During the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) held in Indianapolis on July 18, a panel shared the refinish-related changes required because of ADAS sensors.
The Talent Pool and Education Committee provided a tour of CollisionCareers.com, an I-CAR initiative designed to help the industry raise awareness and interest in careers in the field of collision repair.
Aaron Schulenburg, executive director of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), revealed Audatex will become the second estimating system provider to give users more flexibility in establishing their own default blend value; the change comes following a SCRS study last year the association believes demonstrated blending takes more time than a full panel refinish, rather than the 50% less time currently allocated in the three major estimating systems.
The Data Access, Privacy and Security Committee worked to raise awareness of what may be lurking in “end-user licensing agreements” (EULAs) shops may be signing---without fully reading or understanding---in order to use software systems.
Representatives of Nissan, Mazda and General Motors shared the latest on their collision repair certified shop networks.
And John Yoswick of CRASH Network shared survey data showing 43% of shops are aware of having had a customer estimate or repair trigger an entry on a vehicle history report. While nearly half of shops think the estimating system providers are responsible for this leak of data, some percentage blame insurers, the OEMs, dealerships or others---giving all segments a stake in finding a solution.
A full recap of CIC will appear later on this website and in the September 2023 issue of Autobody News.
SCRS is holding its open board meeting July 19, also in Indianapolis.
