobody is going to get drenched or be in the heat,” says owner Tom Ramsammy, who started the business 30 years ago and opened the current space in 2017.
Inside, the customer lounge is fully stocked with amenities befitting the high-end market the shop is going for, being certified for Mercedes and Range Rover in addition to the luxury EV brands. There’s comfortable seating, a Keurig coffee machine and bottled water for those hot Florida days.
Customers and employees alike can enjoy acres of open space inside the shop. Ramsammy describes the workspace as “open office” with glass everywhere and few walls. He and Baker’s offices don’t even have doors.
The shop has also designed processes to lead to maximum efficiency. Shop employees are divided into teams of estimators, CSRs and parts specialists. That breeds good working relationships.
“We’re trying to nail down a strong process,” says Ramsammy. “I think that’s what I want to pride myself on. I think by doing that, we’re going to have a predictable result.”
For quite some time, the global aftermarket industry has been resilient to all that has been happening around the world. We have seen it all – the industry survived the twoyear pandemic, we continue to cope with staffing shortages, we are keeping up with the changing automotive technology, and, together, we have addressed all challenges for the greater good of the industry.
Even as we adjust to the “new normal”, the information coming out of media channels these days is not very encouraging. The world is headed into its worst recession, the supply chain disruptions have impacted the automotive industry, and global disruptions have affected the procurement of critical automotive parts. I am hoping that the devastating effects of all these challenges do not impact our industry significantly.
Almost all industry leaders who I have spoken to in recent times seem to agree that the industry will be able to survive the latest recessional trends. Historically speaking, the aftermarket industry is large, fragmented and recession-proof. I would like to share that optimism, except that I believe being prepared and nimble should be the mantra for all those who have a stake in the automotive and aftermarket business.
Though the situation is volatile and hard to predict, recessions are not new to our industry. They have a certain life cycle and typically take place once every eight or 10 years. During that time, the most robust businesses survive, while those who haven’t kept up with the changes around them get purged. We have witnessed
some industry mammoths downing their shutters during seemingly minor recessions, while new names thrive from unexpected opportunities.
In all this drama taking place, there may be some good news and bad for the aftermarket industry. In the past, whenever recession struck, customers increasingly choose the lower-cost option of repairing their current vehicles instead of buying new ones. As per current global trends, demand for new and used vehicles are high and wait periods are typically between 5 to 10 months, forcing consumers to hold on to their old vehicles for much longer than before. Such customers prefer to have their vehicles repaired and making them last longer.
While we are yet to see any major impact of recession on our industry, my advice to shops is to consider the recession as a temporary setback (just like we did for the pandemic) and be ready to modify your operations every time, to keep yourselves ahead of the curve. Here are my Top Five recommendations to insulate your business from the ongoing economic uncertainty.
Develop a “Playbook”: Many smart entrepreneurs begin by taking a real, hard look at their operations to identify near and immediate risks to their business. Their “Playbook” recognizes impending challenges and is flexible to fine-tuning and change as they go along. They determine what’s required for the business, implement cost-efficient operations, and look for longer-term gains. Remember – those important decisions you make during this critical time may make or break your company.
Consolidate your business: Shops are increasingly keen to put their customers back on the road in the quickest time possible. This means, they are always looking to consolidate associated aftermarket services –collision repair, glass repair and mechanical services –under one roof. Doing so
allows them better control over the repair process and prevention of unnecessary operational costs, time and effort.
Joining a franchise network: There has never been a better time to align your business with an established aftermarket franchise network. At Fix Network, we have many inspiring success stories of shop owners who have benefitted from being a part of our family. Joining a franchise network opens a world of advantages –your teams learn from the finest minds in international repair and customer service, you have access to insurance partnerships and parts manufacturers, you have established KPIs for business success, and your shop receives 24x7 marketing, operational and technical support from the network’s team.
Training and Certification: I will always be a lifelong advocate of continuous training and certification. During this time, when business is slow, it would be a good time to invest in training your teams to repair the most complex vehicles. As an example, at our training centres, I am witnessing a greater demand from our shops to learn how to service and repair electric vehicles. Certification gives customers the peace of mind that their vehicles are being looked after by trusted hands and are being repaired safely.
Not everyone likes too many disruptions but adapting and adjusting accordingly will go a long way to protect your business from conditions beyond our control. Fingers crossed, this too shall pass!
Steve Leal is the President & CEO of Fix Network World, the leading global automotive aftermarket services network which includes ProColor Collision. The family of brands spans more than 2,000 points of service internationally.
Global recession may have hit several industry sectors but is the aftermarket industry immune? Steve Leal looks at the situation and recommends how shops can insulate themselves against any uncertainty arising from the disruptions.
I met with a shop owner last week. It was our first coaching appointment together. He talked about his goals, his dreams and all the things he wanted to accomplish. Yet, the more he talked the less clear things became. He talked about retiring early so he could spend more time with his kids and working with non-profits. He talked about how at 40 he’s already way further than he ever dreamed he would be when he first started in the industry. At one point I asked him, “How will you know when you’ve accomplished your goal and can retire?” He said, “Honestly, I have no idea.” That is where we ended our first session. But without a doubt, that is the very topic we will dive deep into in the months ahead. Getting as clear as possible on our end goal is critical but not as easy as it looks.
Almost all of us have heard the phrase, “Be gin with the end in mind,” popularized by Steven Covey in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Ef fective People.” We all have an end in mind. The question is: How clear is it? Have we done the hard work to define “the end” with specific details so that we will know when we’re there?
And here’s the bad news: You’ll never really get “there” because “there” keeps moving! One of my mentors talks about our biggest goals as if they are a horizon. Have you ever wondered where the horizon actually is? In fact, it doesn’t exist! It’s just a useful tool for our eyes to look out as far as possible and “see” where the sky meets the earth. And as soon as you walk toward it what happens?
It moves! Our goals are like that. We start to hit one then we realize maybe we need a bigger goal. So we reset and there’s a new horizon.
For me almost 20 years ago that goal was to get my little neighborhood shop to $500,000 a year in revenue. Then $1 million then $2 mil lion … then a second location. And a third. And on it went. Every time I walked toward those goals the horizon moved further out. What mattered to me more than the specific goal
was the trajectory. Was I moving the needle on being the kind of shop that someone would buy some day? Was I spending less time in the gritty details of the business and finding time to work on it? Was I able to provide financially for the people and causes I cared about most like my team, my family and at-risk children?
When I was entering my teen years, my grand father died. After he died, I used to spend hours in his small study. His walls were lined with books, stuffed on every shelf. There were piles of books all over the floor as well. In one of the books I found a little handwritten note that stuck with me ever since: “If you aim at nothing, you will defi nitely hit it.” I have no idea who said that or where he read it. But it has stuck with me for almost 40 years now. We have to aim at something.
Setting a goal and orienting ourselves and our teams around it provides clarity and a sense of direction.
Yet, we realize that goals and dreams are like horizons. They are not real. And on top of that, they move as we move toward them. How defeat ing is that? How frustrating is it if all we ever do is look forward to what’s next? It can start to feel like a hamster wheel, lots of motion and effort but not really going anywhere.
