Forty per cent of collision repair centres responding to a Canadian Collision Industry Forum (CCIF) survey noted they have suffered a loss of tradespeople within the last year, potentially affecting the cycle times of car repairs and, as a result, affecting insurers' costs.
On average, a collision repair shop has five technicians on staff, the research found. But these same shops reported they have lost an average of two tradespeople in the last 12 months, Jay Perry, the owner and founder of Automotive Business Consultants (ABC), told attendees at a January 2008 CCIF meeting in Toronto.
"That's huge," he added. "If you consider the initial statistic of five average techs and then you've lost two in the last 12 months we are losing a lot of people to a lot of other trades and there are a myriad of reasons for that."