By Barett Poley
Moncton, New Brunswick — March 22, 2017 — CSN-Champlain Auto Body has received the first Advanced level CCIAP accreditation in New Brunswick, as well as the first CCIAP accreditation in the province overall.
The Canadian Collision Industry Accreditation Program (CCIAP) is a certification program set up by the Automotive Industries Association (AIA) of Canada. CCIAP presently offers several different levels of certification.
The CCIAP Advanced Certification requires an additional set of certifications, training and tools. In particular, the Advanced criteria include demonstrating a significant investment in aluminum repair capabilities. The specific criteria is available at cciap.ca/cciap-guidelines.
CSN-Champlain Auto Body is the first in the province to receive the CCIAP Advanced certification. According to Mandie Steen, Manager of CSN-Champlain Auto Body, early preparation is quite important. There’s a bit of investment required, but Steen says once the baseline is laid down, the accreditation procedure is smooth.
“The CCIAP accreditation itself was pretty seamless, thanks in part to the fact that we were very prepared for it. We’d had quite a few OEM certifications prior, so to get the rest of the training wasn’t too big of a stretch,” says Steen. “All in all, from looking into the program to actually being accredited took about a month and a half. That part of the process was very streamlined and easy, but do keep in mind that we’d been preparing ourselves for the future for the last two-plus years, buying equipment, getting our workers trained, getting our aluminum room in order, things like that. Most of these advancements such as the aluminum room were just things we would have had to have done in any case to meet the future demands of the industry.”
Steen says that if you want to achieve CCIAP accreditation, the most important thing is to be prepared.
“There are so many people at so many levels and no one shop is alike any other, so of course I can’t make any blanket statements,” says Steen. “But I’d say the most important element is getting everything in order, from your training to your equipment. Understand that there will be a lot of investments. Take it slow and steady if you need to, and do things right!”
If you’re on the fence about starting the CCIAP accreditation, Steen says to go for it.
“The best part for us is the recognition. It gives us and our insurance partners more confidence” she says. “It’s not always logistically possible to have every OEM certification, and CCIAP accreditation is a great answer to that. It lets our customers know that we’re part of a great program, and that they can be confident in our abilities to repair their vehicles to OEM specifications.”
For more information on CCIAP, please visit cciap.ca.