The antidote to this sense of despair—this feeling of “never arriving”—is to always measure backward. If you want to raise your confidence to go after even bigger goals then celebrate the prog ress you’ve made. Express gratitude to the people who have helped you thus far. Look back and see how far you’ve come. And yes, celebrate even the hard stuff. I love the saying, “Either you win or you learn.” There is no “lose.” All the hard stuff is simply lessons that are shaping us. With each vic tory, we celebrate the gain. With each loss, we cel ebrate the lesson. So today, celebrate and express gratitude. And let’s get after those goals that ac tually intimidate us. Those are the ones that will bring out the best in us.
After 18 years in the industry, Kevin Rains sold his network of shops. He now coaches body shop owners and leaders and is the author of the upcoming book Launch to Legacy: The Small Business Roadmap to Success and Significance. You can reach Kevin at kevinrains@gmail.com
EMAIL: kevinrains@gmail.com ARCHIVE: fenderbender.com/rains
“If you aim at nothing, you’ll definitely hit it.”
WITH ADAS, EVS, ADVANCED MARKETING AND ON AND ON, THERE’S MORE TECHNOLOGY IN COLLISION REPAIR THAN EVER
By TODD KORTEMEIER Photography By PRO VISION PICTURES & MIRYAH KEELY PHOTOGRAPHYThe EV Horizon Complete Collision Center co-owner Kayce Smith knows EV work is part of the future of her shop.
Being a shop owner means being a meteorologist of collision repair. Like being a true meteorologist, there is more science and more information than ever to make an accurate forecast. The days of sticking a finger in the wind to see which way it’s blowing and extrapolat ing from there are over.
One of the hardest forecasts to make in collision repair these days is what a shop’s needs are going to be for tech and tools. But owners are trying, at least according to the 506 respondents of the 2022 FenderBender Industry Survey. A majority 59% of them reported having a budget for tech and tools. But not many reported performing such services as ADAS calibrations, meaning those budgets could be changing drasti cally if they add more services.
Tech and tool needs are changing more than ever, if shops are taking on calibra tions, if they’re working on EVs, if they’re acquiring OEM certifications and so much more. If there’s a science to it all, then Kayce
Smith is as well-equipped to handle it as anyone, given she had a background in biol ogy and chemistry before getting involved with her husband’s collision center. Smith is sensing which way the wind is blowing, and the atmosphere is charged.
“We’ll be working on a lot of electrical vehi cles, and I see them even in our small area, I see a lot of them now,” says Smith, who owns Complete Collision Center in St. James and St. Robert, Missouri. “So us getting a leg up on others in the industry, especially in our area, I think is going to be very beneficial for us.”
There are other ways that show shops are beginning to consider the tech and tools side of the business more than ever. Indus try survey results show that shops are in vesting more in diagnostic training in 2022 than they were in 2021. Shops are perform ing more diagnostic scans than they were in 2021, nine percent more. Using the In dustry Survey as a backdrop, FenderBender took a look at how owners are keeping their shops filled with the right equipment and the right technology.
If anyone knows the importance of buying specialized tools, it’s John Carmack, owner of John’s Body Shop in Lexington, Illinois. John’s Body Shop services all sorts of ve hicles, from heavy trucks to recreational vehicles, passenger cars to school buses. The shop has a 50-foot frame machine and a 50-foot downdraft paint booth to handle any contingency. But one thing with which the shop is not equipped, nor interested in handling, is calibrations.
“We don’t perform any type of recali brations here at the facility whatsoever,” says Carmack. “Everything returns to the dealership. Just to touch on that just a little bit, I can’t even believe that some one would want to have the calibration equipment there at the facility and take that liability on the chin as well. That’s incredible to me. I just can’t hardly wrap my head around it.”
Carmack’s perspective certainly isn’t unique. Taking on calibrations is some thing every shop owner is wrestling with these days and there are more issues than just the liability. There’s the extra
space that’s required and environmental conditions that have to be met. And then there’s the training and research that goes into doing the calibration properly.
Smith says that their shop does run into calibrations that they can’t perform in-house for one reason or another. But in general, the shop is set up to do calibrations and has been for a while. For her, it ties into a long-term goal of becoming a one-stop shop for auto services.
“We’ve had an ADAS machine for about a year and a half now,” says Smith. “And we have a Hunter alignment rack so we’re actually adding a full-fledged mechanical facility onto the back of our building. … really our goal with what we’re doing is we want to be a one stop shop. You walk in our front door and we take all of the stress away from your re pair process, anything you’re wanting to do vehicle-wise.”
Thus far, shops like Carmack’s are in the majority. Seventy-one percent of survey respondents said their shop is not yet equipped to perform ADAS cali brations. However, that number doesn’t appear to be static. The 29% of shops that are doing ADAS work is an 8% jump from the 2021 Industry Survey. And that’s directly tied into higher revenuerelated KPI indicators.
Though evidence shows the number of ADAS-equipped shops is trending up ward, it’s unclear how many shops have the ability to simply add calibrations in the near future if they wanted to. The outlay is significant and it isn’t getting less expensive.
“This part of our industry is so new; we’re finding our way a lot,” says Dar rell Amberson, president of operations for LaMettry’s Collision, speaking at the 2022 FenderBender Management
Conference. “It’s a bit of the Wild West. And so there’s no definitive path on a lot of this. A lot of this we are even cur rently kind of engineering and finding our own way.”
LaMettry’s has invested heavily in the calibration space, literally, including a standalone facility that opened in Au gust of 2019.
“We’re over 10,000 square feet of ADAS lab/shop space, with some officing there, and it’s custom built for our specs to do calibrations,” says Jason Zeise, LaMettry’s mechanical operations man ager. “That’s the only thing we do there. We have a portable air compressor for doing tires, no floor drains, it’s custom built for ADAS calibrations.”
LaMettry’s services its own collision customers as well as doing work for other shops. For shops that aren’t ready to make the investment in ADAS work, having facili
ties like LaMettry’s available who have done the research and already made the invest ment can help bridge the gap. The shop that farms out the work can still be held liable in the event of a substandard calibration.
Of course, an individual shop isn’t likely to make the kind of investment in a calibra tion facility like LaMettry’s did. At their fa cility, Zeise guesses, they invested $15,000 in just the lighting. The floor has roughly $20,000 into it. And then there all the asso ciated costs with the calibration equipment itself and down onto the smallest details.
“Brooms and garbage cans and all this, and then the calibration systems, they’re very expensive,” says Zeise. “You find out what works for you. And you keep adding on to that.”
The equipment LaMettry’s is running includes Autel, Bosch, John Bean and Burke Porter coming soon. There are laptops that serve as dedicated scan tools, and three sta
tions set up to do calibrations. The impor tance of scanning is becoming a big part of how shops operate today and that progres sion is something witnessed firsthand by Zeise, who has a background as a mechanic.
“When I first started, it was airbag sus pension, not a lot of diagnostics,” Zeise says. “Now, we’re doing in-depth diagnostic on just about all these collision vehicles. Be cause just by simply disconnecting and reconnecting things, it causes all kinds of network communication problems.”
