Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F18

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

"You have to make sure the body
[work] meets the customer's
expectations above and beyond what
the insurance company wants."
AARON MORRISON,
Moran Service & Collision Center

ESTIMABLE LIFE

 Dealership repair writers balance demands

of customers, insurers and collision technicians

ALAN L. ADLER
foj@autonews.com

ETROIT - Every month, Aaron Morrison examines and writes repair estimates for scores of collision-damaged cars and trucks. He spends 50
hours a week mediating tensions among often
distraught customers, penny-pinching auto insurers and overworked service technicians.
Morrison, 27, is lead estimator and assistant
body shop manager of Moran Service & Collision Center in the Detroit suburb of Southgate, Mich. The shop is part of the nearby Moran Buick-GMC dealership.
Technology such as estimating software - the
Moran shop uses three kinds - and electronic
measuring augments the work of the collision repair center estimator. But it won't replace human
judgment in the foreseeable future.
"I don't think you're going to be able to roll a
car through a tunnel anytime soon and it's going to write an estimate for you," Morrison told
Fixed Ops Journal. "You've got to learn the
business before you write it down on paper."
Morrison's job doesn't always end when the
workday does. He must think about how to resolve paint shop bottlenecks and deliver on
promises when something out of his control
takes longer than expected.
"You are the ultimate middleman because

PAGE 18

JUNE 2018

you are dealing with the insurance company
and the customer, and then you're dealing
with the insurance company and the technician," he says. "You have to make sure the
body [work] meets the customer's expectations above and beyond what the insurance
company wants."

Experience counts
Despite his relative youth, Morrison is a veteran in a field that attracts few young people.
He worked as a porter and a painter helper in
a body shop a decade ago.
His first estimator job was at an independent shop that went out of business. After 4½
years there, he joined the Moran group, which
also owns two Chevrolet dealerships and another body shop in the Detroit area.
Morrison applies his expertise when one of
Moran's Direct Repair Program contacts with
insurers comes into play. In such a program, a
body shop discounts labor rates in exchange
for business referrals and the freedom to write
most repair orders without preapproval.
About 15 to 20 percent of the Moran shop's
work comes from non-Direct Repair Program
cases. In those instances, unseen damage often is found after an initial estimate. Verifying
a so-called supplement to the first estimate
can take as long as six days.

GREG HORVATH

"That puts me behind the eight ball," Morrison says, "not only with my forecast [for when
the vehicle will be ready] but also the customer's expectation."

Insurance policies
Among major auto insurers, Allstate Insurance
has about 3,000 Direct Repair Programs, a fifth of
those at franchised new-vehicle dealerships, says
Clint Marlow, the insurer's claims director in innovation and customer experience.
"Most of the time, [body shops] are empowered to give us an estimate and supplement
and it is paid on what is asked," Marlow says.
Allstate's Direct Repair Programs audit about
one in 10 repair orders. The programs require
training for collision estimators and technicians provided by the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair, or I-CAR.
The percentage of wrecked cars and trucks
declared total losses by insurers is slowly rising as new vehicles and repairs get more expensive, Marlow says. Such declarations now
represent about 12 to 13.5 percent of all
claims, he says.
Electrified vehicles could create more total
loss declarations. Marlow says his Ford C-Max
was totaled after a seemingly minor rear-end
collision damaged the hybrid's battery.
More crush zones help protect drivers and
passengers. But a structure that is designed to
collapse often takes other parts with it, boosting repair costs. Technology that provides
lane departure warnings and blind zone alerts
depends on pricey cameras and sensors.
Morrison says he recently wrote a $22,000
see REPAIR, Page 20

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