“I’ve been doing this for 30 years!”

Pipe down. You've been trying to destroy road racing for almost that long. It's still around so what do you know.

 

Monumental failure on his part. LOL

 

I'm leaving names out. 3 Presidents ago.

 

President with the wife who murders people?

 

Long term survival in business is itself proof of competence. Working in the exact same position for ages isn’t proof of anything, good or bad.

I don’t know much about how the car repair industry works. However, the problem you describe Cortez sounds like a failure of process and incentives more than anything.

1. If you’re paid only by what’s on the estimate, and there isn’t a significant markup charged on your labor (is there?), then the business isn’t very incentivized to ensure accuracy. Where exactly is the profit margin made in that business?

2. If the business wanted to ensure accuracy of estimate writing, they would run an audit and reconciliation process to reduce the delta between the estimate and actuals. The fact that there isn’t an effective audit process is a much bigger problem than the individual estimators. An estimator can’t improve his accuracy unless there’s a process designed to help him improve it.

This actually sounds to me like a potential business opportunity. There’s a mismatch between incentives and you’re pissed off about how it impacts you, which means a lot of people would be happy if you could think of a way to solve it!

 

I'll never understand when people that have spent their whole lives working for someone else try to tell another man (or woman) how to run a business thats already been running for many, many years.

 

Muffkkers would hate me then, "I've been doing this shit for 46yrs."..

 

No, the edumacated one.

 

You couldn't weld two tug boats together with a nucelar weapon.

 

this might all work, if all customers paid for their own repair, as a cash repair, then submitted that to be reimbursed to their insurance provider but, throwing in the insurance provider, their requirements, limitations, discounts, use of aftermarket, used parts, and repairing vs replacing parts... now your process goes out the window. we do what we can, with the rules in place. very few body shops have a total profit margin of over 8% total. (in the midwest/great lakes region). the insurance companies see to that. your results may vary.

as far as labor, in Michigan some areas are as low as 42.00/hour for body and paint labor, as high as 54-55.00/ hr in other areas. techs make anywhere from 30-50% of the hourly wage rate, depending on skill level/years of service. compare that to the Mechanical side of things at the dealer level, charging and getting 110.00-140.00/hr... and the techs getting 40-50%... yeah, we are in the dark ages of wages, in the collision industry. Ski

 

I would disagree with you about the dark ages of wages thing. My income is increasing about 10k per year right now. I’m currently at about 130-140k. In the next decade as half our workforce is either aged out or retires I expect I’ll be making 200. They’ll HAVE to pay me whatever the fuck I want because they won’t be able to find anyone with my skill set. Especially since I have high line vehicle knowledge


For the most part (other than major metro areas) The insurance companies set the rates using the cheapest shop in your market. So if xyz auto body will accept 45 an hour for body labor rate from an insurance company, then by default every shop in the area will only get 45 paid by the insurance.

 

yes but, none of the shops can talk about labor rates together, it is considered collusion/manipulating the market. the insurance companies frown on that pretty heavily. Ski

 

there’s actually one market (I’m pretty sure in the suburbs of Chicago) where every Bodyshop owner goes on this “retreat” to some resort lodge: the following week every Bodyshop’s rates change and no one will accept a penny less. It’s not collusion if they can’t prove it in court

 

I'm afraid that you are going to have to be more specific...

 

The surplus of dead bodies was more real than the budget surplus he claimed to create.

 

Seen both sides, guys in union or corporate settings with 30 years have less chance of being competent than someone in private industry around here actoss the spectrum of trades I deal with.
I did a lot ot of fire and flood insurance work and the guys who specialized in it were sketchy AF.

I was taught not to " outsmart the smart guy " but at least my mentor was open to change or we'd be still using safety razors and storing them on a fridge magnet clipped to our tshirt instead of Olfa snapoff knives.

I worked with one of the old school roll and tip yacht painters when I first started wallpapering in yachts 32 years ago, he refused to use a spraygun even for primer. His work was impeccable but his labor costs were 3 times a comparable spray job.

 

Those knives are awesome. Likewise, I learned of them by helping the best painting contractor in my hometown. I still use them, everyday, where I currently work and at home. People don’t realize just how good or useful they are.

 

There must be some process for implementing change management though. What happens if during the work an additional part needs replacement? I assume no matter the skill of the estimator, you’ll randomly identify issues outside the initial scope as you remove parts and fix things. Do you have to resubmit all the additional items to insurance, or is it taken as a wash? Or are your estimates billed as a higher level standard scope of work?

Does the industry regard underestimated work as basically a wash?

Also, even without an audit process it’d be possible to incentivize people to increase accuracy. If there’s a bonus or incentive program, part of it can be tied to your accuracy rating.