Page 22 - Australasian Paint & Panel Nov-Dec 2019

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LIVE COVERAGE
PAINT&PANEL NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019
CLOCKWISE TOP: From left Rob Mildenhall from Capricorn, Michael Karanfilovski and Steve Lozenkovski from Bears Group. From left: Two Rising Star winners, Carly Ruggeri from Europanels and Kate Presnell from Gary Presnell Bodyworks. From left: Craig Tonkes Axalta and Darren Myers from Len Hollis Repair Facility.
2016 to 60% in 2020; adaptive cruise controls from 14% in 2015 to 50% by 2020. The global market for sensors in 2017 was $2billion US and it is projected to grow to $5.6billion by 2028. Bosch ex- pects the market for calibration equip- ment to grow faster in Australia than oth- er markets. One of key reasons being the lack of optionality when models enter the market as many of the cars come in with these features as standard.
Key to key times are significantly im- pacted if you need to send the car off to a dealer to be recalibrated. Calibration can't be carried out by just anyone as it needs to be 100% accurate. Because Australia has the third most number of car brands in the world we need to have software and equipment that can ac- commodate that. Even bumper jobs will require recalibration and if the chassis is damaged then all the sensors will need recalibration.
Gerling stressed how important it is for the person carrying out the calibration to be properly trained. She showed a a slide demonstrating the potentially cata- strophic outcomes from even a four de- gree error which equates to a 17 metre error range.
There are four elements you need to recalibrate: data, equipment, diagnostic capability and training and ongoing hel- plines. She went on to explain the differ- ent equipment for static and dynamic calibration that Bosch can provide.
INCREASING REVIEWS
Podium is an online re-
view company funded
by Google and is one of
the fastest growing com-
panies in the US. Taylor
Cutler from Podium gave a fast paced, in- formation packed presentation about the power of online reviews and how to man- age and generate them. Among the many 'take homes' was the important difference between organic and local search. "To- day’s consumer values convenience over loyalty. If your business isn’t easy to find, potential customers will just go to your competitors who are," he said. He gave delegates tips to optimise their business for local search engine optimisation. He explained how online reviews impact on local search ranking and tips to help col- lects reviews.
ELECTRIC DREAM
James Coffey, Porsche's Product & Skill Training Specialist introduced us to the impressive Taycan. He discussed the thinking and engineering behind it, the battery and range capability and the body construction. He was followed by I- CAR's Mark Czvitkovits who outlined the current electric (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEVs) park and how this was go- ing to increase in the next couple of years with the introduction of many new mod-
els such as the Jaguar I-Pace, Hyundai Io- niq, Audi E-tron, Mini and VW I.D. Czvit- kovits discussed whether there would be licensing necessary for working on the vehicles and the safety issues (many of which can result in death) for workshops.
AUSSIE GAME CHANGERS
The conference finished with delegates hearing from some Australian game chang- ers. Greg Elliot from hail specialist Smart Repair Australia talked about the game changing methods and technologies that his company has adopted including an arch scanner which identifies and categorises hail damage, supercharging estimating.
Sandra Noach from Extreme Dents and IQ Bodygroup talked about the im- portance of stepping out of your comfort zone to identify opportunities and diver- sify your business and how her company had achieved this.
Shaun Janks from DingGo explained the philosophy behind the customer-centric company which handles much of the inter- action with the customer to free the repair- er up to do what they do best, repair cars for predominantly private work.