Collision-related length of rental (LOR) held flat at 15.1 days in Q2 2026, matching Q2 2025 exactly, according to Enterprise's Q2 2026 LOR report. It is the first Q2-over-Q2 comparison with no decrease since Q2 2022, when LOR rose 4.5 days amid post-pandemic vehicle production and supply chain issues, according to the report.
The result breaks a string of year-over-year declines that had continued into Q1 2026, when LOR fell to 16.3 days, according to Enterprise's Q1 2026 report.
Backlogs ease, but hours worked fell year over year
John Yoswick, Autobody News contributor and editor of the weekly CRASH Network newsletter, said in the report that the plateau likely reflects competing trends. Shops are getting jobs started faster: the April "Who Pays for What?" survey of nearly 500 shops by Collision Advice and CRASH Network found the average scheduling backlog fell to 1.5 weeks, down 1.5 days from the start of the year, with a record 24% of shops reporting no backlog at all, a share not seen outside the 2020 pandemic shutdowns.
Work in process also hit its lowest level in at least four years in Q2, according to CRASH Network's June "Collision Industry Business Perspectives" survey, at 50% of shops' typical monthly volume, down from 56% in Q1 and below the prior low of 53% in Q2 2025.
At the same time, BLS data show production employees fell by 400 in April, bringing headcount back to last year's level (230,800) but leaving the industry more than 10,000 workers short of 2024. Average weekly hours also dropped, from 38.8 last April to 36.8 this year, a 5.2% decline in total hours worked.
Repaired parts gain share as deductibles ease
Ryan Mandell, vice president of strategy and market intelligence for Mitchell International, said: "Q2 2026 saw a modest decline in the incidence of air bag deployment, down from 2.25% in Q2 2025 to 2.06% in Q2 2026. In addition, average first party deductible amount decreased from $858 in Q2 2025 to $841 in Q2 2026, indicating a trend toward more competition in the auto insurance market and a greater likelihood of smaller claims being filed."
Mandell also said: "The percentage of parts repaired continues to increase with initial Q2 2026 results (undeveloped) standing at 17.3%, compared to 15.7% in Q2 2025. As shops continue to face overall reduced claims volumes, they are looking for opportunities to increase profitability and efficiency and repairing more parts is one part of this strategy. Parts continue to take up a greater share of repair costs, with Q2 2026 reaching 46.68% compared to 46.36% in Q2 2025."
Parts delivery times improve
Parts remain the largest cost portion of the typical repair estimate, and delays in parts delivery affect cycle time, according to the report. Greg Horn, chief industry relations officer at PartsTrader, an Enlyte company, offered insight into delivery trends.
"Comparing ordered parts to Enterprise's drivable and non-drivable rental days, median days (plus two standard deviations) for all part type deliveries were .7 days less in Q2 2026 vs Q2 2025," Horn said. "Splitting out the data by part type, OEM delivery days decreased slightly in Q2 2026 compared to the second quarter of 2025. The majority of parts on the repair order will be OEM, and non-drivable repair orders contain a higher percentage of OEM parts. This may help explain why non-drive LOR was down when drivable increased slightly."
This Q2 2026 report was provided directly to Autobody News by Enterprise's Corporate Communications team, confirmed against their emailed PDF.
