Protecting and Serving the ‘Empty Chair’: CIC Recap

by Alana Quartuccio

Industry professionals make their way to the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) multiple times a year for many reasons. But one thing is for certain – everyone who takes the time intends to serve the industry and ultimately, the “empty chair” – a symbol for the vehicle owners and families who this industry serves to protect. 

CIC Chairman Dan Risley reminded the audience of that message as he kicked off the first event of 2025 in Palm Springs, CA in January. 

“It’s a constant reminder to us that the consumer is the end-user,” he said of the “empty chair,” a shining symbol that has been the heart of this conference since former CIC Chairman Jeff Peevy hauled a chair onto the stage five years earlier to make that very point.

 Risley set the tone of the day’s intention with conversations focused on doing things right, staying informed and educating the public by sharing two strong messages, “Be what works” and “We’re all here to serve.” 

“I don’t think anybody specifically paid to be in this room because you’re getting something for it,” he stressed. “You’re here because you want to serve your industry. You want to serve your customer.”

“‘I’d love to have some intellectually stimulating story to tell you about how I strategically thought this was important to have a chair on stage, but the truth is, I don’t,” Peevy reflected, during a special presentation. 

It was born out of a moment of frustration when it occurred to him that “nowhere in the conversation were the families who were riding in the vehicles our industry repaired ever mentioned. I just grabbed a chair, put it up on stage and said, ‘This is going to represent the families who ride in the cars our industry repairs. And we’re going to use this chair as a reminder to all of us of our responsibilities.’ Little did I know that five years later, it would still be up here, and I have been humbled over and over.”

The chair “represents our neighbors,” he continued. “Staying educated needs to be about making complete, safe and quality repairs so that we protect our neighbors.”

The sessions that followed were centered around educating for the sake of the “empty chair.” 

Air quality management is a major concern to the south coast. As a result, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) has proposed a two-part plan to phase out the use of specific solvents in low-VOC paint manufacturing in that area of California. Although it’s an issue specific to a local region, “this is something that everybody needs to understand,” Parts and Materials Committee Chair Aaron Schulenburg stated as he introduced a panel of experts to educate the audience on what these changes could mean for the industry. 

Low-VOC products used in this region contain t-BAC and pCBtF, which means residents are exposed as a result of the 3,000 automotive body shops in the area, according to Heather Farr of the South Coast AQMD who shared the two-phase timeline for when coating manufacturers and the pCBtF are allowed to be sold and used through with both phases to be completely implemented by 2030.

Panelist Gene Lopez (Seidner’s Collision; West Covina, CA) painted a picture of what these changes could mean from a body shop owner’s perspective. He referred to the late ‘90s “when we were beginning to move toward lower VOC material and the heartburn that it created for a lot of the repairers and a lot of suppliers and, of course, the big manufacturers. I see us going into that again.”

Lopez foresees that changing refinish technology will bring challenges and benefits. “There could be some issues around the equipment that we’re currently using, as much as on the spray gun and some of the spray gun technology.” He believes painters may have to relearn “how to use the higher VOC limit [materials]. But many of you may be happy because that material was really easy to spray.” Lopez expressed concern that 2030 isn’t very far off and the technology that will be used then is not available now. 

As panelist Jeff Wildman (BASF) explained, “Paint companies do make different products for different parts of the country to meet the regulations, and that’s really what we focus on when we develop these products. We have to make sure they meet regulations for that country or that state. Because not only do we have different products by state here in North America, but we also have different products locally. We try to standardize those as much as possible, but we have to meet the local regulations. So, as we see the changes coming in Southern California, we will have different products coming in. For phase one, we’re going to be able to use products that exist in other markets today – whether it be other parts of North America or those coming from Europe, we’ll bring them in just for Southern California. Phase two will bring all new products.”

Monitoring the regulations also poses challenges.

 “We have a team of manufacturers who go out to local shops and trace where the product came from,” shared Farr. 

“And that’s just one more thing that makes this difficult, because every distributor out there in southern California doesn’t just serve the South Coast Air Quality District,” Wildman added. “They serve customers in other areas, and the manufacturers have warehouses there that serve other areas. And the training centers serve customers coming from different areas. So, it’s a very complicated process to make sure that the right product goes to the right shop at the right time, with the right distributor and managing all that.”

The Repair Process and Procedures Committee recognized the obstacles that lie in the way of measuring for liability, resulting in an engaging panel hosted by co-chairs Kye Yeung (European Motor Car Works; CA) and Barry Dorn (Dorn’s Body & Paint, VA). 

