Representatives from many of the 33 state associations affiliated with the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) gathered in Chicago this fall to share ideas, discuss state legislative successes and efforts, and exchange information with SCRS national board members.

SCRS Chairman Barry Dorn said the fourth annual event was designed to help the national association gather input from its state affiliates on its direction and efforts, as well as to help those groups work with one another and with the national organization.

“There's a lot of things that collectively we can do with relative ease if we're all rowing in one direction,” Dorn said in opening the meeting. “The problem is we sometimes have people rowing in different directions thinking they have a better way to row, but regardless of what stance you take, you're never going to get anywhere. So our goal is make sure we all talk with each other.”

One segment of the two-day meeting consisted of reports from each of the affiliate groups on its recent activities at a state level.

For example, Pat Gisler, executive director of the Automotive Service Councils of Kentucky, reported that new legislation in her state says a vehicle with damage exceeding 75 percent of its actual cash value must be declared a salvage vehicle, but the costs for parts and labor related to airbag replacement is not to be factored into this calculation.

Gisler said the change should decrease the percentage of vehicles crossing the threshold. There was discussion at the meeting, however, that in some states with similar laws, salvage values have insurers totaling cars below the threshold in order to be able to sell the salvage with an unbranded title. Jordan Hendler of the Washington Metropolitan Auto Body Association said that's an issue her association is working to address after Maryland enacted legislation last year requiring insurers to submit for branding the title of any vehicle it has acquired when damages exceed 75 percent of the vehicle's actual cash value prior to the loss.

Roger Bonn, a Minnesota shop owner and collision division chairman of the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Minnesota (AASP-MN), said a year-old association-backed state law prohibiting an insurer from “unilaterally and arbitrarily disregard(ing) a repair operation or cost identified by an estimating system” has benefited many shops in the state.

“If something is listed as a mechanical operation in the book, for example, you get paid mechanical rate. No bickering, no discussion,” Bonn said. “It's had a tremendous effect on our business.”

Judell Anderson, executive director of the AASP-MN, said use of the new law does vary somewhat by shop and market in the state, and it may not apply in a shop's dealings with an insurer with which the shop has a direct repair agreement.

“But overall it's been very effective, a very positive thing,” Anderson said.

Anderson said the association has for now shelved plans for a shop licensing bill, but will again attempt to get a ban on insurer-owned shops enacted (such a bill failed to move in the state legislature earlier this year).

Jeff Leatherock of the Oklahoma Auto Body Association said his group is expecting a 3-year process to get its shop licensing bill enacted.

Aaron Schulenburg, executive director of SCRS, briefly summarized some of the association's efforts on a national level in 2008, including supporting the Database Enhancement Gateway, the Collision Industry Conference Database Committee, and the effort to push U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate insurer actions the association believes are "clearly inconsistent with the intent, if not the letter, of the law." The association had recently begun hosting business management seminars around the country, and has actively voiced concerns about airbag- and parts-related draft legislation proposed by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL).