Team Work

Chuck Sulkala and Lou DiLisio revisited Taiwan to become more active in monitoring and improving the quality of non-OEM replacement parts. An important lesson learned on both sides - Body shops are the replacement part manufacturers' customers, so the manufacturers need to receive feedback from the body shops. Achieving the desired level of quality will be a team effort.

Speaking of teamwork, but this time as in taking sides and hiring attorneys, there is plenty of insurer news this month. Allstate and Sterling are challenging Texas's new insurer-owned repair shop law. There is also a class action civil suit against Allstate making its way through the federal court in Texas. An Illinois court certified a class action for a lawsuit against GEICO insurance. The Illinois court system is the same system that heard the case that awarded plaintiffs $1.2 billion in damages for a similar case.

The TrendLine offered new insight into our body shop customers’ marketing budgets this month. The "other" category accounted for fifteen percent of shops. The other category contained all community-sponsored activities such as little league, school newspapers, and local charities.

It was the second highest amount spent on advertising, only behind broadcast television. It's nice to know that shops are involved in their communities.

Team efforts have been front and center in our industry for quite some time now, due in a big way to the hard work of the NABC. See page 3 for news on the council’s questioning of the auto body fraud statistics presented by the California Bureau of Automotive Repair.

October is PRIDE Month, another NABC project, aimed at making communities aware of the fine work done by quality collision repair facilities both in auto repair and within the neighborhood. Let INSIGHT know about shop initiatives and open houses this month.

Nominations for the NABC PRIDE Awards must be sent in by October 15. If a member of your team deserves praise for his or her volunteer community work, send in a nomination. Winners will be announced at NACE2003, at the December Night of Achievement in Orlando. I hope to see you there!