By Sheila Loftus
March 2007

On March 14, 1992, a group of collision repair shop owners gathered in Washington, D.C., to divine what part of the repair process it could control. At the time, insurance companies’ direct repair programs were on the rise, controlling about 25 percent of repairs. Control of their own destinies was slipping from the repairers’ hands like sand in a sieve.

By the end of the day, the group had honed in on an area they thought they could, and should, have a say in: repair standards. So the group, known as ACAR, set out to establish repair standards.

ACAR wasn’t alone. That year, the largest collision repair show in the United States, now known as the International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE), held a seminar on repair standards.

In the mid-1990s, the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) established repair standards called the Uniform Procedures for Collision Repair (UPCR). Dozens of collision repairers gave countless hours to developing the UPCR, as did I-CAR’s Tom McGee, who at the time headed up the organization’s technical center. (McGee is now the president and CEO of I-CAR.) Once established, the UPCR was offered for sale. Unfortunately, few people bought it, so it was put up on I-CAR’s Web site and made available to everyone. Today, it languishes without funds or a push from stakeholders to update it.

U.S. courts have determined that the repair standard is what the manufacturer deems it to be. Therefore, in the absence of any standards, auto collision repairers should look to the car manufacturers for repair standards. Sometimes that is easier said than done, especially considering the “standards” being demanded by insurers and other parties to the repair process.

However, there is a Web site that enables technicians to purchase information on vehicle repair. It is generally available as a cafeteria plan, so an individual can purchase what he or she needs and not have to pay a yearly or even monthly subscription fee.

One may need a credit card on an American bank to gain assess to purchase the information but it is worth examining. To do so, go to the National Automotive Service Task Force (www.nastf.org). This statement from the Web site is reassuring: The National Automotive Service Task Force is a cooperative effort among the automotive service industry, the equipment and tool industry, and automotive manufacturers to ensure that automotive service professionals have the information, training, and tools needed to properly diagnose and repair today's high tech vehicles.

In addition, I-CAR’s Web site (www.i-car.com) has vehicle repair information. However, if I-CAR is in doubt about a repair procedure, it always says to follow the manufacturer’s recommendation.

Aside from safety concerns, which are paramount, another reason repairers should repair to the manufacturers’ standard is so that the repairers can receive proper compensation for the work they do. If an insurer balks at paying to repair the vehicle to the standard, this could be indicated on the repair invoice.

Vehicle owners whose insurers are not paying to have vehicles repaired to the standards can engage in a dialogue with their insurers over the issue.

In the United Kingdom, repairers made a significant impact regarding repair methods when they pushed the chief operating officers of insurance companies on the issues of corporate social responsibility and the risk of unsafe repairs.

Toward this end, repairers in the U.K., under the aegis of the BSI, which is the National Standards Body, an independent nongovernmental organization, and Thatcham, a not-for-profit organization founded by insurers, established Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 125, which is the industry agreed technical specification for the process of vehicle body repair. It provides body shops the processes and procedures directly related to the safe repair of accident-damaged vehicles.

According to the National Standards Body’s Web site, the PAS 125 “focuses on the four key elements of repair—methods, people, equipment and materials—as well as repair process management, with an emphasis on continual improvement. As a result, PAS 125 directs body shops to the achievement of a safe and technically sound repair.”

Thatcham’s BSI Vehicle Body Repair Kitemark is incorporated into PAS 125 and will serve as the industry standard for repair.

The BSI standards Web site states: “The Thatcham BSI Kitemark is a certification mark which actually demonstrates that a company meets the requirements of PAS 125 and the Kitemark scheme protocol on an on going basis. The Kitemark has an unrivalled public recognition (82%) providing confidence that accident damaged vehicles can be repaired to the latest standards by the exclusive use of Thatcham trained auditors accredited by BSI.”

A representative that is on the committee developing the repair method standards for PAS 125 said that the vehicle manufacturers withdrew from the process because they believe their standards are “more vigorous” than what the committee has been discussing. However, collision repairers and insurers are still engaged in a productive dialogue on the committee, the representative said.

“Over the next two years, I think we will see all insurers only wanting to ‘partner’ with repairers who have gained PAS 125 accreditation,” the representative said. “Some insurers are actually saying this now and they are agreeing to pay more to those repairers who have signed up for the program.”

Added the representative: “This is welcome news to the industry right now, as 2007 will be brutal to the repair industry. We are seeing low volumes and insurers reorganizing repair networks. Total losses are still increasing as a percentage of all directed work and we are seeing a drop in accident rate of about seven percent. Couple this with the new paint directive that will force all repairers onto water borne by the year’s end, and I think we will see 2007 as a defining year for the industry.”

Also in the U.K., Thatcham has repair manuals, now available on CD, called Escribe. This lays down any special requirements and shows how to carryout certain tasks. Estimating systems that that use Thatcham times now have to link to the Escribe product. Some of the better estimating systems actually take the repairer, not just to the repair methods manual, but also to the area that is being worked on.

However, the Escribe product is not enough for what the industry needs. In a recent industry poll in the U.K., only 30 percent of the respondents said that Escribe provided sufficient repair method information for their current needs. Thus it has a way to go; however, with the development of the repair methods for PAS 125, it puts the U.K. ahead of the United States for repair standards.

In an industry subject to as much change and uncertainty as the collision repair industry is, repair standards are essential. And collision repairers should always be part of defining what those standards are.

© 2007 Sheila’s Information Network Inc.

Sheila Loftus (sheilaloftus@yahoo.com), past publisher of the CRASH Network, has written about the auto collision repair industry for 32 years. She lives in Washington, D.C.