Zeise says that scanning is essential in blueprinting to identifying potential calibrations later on. Pre- and post-scans are something that a vast majority of survey respondents said they always do. That goes back to training techs and en suring they catch everything in the blue printing process.
“We do an outstanding job of catching all the calibrations at that blueprint pro cess and mechanical blueprint process,” says Zeise.
LaMettry’s learned some lessons the hard way that could be instructive for shops looking to add calibrations. In the shop where they first started doing calibrations there was technically enough space, but not an ideal amount. They were parking cars in front of paint booths.
“How do you piss off a painter,” asks Zeise, rhetorically. “Park a car in front of his booth. So that worked for about four hours.”
The location also had too much glass and all the light wasn’t suitable for calibra tions. So that led to the purpose-built facil ity with level floors, gray and white colors and specialty lamps with a 15,000-lumen capacity and, importantly, dimming ability.
“That dimmable is huge,” Zeise says. “If you have any lighting issues in your shop, invest in some dimmable lighting.”
As Amberson described it, calibrations are the “Wild West” of the collision repair space. Laws in the actual Wild West were nonexistent at worst and fungible at best. The state of calibrations in collision repair is not all that different, with questionable decision making commonplace.
So the best practice is to not cut corners. Invest in the technology, invest in the tools but most of all invest in the training and be thorough to ensure not only a successful business but a safe and responsible one.
“We understand this is a part of our industry that is rife with the opportunity
for fraud, frankly,” says Amberson. “… So, we are frankly anal about looking at fac tory repair information, doing what we’re supposed to be doing based upon what the manufacturer tells us, nothing more, nothing less. And at the same time, we ag gressively try to get paid for it. But there are those situations we would rather do a procedure and not get paid for it and do the right thing, then to not do it.”
Carmack says his shop falls into the 59% of survey respondents who do set a monthly budget for tools and equipment. In the case of John’s Body Shop, it’s roughly $5,000 per month. Smith said in her shop bud geting usually isn’t necessary as the shop typically has enough resources to cover up whatever needs arise.
“We spend the money on that stuff where we need to and then what’s left over is what’s left over,” Smith says. “We haven’t really budgeted a whole lot for it, but our shop does very well. So we’re able to do that stuff without really having to overly budget.”
While investments in tools may come up sporadically and are harder to plan for, both shops also have recurring costs for technology-related matters that are easi er to plan for. One of those matters is OEM procedure research, which is becoming more important than ever.
“We do a tremendous amount of ALL DATA research,” says Carmack. “It seems like we jumped down a rabbit hole with ALLDATA. And one thing leads to an other onto another onto another. But you know what? I am so blessed and grate ful that this information is out there … I mean, you can stick your head in the sand and you just die on the vine. But that’s not me.”
Both Carmack and Smith’s shops utilize CCC management software. For Smith that means using it to run every aspect of the collision side of her business.
“We really utilize CCC in all aspects,” Smith says. “We use it for our production schedule. We use it to update our custom ers, we use it to track parts. We use every single aspect of it.”
Carmack also expresses an interest in keeping an eye on the latest technology trends in the industry. That was particu larly the case when it comes to virtual esti
The Tech Horizon Shops like John’s certainly are not alone in choosing not to take on ADAS calibrations quite yet.
mates and the possibilities of virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
“The amount of AI that the industry will be presented with is, I think, really cool,” Carmack says. “I think that’d be the ulti mate way to inspect a car and look at a car. I think that technology is closer and closer and closer.”
Both shops are set up to repair alumi num components, and Smith’s shop can repair carbon fiber as well, something that only 17% of survey respondents said they are set up to do. Smith’s shop also sprays waterborne paint, which has been on the rise and now is in use by 47% of survey re spondents compared to 40% still spraying solvent-based paint.
Aluminum is a big part of Carmack’s business as aluminum components are very common in recreational vehicles. Car
mack cited one tool that’s been a huge de velopment for aluminum repair that has made a big impact on other aspects of colli sion repair as well.
“Probably one of the biggest game changers to us about seven years ago was Keco, the glue pull system from Keco, amazing, amazing,” Carmack says. “And we do a fair amount of aluminum work. So no more trying to aluminum weld a stud and try to pull them, no more burn through the backside of the panels. Mild-strength steel, aluminum, doesn’t make any difference. A little bit of glue and a tab, and you don’t have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger pulling on the thing either.”
Like most collision repair shops, or any business in existence today, both Carmack
and Smith said their shops have marketing plans. While neither is engaged in cutting edge techniques such as geofencing, both have found marketing success that works for them.
Smith’s shop utilizes a marketing firm to handle most of their social media and website needs with customer service repre sentatives also pitching in as needed. They mostly utilize Facebook, which was the so cial media platform of choice among survey respondents as well, as well as Instagram. They also post jobs to Facebook, which has given them more success than job sites such as Indeed.
A focus in social media posts for Com plete Collision Centers is sharing the kind of service customers can expect. She cited the example of their St. Robert location being close to a military base, with poten
tial customers coming from all over and not necessarily familiar with the area, thinking they may need to go to Spring field or St. Louis, Missouri, to get a qual ity repair. Communicating their message is paramount.
“Part of our process of getting that customer to hand over their keys and not shop around is telling them about our processes, telling them about the equip ment that we have, telling them how we can take care of you,” Smith says. “… So it’s pretty easy to get them to stay, be cause our estimators and our managers very knowledgeable.”
John’s Body Shop also has a Facebook page, but Carmack says it’s not a huge fo cus. However, the shop has been sure to post photos of particularly interesting projects it has worked on, such as a 1965
PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS SAID THEY DO THEIR MARKETING THEMSELVES, WITH THE REMAINDER WORKING WITH SOME KIND OF OUTSIDE HELP.
Pontiac GTO, or a motorhome worth $1.2 million. Both generated an “amazing” re sponse, Carmack said.
But it’s another form of marketing that is a bit lower tech that has been the most successful. Working with a media company for the last 17 years, John’s Body Shop has been running radio commercials on the three most popular stations in the area: a political station, a country station and a variety station playing everything from the 1980s to today. A 10-second spot running once an hour on each station has represented “very consistent” success, ac cording to Carmack.
“Probably that political radio station is the biggest pull and then country right after that,” Carmack says. “And I don’t really like country music; there’s a lot of people that do though, big radio station, a lot of listeners. But we’ve been very, very consistent with that. And when I start something, I don’t give it up. I stay at it.”
Staying on top of tech and tool trends isn’t easy, both owners admit. But both are keeping an eye on the future, like Carmack tracking developments in AI technology and Smith getting more in volved with working on EVs. Smith also serves on an I-CAR Committee so is able to stay on top of training for the latest technology and techniques.
“With all the technology changes that are happening, taking those classes is so important,” Smith says. “So, we are set up on a subscription model with I-CAR. So, our employees can take any class they want without us having to pay extra. And that’s been awesome. Even our CSRs can take classes if they want to.”
Both owners encouraged their peers to stay as engaged as they can in the state of the industry and if something isn’t working, take a look at why and make changes as necessary.
