About Us > Press Release / News

At this year’s SEMA I was involved in several discussions ranging from consolidation to labor rates to paint prices to insurance company interactions. Some of the conversations were deep while others were fleeting because of frustration and helplessness. A couple colleagues and I facilitated “The Ebb and Flow of the New Normal” as part of the SCRS Repairer Driven Education series which opened more opportunity for discussion of the trials we are facing in our industry. I believe the most reflective discussions was around labor rates. I say reflective because I feel those in the discussion actually thought about their current rates and why they are what they are. One person stated, “the insurance companies need to give us a raise” which opened the door for me to start asking my series of “why” questions to determine why they felt it was the insurance companies’ position to offer a raise. I think that waiting for an insurer to raise labor rates is comparable to standing in front of your collision center waiting for an accident to happen. Every price in your business should be calculated using your costs multiplied by expected gross profit. Parts, paint, sublet and most importantly labor rates should all calculated based on your costs. I discussed this in depth in a previous ABRN article, Increase Reimbursements by Managing Skillsets, but I will offer a quick recap here. Every skillset in your business has a different cost to main... read more

Jeff Peevy, AMAM I met Dr. Rick Brinkman at a conference earlier this year and was intrigued by his approach to presenting and dealing with people you don't like or even can't stand! Since our meeting, the doctor and I have been working together to bring his online educational offerings to our industry. Be forewarned, his online courses are different, as they will have you laughing one minute and saying "oh wow" the next. Read Dr. Brinkman's article: SNIPERS AND WHINERS AND TANKS, OH MY! THE TOP TEN BEHAVIORS THAT PEOPLE CAN'T STAND and don't miss the section below for more information about Dr. Rick's approach to dealing with difficult people

Jeff Peevy, AMAM During last week's industry events in Atlanta, an industry veteran expressed their frustration with the younger generation and their different approach and perspective of "work." It came up that most training is geared toward veterans learning to work with them and it should be the other way around. As we talked, I decided to spend more of my time engaging the younger people that attended the various events. This was a great experience and here is my conclusion. The younger generations that are beginning to enter our industry are more equipped to deal with the speed of change and the volume of information than most of us veterans of the industry. We have to stop trying to make them fit in our world and begin understanding theirs. Our role as veterans is to provide context and guidance, but mentoring needs to go both ways for us all to win. If you have not checked out our training series on generations@work, you should