The tactics used by the insurance companies to outsmart us never cease to amaze me. They have us processing their claims for free. They've figured out how to control our labor rates and dictate the way we repair vehicles. Now we are being asked to pay rental bills. 

Amaradio

I'm not anti-insurance company but I am anti-bully. When I was a kid there was this guy who just kept picking on me. Because he intimidated me, I always laughed it off and pretended that I thought he was joking - although I knew he was not. For a couple of years he pestered me and I continued to take it, even though I wouldn't take it from anyone else.

Deep down inside I knew there would be a day of reckoning. Something was building inside of me that the kid knew nothing about. He couldn't see the effect his bullying was having on me, but I knew his day was coming.

Each time he pricked my pride, I became a little less intimidated and a lot angrier, until finally I was ready to stand up to him. One day he came up to me and started picking on me as usual, Though I acted like it was all a big joke, this time was different. I was ready, I'd had enough. I waited for him to let his guard down and, while he was looking toward his friend and laughing, I sucker punched him so hard it knocked him to the ground; I jumped on top of him and never stopped punching. I beat him up that day and he never bothered me again.

When my anger overtook fear, he was powerless over me. I just didn't care. I won a fight with a bully who thought because he was bigger, he had the right to push me around.

Grown-up bullies

As adults, it feels like shop owners are being bullied by the insurance companies. As with the schoolyard bully, we take it because we are afraid of losing their work. Like addicts, we will pay anything for more cars. Just like the bully I dealt with as a kid, the insurance companies will never stop pushing us around until we stand up to them.

Cycle time has become a major issue. In my opinion, the formula used by insurers is only intended to make us pay for another portion of their costs - rental charges.

What about the free stuff we already do? Where is this calculated into the cycle time? What about the extra two hours it takes for detailing? In our shop, we spend more than two hours detailing every hard hit vehicle. Shouldn't we get a cycle time credit for time spent even though we are not charging for it? What if we credit ourselves one hour for photographing and documenting a vehicle or an hour every time we have to take two employees to transport a vehicle to a local dealer or sublet vendor? What about test drives? Part searches? All of these things take time and are a legitimate part of cycle time that for which we deserve credit.