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"It's no secret that our trade's in trouble," said Alan
Evans of Rockwall Ford Collision Center. "No enough young people are
coming into the trade, and soon we won't have trained techs to replace
those who retire. You can always find bodies to put in stalls, but that
won't result in quality work." And quality work is what Rockwall Ford
Collision Center is all about. With a brand new 16,000 sq ft facility
and all the latest equipment, Rockwall is poised to take advantage of
its location in a fast-growing Dallas suburb.
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| The 16,000 sq ft facility is brand new and ready to grow. |
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| Shop manager Alan Evans (L) and estimator Antonio Sanchez. |
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Vehicles wait their turn in the paint shop. A second spary booth is planned.
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At A Glance
Rockwall Ford Lincoln Mercury & Dodge Collision Center
990 Interstate 30
Rockwall, Texas 75149
Phone: (972) 290-2238
Fax: (972) 290-2292
Shop Manager: Alan Evans
Employees: 10
Annual Volume: $1.3 million
Size: 16,000 sq. ft. new construction
Equipment:
--Shark electronic measuring system;
--Kansas Jack/Black Hawk Frame machine with 3 Kansas Jack floor bench anchoring systems.
-- Blowtherm down draft paint booth ( a second booth is planned).
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Evans, who 21 years ago started as
a painter after finishing a high school vo-tech program, ran a wrecker
service and served as an estimator and shop manager at several
dealerships before joining Rockwall one year ago. Rockwall Ford's
owner, the Gene Messer Group/Group 1 Automotive, completely replaced
the 35 year-old Ford and Mercury facility and then built a new Dodge
dealership across the street to serve fast growing Rockwall County, an
area that just a few years ago was considered rural. "Both our general
manager, Rando Ammons, and the fixed operations manager, Kevin Renner,
are committed to making the collision center a major profit center.
They've made a major investment in the latest equipment and they
support my efforts to have the best trained team in Dallas. To them, if
the quality work is there, the profits will follow."
Dealerships provide referral business
The
two dealerships provide a steady stream of collision work. "You've got
a certain type of customer that always brings their car back to the
dealer, and that's important to us. Right now, most of the DRP
contracts in this area are held by a large Chevrolet dealer body shop,
so we can't depend just on DRP work to grow the business," Evans
explained. "We're now on State Farm's Service First program, and we
handle Hartford's work and a have a couple fleet accounts. I'm also
expecting to sign-on with another quality-oriented DRP program shortly."
Evans gives both State Farm and
Hartford high grades for being concerned with quality work and not
asking the shop to cut corners. And while he's worked successfully with
Allstate's PRO program in the past, he views that company's recent
moves with skepticism. "I know they've recently canceled DRP contracts
with several major dealer body shops in Dallas. Some of those shops
were told they had too many above-average estimates. I mean, it's not
like the shop can control how many heavy hits it gets in a month. What
are you going to do - tell the customer to 'come back next month, I've
already taken in too many heavy hits this month'?" He suspects that the
real reason is to prepare for the opening of Allstate's own Sterling
Collision Centers in the Dallas market.
The
shop's nagging insurance problem is getting insurers to pay for enough
frame repair time. "We do a lot of big pickups, and setting up the
anchoring system to pull them takes a lot more time than on a unibody
car," said Evans. "Too many insurers won't recognize that." He also
noted that getting paid enough for blending within a panel is still a
problem, despite efforts by industry groups such as ASA and the
Collision Industry Conference to define standards for panel blending.
In
the last year, the business has grown from $885,000 a year to $1.3
million, employing a staff of ten including an estimator, Antonio
Sanchez, and a shop foreman, Rudy Fajardo, who supervises four metal
men, two people in the paint department and a porter. Shop manager
Evans, who as a kid "was always working on somebody's car," still
pitches in on mechanical troubleshooting. The shop is working toward
I-CAR Gold Class status in 2002. Presently, 80% of the staff is I-Car
certified.
Recycled parts usage increases
Despite
being a dealer body shop manager, Rockwall Ford makes appropriate use
of salvage parts. "Sure, we'd like to use all new OEM parts, who
wouldn't, but that's not practical," said Evans. "Used OEM parts have
their place in body repair. We're using more now because insurers say
the first option is to repair the part, and the second is to find a
good used part before going to new OEM. I would much rather use a
recyled OEM part than an aftermarket part."
Evans
has dealt with American Auto Salvage of Dallas for many years, and
gives it high marks for service. "We've seen some drastic changes at
salvage companies. They are definitely getting better. The good ones,
like American, now belong to groups (like Part Source of Texas)
where, if they don't have the part you need, they can get it for you
from another yard, usually overnight." Evans is especially impressed
with the Part Source of Texas policy on parts that need cleanup of
damage. "In most cases, they pay us our regular hourly rate to repair
the part so it's ready to go on the car. Try getting a new parts dealer
to pay the regular rate to fix a part that arrives dinged."
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