CollisionCast

A High Climb: The Mountain States Collision Repair Association Takes Hold

The industry is constantly evolving through technology, often lacking the training or educational tools to maintain success, along with facing a shortage of young professionals entering the field. 
 
Collision repair associations across the country help meet those needs. 
 
For this CollisionCast, we speak with Megan Mueller, the founder and president of the Mountain States Collision Repair Association (MSCRA). She is also the co-owner of Ozzie’s Body Shop in Loveland, Colorado. She shared insights into the formation and vision of the association.  

Recruiting for the Collision Repair Industry

Mary Mahoney, vice president of the Replacement & Leisure Division at Enterprise Mobility, and Matt Ebert, founder and CEO of Crash Champions, join the CollisionCast to talk about recruiting for the collision repair industry and the Collision Engineering program. The Collision Engineering program will be the primary beneficiary of the upcoming Crash Champions Golf Outing, Dec. 5 at Monarch Beach Golf Links in Dana Point, California. In the past year, Crash Champions has hosted more than 25 Collision Engineering students as apprentices in its Skills Training Education Program (STEP) at its repair centers throughout the U.S.For more information on the Collision Engineering program, go to https://www.beacollisionengineer.com.
For more information on Crash Champions' STEP, go to https://step.crashchampions.com
And for information on how you can join in the golf tournament or be a sponsor, go to https://crashchampions.com/2024-Golf-Outing.
Check out more episodes here!
 

School Counselors Guided on Collision

The Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF) made an impact at the recent American School Counselor Association (ASCA) conference, where school counselors considered alternative career options for the students they guide.

Entry-level to Productivity with the I-CAR Academy

The I-CAR Academy curriculum is designed to prepare entry-level technicians for a collision repair career. I-CAR Director of Product Management Jesus Guerrero talks about how the Academy, with guided hands-on learning and gamification in five foundational learning areas, helps new hires become productive technicians.

AI as Collision Repairer's Co-Pilot

AI is making an impact across all sectors of business, including Collision Repair.
FenderBender speaks with Ryan Taylor, the founder and CEO of Body Shop Booster, to learn more about what he is doing to develop AI for collision repairers and how AI can impact the industry.

The Future of Hail and Hail Repair

As the world is forced to adapt to climate change, it should spark interest among collision repairers on the matter of hail repair. FenderBender speaks to Dr. Stefan Liess, a climate researcher from the University of Minnesota, and Mo Kayeni of Elevated Hail Repair to learn more about the future of hail and whether collision repairers are up to the task.

5 Exceptional Traits of Gen Z Employees

In this episode, the team at Ratchet+Wrench, a sibling publication to FenderBender, interviews Sara Fraser of Haas Performance Consulting to dispel the myths about Gen Z workers and discuss five traits that make them among the best workers in the workforce.

How NACAT Serves Automotive Educators

Drew Barnes and Heather Sebben of the North American Council of Automotive Teachers discuss what NACAT is and how it serves the automotive industry. They are approaching their 50th anniversary of operation and plan to celebrate it at their annual conference this summer.

Stopping Data Pumps at Your Shop

Data security and privacy may seem hard to achieve, but there are solutions to those issues in collision repair.
Pete Tagliapietra, the managing director and founder of DataTouch, explains what data pumps are, how they operate, and what DataTouch is doing about it.

Repair-planning with Data-Driven Repair Recommendations

How shops approach repair planning is often not optimal for where collision repair is headed, with added repair cost and complexity. Although much of repair planning is currently focused on identification through the pre-scan, it needs to move to data-driven repair recommendations, says Sam Poradish, director of automotive intelligence at asTech, one of the sponsors of our inaugural Best Repair Planner/Estimator of the Year Award.