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Ray Gunder, His Attorney Brent Geohagan and Consultant, Barrett Smith have been asked to present an encore presentation of their Legal Seminar to Georgia repairers. The main thrust of this seminar will be untying “The Ties That Bind” and avoiding unnecessary liabilities while being properly compensated.

Barrett Smith of Auto Damage Experts (ADE) stated; “The seminar we had recently in Lakeland Florida was a great success and we are excited at the opportunity to meet with repairers in the great state of Georgia. We’ve learned that some who attended the Florida program will be attending this one as well.”

The Georgia Collision Industry Association (GCIA) will be presenting the seminar and making it available to both members and non-members at a very reasonable fee. Mr. Gregg Goff of FinishMaster, who is assisting in arranging the event stated: “The meeting place only has space for 60 to 65 people. Seats are filling up fast so you are encouraged to sign up soon or you may miss out”. To register visit: http://gcia.org/training/legal-seminar/

Gregg can be reached at:

Cell – (770)367-9870

Fax – (678)840-3465

Email – This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Start: June 23, 2012 10:00 am

Lunch: Lunch will be provided

End: June 23, 2012 4:00 pm

Cost: $25.00 (member) $35 (non-member)

Location: MAADA Training Headquarters

Metro Atlanta Auto Dealer’s Association

440 Interstate North Parkway SE, Atlanta, GA, 30339, United States

The impact of a tough economy has totaled a number of North Bay automobile body repair shops, but it hasn’t seriously dented growth plans for G&C AutoBody, which has about doubled its number of locations in the past few years.

to read article go HERE

A proposal to allow auto body shops to sue insurance companies that do not pay them what they believe they should be compensated for repairs generated a fiery, hour-long debate on the floor of the state House of Representatives on June 11.

Supporters, including Rep. Stephen Ucci, a Johnston Democrat and the bill's sponsor, repeated the mantra that the bill would "level the playing field" between local auto body shops and auto insurance companies and ultimately be good for Rhode Island drivers.

But other lawmakers voiced concern that the proposal would only lead to higher auto insurance rates in Rhode Island, which already has among the highest rates in the nation.

Rep. Robert Watson, R-East Greenwich, called the proposal "special interest legislation" put together "on the fly."

"This is why we deserve criticism," he said. "Nonsense like this plays out in the final days of the session. This is wrong."

The bill ultimately passed the 75-member chamber on a vote of 38 in favor and 20 against.

Ron Hurst has been in the auto body business in some fashion since he was young. The former Swan Hose worker started in 1993.

"Either painting or fixing cars," Hurst said.

He opened Hurst Auto Body three years ago at 3617 Ohio 4 . He already owned Kelly's Paint Store, now at that location.

"I enjoy working with people," Hurst said. "I also enjoy taking something all mangled up and making it like brand new again."

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The Automotive Service Association (ASA) has announced a strategic partnership with Fix Auto USA that will give ASA member shops access to Fix Auto’s Collision Repair Experts (CRX) program.

CRX, a division of Fix Auto USA, provides collision repair shops with a suite of customizable marketing, office support and operational tools to streamline processes, promote consistent performance and increase revenue, ASA said.

Fix Auto’s CRX program, which currently has 135 members throughout the U.S., includes the following offerings:

• Group reporting on market performance and trends measurement
• Shop performance reporting and baselining
• Employee reporting and employee accountability reinforcement
• Call center support
• Marketing solutions, including online appointment scheduling and shop-specific search engine optimized Web pages on collisionrepairexperts.com
• Real-time customer follow-up during and after repairs

“ASA is happy to be able to offer our members this platform as an option to enhance their success. It not only has the potential to lead consumers to their door through multiple marketing tools, the benchmarking features of the CRX product will help our collision repair members understand their business at a statistical and comparative level,” said Ron Pyle president and CEO of ASA.