“Independent owners need to take a step back, re-evaluate, take a deep breath and move forward,” says Car mack. “They definitely need to re evalu ate what they’re doing.”
“When it comes to technology and tool, do your research, and really look at what’s available,” adds Smith. “Because there’s so much out there that is beneficial to us that can help as far as the repairs go and utilizing your resources, like ALLDATA, CCC, using those things to benefit your customer, benefit your facility and bene fit your technicians. They’re not trying to have to figure out how they’re supposed to do a repair on something, they have it right there in front of them step by step. With as many vehicles and makes and models that there are out there, there’s no way for anybody to know exactly how to do that every single time.”
All the latest tech and tools aren’t worth much without continuing to invest in research and training.
Doing your homework and having some help is the path to success
BRIAN FINGER HAS BEEN working in the collision repair industry since he was 13 years old. Back then, his experience was pretty much limited to washing cars and getting them ready for delivery. But it wasn’t long after that he started getting in terested in the electronics of vehicles and found he had a knack for it.
BRIAN FINGER HAS BEEN working in the collision repair industry since he was 13 years old. Back then, his experience was pretty much limited to washing cars and getting them ready for delivery. But it wasn’t long after that he started getting in terested in the electronics of vehicles and found he had a knack for it.
That led to him starting Airbags Unlim ited, a diagnostics electronics company, in 2016. As working on ADAS became more common in the shops that he was servic ing in the Houston area, Finger began in vesting in calibration and scanning equip ment. That segment of the business began to grow rapidly to the point where at the start of 2022 it became clear he needed to expand. At the time of this writing Finger’s expansion plan was approved and he was searching for a property.
But where to begin? For Finger, it was a journey that he definitely doesn’t recom mend taking alone, and one that has been very educational for him.
As told to TODD KORTEMEIERThe timing has to be right … for you and the bank. With the way technology has grown in vehicles since I started my business in 2016, I just took the plunge as far as ADAS, invested in the equipment for all the calibrations and the targets and it’s just exploded. So as we keep growing, I told [my business consultant Nina Ross] at the beginning of this year we’re ex panding, we’ve got to expand. Just the projection of the company and just how much we’re growing, I’ve definitely got to expand.
So within that comes looking for a business loan, getting approval on an expansion loan. And one thing I found out quickly, especially with COVID, was that banks were not loaning to startups. They’re not doing new business loans. But the key word is expansion. If you’re expanding an existing business, they’re all about it. They’re interested in busi ness expansion, not a startup. So that worked to our benefit in beginning this loan application process. That was a key from where we’re at, having an existing business that keeps growing.
Do your homework up front.
I have a very good working relationship with the shops that I service here in Hous ton. Monday through Friday I’m in my lit tle company van, I’m out, hands on at the shops, at the collision shops, at dealerships, at individual mom and pop shops, indepen dent shops, I have a good working relation ship with these people. And I started asking like, ‘Hey, I’m going to be expanding. Can my business manager Nina give you a call and just go over numbers projections, you know, from a year ago, two years ago to current projections?’ And the working re lationship I have with my shops, they were very forthcoming, what to expect in the city, opening a shop in the city versus in the country, working with the city inspectors and just giving us tangible information, hands on information, not just Googling something and taking some numbers of something on the internet. We asked actual shop owners and gathered real-time work ing numbers, if you will.
That helped Nina construct the business proposal that she presented to the bank. It’s not just, ‘Hey, we’re go ing to pull some numbers here.’ It was a real-world look at what’s going on right now, where the industry is at, the number of people we have in the city, it just keeps growing. So it was defi nitely valuable information that she was able to obtain through shops that I
do work with here in town. So that was extremely valuable in getting the pro posal put together.
If you’re a shop owner, and you’re good at being in the collision industry, that doesn’t mean you can go and run a kitch en for a restaurant, take over and start cooking food. I want to learn and do as much as I can, but know your limitations, and don’t overburden yourself with the business. Having a professional polished business manager like Nina has been worth every penny that I’ve paid her.
If you think, ‘Oh OK, here, I have a good credit score. And here’s my taxes. And I went online and this is what the industry is doing every year.’ That’s not going to cut it if you try to do it yourself and put it together like that. They don’t like that. I wouldn’t be able to do it. It was worth hiring Nina and having her construct the business model.
Even with help, it does take a lot of pa tience. Try not to get too frustrated. I’m pretty even keeled; everything happens for a reason. But sometimes, if some thing doesn’t go the way you want it, if a door closes, don’t get frustrated. That just means there’s something that wasn’t the right spot, right location, right company to be doing business with. There’s something better down the road.
These necessary shop procedures aren’t always showing up in the bottom line
By KIMANZI CONSTABLETHERE ARE A LOT of moving parts to run ning a successful shop. You must think about marketing, operations, employee management, tons of paperwork and a growing to-do list. You also have the actual work on cars.
You spend time on client acquisition strategies you hope will lead to lifetime
customers, and running a business means there are things you don’t bill for in an at tempt to secure new projects.
Your goal may be to invest time and energy into operations that make a client say yes. However, you’re leaving money on the table and diminishing your profit margins without realizing it.
There are operations shops frequently do not bill for but should. Here is a list of easily missed operations that owners too of ten are not getting paid for. Billing for these operations could be the key to increasing profit and building a better business.
Cars that need work require parts, and it takes time to research those parts. While this is a normal operation, it’s not often billed by shop owners. The time and effort you spend researching for parts can be extensive, and your time is valuable. You should consider billing for time spent researching parts direct ly and factoring the value of that time into your pricing.
“Time spent researching for parts, mak ing phone calls, doing online searching parts, and ordering should be billed for, but you need the right data,” says Hilary Noack, owner of Ink N Iron Auto.
“One thing I do with my employees is to ensure they track every hour. They fill out time sheets so I can go through and see what we’re spending time on so that we can take that data and charge appro priately. But the first step is making sure you’re tracking and then billing for all the time spent researching because you may be losing money.”
A great way to create recurring revenue for your shop is through a repair sub scription program. Customers pay for regularly-needed services through a monthly subscription. A subscription program spreads a customer’s costs to a smaller amount and brings consistent monthly revenue to your shop.
While it may be a great system, there are costs associated with setting up and running subscription programs. You may not be able to bill customers for these costs directly, but you should consider subscrip tion costs when setting your pricing. You
can increase your subscription prices to compensate for the expenses.
Repairing vehicles were reasonably stan dard for years. There were structural changes, but they weren’t overly compli cated to navigate. In 1990, things started to change as more vehicles started to be built with unique structural elements. More cars were built with ultra-high strength steel, exotic electronics, and other mixed materials.
OEM repair procedures have always been necessary but are even more essen tial with the changes to how vehicles are uniquely made. OEM procedures are a way of life for shops, but too many aren’t factoring in the associated costs in their pricing. More work and higher costs for parts mean less profit. Factor in costs associated with OEM procedures accord ingly to increase profit.
“Listen to your techs,” says Noack. “I was an employee in a shop for many years be fore I owned my business. There’s always a disconnect between management and the techs—be more involved with your staff. Ask them for ideas and suggestions and do production meetings to see which efficien cy can be improved. Ask them what they need to be efficient.”
