EPA & Techinal Tips | Trade Practices

 

EPA & TECHNICAL TIPS: Collision Industry Conference: Trade Practices Committee Recommendations

As a premise, the Committee believes that it is incumbent upon insurers and repairers alike to be familiar with all statutes, laws, regulations and ordinances that govern their locale. It is imperative to ensure that everyone in the process understand and meet all legal requirements as a "BEST TRADE PRACTICE"

The recommendations include:

Published Agreement Guidelines– Direct Repair and Referral Program policy, agreement guidelines and key performance metrics should be published and made available to all participants to provide transparency to the insurer’s processes and objectives. In addition, insurers should publish the intended field application of the programs policies, guidelines and metrics along with a process for handling potential misunderstandings or deviations from company policy.

Referrals Word Track– Word-tracks used to offer repair shop referrals to consumers should not include comments, remarks or statements that disparage any collision repair business. When a consumer voices their shop selection, their decision should be honored without further comment. Repairers should also refrain from making any comments that disparage an insurer, their direct repair program or other repair facilities.

Workflow Enhancements– Repairers and insurers should expand their collaborative efforts to improve administrative and workflow processes as a means of securing expense and cost reductions while improving repair cycle time. We believe that all parties should work together to focus on the efficiency gains offered through processes associated with continuous production workflow (blueprinting) and other lean production techniques.

Repair Procedure Decisions– Collision repair processes and procedures should be consistent with labor procedures provided by reputable sources such as the OEM, I-CAR, Tech-Cor and Material and Equipment Suppliers. Any labor practices that have been specifically disapproved by the OEM should not be included in a damage assessment, appraisal or estimate or repair.

Insurer Vendor Requirements– Collision Repairers should be allowed to select the vendor of their choice for products and services, as long as those vendors meet performance criteria and requirements of the program. To ensure compatibility, the insurer should publish requirements so that a qualified and willing vendor can determine if those requirements can be met.

The CIC Trade Practices Committee was formed to review trade issues and identify potential improvements. The committee desires to meet with key stakeholders to present and discuss these guidelines in hopes of achieving industry-wide adoption. Further point-by-point panel and open microphone town hall style discussions are planned for upcoming CIC meetings.

The committee intends to publish additional business practice recommendations over time.

The committee intends to publish additional business practice recommendations over time.

For more information and to download the full 2011 CIC meeting schedule check out: http://ciclink.com/

Article courtesy of: ©Collision Industry Conference