“Collision Repair Experts gives the body shop a set of tools and services usually associated with large corporate infrastructures, and it does so at a fraction of the price,” said Richard Pannazzo, director of sales and field operations for Fix Auto USA. “We’re excited to offer our CRX tools and services to ASA members, and look forward to a long, mutually beneficial partnership with the organization.”

For more information, or to register for the CRX program, visit collisionrepairexperts.com.

Summit Software and Marketing Solutions has announced the addition of an unsold estimate sales, follow up and communications service to its e-MarketPlace platform.

According to Summit, this service allows collision shops of any size to implement automated sales follow up communications using email, text messaging and/or phone app communications to increase closing ratios and sales.

Frank Terlep, CEO and "Lead Sherpa" for Summit commented, “Based on industry statistics, more than 30 percent of consumers that drive into an auto body shop for an estimate do not immediately agree to have their vehicle repaired. Most shops don't have the time or resources to call every unsold estimate. Secondly, in today’s world it’s difficult to connect with busy consumers via a phone call. Our e-MarketPlace unsold estimate sales and follow up service uses email, text messages and in-app communications to automate the entire unsold estimate process.”

Terlep continued, “Shops with $1.0 to $3.0 million in annual sales and a 70% closing ratio lose sales opportunities worth $299,000 to $900,000 a year respectively. It is proven that sales is a numbers game, and by simply following up with an email, text or an in-app communications to every unsold estimate we can improve a shop’s closing ratio by 2 to 15 percent.”

For more information, please contact Frank Terlep at 888-377-2661 ext. 110 or via email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can also visit the e-Marketing Sherpa’s website at emarketingsherpas.com.

CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts has added eight new independent collision repair centers to its network in 2012, including the company’s first two locations in California.

CARSTAR said its new shop locations include the following:

• CARSTAR Grove Collision Center in Lemon Grove, Calif., owned by Michael French
• Crown Coachworks CARSTAR Auto Body in Los Angeles, owned by Jacob Dunkel
• Tyler’s CARSTAR Collision Center in Niles, Mich., owned by Scott and Chris Tyler
• Preferred Collision CARSTAR in Macon, Ga., owned by Walter Lee
• Memorial CARSTAR Collision in Houston, owned by Elias Michalopoulos
• CARSTAR Magic Auto Solutions in Redmond, Wash., owned by Gabriela Amaral
• CARSTAR Bothell Auto Rebuild in Bothell, Wash., owned by Kevin Parsons
• CARSTAR 911 Auto Centers in San Antonio, owned by Martin Gutierrez

CARSTAR operates more than 400 collision repair facilities throughout 31 U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces. The company said its new franchisees are now able to participate in the company’s 19 corporately managed direct repair programs (DRPs), and will have improved purchasing power through 45 corporately managed purchasing programs.

"We are extremely pleased to welcome these new members to the CARSTAR MSO network," said David Byers, CEO of CARSTAR. "They all run great businesses and have strong histories of quality customer service. We're looking forward to building their business together, helping local car owners get back on the road with fast, reliable collision repairs, and giving back to the community at the same time."

The Boyd Group Inc. (the "Boyd Group") announced June 4 the opening of a collision repair center in Orlando, Florida, which commenced operations on May 30, 2012 as well as the acquisition of another new location in Jessup, Maryland on May 25, 2012.

Both repair centers will operate under the Gerber Collision & Glass trade name. This brings the total number of U.S. locations in operation to 141 with two additional locations acquired, soon to be in operation.

The new Orlando repair center, originally acquired on March 22, 2012 and previously known as Leading Edge Collision, is approximately 10,000 square feet in size, with 6,500 square feet of production space.

Florida is a market Gerber first entered in January, and this latest center bolsters the number of locations operating in this market to nine locations. Orlando, the fifth largest city in Florida, is considered an attractive market by the company.

The new Jessup repair center, the eighth in Maryland, was previously known as ACI Auto Collision and is approximately 13,000 square feet in size, of which 11,000 square feet is production space.

