Page 50 - Australasian Paint & Panel Jan-Feb 2020

Scanning and recalibration
50
PAINT&PANEL JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020
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Since 2015 AEB has
progressed from just 3% of new cars offering it as standard equipment with it now available in 55% of the new light vehicle market, with 54% offering it as standard equipment,”
ber 2017). There has been some sketch- iness over scanning, calibration, whee repairs etc. in terms of what constitutes
a clear position statement, with some say- ing that they are not relevant here as they are not issued in Australia. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) recently issued a statement saying that ig- noring position statements is placing the safety of the vehicle in jeopardy.
It says that FCAI members undertake to:
• Ensure that all Collision Repair State- ments issued or authorised by the FCAI member account for the specifics of rel-
evant Australian Design Rules (ADR);
• Ensure that all the above Collision Re- pair Statements are correctly translated
into the English language; and
• Provide adequate and efficient means for collision repair businesses, and insur- ance companies, to verify the correct and official Collision Repair Statement for ADR-compliant vehicles in Australia. Where a repairer has not been able to ac- cess a relevant Collision Repair Statement for a particular circumstance/s, the repair- er should contact their nearest authorised dealer to discuss the matter further, the
statement says.
RECALIBRATION
It is immensely significant that autono- mous emergency braking (AEB) is now a requirement for ANCAP’s five star safety rating. Already out of just the top selling 100 models of 2019 at the end of July:
• 60 included AEB as standard (43,000 sales, 54% of the light vehicle market)
• 10 included AEB only on higher grade
variants (7,000 sales, 9%)
• 9 offered AEB as an option on the base
model (11,000 sales, 13%)
• 21 were not available with any form of
AEB (10,000 sales 13%)
Since 2015 AEB has progressed from just 3% of new cars offering it as standard equipment with it now available in 55% of the new light vehicle market and 54% of- fering it as standard equipment. It is una- vailable on just 13% of new vehicles.
AEB uses radar and/or cameras which means it’s extremely likely that these will need recalibrating even if you are carrying out a repair as (formerly) simple as replac- ing a bumper. How will you know if it needs recalibrating? Well, unfortunately, it has no way of telling you. You must follow OEM repair methods which specify recali-
bration if certain areas are accident dam- aged. If you have your own recalibration equipment however, you will know if the camera is out of alignment because it will not calibrate.
As the number of cars requiring recali- brating up until now has been relatively small and the aftermarket recalibration op- tions also scarce, towing the car to the ap- propriate dealership has been the only op- tion. Now that the number of cars requiring recalibration is growing exponentially this solution is not sustainable for a number of reasons. Firstly, some dealerships are al- ready struggling to accommodate these re- calibrations and this is creating significant delays in the repair process. Apart from the insurance companies not loving paying dealer rates for any service in the repair chain further increasing repair costs, if the customer has a replacement vehicle for an extra week or two waiting for the dealer to recalibrate, up goes the cost of repair once more. In addition to this, the customer’s re- pair satisfaction is likely to be affected by the delay, they likely blame the insurance company and possibly vote with their feet at renewal time.
AMA Group Panel CEO Steven Bubulj said ADAS is the biggest challenge techni- cally both now and into the future.
“The approach we are taking to man- aging ADAS is centred around three key themes. How do we ensure safe and quality repairs? How do we manage ADAS calibration efficiently to ensure customers get back on the road quickly, and how do we ensure that we imple- ment a long-term solution?
“What we do know is that the costs of dealing with ADAS will increase the cost of repairers.
“We have trialled a number of initia-
tives ranging from testing our own equip- ment, through to partnering with experts in the field.
“We are working on some trials at the moment to test what will provide the best customer outcomes.
“AMA has its own in-house support and expertise, and we are working closely with manufacturers and dealers to manage the day-to-day challenges.
“The complexity in Australia, we believe,will be greater than anywhere in the world given the diversity of the vehicle car parc, as vehicles are imported from Eu- rope, Asia and USA.
“We have engaged with I-CAR to com- plete an ADAS awareness training program for all of our estimators, production manag- ers and centre managers. This will happen early this year.”
Car Craft Group has had concerns about the impact ADAS will have on the body re- pair industry for some time. Not only the additional costs associated with dealing with the various systems but also the time it can take to have the calibration or recod- ing carried out through the dealer net- works who already have their hands full.
“In conjunction with our UK business partner Ezi Methods we were able to get the insights into what is coming down the pipeline some 18 months ago, it is also why Car Craft invited Andrew Marsh a co-director of Ezi Methods to Australia to meet with the group at last year’s Col- lision Repair Expo,” Car Craft’s general manager Peter McMahon said.
“To ensure the modern-day vehicle is re- paired correctly and to OEM specifications, ADAS cannot be ignored by repairers and insurers alike. The driver assistance pro- grammes we are now seeing are critical to the safe performance of our customer’s ve- hicle.
“Car Craft and its members have always had a very strong customer focus and one of the major concerns for us is getting the vehicles back to their owners as quickly and efficiently as we possibly can.
“To that end we have already invested in equipment, knowledge and expertise in creating Advanced Automotive Calibration (AAC). AAC is a business which provides a mobile calibration solution for our mem- bers, ensuring they have access to the cali- bration and recoding services as they need them and reducing the key to key times.
“Currently AAC is a service provider ex-