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Volume 6

Real Life

Written by Tom Bissonnette

Saturday, 17 March 2007

It seems like it’s imitating the movies. I’m not a real big movie buff but I could not help seeing some similarities to some of the discussions that have taken place at recent CCIF meetings around the country and several Hollywood blockbuster movies that I have had the pleasure of watching over the years.

fight club
There is a scene in this movie where Edward Norton’s character is describing his job to a fellow passenger on the plane. He explains that he works for a “large automotive manufacturer” and his job is to assess their exposure on product recalls. If the cost of the recalls is higher than the expected cost of the lawsuits then they don’t do the recall – they just let the casualties pile up.
{quotes}The shops that do the best job... will get the work. {/quotes}
I see a similar train of thought with some of Canada’s largest automotive insurers. They all talk like they want to do business with the “best” shops so their customers are well looked after. But they do have to allow choice and all you know.
My opinion is that they seem to like having the marginal players in the market place. They may not do a safe repair but they keep rates low.
The insurance companies know we have a very dysfunctional industry. It seems to me that many shops have neither honour nor ethics.
If an insurance company asks for concessions in return for work there are always shops or consolidators that are willing to accommodate them.
Their latest brainchild is something called “procurement”. I’m not totally sure what it is but I can guarantee you that the insurance companies will save money and good shops will make less money.

Terminator 2
There is a scene in this movie where young John Conner asks the terminator “We’re not going to make it, are we? You know, the human race.” To which the Terminator replies, “It is in your nature to destroy yourselves.”
Shop owners have one thing on their minds – themselves! To try and get shops to voluntarily agree to tougher “accreditation” guidelines is ludicrous, it won’t happen. We are stupid and selfish. The first chance we get to make a deal on the side that brings our shop more work we go for it, even if it means dragging everyone down with us.
It would make more sense to me if insurers were to adopt things like training, cycle time, CSI, and proper equipment as requirements for shops to do business with them.
Anyone should be able to qualify for their requirements as long as they invest the time and the money. Then insurers could give their customers a choice between accredited repairers. The shops that do the best job at meeting their customer’s expectations will get the work. If the customer chooses to go to a “non-accredited” shop it is their choice.
The key thing is to pay a premium for excellence. Pay less for mediocre. Then shop owners will get the message and smarten up or go out of business. This scenario will probably happen sooner or later anyway.
The current state of profitability in the collision industry will eventually weed out a lot of shops, some good decent folk and some pretenders. The net result is that insurance companies will have fewer shops to fix their customers cars and we all know about the law of supply and demand.

going cuckoo
There’s a scene in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest where Murphy bets that he can pick up a fountain, throw it through a window and escape to a bar to watch the game. His roommates taunt him when he fails.
As he leaves the room he hollers, “At least I tried.”. It was so cool at the end of the movie how the big quiet Indian “Chief” used that same fountain to smash through the window and gain his freedom.
I have heard people muttering that CCIF cannot accomplish anything; it is strictly a forum for discussion. Or how about this, “How can they represent the entire collision industry? There are less than 50 facilities attending the forum!”
Then we have the naysayers who claim the meetings are too expensive, that they don’t represent the average shop’s point of view or that a few elitists are running the show for their own benefit. Oh brother! How narrow minded and stupid can you be?
I want to be free from this insanity, how about you? Stand up, come out to the next CCIF in Vancouver on April 21st and help us throw the fountain through the window.

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