Perhaps the largest challenge lies in the fact that people older than 45 still practice the imperial measuring systems, while many under the age of 45 have embraced the metric system.”The problem that we see here is some of the older technicians have not adapted to the metric system,” stated Yeung. “There may be errors as a result of them not understanding the system.“ Rulers and measuring tape are extremely accurate and aid in repairing a car if used properly, but “there’s a huge amount of time savings and documentation” via the enhanced tools
available today. 

The issue isn’t just with having a proper way to measure; “one of the struggle points that we have is the pushback of compensation,” according to Yeung. “I find it amazing that all of a sudden the industry accepts pre-scanning, but they don’t embrace pre-measuring a vehicle. I’m encouraging all to understand that before you start a repair, it needs to be measured so you can comprehend what the damage is. That’s how you can ensure the ‘empty chair’ is taken care of.” 

Technology has come a long way in assisting with this task, so there’s “really no reason a shop owner today does not document a measurement, whether it’s before or after the repair has been done,” according to Yeung. 

Ensuring a proper repair gets done lies in pre-measuring, according to panelist Justin Lewis (Accurate Auto Body; WA) who suggested that OEMs consider issuing a position statement. “You might be disguising structural damage that you may not be aware of if you are going by the technician’s eyeball” and could potentially be returning an unsafe vehicle back to its owner. 

Lucid Motors plans to make having a visual measuring system a requirement and will be issuing a position statement this May, according to panelist Matt Pitta. “It would be helpful to the shops to have some guidance in how to put things back to pre-loss condition,” adding that he hopes other OEs will follow suit. 

Dorn continued to stress the liability factor. “I don’t think any of us want to be the cautionary tale. In order to fix [something properly], you have to know what the dynamic was and how we got there.”

Evolving ADAS continues to impact the industry in new ways. During the Emerging Technologies Committee, panelist Mike Muller (SEMA Garage) brought attention to the new standard ratified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) last June that requires all passengers and light trucks weighing 10,000 pounds or less to have an automatic emergency braking system on board by September of 2029.

Muller spoke of the “pretty strict hard guidelines” OEMs will have to achieve to have the vehicle “avoid contact at up to 62 miles per hour. That means if the car is stopped in front of you and you’re going 62 miles an hour and approaching it, the car must brake and come to a complete stop without contact. If the vehicle is going 61 miles per hour and you recognize the car in front of you is braking and it’s going 62 miles per hour, you have to brake enough to stop and not contact the vehicle. You have to apply the brakes up to 90 miles per hour. So that difference of 90 minus 62 is 28 miles per hour. That’s a magic number as NHTSA determined that fatal accidents don’t occur below 28 miles per hour.”

Vehicles will also have to recognize a pedestrian, brake and avoid hitting the person when driving at 45 miles per hour in daylight and darkness. 

Muller stressed this is going to pose a challenge for aftermarket members who must also be compliant by 2030. His team has been “collecting the data to be able to go to Washington, DC, to the OEMs, to the insurers and say, ‘We’re ready. We want to do this safely in the aftermarket. We’re with you. Help us out. What do you need in order to do this?’”

Data privacy has taken center stage at CIC countless times in recent years. On behalf of the Data Access, Privacy & Security Committee, Trent Tinsley (Entegral) spoke about the legislation and litigation taking place all around the country to protect consumer information and data privacy.

It’s becoming a source of revenue for states, Tinsley implied. 

Google paid Massachusetts $9.3 million due to misleading customers about tracking information. Sephora paid $1.2 million in penalties to California for failing to disclose that it was selling their customers’ companies to data brokers all over the place. “New Hampshire has now actually created a data privacy union that is specifically going to go after businesses,” he shared. 

He suggested shops implement best practices letting customers know they won’t sell their information to a third party and only use the data for the business purpose for which it was intended. 

Attendees also learned about OEM certification updates from Kelli Doherty (General Motors), Ken Park (Volvo) and Christian Ruecker (DEKRA) courtesy of the OEM Industry Relations Committee, which was moderated by Liz Stein (Certified Collision Group). 

The panelists all stressed that education is key toward getting it right in this industry. It all comes down to finding solutions together, Ruecker professed. “If we don’t talk and educate each other, there’s no common ground in mind. I think that’s just an important part of CIC.”

The next CIC is set for April 30- May 1, 2025 in Richmond, VA. Learn more about the next event and how to register at ciclink.com.

Want more? Check out the March 2025 issue of Hammer & Dolly!