The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) has announced that there will be an additional guest who will take part in its presentation, "Bidding Wars: A Global
View on the Possible Economic Impact of Insurer Involvement in Parts
Procurement," that will take place on Thursday, Nov. 1 at 12:30 p.m. at the SEMA Show in the upper level of North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
John Norris, collision chair of the National
Automotive Trades Association of Canada (NATA) and executive director of
Ontario-based Collision Industry Information Assistance (CIIA), will join guests from
both New Zealand and Australia. He will talk about how insurer mandated parts procurement has impacted the
Canadian marketplace.
"Insurance industry parts procurement is being aggressively pursued in
Canada, with one major insurer involved and more waiting to go," said
Norris. "In insurer-dominant marketplaces, shops fear that saying ‘no’
to an insurer’s program means the blacklisting of their business. Shops
that agree to participate in insurer parts procurement programs in
Canada have found their labor rates lowered, discounts taken and parts
orders taking extra days to arrive from distant and unknown suppliers,
as the program restricts their supplier options to only those suppliers
that agree to pay a fee to the insurer when parts are sold. Shops cannot deliver on-time estimates, repair times and rental costs increase,
while production efficiency suffers."
Added SCRS Executive Director Aaron Schulenburg, "Providing information about the resulting impact of these types of programs is critical for collision repair business owners. The industry is hungry for information that will help them understand the potential ramifications these programs can have, so that they can effectively strategize how their businesses will react if and when the requirements become effective in their market areas. It is our opinion that learning from others who have experienced the impact firsthand is critical in understanding the likely outcome of the programs in our own country."
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