PROGRESS PLANNING
The CWB Group and Canadian Collision Repair Academy are hosting an instructor-led Progressive Repair Planning Program from August 2024 to March 2025. The four-day program is designed for repair planners, estimators, insurance personnel, front office staff, and technicians. The content focuses on accessing repair guidelines, following OEM manuals, addressing changing construction technologies, and ensuring fit and finish. The program combines industry overviews, customer communication methods, and collision repair knowledge to teach attendees the repair planning process for various stakeholders. Completion of a pre-class task is required before attending the main course. For additional information, contact Jean-Marc Julien, CWB Collision Repair Instructor, by email at ccra@ cwbgroup.org or directly at 289-971-4668.
PREPARING FOR HURRICANE SEASON
Crash Course (CCC) recently released its Q2 2024 report indicating that hurricanes and severe convective storms have a considerable impact on the auto insurance and collision repair industries, resulting in an increase in damages and economic loss, 94 percent of all comprehensive claims estimates for derivable vehicles also included paintless dent repair (PDR) over the last two years. The goal of this report is to help the automotive industry navigate the 2024 hurricane season, using exclusive information based on CCC’s aggregated historical claims and repair data. According to the report, since 2021, hurricanes have specifically amassed over $180 billion in damages and economic loss in the United States. Moreover, the report further notes that an indication of hail-related damage is claims that include PDR. In 2023 alone, 19.4 percent of comprehensive claims included PDR and 80 percent of claims identified as “hail” included PDR. Throughout 2023, PDR was included on 19 percent to 35 percent of repairable comprehensive estimates.
