My name is Mike Anderson. I'm the current owner
of Collision Advice. I'm a second-generation
shop owner. Grew up in the business. My dad was
a auto body technician, so I grew up, every summer,
working for my dad. As the owner
of Collision Advice, one of the things
that we do is, we conduct a survey quarterly, and every survey is
a different set of questions that ask shops, "How often do
you get reimbursed these things from the top eight
insurance companies?" And we publish those results
in order to do a couple things. Number one is
to help shops realize that they're not
the only one asking for these non-included
operations or materials. The second thing is
to create awareness with shops as to things they may not be
charging for on their estimates that they're rightfully
entitled to, things such as how often
do shops get paid to extend clear
to the natural breaking point, how often do shops get paid
to prep raw plastic parts, what is the aluminum rate
shops are getting paid for around the country, how often do you get paid
for zero-point calibrations as required by Toyota,
or how often do you get paid to do a health scan
of a vehicle, which is a hot topic right now.
So a lot of times,
people ask me, "Mike, when we see
your survey results, how do I get paid
for these things?" The first question is: How can we find that out?
Let's use the DEG website. Meaning, do CCC Mitchell
auto techs have any time in order to pull up
performance labor operation? And if not,
then what is it worth? If you have
an insurance company that says they don't want to pay
for something, remember this: first of all, your opinion
doesn't mean jack. The only thing that matters
is what you can prove, substantiate, or justify. Number two, stick to the facts,
and what are the facts? Is it required?
Is it included? Is there a predetermined time?
And if not, what is it worth?.