This week, the Automotive Service Association of Ohio (ASA-Ohio), hosted meetings in Cleveland, Toledo and Cincinnati with Ohio Collision Repair Board Executive Director Mike Greene, where he addressed rooms full of collision shop owners as well as vendors from the collision industry.
Greene said that over the last few years, the board has had more success in getting collision shops to operate legitimately. At all three meetings hosted by ASA-Ohio, members of the audience expressed their pleasure with Greene’s performance, but voiced their frustration that more could not be done. Greene mentioned that the board’s section of law is very restrictive in what they can currently do. One solution that was discussed each night was shifting from registration to licensing.
“The biggest advantage of transitioning from registration to licensing is from a consumer protection standpoint. We will be able to impact the quality of the work that is done and we can enforce it better,” Greene said. As the board is set up now, enforcement is the biggest challenge that is faced, having to go to each county and in some cases being very limited in their power.
“There would be a lot of discussions held in regards to transition, lots of questions would need answered, getting the law passed is the first step though, getting support from our industry and legislators to make it happen,” Greene added.
ASA-Ohio will be hosting one more meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Worthington Northwest Library, 2280 Hard Rd., Columbus, Ohio. The meeting is open to the public.