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Page 2 of 3 Motor Information Services, which provides the estimating database used by CCC, was the only company to provide this information, Anderson said. Motor said 19 percent of its basecoat paint time is for basecoat application; another 7 percent of the time is for application of primer/sealer. "So the only thing that should be decreased when you're modifying or manually changing paint time would be the basecoat and sealer time," Anderson said. He cited a hypothetical refinish labor time of 6 units. Twenty-six percent of that time (19 percent for basecoat application and 7 percent for primer/sealer) would be 1.6 units. "If you were going to decrease anything, then the most you should decrease that would be 50 percent of the 1.6 units, or .8 units, not 50 percent of the entire 6 units of labor," Anderson said. If a shop received a printed estimate written in an estimating system the shop doesn't have, the only way to know that refinish time has been changed is to note the asterisk by the labor time. But even so, Anderson said, the shop has no way of knowing what the original labor time was if they don't have that estimating system, so there is no way to audit how significant a change has been made. So will the estimating system providers adjust their systems so that a printed estimate with an adjusted labor time will indicate what degree of change has been made. "We've identified the need to provide an auditing type system," Tom Fleming of Mitchell International, said. "That's one of our priorities." "At Audatex, we also embrace that," the company's Scott Jenkins said. Bruce Yungkans of CCC Information Services also said he'd noted the committee's request for this auditing information. One other related finding from the INSIGHT survey of shops about manual changes in refinish labor times: Nearly two-thirds of shops said they are "sometimes" successful in requesting full refinish time when such a time has been change. Twenty-five percent of shops said they are not. Bills would require total loss database Also at CIC in Las Vegas, David Regan, vice president of legislative affairs for the National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA), explained that his organization is among those supporting proposed federal legislation that would require insurers to place into public domain the VINs of all vehicles they declare total losses. The Damaged Vehicle Information Act (HR 6093), as well as a similar bill in the U.S. Senate (S 3707), requires the insurers to make the information available in publicly-searchable databases, such as those operated by Carfax or Experian. The information required would include VIN and odometer information; an indication of whether the vehicle's air bags were deployed; and a brief statement on why the vehicle became a total loss (such as flood or fire damage, theft recovery or collision) "We are not seeking disclosure of repair information," Regan said. "Vehicles that are not eclared a total and that are repaired and back out on the road are not part of this legislative initiative. Just those declared a total loss." The system, he said, would not change any aspects of state laws regarding titling of total loss vehicles, but would give anyone purchasing a vehicle more accurate information on its background, Regan said. The Automotive Service Association (ASA) and the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) also are urging their members to voice support for the bills. "The insurance industry is not officially opposed to this legislation," Regan said. "But we have very little doubt that they have serious concerns about the bill." John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988. |
