By Barett Poley
Toronto, Ontario — February 6, 2017 — CSN-Brimell Paint and Collision Centre is the first Canadian collision repair business to qualify for Toyota’s updated certification program. The facility is part of Brimell Toyota, located in Toronto, Ontario.
Richard Marsh, Operations Manager at CSN-Brimell, says they’re excited to qualify, as the updated certification program is suited to the modern era.
“The original program had maybe 300-plus questions; the majority of which were more relevant 15 years ago than they are today,” says Marsh. “Things have changed dramatically in the last five years alone. So Toyota realized they needed to modernize their program, and the questions have gone from the 300-plus to around 50 questions.”
Fewer questions, perhaps, but much more targeted. The old standards did not take into account changes in vehicle technology, manufacturing process and the latest accident avoidance systems, such as Toyota Safety Sense. Having the proper tools, equipment, process, training as well as a proper health and safety system are now some of the requirements to be Toyota Certified.
Marsh notes that the updated program is especially relevant to today’s market and technological atmosphere. For Toyota to certify a shop under the revised program, it’s imperative that the shop have the equipment and training to repair the newly implemented technologies in vehicles, such as collision avoidance systems and sensors.
On the equipment side, a shop will need a number of items, including a 3D electronic measuring system, squeeze type resistance spot welders and access to Toyota Techstream to perform pre- and post-repair scans. Parts carts are also required to ensure no parts are stored or placed in or on the vehicle being repaired. These are some of the requirements found in the updated standards in regards to equipment. Of course, training is also required to ensure techs know the systems they’ll be working on.
The new standards go beyond equipment and training. Toyota is also ensuring that their certified shops follow the latest health and safety requirements.
“Health and safety is becoming a big part of the certification program,” says Marsh. “They’ve always wanted to make sure you had health and safety passes, but now they want to make sure you have joint health and safety committees, and they’re drilling it as incredibly important to your certifications.”
Marsh says that the new system is an improvement in all ways, despite the now harder-to-reach bar.
“The bar has been set way higher than it was before, but it’s also absolutely more relevant and streamlined,” he says.
Marsh also noted that Toyota is one of the companies at the forefront of pre-and-post scanning technology, having announced last summer to its dealer network that collision centres use Toyota Techstream scan tool to perform pre- and post-repair diagnostic scans to identify any diagnostic trouble codes that may be stored in the various computers, yet do not cause dash warning lights.
This could have been taken as a hint about the updated requirements for the certification program. According to Marsh, CSN-Brimell has been preparing for this for quite some time.
“We really wanted to be the first in Canada to achieve this level of certification,” says Marsh. “It’s a great program that comes with a lot of recognition, so we invested heavily in 2016 to make sure that it happened.”
For more information on CSN-Brimell Paint and Collision Centre, please visit brimelltoyota.com/collision-centre.
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