Dan Stander, AAM, and Denise Caspersen of the Automotive Service Association (ASA) recently received updates from State Farm regarding its PartsTrader electronic parts ordering pilot.
Representing State Farm on the call was George Avery, claims representative, and State Farm staffer Duane Willemain. The November update was the first of several expected from the insurer
The following updates were provided to ASA during the call:
- Pilot locations of Charlotte, N.C., and Birmingham, Ala., now have
the ability to do 30-minute quotes – resulting in all four original
pilot markets now having a 30-minute quote window. - Regarding estimating systems, Audatex, CCC Information Services and Mitchell International all have two-way integration in all four
markets. - A change has been made in the process of writing estimates to
better accommodate alternative pricing. According to State Farm, if a
shop has alternative pricing available through a different source, State
Farm is recommending Select Service shops write estimates with those
prices – therefore utilizing price matching. - In Chicago, business meetings are set with multi-shop organizations
and all Select Service repairers. Chicago is recognized as a heavy
consolidator market. Items for the meetings include:
– An overview of the program.
– Preparation material for a Dec. 10 “live” date.
– PartsTrader started hosting meetings Nov. 12 for dealers and parts suppliers.
– Select Service shops have been asked to identify suppliers.
– To date, 466 letters from State Farm to suppliers have been sent out.
– 500 to 600 suppliers have been identified in the Chicago market.
– To date, 475 of 477 Select Service shops have registered.
- Regarding cycle time improvements, State Farm said it was hard to
prove, at this point, any cycle time improvements linked to the
application. State Farm does not expect an immediate or large reduction
in cycle time. - Regarding “saving of total losses,” State Farm said that at this
point there is not enough data to validate this. Nor is there data that
demonstrates an increase in recycled or alternative parts. - PartsTrader is moving forward with integration into the various collision management systems.
- No evidence to date on reductions in parts profit.
- The length of the Chicago pilot is unknown. According to State
Farm, once a change is introduced into the application in pilot, it is
necessary for the change to “mature” to determine the impact of the
change. This, then, affects the end date. - The PartsTrader application has undergone a minimum of seven updates since the initial pilot release in March 2012.
- PartsTrader announced it will not charge suppliers until 2014.
The pilot, which is currently active in four states and set to expand into Chicago next month, will increase involvement to nearly 600 Select Service collision repair facilities of the 10,300 shops participating nationwide in the State Farm Select Service program.
“For the ASA collision membership volunteering on the operations committee, the focus continues to be one of information, engagement and impacting the outcome in the most positive way on behalf of repairers," said Caspersen. "It was apparent early on that the ‘train had left the station’ in regard to stopping this application from being piloted. The ASA team made the decision to focus on accuracy and engagement, and will continue to do so as this pilot continues and future items arise."
More information:
Collision repairers may share their comments or concerns regarding the pilot by contacting Caspersen at [email protected]; or by phone at (800) ASA-SHOP, ext. 106, or (817) 514-2906 (direct).
