Digital Dealer - January 2019 - 37

insurance personnel "are
not the experts," and that
the collision repairers are
the ones who make the right
or wrong decisions. Every
collision professional has
the choice of refusing a job
based on insurance payment coverage or collecting
extra funds from the vehicle
owner to do it correctly.
Doing it inadequately or incorrectly should never be an
option - period times two.
Consequently, I discovered a workshop titled,
"Understanding Shop
Liability in this Era of
Diagnostics, Calibrations,
and Programming." A panel
of collision industry professionals, including Mitchell's
SVP of Sales Jack Rozint;
Technical VP Aaron Clark
(ASE Master) from Assured
Performance Network;
Chuck Olsen, director of
operations, AirPro Diagnostics; Senior VP Nick Notte,
I-CAR; and American Honda's Scott Kaboos, assistant
manager collision marketing. Each of these professionals was well-versed and
integrated into vital portions
of the automotive collision
world.
The session was moderated well by SVP of
Business Development
Michael Quinn of AirPro
Diagnostics. The capper of
this capricious caper was
an introductory talk by none
other than that Todd Tracy,
Dallas, TX, the aggressive
lead lawyer in the aforementioned multi-million-dollar collision settlement.
Listening to his forceful and
informative presentation
style for only five-minutes

will curl one's toes.
The session began by
pointing out that high-end
vehicles now contain some
100 million lines of code,
some 3X the amount on the
new F35 fighter plane! New
repair requirements are
abundant and utilizing OEM
procedures is absolutely not
an option now. Noteworthy
was the proclamation that
the "post repair" inspection industry is popping up
in support of consumers,
something that will become
predominant in the collision
industry.

Documenting all calibrations
and scanning for all types
of codes, some hidden, is
mandatory even when the
insurance company won't
pay because no warning
lamp is illuminated. "You are
in the diagnostic business
like it or not... both civil
and criminal penalties will
happen."
Tracy revealed tests his
group performed comparing OEM and aftermarket
parts in an actual crash test,
where the aftermarket parts
did not protect occupants
the same as OEM, including

...FOLLOWING
PROCEDURES LIKE THESE
IS 'INVITING POTENTIAL
CRIMINAL PENALTIES
FOR SHOP OWNERS AND
TECHNICIANS'"
Tracy proclaimed that
the insurance industry has
"dictated repair procedures
far too long" and that if this
situation continues it will
"destroy the collision industry." Unfortunately, when
insurance dictates it will not
pay for OEM parts and procedures it will not be sued
in case of another accident.
He also made a point of
the importance of doing the
ADAS calibrations at the
end of every repair "whether
it gets covered or not." He
suggested to "take it on the
chin now, or someone else
will own your shop!"
Tracy stated that not
following procedures like
these is "inviting potential
criminal penalties for shop
owners and technicians."

an 843% difference in load
occupants, plus additional
movement into the survival
space from a huge 8" to 13".
BICYCLE TECHS MAKE
MORE!

He stated that the industry must get customers,
politicians, and the state
insurance departments
involved, including a PAC to
have the money to battle insurance companies. "When
a bicycle tech makes more
per hour than you, something has gone astray. You
are not vehicle repairmen,
you are 'safety specialists'...you need a unified
mission statement to save
lives... you are protecting
families who cannot protect
themselves. I will be there
to defend you if you do get
D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

sued."
The panel chimed in
after Tracy's poignant
presentation. I-CAR's Notte
noted that "our responsibility is to train students
correctly," but Tracy added
that students must be told
that all work must be done
right. Some body shops
have customers sign that
scanning wasn't done, but
that is not worth anything.
"You cannot waive a child's
or other victim's rights... it's
worthless."
Tracy also claimed that
a shop needs to keep a
library of documents to
back up what was done
and that the shop remains
liable when the vehicle is
sold to someone else. A
later discussion about how
much time to keep such
documents resulted in
"forever," since there is not
a timeframe where liability
is null.
Notte stated that I-CAR
has a document that
outlines the skills needed
in today's shops, including electrical diagnostics,
which is new and wasn't
needed ten years ago.
Olsen added that all shops
must have a resource to
access all OEM repair/
service information. Note:
In a second workshop I
attended, reviewing estimator responsibilities; this
was outlined as something
which should be provided
to the techs by support
staff on each job as applicable.
WEBSITE LIABILITY

Tracy added that a body
shop's website can be a

Continued on pg. 38

JANUARY 2019

37
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