Bray’s Report

In 2009, the average auto damage appraisal value for all losses was $ 2,552.39   This is down by over $138 from the previous year. Total losses have decreased over the past five years by 3% and early indicators show this may be attributed to the current economic situation. Another interesting trend is the move away from OEM parts. OEM usage dropped 6% over the past year with increased used of alternative and recycled parts.

The 2009 average appraisal cycle time delivered by AutoClaims Direct’s  field representatives was 2.1 days which includes weekends.  The average IA firm industry wide averaged 4.3 days including weekends.

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* All data from files processed through AutoClaims Direct’s industry leading DirectLink claims application.

Well, here’s an interesting story we found.  The New York No-Fault Auto Insurance program cost consumers around $1561.00 per FILE! This is according to the III.  Inflated medical bills and fake claims were the driving factors for the high rate of fraud. Click here for the full story.

Evidently an auto body shop in Ohio has been violating the state’s laws regarding Sales Practices and Do Not Call regulations.  The shop appears to have been soliciting business via calls to owners who had been in an accident. To add insult to injury, some complained the work was shoddy. Click here for the story.

Here’s a loss we found at a local park.

Politicians thought by enacting new laws banning the use of hand held cell phones while driving would lower crash rates….Well, they were wrong. As usual, the assumptions made and laws often enacted don’t live up to the promise. This article we found shows the result of a study and that no evidence proves that hands-free is any better than hand held in regards to safety. Click here for the story.

I was very interested to read this year-old  bill finally had a hearing in Massachusetts. If you read and analyze the bill, you will notice it talks of establishing 3 Tiers of Auto body shops  and based on the rating, insurers would be required to pay the shop at each level what is fair and reasonable for all labor hours. Shops that are B rated cannot be paid less than 90% of the the indexed labor rate in force at the time of the completion of the job.  What????

Is this the state regulating minimum prices? What is the state’s definition of “fair and reasonable”?  In the free market, repair shops like any entity need to compete and operate in a manner that allows for the fair market price to reach equilibrium on it’s own. Not with government price fixing. Oh yeah, I forget we are in the era of big government.

Here’s the link to the bill.

Here’s 2 current snapshots of auto body labor rates in San Diego County.

This is definitely not something the CA Insurance Commissioner was happy to hear about. Click here for this story.

In Michigan, new road barriers have increased  safety but at the same time, the cost to repair vehicles who collide with them have jumped.  Vehicle owners find their vehicle’s sheet metal is sliced heavily causing increased damage. Click here for the story.