The Washington Metropolitan Auto Body Association (WMABA) has released the results of its 2013 independent labor rate survey. Conducted by CSi Complete, the survey shows that the year-to-year door rate of shops in the WMABA demographic has essentially remained stagnant.
"Depending on which area you’re in, it doesn’t seem that the actual rate has changed in most of these markets for close to 10 years," said WMABA President Barry Dorn. "Looking at this survey shows that there is a big difference between what you’re told is the rate within a market and what a statistically valid survey shows. Shops are merely existing; they’re not able to make a return on their investment or plan for future equipment and updates. They’re not able to give raises to their employees or add benefits."
Added Don Beaver, WMABA Board member and manager of Antwerpen Nissan in Clarksville, Md., "The rates that are paid by insurance companies have stayed pretty steady; it’s a daily struggle because every expense we have has gone up year after year. If we don’t do something to bring those rates up, our meager profits are going to be nothing."
Aside from its disappointing numbers, this year’s survey saw an increase in shop participation. At least 50 percent of the shops that took the survey did so online through www.wmaba.com — a substantial increase over last year, according to the association.
"Shops were more likely to participate because they understood the process from last year," said WMABA Executive Director Jordan Hendler. "They definitely had less concern this year, because last year’s process was new to them and they weren’t sure how it was going to go. But after going through it once already, it was easy for them to do it and they knew their personal shop data wasn’t going to be shared."
Although the 2013 results show little change over the 2012 project, Beaver is optimistic about the future. "I really hope we continue to do this every year so that it becomes more commonplace for everybody to fill it out. It may be three or four years before this [survey] actually shows a trend."
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