John Yoswick (148)
John Yoswick is an automotive freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has been writing about the collision industry since 1988. He has a body shop in the family and is the editor of the weekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com).
He can be contacted by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
CIC Discussion Draws Distinction Between ‘Repair Standards’ and Shop ‘Business Standards’
Written by John YoswickTo view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.
The most recent discussion of industry “standards” at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) centered around the differences between “repair standards” and “business standards,” and whether either one—or both—are needed, and whether some organization is needed to implement them.
Based on a “repairer-only” meeting the night before the CIC discussion in Palm Springs, CA, a number of CIC attendees reiterated that repairer organizations have already declared that OEM repair procedures are the industry’s standards for repair, and that I-CAR has agreed to work with the automakers to fill in the “gaps” where no such procedures exist.
Action on Insurer ‘Most-Favored Nation’ Clauses May be on the Horizon
Written by John YoswickTo view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.
A key element of some direct repair program (DRP) contracts is indirectly coming under increasing scrutiny by federal regulators—leading some to predict insurer pricing demands on shops soon may be forced to change.
The contract clause in question is often referred to as the “most-favored nation” clause in that it requires a supplier—such as a body shop—to provide the buyer with which it has a contract such as an insurer—with the same pricing it offers its “best” or “most-favored” customer.
Advocate of Collision Industry Standards in the U.K. Sees Need for Them Here
Written by John YoswickTo view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.
Include Mike Monaghan as among the proponents of the benefits of collision repair industry standards. What effect did he see such standards having in the United Kingdom?
“The bad repairers went away. The incompetent and inefficient and illegal repairers went away,” Monaghan said. “The insurance carriers got more integrity, better safety, better customer service. They got better value from their supply chain.”
Monaghan spoke at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) in Las Vegas in November. As a three-shop operator in the United Kingdom in 1988, he said was discouraged with having to compete with other repairers that he didn’t feel had made the investment he had in equipment and training. He wrote a white paper outlining what he felt a “good shop looked like,” and over the course of three years helped craft one of the first set of collision repair standards in the U.K.
NACE Keynote Speech Focuses on Thinking about Business
Written by John YoswickTo view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.
During his keynote address at the 2012 International Autobody Congress & Exposition (NACE) in New Orelans, LA, last month, former CARSTAR CEO Dick Cross offered his corollary to a Mahatma Gandhi quote by telling a crowd of 800 attendees, “A business is but the product of the CEO’s thoughts. What she thinks, it becomes.”
It’s a concept NACE organizers themselves may need to keep in mind as they acknowledged that while this year’s show offered “some big wins,” it also was down slightly in terms of both exhibitors and attendees.
Twenty minutes, three times a week
Cross kicked off the event by saying that although the business successes that he’s had that were cited in his introduction are true, his career has not been a “charmed path.”
Shops Can Put News, Trends Related to Insurers to Good Use
Written by John YoswickTo view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.
It’s easy as a shop owner to get so caught up in day-to-day operations that it can be a challenge to follow the news directly affecting collision repairers.
But there’s plenty of “insurance-related” news that shops also should know about, because it can help them educate their customers, market their business, and maybe even alter how they vote or shop for insurance themselves.
Loyalty doesn’t always pay. Have a customer with an insurer you’d rather not work with? You might want to tell them about a new study that found that a policyholder who stays with the same auto insurance company for more than eight years could save 19 percent on annual premiums by switching.
“Consumers must shop their policies to ensure they aren’t overpaying for insurance,” Deeia Beck of the Texas-based Office of Public Insurance Counsel (OPIC), said.
Information Providers Assure They Have Privacy Issues Handled
Written by John YoswickTo view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.
One by one this past spring, a panel of repairers at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) voiced their concerns about the privacy of their shop’s estimating and other data, and expressed a desire to “opt out” of having that data compiled and reported on by the Big Three information providers.
But Audatex, CCC Information Service and Mitchell International have now responded to that concern by essentially saying it’s not something shops need to be concerned about.
The formal responses came in a somewhat delayed fashion to a formal question posed to them in January by three national repairer groups.
Non-OEM Parts Industry Meets to Discuss Patent Law Change
Written by John YoswickNon-OEM versions of many more vehicle parts could be manufactured and available much sooner after a new vehicle model is introduced if backers of proposed changes to federal patent laws are successful.
An update on the legislation being pushed by the Quality Parts Coalition (QPC) was among the topics at the recent Automotive Body Parts Association (ABPA) convention, held in Vancouver, British Columbia.
To view a pdf file of this article with photos, please click HERE
SCRS Meeting Discusses Insurance Regulation, State Farm
Written by John YoswickState Farm’s PartsTrader program, the use of shops’ estimating and other data, and how one state regulator oversees auto insurers, were among the topics at a recent board meeting of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS).
To view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.
A number of participants at the meeting held on April 24 in Oklahoma City, OK, wore large buttons opposing “data mining” by the “Big Three” information providers, indicating they wanted the ability to “opt out” of having their shop estimating data aggregated and used or sold. The buttons were part of the follow-up to a joint statement that SCRS and two other trade associations sent in January to CCC Information Services, Mitchell and Audatex, voicing concern about collection and use of shop data.
Shops and Insurers Discuss Indemnification in DRP Contracts
Written by John YoswickShould repairers be held solely responsible if a repair process or part they choose fails—even if that process or part was chosen at the behest of an insurer?
That was one of the questions at the heart of a panel discussion on “indemnification” at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) held in Oklahoma City in late April.
To view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.
Standards Program in the UK Offers Lessons for the U.S.
Written by John YoswickAs the discussion of how and whether the industry should develop some sort of formalized collision repair standards continues, Paul Gange brings a somewhat unique perspective on the topic.
Gange is the president and chief operating officer of Fix Auto USA, which has 48 franchise locations in four U.S. states, as well as 151 shops around the country using the company’s services as part of a more loosely-knit “network.”
But Fix Auto also has a similar organization in the United Kingdom, with 68 franchises in a market that has implemented a repair standards program that is most often mentioned as a potential model for one in the United States.
To read or download this article as a PDF with photos click HERE
‘Standards’ Replace Non-OEM Parts as Focus of Debate at Latest CIC
Written by John YoswickA report at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) on the findings of a study into what consensus exists within the industry about the development and implementation of formalized repair standards led to as much discussion about the value and validity of the study as it did to discussion of standards themselves.
To view a PDF of this article please click HERE.
“I do believe this has set us backward instead of forward,” Dusty Womble of Roger Beasley Collision Center in Austin, Texas, said of the study. “I’m sorry, but honestly, I don’t see any value in the research that has been done.”
But Massachusetts shop owner Chuck Sulkala—who has not participated on the committee that organized the study but was one of those interviewed by the consultant conducting the research—said some at CIC were incorrectly presuming that the committee was trying to make more of the report than it was.
“Some of the conversations here are getting us down into the weeds right now when I don’t think we’ve even gotten in the boat yet,” Sulkala said. “We’re still looking to see where the boat and lake is, to see what’s going on rather than trying to catch fish. I think we’re still in the very beginning stages.”
