Over the last serval months, perhaps going back as far as a year, every discussion about the challenges and costs of modern vehicle repair ends with a variation of the phrase ‘but of course we need correct repairs ‘ . This is said with a tone that suggests; ‘I have met my obligations because I […]
Over the last few weeks I saw an article and a symposium announcement that together showed a possible path to the future. In this Collision Repair magazine article from mid July; Brad Mewes’ views on the current stage of industry consolidation are discussed and explained with extensive use of quotations. The research and business analysis he […]
I have written in the past about the tension between vehicle manufacturers and the other participants in the collision repair industry. In March of 2017 I criticized the OEMs for their insistence on new OEM parts for all repairs. http://rfina.ca/2017/03/06/information-needed-get-past-no/ Since that time, they seem to have doubled down on the policy with All New […]
There was an article posted by CBC last week about a car in Newfoundland that tried to steer itself into the oncoming lane after a windshield replacement. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/camera-directed-car-toward-oncoming-traffic-after-windshield-replacement-man-says-1.4715817 The driver, while very surprised, had an easy time taking control and there was no collision or other damage. According to the article he had not been […]
As I have stated before in these pages, and countless other people have said in the past, money drives everything. This does not at all mean that actions with an eye on the dollar are unethical. What it does mean is that money is a mandatory component of all business activity and actions taken have […]
Last week, on March 29th, CCIF presented an all-day session in Toronto about vehicle electronic code scanning. A statement in the introductory comments caught my attention; to paraphrase ‘everyone in the industry is interested in and motivated by the need to get the vehicle back to the same operational state as it was in before […]
In the past few weeks and months I have been seeing a slowdown in the amount of new information related to Next Accident Ready repair. At the same time there does seems to be a lot supporting or collaborating the information and concepts that were being discussed last year. This tells me that those who […]
At the CCIF meeting in Toronto in January of this year Mike Anderson moderated a panel of OEM and insurance reps to discuss electronic scanning. During the course of the discussion Mike made a point with a quote he attributed to another insurance rep in another conversation. “No doesn’t mean no. It means I need […]
The last post discussed industry capacity, with the emphasis on the physical and knowledge capacity of the repair side to do the highly technical work that is required for correct repair of modern vehicles. The other two participants in the overall repair industry, the manufacturers making and selling the cars and the insurance companies who […]
In September 2016 at the Canadian Collision Industry Forum (CCIF) meeting in Vancouver a panel presentation discussed the topic of electronic diagnostics of accident damaged vehicles. At that time the short form description of this procedure was ‘scanning’ a longer form was ‘scanning and fault clearing’. Both of these terms refer to accessing the vehicles […]