Refinish Data: How Little We Know
by Bob Redding Any newcomer to the automotive service industry quickly discovers what veterans already know -- few reliable industry statistics are available. It is even more frustrating to realize the lack of knowledge about the aftermarket. Many of the people involved in establishing policies and regulations that directly affect our industry don't even know we exist.
The Automotive Service Association (ASA) met recently with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials to discuss how the aftermarket might better communicate with the EPA. ASA, along with other members of the aftermarket, is developing an up-to-date paper as to the size of the aftermarket and its economic impact in this country. For those public officials who have attended the International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE), or Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week (AAIW), the comments are generally the same. Most cannot believe the size of the industry or the major companies involved.
Unfortunately this basic lack of information extends beyond the aftermarket's general economic impact. It hits right to the core of how laws and regulations are developed by legislative and administrative bodies. For instance, it's amazing the range of numbers used when discussing how many repair shops there are in the United States (is it 200,000? or 500,000?); how many new technicians are needed each year (20,000? or 60,000?); or what percentage of auto repair fraud incidents are truly related to repairs (25 percent? or 100 percent?). One could go on for some time trying to assimilate all the estimates that show up from self-described "experts." Expertise tends to only require a fax machine and a federal grant.
One of the greatest areas of need for substantive data is in the automotive refinish products arena. Since 1993, ASA has promoted the concept of "point of sale" or "point of control" for refinish products. Although the EPA has not opposed this concept, they have not embraced it. The same goes for paint manufacturers. Various jurisdictions around the country are taking a hard look at point of sale for this next legislative session. It is critical that accurate information be on the table as policy makers study and assimilate data for legislation and regulations.
In the Feb. 9, 1996, Federal Register, the EPA published a notice involving an Automobile Refinishing Solvent Use Survey. The purpose of the survey is to collect information from automobile refinishers to investigate the emissions of ozone precursors both nationally and at the metropolitan level. The data will be used to validate existing and proposed model-based estimates of emissions, develop statistically valid estimates of smog precursor usage in the auto refinish industry, and investigate functional relationships between emissions and factors that may be useful predictors of emissions.
The contract to assimilate this information has already been signed and a group called the Operational Planning Panel has been assembled to assist the EPA in developing the actual survey questions and the process used in collecting the data. The panel is comprised of EPA staff, manufacturers, distributors, state agencies and collision repair business owners. ASA has two members on the panel.
Part of the focus of the study has to do with industry information. This information is critical to better understanding refinish products and the collision industry. Specifically, questions now being discussed would focus on shop owners predicting usage over the next five years and patterns in the collision industry. More importantly, the survey seeks to determine the percentage of auto refinishing businesses that are unlisted, unlicensed or are "backyard" operations. Questions focus on how much of the collision repair business is conducted by these backyard operators.
Although answers to these questions are critical in the development of a strong portfolio of information for arguing point of sale, it will fall short without two areas of discussion.
First, distributors have to share information about the volume of product sold to non-professionals. To rely solely on shop owners to estimate this data will not produce the results the entire industry and the general public need to resolve environmental problems.
Second, we need scientific estimates on what product control processes would do for the environment. The EPA's lack of interest in this area has caused a void of information on how we might limit the use of products that could harm the environment if not properly used. The EPA has to accept the fact that these products are developed for professionals to use, not the general public.
ASA plans to continue to advocate the proper use of refinish products with the belief that regulatory bodies should realize that product control, and training and adequate equipment, will produce the public health results that everyone wants to see.
As states prepare for their next round of legislative sessions and as members of Congress look to the beginning of the 105th Congress, regulators must come to the table with the data to remove one more layer of negative impact on the environment -- the improper use of refinish products.
Bob Redding is ASA's Washington representative. He holds a law degree from the George Washington University School of Law.
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AutoInc. Magazine ®, Vol. XLIV No. 9, September 1996