For years, ADAS calibrations at Kerry Woodson's two CARSTAR stores went out to sublet vendors. Sometimes a vendor could work on site. Other times the car went to the vendor's facility, which cost a day and put somebody else behind the wheel of a customer's vehicle.
"Every time you have to get a third party involved, it always takes longer," said Woodson. "No matter what it is, it always takes longer than they say."
Woodson has been in the trade full-time for 28 years. His stores, CARSTAR Weldon Spring and Jungerman CARSTAR in St. Charles, MO, lean heavily on DRP work and hold Chevrolet and Ford certifications.
"You want to believe what these people are telling you. We've dealt with a lot of really good companies, but at the end of the day, it's still my name on the line," Woodson said. "It's still CARSTAR's name on the line."
Manual Setup Was Eating Four Hours a Car
So Woodson brought some of the work in-house on another company's equipment. That moved part of the process under his own roof, but it did not give him speed.
Calibrations ran two to four hours, most of it manual work: setting centerline gauges, positioning targets, and boxing out the vehicle. Some cars his shops could not calibrate at all. Meanwhile, the volume was moving the other direction. Calibration used to show up on a couple of repair orders a week and now lands on five or six a day.
One technician handles calibrations for both CARSTAR locations from the shared center using the Autel IA1000.Woodson started looking at what else was out there and kept seeing Autel's equipment in the trade press. When he called Autel to learn more, the head of North American ADAS, Stew Peregrine, happened to live nearby — with a full setup in his garage
"We were able to calibrate cars in his three-car garage with all the equipment, which was really a game changer for us," Woodson said.
"Both myself and the technician who does all the calibrations were like, man, this is a lot simpler of a process," Woodson said.
He worked through Autel's online training, weighing whether to equip both stores or run one machine, and settled on the IA1000. The training continued long after the equipment arrived.
"The training and the support that they have provided, whether it's been onsite training, the phone training, has been spectacular," Woodson said.
Calibration Times Dropped by Half and Output Doubled
Calibrations that once ran the shops two to four hours now finish in 30 minutes to an hour and a half.Woodson counted how many cars went out each month and what he paid to send them.
"This is going to be able to pay for itself a lot quicker than the frame machine that I bought in the past, and definitely a lot quicker than a paint booth," he said.
There was room in his existing buildings, but Woodson had already planned on a separate one about a mile from each store, a calibration center serving both. With the Autel system in place, most calibrations that ran two to four hours now finish in 30 minutes to an hour and a half.
"We've cut down the amount of time our technician is on each car, been able to double the output that he's able to produce," Woodson said.
Doing the Work Changed What He Catches
Looking at every car himself instead of through a vendor, Woodson started noticing how many needed a calibration that may or may not have been getting done. It also gave him firmer ground with insurers, where calibration billing is a hot-button issue.
"It's made me a smarter operator to do this and understand this side of the business that I knew, but I didn't know," Woodson said.
After the recent Autel and CC partnership, Autel pre-scans and reports pull directly into CCC, the estimating system his stores use.
"That makes it a lot easier for your estimators to be able to read reports, see things, and fully understand what's going on," Woodson said.
Holding onto the work depends on the equipment keeping up. Autel updates the tool continuously, adding makes and models and tracking OEM procedures as they change.
For shops still weighing it, he does not see much left to debate.
"Don't hesitate. Get out there and do it, you will not regret it," Woodson said. "There's a lot going on in our industry, and there's a reason why there's a calibration company popping up on every corner. If you're not taking advantage of this opportunity of a new line of revenue for your business, you're missing out."
