Tech's view of the future

"Clearly, the dumbing-down of the collision industry began when insurers weeded out from their appraisers those with collision repair experience, replacing them with educated, though inexperienced, appraisers. But I think the next phase of dumbing-down began when large chains such as Sterling and other consolidators implemented the production-line style of production in their shops. Trim-boy R&Is trim for $7/hour. Mud-boy slaps on bondo for $8/hour. The only guys remaining in the shop with skills will be the frame and paint techs. But how long will that last? It's just a matter of time before the new hires come in at $6/clock hour, and train for trim-boy's job, while structure-boy learns frame repair. Structure-boy will make $10/clock hour when he proves himself on the frame machine. Then the frame tech's position at $17/hour will be eliminated. If these shops are even remotely successful in converting the collision repair process to an assembly line production, the word 'skill' will no longer apply to collision repair technicians. We will be nothing more than expendable factory workers who should be glad to even have a job. This conversion will remove the value of our skills because there will be less skills involved in each individual step of the repair process. As the value of our skills is removed, I expect the skilled techs to leave the industry at a much higher rate than we've ever seen. Just as McBurger Thing isn't getting any top chefs in their kitchen, McSterling and its equivalents won't have top talent on their assembly lines. Whether the corporate know-it-alls will admit it or not, the quality of repairs will suffer far more than it does now." (a well respected tech's view of techs' future)

Told you so

"One refreshing piece of news was a short discussion with an old enemy (he was at one time heavy into DRP). He told me I would be proud of him because since his shop had tossed all their DRPs, profits now were up 21%. I could have told him that if he wasn't so stupid ten years ago." (comment of shop owner)

Who benefits?

"The customer told me the insurer's appraiser had told him that our shop was very expensive and his truck would probably not 'total' if it was fixed at one of their DRP shops. The customer responded that 'if' he has his car repaired, our shop would be doing the repairs. He told the appraiser he had been down the 'insurer-recommended' road, and the repairs were horrible. They subsequently declared his car a total, but our shop made more money on storage and tear-down than we would have if we had repaired it." (shop owner)

Don't try that again

"A Hartford appraiser told a previous customer that our shop didn't have the required equipment to repair his Mercedes. In fact, the appraiser knew we had the needed equipment, and that we were the only one who actually used the manufacturer recommended paint system. When the insurer talked the customer into using the insurer-recommended shop, the repair took almost three months. The work was so bad he ended up selling his car immediately. I confronted the Hartford appraiser and told him I intended to put all my equipment on a part of his body 'where the son doesn't shine' if he ever tried this kind of trick again." (shop owner)

Cost shifting or fraud

"I have had techs apply at my shop that tell of having worked for (a well known multi-shop repairer in Dallas, Texas), telling me that (this shop) is taking, say, an $8K insurer-generated estimate and rewriting it for, say, $6K, and telling the collision techs to fix the car for that amount. Then, a portion of the money left over from the (money laundering) is rebated to the insurer for being on their DRP program. This repairer is offering kickbacks, and paying managers of several insurance companies, and no one does anything about it. And that's just the start." (frustrated Dallas shop owner)