Attendees at the 25th annual International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE) in Las Vegas in early November may not have known it, but they were witnessing the last NACE in its current form.

NACE organizers announced  that starting next year, NACE will be combined with the Congress of Automotive Repair (CARS), an event aimed at the mechanical repair segment that, like NACE, is sponsored by the Automotive Service Association (ASA). The two have been held the same week but at different hotels in Las Vegas for several years. In 2008, both events will be held concurrently at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Though each event will maintain its own “identity” – its own name and schedule of classes and programs – a joint trade show will include vendors from both the mechanical and collision sides of the automotive aftermarket. NACE organizers say vendors that sell only to collision or mechanical will be at different ends of the trade show, with a middle ground for companies that sell to both segments.

ASA is designating the week “Automotive Service & Repair Week,” although it will be still taking place during what is already called “Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week” in Las Vegas, when the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) and Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo (AAPEX) trade shows are also held.

The change appears to be a recognition that changes in the collision repair market have led to flat or declining numbers for NACE. NACE organizers said attendance was similar to last year (about 27,000), but the size of the trade show has declined each of the past three years, about a 25 percent drop since 2004 – and about a 43 percent decline since the show’s peak a decade ago.

Amberson offers view of industry

NACE Chairman Darrell Amberson, president of Lehman’s Garage, a six-location business based in Bloomington, Minnesota, kicked off the 2007 event’s opening session with a speech offering his laundry list of the key issues he believes the industry needs to address.

Amberson said the decrease in auto insurance claims and the increasing percentage of totals have helped fuel an “overcapacity” in the industry, with too many shops chasing too little work. That and a lack of unity in the industry have helped add to the imbalance in shop-insurer relationships, something Amberson said that some insurers have taken undue advantage of. The industry, he cited as one example, must have a more fair way of determining fair and equitable rates, and that government involvement in such issues – as is being discussed in some states – may not be something either side finds as the best solution, Amberson said.

An audience of about 1,600 NACE attendees gave Amberson his first applause during his address when he cited some flaws he sees in the estimating systems used in the industry and called for development of a long-term solution to the problems in the current estimating model.

In a change from many past NACE addresses, Amberson discussed how ASA is working with other associations to effect change, such as the development of the Database Enhanced Gateway (DEG). Created by ASA, the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) and the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers (AASP), the DEG will launch a website in December that will allow users to use one standardized online form to report concerns about an estimating system labor time in any of the estimating databases. The DEG will track and follow-up on such “requests for review,” posting responses and actions made by the estimating database providers on the website.