According to a news release late monday, Liberty Mutual and Safeco Corporation reported their merger is on plan to close.  Click Here for the most recent news regarding this transaction.

Recent news today about economic hard times and the rapid rise in value of precious metals has caused those with a propensity to commit crime to hone in on the market for exotic and expensive metals. Catalytic converters and exhaust parts are coated with platinum, rhodium, and palladium which are very expensive metals and fetch a high price on the open market. In an internal AutoClaims Direct study, Toyota pickups were the most common targets for these thieves resulting in 33% of the catalytic converters stolen. Second place went to Nissan trucks and vans which made up 15% of catalytic converter related claims. The reason that these vehicles are targeted is likely due to their bolted on converters along with high ground clearance.

Several years ago in Australia, the government approached the country’s collision repair industry with concerns about making the estimating process more transparent. (Down Under, They call it the “Smash Repair Industry” by the way.) The Australian Productivity commission has been pushing the auto body repair industry to create a more realistic approach to labor times which match an hour of labor time to an hour or actual work. In the United States the labor unit method allows for labor to be padded and is not based on real actual hours.

A major auto repair trade association in conjunction with a large Australian insurance carrier helped develop a new method to determine real actual labor times. The new program is called NTAR ( New Times and Rates ) and started late 2007.  Collision repairers, insurance staff and trade associations meet and review and adjust labor times and issues on a regular basis. 

The methodology in creating the new “real hours” was based on the following.

1. Completing time studies on every repair operation would be too time consuming and would not be effective.

2. Actual times would be defined for major operations at first. The key operations would be defined and then smaller operations as time goes on, all the way down to removing a bolt.

3. Once major operations are identified then the “actual time” to complete them can be defined.  This would include the ancillary operations involved as well. 

The results according to articles and research conducted, indicates that with this new method of using “actual” hours, the labor rate per hour to collision repair shops will have to go up to compensate for the new changes. The benefit though would be that labor times on U.S. estimates would go down considerably.  In tests in Australia, with adjusted labor rates and the “actual” hours method utilized, The bottom line repair totals did not vary with any significance. 

For more information on how they are moving to this process in Australia, Click Here.

And the car most stolen is the 1995 Honda Civic….. Click here for the link to the NICB’s site.

According to a data analytics report from AutoClaims Direct, during the first six months of 2008. 44% of all auto claims resulted in the front of the vehicle being hit. 37% of the time the rear of a vehicle is impacted. 10% of the time the impact was from the side. Astonishingly enough, only 1% of all vehicles were a rollover.

Data source:  © 2008, AutoClaims Direct, DirectLink

According to a press release by the Idaho Department of Insurance, Leroy Boison, a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society stated that rising gas prices lead to lower auto insurance claims frequency in the short term and long term. This was attributed to drivers finding other methods of transportation and reduced travel frequency. With driver’s in Idaho driving less and gas prices high, The DOI in Idaho sees insurance auto rates going down.

Click here for the release.

In California, State Assembly bill 2800 would give insurance carriers the ability to utilize different rating factors for those drivers who voluntary submit to insurance documented annual mileage  vs. estimated unverified mileage. This bill would benefit those who don’t drive a considerable amount of miles by affording them lower rates. At the same time the California Department of Insurance is considering it’s own Pay As You Go style of regulations. Many feel that this type of insurance will encourage people to drive less. It’s guaranteed that much more will be heard about this type of insurance in the future.

Here’s a link to the Assembly Bill.

On July 1st, CA Assembly Bill 2825 was amended with key language which has upset many repair facilities in the state. They feel this will put more “work” on their plate forcing them to process even more paperwork. In my opinion, All parts and their prices should be documented. It’s only fair for all parties involved to know the true costs.

(b) The first page of the final invoice shall contain the
following statement in 12-point boldface type or larger enclosed in a
box: 
   "INSTALLING A PART, OTHER THAN A PART DESCRIBED ON THE WRITTEN
ESTIMATE, WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL FROM THE CUSTOMER, IS UNLAWFUL. FOR
MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE STATE BUREAU OF AUTOMOTIVE
REPAIR. IF, ON THE WRITTEN ESTIMATE, YOU CHOSE TO RECEIVE COPIES OF
INVOICES FOR CRASH PARTS INSTALLED ON YOUR VEHICLE, THESE INVOICES
ARE ATTACHED TO THIS FINAL INVOICE." 
Here's a link to the most recent amendment.
 

Did you know the average mileage for a 5 year old vehicle in California is 70,344 (14,068 miles per year average).  A 10 year old vehicle nationwide has an average of 105,829 miles (10,582 miles per year average).

Data source:  © 2008, AutoClaims Direct, DirectLink

Data source:  © 2008, AutoClaims Direct, DirectLink