The Oregon Speaker of the House has introduced legislation (H.B. 2186) to prohibit the sale and distribution of aftermarket motor vehicle parts if alternatives are available that “decrease greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.” The bill is primarily focused on aftermarket tires and would authorize the Environmental Quality Commission to implement enforcement regulations, likely based on a rolling resistance calculation. 

Bruce Bennett congratulates Benny (Bilko) Bialkowicz for the second straight year of record sales
in the Inland Empire and San Bernardino area. While saving body shops material costs, Benny
helped answered and troubleshooting the new waterborne fears in the paint department.
Welcome Aboard!!

What follows are extracts from recent email communication between a Southern California shop and a Progressive Specialist. At issue was a late model 7 Series BMW, which the shop insisted qualified for a specialty rate.

[Shop To Progressive Specialist]
In our last conversation I was told you did not have a problem with our specialty rates for high end vehicles. I just need your feedback before I proceed. We employ a higher skilled tech to work on these cars and for our numbers to work we need to charge accordingly. It is our intention to keep the car moving and order parts today. Please let me know what to do about the rate difference so that my supplement is as accurate as possible. In addition we have not raised our door rates as of Jan 1st as planned. I will let you know when we do and we can discuss then.
Thank you for your time,

David McClune, Executive Director of the California Autobody Association (CAA) announced an agreement with GRC-Pirk Management for members to acquire Certified Green Investment (CGI) qualifications on Jan. 19.