More complicated vehicles mean more time to find the right parts and order other necessary materials. Add in glob al supply chain shortages, and much of your or your employee’s time could be spent researching and ordering. This time and your effort is an operation that should be billed for and included in your pricing.
Vehicle assessments changed during the pandemic and continue to change as insurance companies (and your shop) navigate an ever-changing post-pan demic environment.
Initial assessments have historically been free, but that doesn’t mean they have to stay that way in your shop. With the extra work involved in assessments, this is an operation you should consider billing for.
“A lot of insurance representatives are doing more things virtually these days, and we’re having to take on a lot more of the work when creating esti mates,” says Cory Scott, owner of Kustom Werx Autobody.
“We’ve added more work and time to the estimate process and should be get ting paid for it. We have to take pictures, research parts, and line things up—we should be charging a flat fee of $200 per estimate for the extra work we’re doing.”
You want to send a vehicle off in the best condition when delivering it to a client. You may have your employees wash and detail the car, but you’re probably not fac toring the time, effort, and materials into your pricing.
One operation you should consider billing for is the cleaning and detail ing. It’s a small cost that could increase profit margins, and customers appreci ate a clean car.
“Vehicle clean-up and detailing should be billed for,” says Noack. “A car comes in a body shop, and it sometimes leaves a little bit dusty or dirty. Customers appreciate it when you go over the whole car—interior and exterior clean-up. But we should bill for the time spent detailing.”
There are a lot of costs associated with running a shop. There’s also the con sideration of competition, paying em ployees’ salaries, and wanting to build a strong business.
Billing customers considering all fac tors and paying your employees in rela tion to value is an operation you should consider to increase your profit margin. Using data to make informed salary and pricing adjustments is an operation that grows revenue.
“Making sure to bill appropriately for material costs, because that’s rising all the time,” says Noack.
Don’t leave money on the table. Think through each of your shop’s operations and evaluate what you should be bill ing for. The customer will pay for qual ity and value if you provide excellent service. Bill accordingly, increase your profit and build a legacy business.
DON’T LET THE MANNEQUIN REPRESENTATIONS of the Beatles in the lobby of Bob Waldron’s CARSTAR shop in Lancaster, Massachusetts, fool you. Waldron has been in business for a long time, but not long enough to be contemporary with the real John, Paul, George and Ringo, nor the 1960 Chevy Bel-Air that sits feet away. Those throwbacks—and many more mid-century touches—are instead a nod to the building’s long history, existing as a car dealership decades before Waldron opened his first shop in the early 1980s. Now entering his 41st year as a shop owner and with three other shops in operation, Waldron is anything but old-fashioned. He’s progressive in the face of challenges, and there’s been no bigger challenge than the COVID-19 pandemic. Waldron saw the perfect time to revamp his business, examine what wasn’t working and remodel for the future.
Waldron always knew he wanted to work with his hands. He went to a technical high school in the late 1970s with designs on be ing a carpenter or an auto mechanic. But he found his way into the auto body depart ment and bought his first shop in 1981 just two years after graduating from school.
Along the way Waldron became one of the original franchise partners in the CAR
STAR network in 1989 and soon had a fourshop operation. Business was good, but Waldron admits that it was almost too good. Until 2020 rolled along, there wasn’t much need to change things up.
“Being in business at the time of the pandemic was, you know, 30 plus years and let’s face it, you do start to get in your comfort zone,” Waldron says now. “I can see new equipment, see new processes and so forth, but you start to, I’m just being honest, you just start to coast a little bit. Well, Mr. COVID had other plans for us. So, we’re no longer coasting.”
Like much of the world, Waldron was caught off-guard when the pandemic hit in March 2020. At first not expecting much meaningful disruption to dayto-day operations, Waldron soon real ized the effects would be wide-ranging. His business had to fight all the same battles as everyone else and tread water just to survive.
Once the short-term shock wore off, Waldron sensed there would be long-term impacts. The first one that became apparent was staffing and getting people back to work. The way people worked had changed and business owners everywhere were trying to get a handle on it.
Within that challenge Waldron saw an opportunity.
“Most people, even today, you know, want to hunker down and wait for the storm to pass,” Waldron says. “And I was just never built that way. So I said, you know what, peo ple are going to have to rebuild their busi ness eventually. But if they do it at the end of the storm, and I do it during the storm, I think I’ll be that much ahead.”
Waldron already had a part-time human resources employee to go to for help in solving HR matters. Problem was, he lived in Connecticut and during the pan demic was unable to travel to Massachu setts. But there was plenty of work to be done, so he and Waldron worked together
remotely for roughly a year. Then once he was able to be in person again, Waldron asked him to work full time for three months, and then another three months, before ultimately hiring him to be the company’s chief operating officer.
“The more that we started digging, the more we found that needed attention,” Wal dron says. “And the more I got results from the more energy I continued to create.”
As has been proven with the human resources challenges gripping the indus try in recent years, Waldron identified that employee retention and recruitment were going to be ongoing problems. They increased pay, offered signing bonuses and revamped incentive plans to be even more attractive to employees. They ag gressively marketed open positions and offered referrals to bring in more quali fied employees.
The methods worked, and they had to. Many employees left due to both pandemic reasons and not, resulting in a total turn over of more than 40 employees within the span of a year. The churn was manage able due to the new processes the shop also enacted. Suddenly all the new employees came in all on the same page because they learned the same processes.
“We’ve had to do a higher level of coaching the managers to get the new message across more now than ever, and to have them believe in the system as well, that things were going to change,” Waldron says. “So we’ve spent more time coaching, mentoring, you know, our man agement staff, and having them believe in this.”
Those new processes included re-writ ing job descriptions and task lists to make each role as efficient as possible. Waldron also hired an in-house trainer to raise up the quality of the technicians already in the building. Also added to the team was a marketing manager and an appraiser working remotely, allowing him to service any of the four locations and also assist with training. Waldron reports it is rare that any shop needs to be fully staffed in-person.
But not all the changes were personnel related. During the heart of the pandemic when there was ample downtime, Wal dron made improvements to the shops with new equipment, giving the build ings and vehicles a good cleaning and im proving the customer experience—hence the Fab Four.
“We’ve got the four of them, I’m looking at them right now and we get more comments on these four that when people walk into the showroom and say, ‘Oh, sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt the meeting,” Waldron jokes. “They look over and, I mean the people that have the comments are just priceless.”
With the house band, a space the size of a showroom floor and an old-fashioned Coca-Cola machine fully stocked with soda in glass bottles, the shop is available to rent for community members looking to host a meeting.
“You stroll down memory lane for a little bit,” Waldron says. “… And it really goes a long way. You get away from reality for a couple, three hours.”
With the worst of the pandemic appar ently in the rear view, Waldron, his four shops and his team of more than 50 em ployees are still here. Not everything has gone according to schedule; plans preCOVID to acquire additional locations have had to be put on pause. But overall the operation is still thriving as Waldron celebrated his 40th anniversary of the business last year. The industry veteran is quick to credit his team members for adapting to the new processes and help ing the business bounce back.
