I wonder how much repair time this truck needs on those quarter panels? I think the rear door needs replacement though.
To write and estimate from a picture it is best to start with 4 corner pictures. That is a picture of front and rear driver side, front and rear passenger side. This allows to see the overall state of the vehicle. The next photo should be of the VIN and mileage. The best way to get a picture of the VIN is on either the driver side door or the door frame around the driver’s door there is a placard with the VIN and lot of other information. Some of the other information can be handy to have so having that picture can be helpful. Next are various pictures of the actual damage it self. Flash, sunlight and focus can effect the ability to see damage on a picture so it is best to try from different angles. Also you can try with Flash turned off and with focus on macro or regular. For most cameras they have a picture of a flower for close focus and a mountain for long focus. If you are taking a close picture you can use the flower focus to get a better picture. You want to look for secondary damage also. A quick way to look for secondary damage is to look at the gaps on seems. Like along hood or truck edges or along doors. If you see some gaps that are not uniform or are too big or too small then it is a sign that there is secondary damage. Taking a photo of those gaps can be helpful.
Ultimately taking too many pictures never hurts. The more you can see the better. Some email filters may block out files that are too big so sometimes you need to send each photo on a different email to make sure the files are not too large and thus blocked.
Every car registered in the United States has a unique identification number known as a VIN. This is a 17 digit number that contains information on where the vehicle was produced, the company that produced it and some model information. If you want to get into the details of each digit means you can go here. The VIN number can be found in several places. Most common is in the dash found at the bottom of the windshield on the driver side. Another common location is on the driver side door jam. On the door jam you can find a placard with a bunch of information about the car (good place to find the paint code here.) You can find a good diagram here.
Accidents are few and far between for most people. So they have no idea what to do after they are in an accident. This post is mostly about the hours after an accident. After you have limped your car back home and you wonder what do I do now. There are hundreds of different types of insurance companies and each has their own way of handling things. Basically though there are a few ways the claim is handled. I sort of put them into a few categories:
Direct Repair
Drive in Estimates
Independent adjuster (or traveling adjuster)
Shop around estimates
Direct repair- typically the larger Insurance companies in most cities have direct repair arrangement with shop’s in your area. If you call the insurance company the will recommend one of their shops in your area. You have the legal right to refuse to take your car to their recommend shop. You have the right to take your car to any shop you want. However, if you do not have shop in mind it can make the process easier (shameless self plug, You should keep Massey Collision Center in mind, we will make sure the process is smooth.) Typically you will be scheduled in for estimate then for repair but there are some that skip the estimate process and bring you straight in for repair. If you have an estimate written by a direct repair shop they will not be able to give you a check for the damages they can only perform the repairs.
Drive in Estimates- if you do not want to take your car to a particular shop recommended by the Insurance company they might assign you to a drive in estimate. This may take place at a shop or a stand alone facility. You will be set up an appointment with a time and place to take your car for an estimate. The adjusters at these drive-ins work directly for the insurance company (if the drive-in is in an actual shop sometimes it is hard to tell they dont work for the shop because they are in that office day after day.) Often they will write an estimate and hand you a check. In my experience these estimates are often incomplete (not always.) If you take that estimate and check to a reputable shop (like Massey Collision Center.) they will be able to work with that insurance company to make sure they cover all the repairs to fix the damage correctly. The term for this is a supplement. The shop will submit a supplement to the insurance company. Most of the time with a reasonable shop the insurance company agrees to take care of the addition items found.
Some of the larger insurance companies have adjusters that will go to where the car is to write the estimate. Sometimes they will tell you to take it to the shop of your choice and they send out their adjuster to the shop after the car arrives. In a similar manner there are some insurance companies that do no have a presence in your area. They often hire and independent adjuster who will do the estimate, again sometimes at your home and sometimes at the shop.
The most rare is the company that tells you to get several estimates and send them to the insurance company. In the past that was a standard practice and many people think they still have to do that today but in reality it is rare.
I have seen also sort of combination. The insurance company tells you to get an estimate. If the estimate is small, small seems to be less than $2,000, then they just go with it and do the work based upon one estimate. If it is greater they may send an independent out to take a look.
So here is the first in what I hope to make into a long series of helpful post about the Collision Repair industry. I hope to learn more myself along the way. I guess in my mind the most basic aspect of the business is training. No matter what industry you work in there is at least some basic training to required. The same is especially true for Collision Repair. There are many shade tree mechanics who can put your car back together but if that guy does not know what he is doing then the structural integrity of that car is compromised and the next time that car is in an accident it my not protect the passenger the way it was designed. So find a shop or technician who has been trained in vital to your safety.
The industry standard in the United States is I-Car. I-Car was started in 1979 to ensure that the people putting your car back together knew what they were doing. Over the years they have developed an extensive program for training. They have two levels of recognition. A shop can be qualified as a Gold I-Car shop and an individual can be qualified as a Platinum individual. Both of these signified that the shop or person has not only attained a certain level of training but they must maintain through continual education.
What is a Direct Repair or DRP? You may have never heard the term or if you have been in a Collision Repair shop you have have overheard it mentioned. In the Collision Industry most bodyshop’s have agreements with Insurance companies. There are shops that work entirely independent of Insurance companies but these are few and a bit harder to find as they often do not advertise either because depend on word of mouth and customer loyalty for their business. By law you have the right to take your car to any shop (or even friend) to have your car repaired. The insurance company can not tell you were to have your car repaired. If an insurance company directs you to a shop without giving you a choice that is called steering. Steering is illegal in every state.
If the insurance company cannot steer or direct you to a shop then how do they get work to their DRP? Most customers after getting involved in an accident call the insurance company to report the accident. They have no idea what shops are around and/or have no preference as to were they take their car. There are a lot of people who go years between times they need to visit a Collision Repair facility (and there are those who are frequent visitors.) So basically the customer is given a list of shops in the area that are affiliated with that insurance company i.e. DRP. Some insurance companies will explain the advantages of taking their car to the DRP. Thus a large portion of those involved in an accident just follow what the Insurance company says and leave it at that. There is nothing wrong with that for sure as often it is much easier to just let the insurance company take care of all the paperwork. But buyer beware just because they are recommended by the Insurance company does not mean they are the best, that varies from insurance company to insurance company.
Various insurance companies have different names for their DRP’s here is a short list of a few:
Allstate Allstate PRO (Preferred Repair Outlet)
American Family American Family CRP (Customer Repair Program)
Erie Insurance Erie Insurance DRP
Esurance EStar Direct Repair Program
Farmers Insurance Farmers Insurance COD (Circle of Dependability)
GEICO Auto Repair Xpress Locations
GMAC Gold Medal Repair Program
Hartford CRSP (Customer Repair Service Program)
Liberty Mutual TLC (Total Liberty Care Program)
Metropolitan MetLife GRP (Guaranteed Repair Program)
Nationwide Blue Ribbon Shop program
Progressive Concierge Level of Claims Service and/or Network Shops
State Farm Select Service Repair
Of course we need to post our commercial on the the blog
