By John Yoswick
Nick Kostakis recalls a part removal and reinstall procedure his shop was conducting on a high-volume car that had a labor time in the estimating system — in fact in all three major estimating systems — that just didn’t seem adequate.
“It didn’t seem to factor in all of the other operations that had to take place,” said Kostakis, a New Jersey shop owner and a past national president of the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers (AASP). Kostakis sent an inquiry about the labor time through the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG), a Web site that enables anyone to submit questions about labor times or operations to any of three estimating systems.
“It was a case where roughly a-half-an-hour labor time was changed to two hours,” Kostakis said of the outcome of his DEG inquiry. “That’s not a dramatic change, but it was on an operation that anyone who owns a shop will have performed a hundred or a couple of hundred times each year. So it’s a shame this problem went undetected for as long as it did, and it’s a positive outcome that we were able to change it.”
Kostakis said his shop has submitted dozens of the more than 3,600 inquiries the DEG has logged in its first four years. Most, he said, have resulted in positive outcomes. That’s why he is among those urging the industry to learn more about the DEG and begin putting it to work.
Art Harris, who became the administrator of the DEG this past March, said that while the site user base continues to grow, there are still far too many collision repairers not taking advantage of the tools the DEG offers.
Progress in less than four years
Although formally launched in late 2007, the DEG’s roots actually go back to a project launched in 2001 by the Collision Industry Conference (CIC). At that time, Hawaii shop owner March Taylor — also a working technician — began a volunteer effort through the CIC Web site to collect, research and process hundreds of inquiries about the estimating databases. Although the major estimating system providers have long provided a way for anyone in the industry to submit such inquiries directly to them, Taylor believed that a centralized inquiry system would be easier to use and offer a way for the industry to monitor what happens to such inquiries.
As the number of inquiries submitted and tracked on the CIC Web site grew — and as more people realized the value of improving the accuracy of the estimating systems through such a system — a number of industry groups began discussing a more formalized organization and system for database inquiries.
Three trade groups — AASP, the Automotive Service Association (ASA), and the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) — agreed to work together to create and initially fund what became known as the DEG. (The DEG has expanded its funding sources through a sponsorship program, but it is still largely paid for by the industry associations.) Although Taylor died just months before the formal launch of the DEG, he is still considered by many to be the “godfather” of the organization.
One goal of the associations was to make the database inquiry process relatively simple and quick for time-strapped collision repairers. Michael Ferrucci at Ray’s CARSTAR Auto Body in Bristol, Conn., said he remembers his boss telling him about the DEG but thinking it seemed like a waste of time that he couldn’t spare as a busy estimator.
“But insurance companies frequently say something is included as part of another operation,” Ferrucci said. “When one of those instances came up, I told my boss this was a perfect opportunity to try the DEG, to have direct contact with the producers of the estimating system to find out what was accurate. So after I submitted it and had the documentation that what the insurance company was saying wasn’t accurate, I was just hooked.”
The system is free to use. New users can visit the DEG Web site (www.debweb.org) to read a brief explanation of the process and see tips for submitting a clear and complete inquiry. But the process involves little more than filling out a brief form identifying the vehicle, the area or part of the vehicle involved, and including one or two sentences explaining what information you feel is missing or inaccurate in one of the estimating databases.
“At first I thought, ‘This will be so time-consuming,’” Ferrucci said. “But once you start doing it? Honestly, I can submit an inquiry in less than 5 minutes.”
The DEG then posts the inquiry to its Web site and submits it to the estimating database company. Once that company reviews the inquiry, it provides its response — indicating what change, if any, it is making in response to the inquiry — to the DEG, which posts it to the Web site and forwards it on to the person submitting the inquiry.
Although the entire process can sometimes be completed in just one or two days, some inquiries require more research (the database of inquiries on the DEG Web site lists the resolution time for each). Over a 12-month period measured recently by the DEG, the average resolution time was 8.5 days.
Too few are using it
Harris, the DEG’s only paid staff, said that during one 12-month period, almost 60 percent of the inquiries submitted resulted in an estimating database correction.
Harris said although shops can still submit inquiries directly to the information provider, he believes the DEG can help better communicate the inquiry, for example, through the addition of photos. The DEG can work with the end-user and the information provider to ensure everyone has a clear understanding of the concern.
Aaron Schulenburg, executive director of the SCRS and the former administrator of the DEG, thinks too few people are using the DEG.
“For a free tool that’s been developed that has a good track record, that works, and that’s easily accessible and easy to use, the industry as a whole just doesn’t take advantage of it,” Schulenburg said. “The industry as a whole is complaining but they’re also accepting what is, as it is.”
Ferrucci agrees, saying he just keeps a file on his desk where he slips a quick note for himself when he finds something to submit to the DEG.
“Then I just take five minutes in the morning before any customers walk in the door to sit down and submit it,” he said. “You have to make the time. That’s the way I look at it. We’re just one collision shop in Connecticut, but if every shop in the entire country had the same philosophy, we could help improve this industry and make sure the estimating systems are accurate.” •
John Yoswick, a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore., who has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988, is also the editor of the weekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com). He can be contacted by e-mail at jyoswick@SpiritOne.com.
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