Your Source for Up-To-Date News and Research on the Collision Repair Industry 

 

click here to subscribe to the FREE INSIGHT Editor's Desk News Alert Email

SUBSCRIBERS-ONLY
Today's News
INSIGHT This Month
INSIGHT Archives
Survey Center
Letter to the Editor

Business Tools
Subscription Information
CSI Reporting
Financial Analysis
IRS Audit Guide

Management/
Technical Info
2003 Market Watch Rates
INSIGHT Inside this month's issue...

Feedback
Letter to the Editor

Hot and Cold

Several readers of FOX Collision Centers owner Todd Fox’s farewell letter to the industry sent in some heated comments in response. Apparently the finger of blame should also point at Fox himself.

CRASH Network has reported that Fox apparently was having money problems with more than insurer DRPs. His bank has begun a lawsuit alleging about $8 million in outstanding loans to FOX Collision Centers.

Sheila Loftus, of CRASH Network noted, “For the fired employees, ‘sorry’ wasn’t enough. They said they were left without insurance - and their last paychecks, worth a collective $10,000, weren’t honored. As a result, the former employees filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma charging that Fox laid them off without giving 60 days’ notice. Furthermore, Fox issued paychecks that couldn’t be cashed.

“Roughly 50 former Fox employees have joined the suit. Fox employees from Kansas are also preparing to file a class action suit against Fox.”

They were literally shut out in the cold, and right before the Holiday Season. If any collision repair facility owners located in any of the four states in which FOX Collision Centers operated are looking for employees, I urge you to consider interviewing some of these experienced workers.

Let this whole story be a cautionary tale for the industry. There are some lessons here for every collision repair facility operator:

• YOU are responsible for your business and must measure any and all business decisions against your bottom line.
• YOU certainly can decide to grow your business at multiple locations, but only after carefully figuring out if you are making enough profit to sustain growth. Do your homework!
• YOU must decide which businesses, whether suppliers, manufacturers, or insurers, you will consider as your business partners. And you must re-evaluate all such relationships regularly to determine their value to YOUR business.
• YOU must hire capable employees, offer them encouragement and training to be the very best, and treat them as the treasures they are.

Make a New Year’s resolution to combine personal integrity and good business sense.

A happy and prosperous New Year to all!

FEATURED
LINKS:

INSIGHT Supports the NABC!
Do You?