WMABA Members Gain Valuable Tools and Content in Richmond

by Alana Quartuccio

When it comes to delivering worthwhile practical content to its members, WMABA always comes through!

The association hosted a combo workshop and membership meeting at Enterprise Mobility in Richmond, VA on July 16. The event started off with an insightful presentation given by WMABA Board member John Shoemaker (BASF) centered on damage appraisal documentation and was followed by a member dinner meeting, which covered WMABA activities and updates from association leaders, allowed shop owners and managers a chance to network and opened the door to new learning from local market colleagues.

Casey Wolter of meeting sponsor Enterprise Mobility provided a thorough overview of their Automated Rental Management System (ARMS®). The ARMS® platform can serve as a secondary management system for shops, functioning to not only help repairers review and analyze cycle time data, but also to share repair status through the portal and ultimately improve communication between all stakeholders in the repair process.

Shoemaker’s afterrnoon workshop was formulated to help repairers understand the importance of documentation and how p-pages can be a vital resource in the repair process. 

“People don’t really look at the p-pages as much as they should,” explained Shoemaker. “There’s a lot of information in there that can help them get those additional tenths, two-tenths or even three-tenths, which is big in the repair world because a lot of times technicians are doing those things for free.” The discussion was eye-opening for many who, according to Shoemaker, “were surprised to learn what they can include in their damage appraisal based on what the p-pages told them.”

He also walked them through various resources and tools that can help them write more accurate repair plans in order to get paid properly. 

When insurance companies come back to the shop with change requests, Shoemaker says it’s most likely because they have combined too many things. He spoke to the audience about how to split things up on the repair plan in order to better explain the repair process via more accurate line notes. 

Shoemaker also demonstrated various tools available to body shops like I-CAR, OEM1Stop, the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG) and other resources that can help improve repair plan accuracy. He also offered guidance for proper refinishing documentation. Refinish time does not include the time spent to match color tints or defective finish textures or correct finish imperfections caused by improper weather conditions, application or contaminants like dust, dirt and grease. 

For more information on WMABA and upcoming events, visit wmaba.com.

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