Toronto, Ontario — United States-based repair data firm, MOTOR Information Systems, announced April 28 that colour blending of adjacent panels within the MOTOR Guide to Estimating (GTE) will now use the Estimated Worktime Development Methodology.
The company cited “variations in modern vehicle paint refinishing” as the reason for the change, which is set to take effect in October as part of the company’s standard GTE update schedule.
“Throughout the first quarter of 2023, MOTOR reviewed information from multiple sources and has concluded that the current formula reflects an estimate for one particular scenario but does not necessarily reflect the many variations encountered with modern vehicle finishes and design,” said MOTOR product portfolio manager, John McDonald.
“Given the variations among scenarios today, MOTOR believes that the Estimated Work Time Development methodology should defer to the judgment of an estimator or appraiser following an on-the-spot evaluation of the specific vehicle and refinish requirements in question.”
Repairer Driven News, who first reported the news from MOTOR, spoke with the v-p of product management at CCC Intelligent Systems, Mark Fincher, about how this affects his own company.
For its part, the CCC ONE platform can make automatic computations based on whether two-stage or three-stage blending is selected, according to Fincher.
“If it’s two-stage today, it just takes 50 percent of the refinished time and adds it to the estimate,” he said. “If it’s three-stage, it takes 70 percent and adds it to the estimate, which is MOTOR guidance today. With this updated guidance that MOTOR will be making, we’re going to enhance or change that functionality to support that.
“Now that MOTOR’s guidance does require an on-the-spot evaluation, users will have the option to be prompted, so they can input that blend time on a per-repairer basis based on the amount of work that needs to be done there. And secondly, we will allow users to input a default value for both two-stage and three-stage to be able to put in a default for their primary profile. Whether it’s a shop or an insurer, they can put in a default for that,” said Fincher.
As it stands, this announcement from MOTOR will only impact U.S.-based collision repair facilities.
