Most all insurers and consolidators have discontinued reference to "pre-loss condition" to protect themselves from liability. A technician states, "When I first attended I-CAR classes in 1992 the phrase "pre-loss condition" was used probably 200 times or more in 8 classes. But last year when I attended several I-CAR classes, only once was the term used. Asking the instructor why, he admitted that he wasn't even supposed to say it that time. I-CAR told their instructors to stop using the term "pre-accident condition" because there is no such thing, unless, of course, you're referring to a car that has never been involved in an accident."

Wipe the phrase from your memory, your literature, and your speech, unless you are interested in attracting the attention of sharp attorneys interested in sending their kids to college on your tab, making you look like a fool, and turning your business into one more scrap of history. As the tech stated above, there is no such thing as "pre-accident/pre-loss condition," unless you're referring to a vehicle that has never been in an accident.

Set-up and measure

This is the ultimate "set-up." These two distinct technical operations always seem to get lumped together, like ham-n-eggs, though they are two separate operations. The obvious reason is that it takes less time estimating when you lump things together. But itemizing operations is generally more profitable for shops. I've seen shop and insurer-generated "estimates" that lump together "Set-up, measure, straighten and align…", and there is no doubt in my military mind that 99% of the time the shop is letting valuable dollars slip through its fingers, or cutting corners at the vehicle owner's expense, by working off of non-itemized estimates and work orders.

To start with, no shop should ever be working directly off of an insurer-generated estimate, as insurer representatives seldom have the best interests of the consumers or repairer in mind when they write their sheets. Something I learned years ago concerning shops accepting insurers' bottom line figure, even after supplement billing it sufficiently, is that when insurers agree on a figure with you, you or your true customer (the vehicle owner) have still come out on the short end of the compensation stick. I strongly suspect this is true almost every time.

Insurers haven't amassed the fortunes they have in their $3.5 trillion enterprise by letting money slip through their fingers. And they surely haven't made it all on collecting premiums; a sizeable chunk of their change came from you and me in not fully collecting for our services rendered, and parts and materials not sufficiently billed for. Never work directly off of insurer- generated estimates. Rather, before re-viewing an insurer-generated estimate (if you should choose even to look at it), write your own sheet including everything you need to return the vehicle "as close as humanly possible to pre-loss condition," regardless of what the insurer rep may or may not have included in his sheet. Besides potentially adversely influencing how you will carry out the repair and what parts and materials you will use, working off of insurer-generated estimates may get you into legal hot water. Remember that you, not the insurer rep, are the repair expert. You have the time-in-grade, the cuts, stains, sore muscles and smashed fingers - not the insurer rep (if you have any further doubts, look at his/her manicured hands).

Back to set-up and measure, one reason I seldom darken the doors of NACE any more is hearing the frame rack vendors there tell shop owners and insurer reps that their rack was so superior to the competition that the lowest paid person in the shop could do any set-up and measure on any vehicle is as little as 15 minutes, and collect for 2.5 hours, or whatever.

Interesting, but I've noticed that as vehicles have gotten increasingly more complicated, insurer-generated set-up and measure times have been increasingly shrinking, and often are figured as body labor, not frame labor. I wonder if insurers' exposure to NACE had anything to do with this? Itemize every item needed, and at your rates, to assure a full, safe and proper repair.

Dick Strom, Modern Collision Rebuild, 9270 Miller Road, NE, Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110; (206) 842-3621; e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it