The Standards Advisory Committee, co-chaired by CIC Chairman Mike Quinn and former CIC Chairman Russell Thrall, said the fundraising and research efforts are moving along but more money is needed to fund the work.
The Fundraising/Marketing Committee has $26,600 committed to the project, which is 44 percent of the $60,000 goal to fund the case study statement development, according to Dale Delmege, chairman of that committee. The purpose of the study is to develop a business case to create repair standards in the United States, and to define the scope of the organization and how it might be organized, governed, staffed and funded, according to Michael Condon of Condon Consultants LLC. Condon is a former Allstate Insurance executive whose consulting company was hired by CIC to explore these issues.
Condon said his methods include interviewing industry members to establish the opinion of the industry on standards, study existing repair standards in the United Kingdom and to create a comprehensive report on his findings. He said he plans on conducting about 40 interviews (50 percent will be of collision repairers) by mid- August. About 10 interviews had been done at the time of the meeting.
Several CIC attendees said that those being interviewed need to be well-informed shop owners or else the results will have little value. Aaron Schulenburg, executive director of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists, cautioned against creating new standards that are different from original equipment repair standards. He said that would not be in the best interests of the repairer or the customer. Other meeting attendees said that creating new standards would require a new organization to oversee and enforce the standards, which would be a drain on industry resources.
“There are no plans to create an entity, we are only looking to develop repair standards,” Quinn said. Click on video of Mike Quinn to see him discussing collision industry repair standards.
“The industry wants standards, it’s just a matter of how the standards are developed,” said Jeff Hendler, administrator of CIC. “How they are developed is in question. I don’t think the industry is ready for another entity, but existing standards need to become code.” Click to see video of Jeff Hendler discussing repair standards.
Rollie Benjamin, chairman and chief executive officer of ABRA Auto Body & Glass, cautioned CIC members about micro-managing the process, and suggested the committee be allowed to do its work and present its results.
“This is an enormous issue and is threatening to so many groups, individuals and organizations,” said Scott Biggs of Assured Performance Network. “But think how much better the industry could be if we actually had clear repair standards.”
Repair standards have made a big difference in the United Kingdom, according to Delmege, who is a former Mitchell International executive and CIC chairman.
“Establishing repair standards in the United Kingdom transformed the collision industry in a positive way,” he said. “We are asking you to fund an utterly unbiased effort. There will be no insurer or OEM bias in the work that Mike is doing. Please consider donating $100 per location. This is a worthwhile cause.”
The committee will present a more complete report at the CIC meeting in November in Las Vegas.
