Michael Bradshaw’s K&M Collision has teamed up with National AutoBody Research (NABR) to launch the Michael Bradshaw/VRS Ray Gunder Real-Time Labor Rate Survey in North Carolina. The survey officially kicked off on Monday, Jan. 19, 2015, as the Gunder surveys continued their nationwide expansion to all 50 states.
Powered by NABR’s Variable Rate System (VRS), the survey will continuously measure labor rates in North Carolina, in real time, and determine the range of market rates based on a shop’s location, training and certifications.
“We are very excited to team up with Michael Bradshaw to bring the Variable Rate System to North Carolina,” said Richard Valenzuela, CEO of NABR. “He understands the value to the industry of having an independent, third-party source for labor rate data, where the rates are not manipulated but are measured and reported as submitted. The VRS survey will show that there is not one prevailing rate for all shops but a variety of rates based on several factors, such as training and certifications. You cannot repair a Mercedes for the same price as a Toyota, so it’s common sense that labor rates to work on those vehicles will vary accordingly.”
Added K. Michael Bradshaw, vice president of operations of K&M Collision, “Charging and getting paid the right labor rates is critical to a shop’s profitability and to consumers’ safety. Those profits are needed for shops to afford the investment in the right training, certifications, equipment and technology that are required to properly repair today’s vehicles. With the Variable Rate System, the industry now has the tools to price their labor profitably and to see clearly the variable rates that exist in the marketplace today.”
North Carolina now joins Idaho, Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Texas in leading collision repairers’ nationwide movement to restore labor rates to true, free market-based prices.
Available to all shops nationwide as a subscription, the Variable Rate System provides online tools to help individual shops understand competitive labor rates in their market and their cost of doing business, and calculates appropriate labor rates for their individual shop in order to earn a fair, reasonable and sufficient profit.
Click HERE to fill out the Michael Bradshaw/VRS Ray Gunder Real-Time Labor Survey. View survey results by clicking HERE.
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