National AutoBody Research (NABR) has announced the creation of a Collision Research Panel, a nationwide research panel of body shops aimed at gathering extensive repair data on insurer-paid not-included procedures and operations, labor rates, labor rate concessions and other manually entered estimate line items.

The panel is an extension of an existing group of initial body shops that has continuously provided NABR key data from final estimates indicating that insurers have paid for various not-included procedures and at a wide variety of labor rates. Now, NABR is providing the opportunity for all body shops nationwide to participate in the panel.

The data gathered from the panel will be made accessible online within NABR’s Variable Rate System (VRS). Estimate data is searchable by keyword, insurer, paid procedure, paid labor rate, labor type, vehicle brand and state. This process enables any shop to show they are not “the only one” charging for these items and to prove that insurers do in fact pay for these items to shops all over the country. Shops can now support their charges with documentation from other paid estimates, down to the specific insurer claim number of an individual repair.

The VRS already contains data from tens of thousands of line-item entries from actual final estimates showing the payment of hundreds of not-included operations, labor rates paid, and labor rate concessions made to pay higher labor rates on luxury and specialty vehicles. Data from the new Collision Research Panel will expand the data set to hundreds of thousands of estimate line items.

“We’re looking for a few good and committed shops in every market who are frequently charging and collecting on not-included operations, have the estimates to show it, and are willing to share their success anonymously to make the industry better and to set the example for other shops to do the same,” said Sam Valenzuela, president of NABR.

To join the panel, shops can enroll at www.NationalAutoBodyResearch.com/JoinPanel.