The Jessup center will help to bridge the territory between our Laurel and Dundalk repair centers and better serve vehicle owners and insurance partners in this area.

"With the opening of these two repair centers, we continue to strengthen our presence in Florida and Maryland, and execute our growth strategy in North America," said Tim O'Day, President and COO of the Boyd Group's U.S. operations. "In addition to these two new openings, we recently closed our Redmond, Washington location and opened a new Redmond location with expanded repair capacity to enhance our ability to serve customers in this market."

The Automotive Service Association (ASA) issued another press release about State Farm's plan to mandate use of the PartsTrader parts bidding system, sharing the findings of ASA's research into the topic.

ASA reports that there were 17 Select Service shops in Birmingham, AL, that removed themselves from the program last month.

ASA also reports that shops in the 4-city pilot are experiencing an estimated 30 minutes a day of increased administrative costs. "PartsTrader states this is true with any new system, but that over time, it will be more efficient and save time," ASA states.

"PartsTrader intends to contract an independent study to validate this." ASA also said repairers are particularly concerned that the system allows State Farm to see the discounted manufacturers' standard retail price being offered by dealerships using the system. "State Farm was made aware of this during the pilot process and reports it is seeking ways to address this," ASA states.

The Automotive Service Association’s (ASA) Collision Division Operations Committee also conducted an interview with Rob Cooper, CEO of PartsTrader, as part of its fact-gathering research on State Farm Insurance’s new electronic parts bidding and ordering pilot program through PartsTrader.

The ASA said its interview questions were focused on addressing the supplier selection, order process and data privacy through the program.

During the interview, Cooper highlighted various improvements that will be made to the PartsTrader platform in the near future, including technology integration with various segments of the industry, automatic estimate updates, a two-way rating system for repairers and parts suppliers to rate one another, parts returns tracking, and proactive updates regarding changes to privacy policies. He also addressed the development of a fee structure for the program that will apply to participating suppliers.

Cooper stated the following (in part):

“PartsTrader LLC is a privately funded company with a private group of shareholders who are private-equity backed. No one has an interest in the supply chain of parts or insurance companies. PartsTrader LLC’s goal is to deliver a unique value proposition to the repair industry to increase the efficiency of the market with supply chain improvements and to make sure that it is a ‘win-win’ for both suppliers and repairers.

“PartsTrader LLC has been working with State Farm to build an application to support the State Farm parts initiative. During the process, consultation has occurred—and continues to occur—with various segments of the industry, including repairers, suppliers, dealers and recyclers.

“Previously, PartsTrader LLC developed a product in New Zealand for parts location, which is different from the ordering application being piloted in the United States. The New Zealand system is for parts location and has a cost element visible to the insurer. This is not the case in the United States. State Farm is not able to access the buy price or cost price.

“Typically 85 percent to 90 percent of the supplier choices made by repairers have chosen to participate by registering and agreeing to PartsTrader’s terms and conditions in the first three [test] markets. The exception is the Birmingham market where there has been less adoption based on circumstance.

“PartsTrader LLC is currently in process of building ability for repairers to ‘rate’ the suppliers based on suppliers professionalism, accuracy of the information provided by the supplier, delivery time, quality of the part, good faith negotiations and part returns. This is also restated on the PartsTrader LLC website at partstrader.us.com. PartsTrader LLC also has the ability for the suppliers to rate the buyers (shops).

“[Fee structure] analysis is currently underway and whatever the fee structure, it has to work for the industry. The fee structure will apply to the suppliers, always free to the repairers.

“I wanted to reiterate that it is our intent and desire to ensure that PartsTrader delivers positive outcomes to the collision repair industry. To that end we are very open to feedback, and would like to work with ASA and other stakeholders in a positive way so that we may learn and address concerns as they are raised.”

Autobody News will be publishing much more on this subject in our July issue.