Editor’s Notes: Meet Eldon Owens
Eldon Owens received the BodyShop Business/ASE Master Collision Repair & Refinish Technician of the Year Award not just for his top score on the ASE collision certification test but on-the-job excellence, community service and other factors.
SkillsUSA 47th Annual National Leadership and Skills Conference Set for June 19-24
The best and brightest collision repair students in the country will be competing in the upcoming SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference June 19-24 at the H. Roe Bartle Hall and Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. More than 5,600 career and technical education students, all state contest winners, will compete hands-on in 96 different trade,
North State Custom Cleared of Fraud Charges in Case Vs. Progressive
The over five-year-long court battle between North State Custom and Progressive finally came to an end yesterday when the jury cleared the collision repair facility and its owner, Greg Coccaro, of fraud charges. "I’m so grateful that the jury was able to see through Progressive’s tactics and didn’t fall for the fairytale Progressive tried to
The Future Is Here
Search engine optimization. Social networking. Repair status tracking. System integration. Hearing these terms thrown around, I half wondered if I had wandered into the wrong conference – perhaps an annual gathering of Silicon Valley tycoons talking Internet technology. But no, a glance at a lighted projection on the wall confirmed that I was indeed at the PPG MVP
California Court Sides with Insurers in Labor Rate Survey Case
A California shop owner recently lost his appellate court case against Progressive and Allstate, which he accused of engaging in unlawful and unfair business practices by paying “artificially low” labor rates based on surveys including DRP shops. In the decision filed Monday, the court upheld a lower court’s decision that the insurers were operating within
Repairers Reflect on Business in 2009, Look Ahead to ’10
It’s safe to say that 2009 will not be looked at as a banner year for most businesses. Even though most economists agreed that the recent stretch of financial misery wasn’t as bad as the Great Depression, they did say it was the worst since the Depression – with some calling it the Great Recession.
Letters
Addressing Anti-trust Georgina: Nice article on Anti-trust [Editor’s Notes, May, pg. 6]. Just read it while I ate my lunch. If my so-called competitors wouldn’t be so afraid of their own shadow (Puxatawney Phil would be ashamed!), maybe the industry could move forward. Charge what you need to charge; the rest will figure itself out.
Letters
Dear Georgina: I enjoyed reading your article on paint judgment times [Editor’s Notes, March, pg. 6]. I see more and more insurance adjusters’ estimates calling for blend within the panels on repaired panels. Allstate and Farmers have been the worst for taking advantage of this. Once Allstate wanted to repair a quarter panel for 12
Letters to the Editors
Does Your Shop Measure Up? Your article was incredible [“Does Your Shop Measure Up?” March 2002, pg. 40]! I found (literally) my first UMS the same way your picture showed it in early 1980 in a Toyota dealership in upstate Vermont. I had just closed my small shop because of the recession and was amazed
We Have Winners
If an industry expert could answer one question for you, what would that question be? (One catch: The question has to be collision-repair related. This eliminates the chance of our receiving any more questions like, “My wife says the only way to get my attention is to stand in front of the TV set. She