“I sit here and talk to you, and I’ll get my picture in the paper, and I’ll get quoted on a few things,” Waldron says. “But, I’m not out back writing estimates or painting cars or doing any of the QC sheets or anything, you know, it’s all people. So if you don’t have the right team, you can have all the systems in place, but you don’t have the people that use them or to implement them, then it’s just not going to work.”
Sarah Amico of car haul company Jack Cooper details the current challenge of heavy electric vehicles and road weight limits.
By HANNA BUBSERPART OF BEING INVOLVED in the in credible interconnected automotive in dustry involves staying current. This is especially important with electric vehicles. Conversations surrounding EVs are constantly changing, and it can be difficult to keep up with all the trends and even the challenges, too.
Sarah Amico is an executive chairper son with Jack Cooper, a North American car haul company that has been around since 1928. Jack Cooper delivers finished vehicles for many auto manufacturers including General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Stellantis and more.
“One of the things that we’ve learned over the last couple of years … even for a casual listener or reader of the news, you’ve seen the stories about our supply chains in this country not really [having] the resil ience that we need in a 21st century econ omy,” Amico says. “I think that’s been par ticularly acute in the auto space, as we’ve seen the semiconductor chip shortage and certainly even parts and supply inputs shortages like rubber.”
“As you look at the multibillion-dollar investments all of our customers are mak ing in the EV market, or some of our cus tomers who are already in the EV market like a Tesla or Rivian,” Amico says. “We have to think about how that potentially could disrupt the supply chain anew.”
In finished vehicle logistics, an aspect of consideration with the influx of electric vehicle production is their weight.
“One of the things about electric bat teries … is that they’re heavier,” Amico says. “They’re heavier than ICE engines, and in many cases it’s a significant in crease and weight.”
Amico predicts that, in the long run, technology will be developed to make these batteries lighter. She lists the already in
creased efficiency of electric vehicle charg ing and the increased lifespan of a vehicle’s charge as examples of developments in a similar vein. But for right now, heavy EV batteries bring about a unique challenge.
“It poses an interesting conundrum for the finished vehicle logistics supply chain in that we are currently limited by law to 80,000 pounds of weight on our rigs,” Ami co says. “For [many] car haul companies, the way that their cost basis will work is largely fixed around per truckload.”
Amico says that independent of the number of units put on a truck, the cost base is fixed. She explains that the price per vehicle and the number of vehicles that can be put on a rig for each trip is called a load factor.
Amico says if vehicle weights in crease substantially, this means the load factor will decline. As a result, cars could be more expensive to ship, and shipping times could be longer. But it also provides an opportunity to look at the problem through a regulatory and legislative lens.
“We’re going to have to look at how to increase throughput as those vehicle weights increase, and one way to do that is to allow a minimal weight exemption for car haulers to carry more vehicles over short distances in a way that doesn’t disrupt the supply chain again as EVs become more and more of the percent age of cars consumers are purchasing,” Amico says.
She points to a couple of examples such as a recent 2,000-pound weight ex emption for natural gas-powered Class 8 trucks and zero emission propulsion heavy trucks made by Congress. Addi tionally, she mentions an authorization by California Governor Gavin Newsom in November 2021 that spearheaded an
8,000-pound weight variant for trucks leaving the ports of California.
This is to say that Amico sees what work has already been done and be lieves that it is possible to keep the mo mentum going for car haul. She says that many car haulers drop one or two units within the first 100 to 150 miles, so a limit on the radius of a weight ex emption in the first few 100 miles could be effective.
“A 4,000- to 8,000-pound weight vari ance would probably be enough to keep our supply chains really steady during the transition to EVs,” Amico says.
Amico says that legislative initiative could be a driving force for gaining mo mentum on weight exemptions.
“I really think that this has to be a leg islative solution,” Amico says. “So, what we really need is the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House and the Commerce Committee in the Sen ate to reach a point of view on how we’re going to accommodate the increased weight of these vehicles.”
At the same time, Amico says that the car haul industry is not standing idly by. She says Jack Cooper has been working with car haul trailer designers to design proprietary rigs that remove excess weight while maintaining structural integrity.
“We’re not waiting on a white knight,” Amico says. “We’re helping ourselves, as we know this will be com ing down the pipeline.”
Amico says in addition to these ef forts, Jack Cooper has committed to becoming a carbon neutral company. She says they’re proud to support their customers during the EV transition.
Simultaneously, Amico sees an oppor tunity in tackling weight limits that goes beyond immediate need. Considering the driver shortage in the trucking industry, she believes that forming an approach to this current issue could act as a blueprint for approaching other challenges.
“Tackling this problem in the fin ished vehicle logistics supply chain by providing a weight exemption may well give us a template to safely solve the problem in trucking and logistics more broadly of how to tackle the driver short age,” Amico says. “And I think that’s a worthy endeavor.”
Communication and transparency are key skills in how managers relate to employees
By LINDSEY GAINEROF ALL THE THINGS someone in a man agement position is charged with handling, managing people is the most important responsibility of all. Owners, upper man agement, and shop managers all bear the weighty responsibility of ensuring employ ees are well led, well trained, and well cared
for, if they’re to have a successful business.
“Everyone in our organization has a role that is pivotal to us providing a great experience for the customer, and without great leadership that is ex tremely hard to achieve,” says Jordan Beshears, vice president of Steve’s Auto
Body, which operates shops in O’Fallon and Belleville, Illinois.
Beshears—along with Steve’s two loca tion leaders, Tristan Nolte and Corey Bil lups—all agree there are certain non-ne gotiable characteristics of a great manager … and being an effective communicator is at the top of that list.
“A great shop manager needs to be a great communicator and a leader,” says Nolte. “Manager is not a term we use here at Steve’s Auto Body, we use ‘location lead er’—this better fits the description of the role. As a leader we guide by teaching, showing, and implementing the processes that we want to follow as a company, lead
ing by example. Being able to communi cate the goal not only to the techs, but to our office staff, parts manager, customer service rep, vendors, jobbers, all the way to the customer, is essential. Whether it’s a new idea, supply issue, or customer concern, communication is the ability to listen, identify, process and apply the solu tion … this is the key.”
Billups agrees, reiterating that the best shop managers listen and commu nicate well, and treat their employees with respect.
Not only does a great manager commu nicate effectively with everyone they en counter, they must do so in an honest, straightforward way.
“Transparency is extremely important,” says Beshears. “It is our job as leaders to make sure all of our people know what is expected of them, and the team as a whole.”
One of the most important areas in which Beshears and the Steve’s Auto Body leadership team is transparent is around the successes and failures of the company.
“We have benchmarks set and cel ebrate when our team achieves them, and we learn from our failures when we don’t,” he says. “If you aren’t transparent with your team it is extremely hard to get them to understand what you are trying to achieve, in my opinion.”
One of the other most important things a manager can do to solidify the respect and loyalty of their employees?
“You have to show you care about your people,” says Beshears. “This is from a personal level, compensation level and a career growth level. We pride ourselves on letting our people grow in our com pany and we believe it is pivotal to our success that we have people who can see themselves growing and achieving their personal goals in their career as we reach our goals as an organization.”
