It seems as if many in the collision industry are sitting back, waiting for a magic formula that will produce a more profitable collision industry, free of problems. You are wrong! Change needs to start with each and every shop. A bunch of cheerleaders on the sidelines simply will not effect change. As scary as it is, shop owners need to lay it on the line.

        Right now, I have a bull’s eye on my back for standing up for myself. I’m willing to say what many others are thinking. But I’m not really a crusader – just a businessman with enough common sense to realize what must be done to run a profitable business.

        A few good men – and women – are willing to stand on the front lines, but where are the rest of you. There are over 53,000 body shops in the United States. There is strength in numbers. In spite of difficulties with the insurance companies, the real problem lies with the body shop owners themselves. When shops are willing to repair a vehicle for no profit at all, it affects everyone’s ability to do business profitably. Worse yet, those who cut corners to make a buck are just as wrong.

        Insurance companies do business by the numbers, and I respect that. They have, by and large, been responsive to any problem arising in my shop. But go against those numbers and see how fast the insurers come down on you. Have any of you ever built a total and had the insurance company look the other way? Quite the opposite is true. They want to set up a meeting with you immediately and make sure it never happens again. Insurers have no problem chewing us out if something we do results in a loss for them.

        Would you ever think of calling up an insurer and chewing out the company about something that you took a loss on? Absolutely not! We wouldn’t think of it, but we accept this as their normal business practice. We don’t seem to find this treatment unprofessional but simply a frugal fiscal practice.

        Again, I see the shops as the real problem. If you hit someone’s vehicle and request a repair quote so you can pay out of your pocket, would you want them to arbitrarily look for the highest priced shop? Of course not. When we are paying the bills, we see things from a different perspective. You might be tempted to accept the cheapest repair estimate as long as your liability to them was satisfied.

        The insurer’s job is to mitigate the loss and keep costs down for the consumer – its customer. If the claimant is uninformed and willing to accept less, this is not innately the insurer’s fault. It may seem a little deceptive but if the claimant indemnifies them of their liability then no crime has been committed. If shops are willing to agree to almost anything to get more cars, whose fault is it?

        As I’ve said many times before, it is imperative to evaluate your business practices before time runs out. The time for action is now. For example, paint costs have been illegally capped for years. The Department of Insurance has backed up the repairers in declaring this practice to be illegal. But shops need to stand up for their rights by demanding that insurance companies operate within the law. Shop owners have offered up too many freebees and need to get back to charging reasonable rates for the quality work they do. Lawnmower mechanics charge more per hour than most body shops.