I'm seeing more and more news reports on the Web about this shop or that shop going "green," or transitioning to environmentally-friendly business practices. In fact, the frequency of these reports has increased significantly, which is encouraging...

Myself and Managing Editor Hannah Schiffman got out of the office recently and visited DCR Systems in Mentor, Ohio. Initially, DCR offered turnkey collision repair outsourcing to dealerships nationwide, operating six repair centers in three states. However...

On my flight over to the recent I-CAR Annual Conference, I read in USA Today how business at Best Buy, despite the weak economy, is thriving thanks to its emphasis on customer service. This emphasis on service is also the reason Best Buy is kicking the...

I recently returned from the annual CARSTAR conference, and I must say the incredible amount of energy and enthusiasm poured out there is still lingering in my system. These days, there seems to plenty of doom-and-gloom talk about the future of the collision...

I recently came back from the Midwest Collision Industry Forum held in Columbia, Mo., and a recurring frustration among repairers was reinforced to me during the session in which Chris Andreoli, corporate PD process manager of Progressive Insurance, talked...

There was a good article recently in the Patriot Ledger (to read click HERE ) about body shops and insurers battling it out in Massachusetts over a labor rate bill recently added to the State Senate's budget proposal for the coming fiscal year. The...

OK, our most recent survey is officially closed and the results are in. The question was, "Is an OEM-specified repair procedure the only correct way to repair a vehicle?" And... 57% of you said YES. 43% of you said NO. There are a lot of issues...

I'm sure many of you saw the article on our Web site in "Breaking News" about the American Insurance Association calling auto repair anti-steering legislation a "wolf in sheep's clothing." And I'm pretty sure it irked you...

We've been talking a lot about diversification lately in BodyShop Business as a key to body shops' future success. I saw a perfect example of that the other day when visiting a Dunkin' Donuts. Back in the day, all Dunkin' Donuts sold was...

So far, CCC and Mitchell officials have been fairly mum on details of the proposed merger other than to say the intent is to transition to a single platform. Naturally, there has been discussion among repairers about its possible implications. A few industry...

OK, it's been a week since I got back from the Collision Industry Conference held April 15-17 in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, and here are the 10 Things I Think I Think (yes, I know, the title is a blatant rip-off of Sports Illustrated...

Who doesn't like Shark Week? You know, the week-long series on the Discovery Channel that basically shows what sharks do best: hunt and eat. I love sharks, much for the same reason I like rollercoasters: they scare the heck out of me and remind me...

Thanks for all of your encouraging comments regarding the Industry Unity series of articles we just wrapped up in April. Many people requested copies of the articles they could hand out at meetings with their colleagues, so to make things easy, I’ve included...

Wow! My first blog. This is truly a special occasion. I remember 25 years ago when I plunked down $900 of my hard-earned paper route money for my first personal computer, a Commodore 64. At the time, there was no Internet, but even if there had been,...