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Letter to the Editor

Pride and Education

The revamping of the Select Service program by State Farm has been frontpage news for collision repairers for a few months now - with good reason. State Farm, for many shop owners, is their biggest customer (AND to judge by INSIGHT’s once-a-year Who Pays for What survey - their favorite customer!).

This month INSIGHT looks again at the impact of State Farm’s new DRP contract on collision repair facilities. After a short test and a few adjustments the insurer is ready to launch its Select Service program on a national level.

For a definite learning experience, some of the collision repair facilities in the test markets have shared their takes on the program and its impact on their bottom lines. This article is a “must read” for all body shop owners and managers.

If you are trying to decide if you should attend NACE 2006 in Las Vegas on November 1 through 4, check out ten new reasons to join the crowd on page 17.

This month’s Market Watch metropolitan markets include both the lowest (Worcester, Mass.) and highest (San Francisco) rates for both materials allowances and metal labor rates of all the cities INSIGHT surveys each year.

The U.S. House and Senate committee about which Clark Plucinski, Chairman of I-CAR wrote in an open letter to the industry (See July 2006 INSIGHT, page 12.) has agreed to renew the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act for another six years (page 6).

The National Auto Body Council (NABC) has reminded INSIGHT that there is still a little time to nominate deserving individuals in the industry for the 2006 PRIDE awards.

Nominations may be made on line at the NABC web site www.autobodycouncil.org. There is also a downloadable version that can be printed and faxed to the NABC office.

Nominations can also be made by contacting Janet Chaney at 480.720.2565 or by e-mail at janet_chaney@earthlink.net, or phone the NABC office at 1.888.667.7433.

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