Billups agrees that getting to know your employees is one of the best things a manager can do. “Employees are more productive and efficient when they work in an environment where they feel re spected and honored as individuals,” he
says. “In management we tend to focus on customer service and forget about the people that allow us to offer services, but both are equally important. Without a solid foundation, you’ll have trouble cre ating anything of value.”
“We are very big as an organization on collecting data and measuring KPIs,” added Beshears. “As a lean Six Sigma company we can look at the success of our location leaders based on the success of the team. If the metrics we have set are being met, that means the process is being followed, which also means we are achieving our financial goals. As Tristan mentioned, we call our managers ‘loca tion leaders’ because that is what they do. They don’t manage a store, they lead a team, through process, to be the top lo cation in a market.”
“Pay attention to the details and follow a good process,” suggests Nolte, “wheth er it’s a morning meeting, a quick walk around to every person each day to say, ‘Hi, how’s it going?’ or getting yourself set up for the next day.”
No one at Steve’s Auto Body believes in mi cromanaging employees. In fact, Beshears is a proponent of the exact opposite.
“I think it’s important for the owner ship of the company to fully commit to letting their managers fail,” he says. “If I rush to an issue every time I see smoke, our leaders will never learn how to solve the problem themselves, which will not only hold the company back but the indi vidual as well. This doesn’t mean that we let people make catastrophic mistakes that will ultimately hurt the company, but we have to let people learn from fail ures and become problem solvers so they can meet their true potential.”
“You will make the wrong decision and you will make the right decision, but if you don’t make any decision, you will be wrong 100% of the time,” adds Nolte. “Stay calm – this is an ever-changing in dustry and can get a little crazy at times … just remember to stop, take a minute to collect your thoughts, and make the best decision with the information you
have. You will have some failures—learn from them, and grow.”
A great manager leads by example, and for Nolte that means jumping in to help the team at a moment’s notice.
“The key to leading/managing and motivating is being open minded, a good listener, teacher, and not being afraid to get dirty and help out no matter your position,” he says. “If we need a panel buffed, mirror installed, car washed, or if a customer needs a ride home, it’s all part of the job—the goal is to fix cars and get them back to the customer in a timely manner. We are part of this team, and we will fail as a team or win as a team. Show ing the people you lead that you care and are willing to help when needed, or just to be nice, goes a long way.”
While setting a good example for all employees is important, it’s especially so for the young people just entering the in dustry, he says, to teach them the proper way to do things and prove to them that hard work and dedication does indeed pay off in the end.
Hiring location leaders who align with the vision of the company is essen tial, says Beshears, to ensure that the example they’re setting and direction they’re leading the team is consistent with the company’s goals.
“If you have people in leadership roles trying to steer the company or location in a different direction than the vision for the company, it will not work,” he added. “This is the reason why we prefer our lo cation leaders to come from within as we continue to grow. They understand our process, our vision, and are excited about the direction of the company, which will ultimately lead to their success as well as more success for the company.”
And, finally, a great manager’s work is never finished, reminds Nolte.
“Being a great manager/leader is not only something we become, but something we must strive for, and continue to do by adapting and overcoming the challenges that arise in our day-to-day lives.”
Over the past two years, global events have affected the supply of critical materials that are required to keep the aftermarket industry in business. Steve Leal advises how shops can prepare for the inevitable.
BY STEVE LEAL, PRESIDENT & CEO OF FIX NETWORK WORLDThe ongoing supply chain disruption is proving to be a real test of nerves. While the aftermarket industry was largely resilient to the economic uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the ensuing after-effects are now proving to be major headaches for the industry, and it is unlikely that a long-term solution will be found any time soon.
Concerns about the global supply chain disruptions, rising logistical costs, unprecedented consumer demand, and ongoing turmoil in the markets providing critical raw materials for automotive components were for long being whispered in industry circles. Over time, those whispers have only become louder.
The automotive aftermarket industry sources raw materials for components and other critical items from different countries. Over time, that supply has been squeezed, leading to longer delays. For example, the difficulty in procuring a semiconductor chip (typically costs between $5 and $15) has brought the automotive industry to its knees. The same is the situation with almost everything associated with the business – from EV batteries to paint solutions, from urethane for windshields to sheet metal and other parts for electrical components.
In its latest Fall 2022 “State of the Industry” Report, released last week, the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) points out that inflation and supply chain issues are raising costs for the industry. SEMA’s survey of more than 1,900 industry stakeholders concluded that there hasn’t been any significant drop in business despite the current operating climate.
I share your concern about the ongoing business environment – almost everyone has been affected in some way or the other. The silver lining though is that there are important discussions taking place to resolve the issue. I am talking about industry-wide engagement among everyone who has a stake in the aftermarket industry – from parts suppliers to insurance providers, from paint manufacturers to lawmakers, industry bodies and body shops. Just about everyone is jumping in to find a long-term solution, rather than a temporary patchwork measure, so the customer is not ultimately inconvenienced.
Collision repair is a tough business, and shops always look to manage their operations efficiently, with minimum cost and maximum returns. As the industry looks for workable solutions, here are some ways how you can manage the current challenges for your shop:
Set realistic expectations on deadlines: Most customers are aware of the supply chain issues taking place around the world and understand your challenges. However, it’s best to advise them about impending delays if you are waiting on spare parts or any specialty items.
Train your staff: Customer service teams – the first point of contact with the customer – should be trained with the right relationship management skills and be as transparent as possible with clients to give them a complete picture of the situation. The teams should be trained to understand the client requirements and always communicate clearly, especially if there are any foreseeable delays.
Collaborate closely: This will also be a good time for you to work proactively with your team and with suppliers to address immediate priorities. Engage with multiple suppliers if necessary.
Monitor the situation regularly: There is no clear picture of when the situation will improve but it’s best to look at the ongoing trends and developments with advice from your peers or organizations like Fix Network, to understand any developments that may impact your business.
Order efficiently: This will be perhaps the right time for you to combine cost-efficiency with profitability. Ensure that you have enough of the right components, accessories and materials, without the risk of over-stocking. Having more items in your inventory than necessary may leave you burdened with items that you don’t need when the situation improves.
I believe strongly that we can survive the current setbacks. All we need to do is stay the course and persevere for the longer-term gains.
Steve Leal is the President & CEO of Fix Network World, the leading global automotive aftermarket services network which includes ProColor Collision. The family of brands spans more than 2,000 points of service internationally.
Let me just get straight to my opinion: I don’t particularly care for all of these parts pro grams. There are a handful of them out there now and most of the time I feel like all they do is cause me a headache and more frustration. I understand they are supposed to save me time and money, but are they really doing that? Most of the time it just feels like they are over promising and underperforming.
I go in phases of trying to use them, thinking that they will save me money and I’ll be able to price match all of my aftermarket parts prices and get all OEM parts. It never seems to be the case though, and then I get frustrated and stop using the pro grams. I’m just coming off of one of those cycles now.
I recently decided I was going to give these parts programs another try, hoping they had improved since the last time we had used them. I logged back into the three main programs I was already set up with and used them for two weeks straight instead of using electronic ordering through my management software. I felt like two weeks’ worth of vehicles would give me a good grouping of repair orders to test out.
