Vehicle owners wait longer for their cars and trucks to get fixed and can expect to pay more for maintenance, as the industry faces a combination of challenges, which add acute hard work and shortages of portions and emerging wages for repair technicians.
This disastrous vision is a component of the findings of the annual “CCC Crash Course 2022” released Tuesday and conducted through the software-as-a-service platform for the asset and casualty insurance industry CCC Intelligent Solutions Inc.
Just as other industries have experienced labor shortages caused by mass retirements or career adjustments caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the auto repair sector has been hit hard.
According to the CCC report bringing in representatives from the Universal Technical Institute, a “wave of retired baby boomers will create 100,000 automotive technician positions over the next decade, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 4% drop in auto industry employment. “Finding technicians with the right is also a challenge in development as the complexity of the vehicle increases.
For the collision industry, the shortage of hard work didn’t just start at the beginning of the pandemic. Intensive course Susanna Gotsch told Forbes. com that for the past 15 to 20 years, the collision repair industry has failed to recruit new talent.
“There’s a belief that it’s a race where you get your hands dirty and your clothes get greased,” Gotsch said. “But it’s an environment where we have a population of older workers. With age, they have not been able to bring in so many young people. “
Fewer other people qualified to do the job, as well as portion shortages due to delays in production and shipping, means motorists wait longer to get their repaired cars out of the shop.
According to the CCC study, from 2019 to 2021, the time between the start and end of maintenance increased to 2. 1 days. Quarter 2021 reported being two weeks late.
Part of the challenge is the labor shortage in the insurance industry, which affects the time it takes to get an in-person evaluation before a claim is filed and an appointment can be scheduled to ensure maintenance.
The execution?”? Assessments using photo estimating technology, which continues to give consumers their initial assessment and the data they want to make decisions much faster, such as whether they want to repair their car and/or make an insurance claim. “says the report.
This location is supported by the annual Customer Service Index released by JD Power last week, which found that the wait time to book a service appointment for one- to three-year cars has increased for nearly a full day over the past year for the same reason.
As a further representation of how the shortage of professional service technicians affects the speed of maintenance, the CCC cites the metric “hours of work consistent with the repair day” as a measure of declining productivity. It found that at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, operating hours consistent with the fixed day for “practicable” maintenance increased from just over 3 hours in the first quarter to just under 2. 5. This is less than 3. 5 hours in 2017.
For repairs classified as “uncontrollable,” the effects are similar, going from 2. 5 hours a day in early 2021 to two hours in the fourth quarter. In 2017, the average was about 3 hours.
According to the study, declining productivity is only what contributes to higher fixed prices and delays. He attributes much of the blame to today’s cars and says, “Unfortunately, new vehicle technologies like ADAS and electric cars have added complexity and increased needs for new skill sets, education, and equipment for the collision repair industry. So while the industry has demonstrated its resilience and ability to adapt to the new generation of vehicles over the years, adaptation takes time and the existing environment means maintenance can charge more.
Gotsch says the industry is looking for all sorts of tactics to lure other young people into careers in repair technology. One tactic, he said, is to create apprenticeships and internships as is practice in Europe. Another is about the efforts of the educational world. Quote Rankin Technical College in St. Louis, MO. , touting his show as “where Silicon Valley and Motor City collide. “
“They’re looking to attract other people to the industry and make them realize that the cars we have today are possibly very different from the type of vehicle of 15 or 20 years ago and there’s a lot more electronics, a lot more mechanical parts, and with electric cars, there will be fewer car-compatible moving parts. but much more electronic,” Gotsch said.
In an environment of high demand and demand for labor, vehicle owners will have to wait longer and dig deeper into their wallet to repair their cars.
“The average annual inflation of fixed prices last year according to our figures was 11 percent,” said James Davies, chief executive of research firm We Predict, which analyzes knowledge of millions of real service orders. 5% over the same period, so it’s a combination of complex maintenance and higher prices. “
In fact, CCC’s Susana Gotsch predicts that motorists will possibly want to fix their personal finances over the course of the year.
“If you take a look at 2022 and look at the salaries that repairers say they have to qualify for because they want to attract skills to the industry, they have to pay them more,” Gotsch said. “So we expect hard work. “