SEMA week in Las Vegas, that includes the CIC quarterly conference, is a feast of ideas but is also a great opportunity for the industry to refocus.
With more than 140,000 people, about 1,400 vehicles and more than 2,400 exhibiting companies inside and outside the Las Vegas Convention Centre, there’s a lot vying for attention of SEMA attendees.
But for collision repairers, there were key meetings and training sessions throughout the week that drew them – at least temporarily ¬– from the trade show itself.
The Collision Industry Conference (CIC), for example, regularly holds one of its quarterly meetings during SEMA week, bringing together shops, insurers, automakers and industry vendors.
During one session of the meeting, California shop owner Kye Yeung, who co-chairs CIC’s new “Repair Processes and Procedures Committee,” said he’s stopped using the term “set-up and measure” within his shop.
“When I opened my business in 1975, a lot of things were handwritten, and I think the terminology ‘set-up and pull’ or ‘set-up and measure’ was just us being lazy,” Yeung said during the committee’s presentation. “It was just a term so we didn’t have to do a lot of writing. And unfortunately that term is still used today, yet they’re two separate operations.”
He and the committee then showed how the process and equipment used to anchor, measure and pull vehicles has evolved significantly over decades, looking today nothing like the process – and the amount of time – required in the past. That’s why his shop has stopped using the “set-up” term.
“It’s been antiquated. It doesn’t really say much. There’s no definition of it what’s really included and what’s not,” Yeung said. “What we do as far as dealing with cars that have structural damage is we ‘mount and calibrate to a frame bench for structural alignment and/or structural parts replacement.’”
The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), the primary autobody trade group in the United States, said earlier this year that it plans to conduct a study of structural set-up and measure. The study will be similar to the SCRS 2022 study of blend refinish labor times, which helped lead the major estimating systems to reexamine their formulas for that procedure and add more flexibility to their systems related to blending.
What entry-level techs are looking for
The CIC “Talent Pool and Education Committee” brought together a panel of collision repair students at the meeting in Las Vegas to share what drew them to the industry and what they are looking for from potential employers. All the students are attending one of seven U.S. schools participating in the “Collision Engineering Program,” in which autobody repair students rotate every eight weeks between school and working in a shop.
A poll of the CIC audience at the start of the discussion found that about 43% assumed opportunities for growth and development would be the No. 1 thing that would attract students to a shop. About 27% said they thought it would be salary and benefits, about 21% said a positive team culture, and 9% thought work/life balance was the biggest draw for entry-level techs.
How did that mesh with what the students said?
“What entices me more is an employer that really cares about continuing education, making sure their employees have their certifications,” Hector Gomez said. “A shop that takes pride in what the shop produces, and making sure everything is safe.” He said he would be less interested in a shop that didn’t offer some flexible scheduling. “Just have family in mind,” he said. “If I don’t have any time with my family, then I’m not performing as well as I can.”
Victor Yanez said a dirty or disorganized shop wouldn’t appeal to him, and he’s looking for an employer with a lot of patience. “Because obviously we are just starting out, so we don’t know much.”
Julio Silva agreed. “I would like to say a shop focused on growth and development,” he said. “Going into a body shop, I’ve had a great experience. It’s having a great mentor to teach you step by step. It takes time. You cannot be perfect in a week. I’ve been doing this for a year-and-a-half, and compared to last year, I’ve learned a lot.”
Romiro Mireles said low pay would be a challenge for him. “We do need tools, and they’re not free,” Mireles said.
But Silva said he knows the money won’t be great to start. “With salary and benefits, I know later on it will come,” he said. “I’m not chasing the money. I’m more chasing my passion about cars. I want to become a great painter or a great bodyman. I know if I work hard, the money will follow.”
Adding more cybersecurity
Cyber protection was the focus of a presentation by the CIC “Data Access, Privacy and Security Committee,” offering real-world best practices to avoid having digital systems hacked or becoming a victim of ransomware.
Shaughn Kennedy of Spark Underwriters, a business insurance agency focused on the automotive repair industry, said threat assessment and cyber insurance are among the key steps businesses of all sizes should consider. Kennedy said shops should understand if their business insurance policy excludes cyber, in which case they may want that coverage added back in through an endorsement or a stand-alone cyber policy.
“People ask me: How much cyber [insurance coverage] do I need,” Kennedy said. “Well, insurance is there to pick the pieces up when something bad happens. The more important thing is proactively having a cybersecurity expert come in and assess your systems. Then the hardest thing for some people is to actually listen to them because all of a sudden they tell you that you need to spend money.”
Kennedy said he equates it to having your doctor say your cholesterol is high yet you don’t want to pay a monthly gym fee. “’I feel pretty good and nothing bad has happened yet, so I’ll just do it on my own,’” Kennedy said some people think. “That’s kind of a failure point.”
He said a cybersecurity expert can help you identify areas of vulnerability within your company. “A lot of shops don’t realize that all these scan tools they have in the shop are all running on Wi-Fi,” he said. “How many of their employees are running on the same Wi-Fi? How many of them are also on these social media sites or the shopping sites that happen to be controlled by a communist country? That’s where the real risk comes in. That’s why I think it’s more important that you have a security expert that comes in, assesses your individual shop, your weaknesses, your strong points, and sets a plan for you, and that you actually listen to them. That’s more important than the insurance itself.”
Kennedy said it’s also important to really understand the cyber policy you buy.
“Your insurance has a lot of fine print about what your obligation is under that contract,” he said. “If it specifically lists certain things, like you agreed that you’d have multi-factor authentication, things like that, and you didn’t do it, then you put yourself in jeopardy where you may actually have a claim denied because you didn’t uphold your part of the contract. And a lot of times people don’t go through that policy enough, or your agent doesn’t explain it to you, and then there is a jeopardy there.”
