“We’ve used plastic inserts in liners for a long time. If it was galvanized or cheap steel it would corrode pretty quickly. “

Solvent waste has been something the shops have had to adapt to. “We still have a hazardous waste material hauler, a service provider, come by and take waste away. We’ve also had our booth filters VOC-content tested, but we found we’re able to deposit those as regular trash because they’re not hazardous waste. We did have to pay someone to verify that.

“It’s changed because in the past we could run our solvent or guns through a recycler and cook off the solvent and reduce the material to a very small mass we call hockey pucks kind of a pellet. Now that process only works for clearcoat and primers.

“We’re trying to be very frugal with how much waterborne we mix so there is much less waste in the first place. We’re mixing more accurately and using less, so now we’re looking at not just the number of panels we’re painting but its size also. We used to say OK, for a fender, door, and quarter panel we need to mix ‘X’ amount of paint. Now we ask if we need 10 g less basecoat because it’s a smaller car and we track it better.”

Morris explains about wholesale costs. The company is asking for increases from our insurance companies because Akzo has announced price increases between 6--8% across the board. That is in line with prior years. It is too soon to tell whether the insurers will comply but Morris has every expectation that they’ll do something for the shop. To what degree, is still and unknown.

Working with DRPs
“Working with DRPs can be a positive as long as you take it as a positive because with the DRP comes additional volume and that seems to be the biggest problem that we face today: do we have sufficient volume to stay in business?” continues Morris. “But with the DRP also comes a lot of accountability. You’re accountable for cost-containment. You’re accountable for the customer’s experience. You’re accountable for some very detailed processes that need to be followed and if you’re willing to assume that responsibility, then you can be successful. If you dislike the whole notion of giving up discounts for this volume and you buck the other accountabilities then you will not be successful and you’ll be miserable. There are surveys of DRP’s and their programs and some are on the A scale, some are on the B, and others really on the C minus scale and it becomes a business decision. Do you want to work with the DRP that’s aggressive on its cost control and requires a lot of administrative work. That’s a choice you make.

“We have opted out of some DRPs so it can be done. But you look at the volume you need to breakeven and maybe you look at a DRP that has a lot of constraints on work, but at least that additional profit puts me where I want to be. Find your most compliant employee and put him on the account, then you tolerate it.”

When asked how he expects business to be affected by a projected recession, Morris is optimistic. “I think we’ll be somewhat affected by the perception of a recession, or the potential for a recession, but we’re somewhat of a recession -business.

“There is discretionary spending on car repairs during a recession, and but there are certainly  going to be car repairs going on because people need their cars fixed. The leasing companies and the drivability of cars require these cars get fixed. We will see some impact; sales may even grow somewhat. Our goal is a 10% increase over last year and I’m pretty confident we can get that by adding some accounts and some credibility to our existing accounts. We want them to send Steve more work.