The main thing I found that I liked was being able to select all of the parts and vendors I wanted to order from and send in one electronic order for everything. I also liked that sometimes we got slightly better pric es on parts, but it was really not that often because we already have really good discounts with our vendors.
Now, the list of what I did not like about the pro grams is very long. Some of the programs couldn’t import the estimates, causing us to manually key in parts, which wasted too much time. Some imported opportunities and estimates generated so many emails to us I was over using the program in the first two days. I didn’t like that on most of the programs, once I received the parts quotes back, I couldn’t see the prices I was being paid for on those parts from my estimate. That caused us to pull up the estimate in our management software or print the estimate so we could compare what we were being paid ver sus what prices they were offering us. This caused more work than I think we should have to be doing to use some of these programs.
One program was great at price matching, but it was price matching the list price I was being paid on the estimate and not price matching my cost. It wasn’t saving me any money and most of the time it would have cost me money if I had ordered the parts. Anoth er program wanted me to go in and alter my estimate to list everything as aftermarket parts and then lower the price on everything, as a best practice, before I ex ported my estimate to their software. This was a huge time waster for us, just to try to save a few dollars.
My biggest issue was none of the programs had a way to import what we had ordered through them back into my management software. One was able to import notes and place it on the line item for that part. None of them though were able to import into my parts tab for my management software and list those parts as ordered and where they were or dered from. If we wanted to track our parts in our estimating software, which we pay a lot of money each month for, we had to go in and manually en ter everything. We would have to toggle back and forth between screens or print the parts order to then key it in our software, more time added to ev erything we are already doing.
After two weeks I was over using the programs and went back to electronically ordering through our management software. We are able to order fast with the electronic ordering and it marks where we ordered them from right when we order, not mak ing us do more steps. I’ve also requested that all of my vendors that I order electronically from have set up the electronic invoices. That way when the parts get to the shop, and we go to check them in, the elec tronic invoice pulls up and we select which invoice we are checking in and everything gets pre-populat ed with all the details of the invoice we have in hand. We just have to mark off how we paid for the invoice. It saves us a ton of time when checking in parts.
I know everyone says they get better prices through these parts programs, but I didn’t see that. I’ve made an effort to negotiate my discounts through my vendors each year and for the most part my discounts were the same if not better most of the time. I also attribute that to the fact that we try to go out and see most of our vendors a couple times out of the year and bring them goodies and just check on them. We found it really helps us get the best prices and services with our vendors.
We did save some money here and there on parts, but it wasn’t a significant amount. What it did do though was increase the time and effort my team spent on parts ordering and tracking. If I weigh how much more time my team spent on using the parts programs and how much I pay them, then the little money I saved was wiped out. Ultimately, for my shop I felt the benefits from using the parts programs did not outweigh the drawbacks. My advice is do what works best for your shop but don’t just listen to these parts companies or me. Test things out and see what works the best for your shop and what is the most ef ficient way for you to order parts and make the most money. Also, never forget to account for how much money your employees’ time is costing you.
TIFFANY MENEFEE has more than 20 years experience in the insurance business and now runs a collision repair shop in El Paso, Texas.
EMAIL: tiffanykaymenefee@gmail.com
ARCHIVE: fenderbender.com/menefee
Allen Iverson was 5 feet, 11 inches tall and yet one of the most feared opponents in the NBA. I’m not a basketball fan by any stretch, in fact I haven’t watched a game in 10 years. But when Allen Iver son played, I found myself watching. How was he so competitive in a sport where size does matter? He had the indispensable gift of blazing speed. Jackie Robinson possessed blazing speed so hard to ignore he changed the social fabric of baseball. And due to their ability to run faster than the rest, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders each excelled in both the NFL and MLB.
I could continue citing example after example of how speed is indispensable in many other areas of life, but the one I want to dig into is the speed with which a vehicle is repaired. I attended a 20 Group meeting in 2004 and wrote a simple state ment down on a ripped piece of paper that became the driving force behind most of my decisions over the last 20 years. That statement helped our com pany make several moves that kept us competitive in a hotly contested market. The statement is this: “In business, the big will not eat the small, the fast will eat the slow.” I can think back to several in stances where I was concerned we would lose mar ket share to another competitor for one reason or another. And then I would think back to that state ment and realize no one was in control of how fast we repaired a vehicle.
If you are alive in the collision industry, then you’ve surely uttered the words that our labor rates are too low. And no doubt they are. But when you are getting 30 hours to repair a vehicle and can get it completed in 15 hours, the actual labor rate is far greater than the paid rate. Let’s say X insurance company gives you $50/hour, in that scenario you are technically getting paid $100/ hour since you completed the repair in half the time, assuming you work in an hourly environ ment. You possess the ability to give you and your staff a rate increase, just by getting faster.
Have you had trouble finding people to hire? Sorry, I know that is a rhetorical question. Find ing ways to repair a vehicle faster allows you to get more work done with less people. I’ve writ ten before about how the first time we achieved $2 million in sales we had a staff of 14. The next time we hit $2 million in sales, two years later, we had a staff of nine. The first year we hit that sales goal was when we started getting serious
about implementing processes into our com pany. The more processes we had, the faster we fixed a vehicle, which increased our sales. And two years later we hit it again, with a huge reduc tion in staff. Finding more bodies is the difficult way to get more vehicles repaired and increase sales. Implementing processes is the more prof itable, and far easier, way to increase sales.
I believe one of the ways to set your company up for future success is to repair vehicles with better quality than anyone else. Top craftsman ship has been valued by every stakeholder in the industry for years. So, what about the argument that quality and speed can’t go hand in hand? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that if you speed up the process the quality will go down. I have found that exact opposite to be true. Today’s vehicles are built in a way that cutting corners in repairs only slows you down, once you have to go back and fix what wasn’t done properly the first time and is now causing fitment issues, dash lights, etc.
One of the reasons we are slow at repairing vehicles in our industry is from starting and stopping so many times. How many techs have told you they could do a better job on the repair if they didn’t have to get interrupted so many times by switching back and forth from one vehicle to another? Starting to repair a vehicle with all the parts and all the OE procedures al lows a tech to do their job uninterrupted which almost always results in a higher quality repair that takes less time to do.
The easiest way to get faster at repairing ve hicles, and I’m talking Allen Iverson fast, is to do the necessary prep work at the beginning of the process. Partnering OE procedure research with a complete disassembly will eliminate so many hurdles in the repair. Organizing equipment, materials, and tools will help everyone find what they need when they need it. Both of these steps will also reduce stress on your workforce, which will positively impact how quickly they do their job. And a less stressful environment typically equates to a higher retention rate.
Regardless of which struggle you are cur rently facing, remember that speed will almost always be your best offense to overcome that struggle. Remember, in business, the big will not eat the small, the fast will eat the slow.
JASON BOGGS ran Boggs
Auto Collision Rebuilders in Woodbury, N.J., for nearly 25 years. He has attended the Disney Institute and Discover Leadership, and has studied lean manufacturing processes.
EMAIL: jason@boggsauto.com
ARCHIVE: fenderbender.com/boggs
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