The Society of Collision Repair Specialists on Friday announced a new webpage providing auto body shops with links to safety and business management resources related to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Repairers might wish to bookmark www.scrs.com/covid19-resources.

“We recognize that many of you are being inundated with information surrounding the current events that are unfolding, and many of our members are reaching out trying to understand what it means to your business, and where to start,” the new SCRS webpage states. “SCRS is working to continue to compile relevant information that we believe provides you with access to tangible solutions and easy-to-digest breakouts of what are very complicated measures being taken to help small businesses and citizens across the U.S.

The trade group also cautioned repairers to examine how they communicate vehicle sanitization to customers.

“We’ve also seen examples of businesses promoting services to ‘clean’, ‘sanitize’ or ‘disinfect’ customer vehicles,” SCRS wrote. “The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) urges caution with the language used in your promotion of services. For instance, your facility can assure that you ‘apply disinfectant’, but there is no testing protocol to ensure that you ‘disinfected’ the vehicle. In our interaction with other industries, this has been a repeated caution; describe only what you perfomed, rather than a promise of what it accomplished.”

The Centers for Disease Control has issued recommendations for companies on how to clean and disinfect during regular operations and if someone confirmed or suspected to have had COVID-19 has visited. It said companies should use disinfectants on the Environment Protection Agency’s “List N.”

The new SCRS site features links on topics like “essential businesses,” cleaning and disinfecting a vehicle and small business relief like the recent CARES Act.

“This economic relief package should provide financial support to many of our member businesses facing hardship as a result of the very sudden change in the marketplace due to the Pandemic,” SCRS wrote of the CARES Act. “From what we are hearing, there is an overwhelming demand for support.”

Visit the SCRS COVID-19 webpage here.

Repairer Driven News has also been hustling to get COVID-19 coronavirus information out to readers. Below, find some recent highlights that might be helpful to a collision repair owner, manager or employee.

Obviously, the situation is fluid, and some of this content might have been accurate at the time but superseded by new information. But these articles might help you get your bearings on the topics before you research them with the federal, state and local officials (and your qualified legal and financial advisers) who will probably be your True North on topics like COVID-19 safety and business and employee aid. For example, we’ve been treating information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, state health departments and governor’s offices as the “OEM procedures” during the pandemic.

Cleaning and santitization

April 2, 2020: “Some steps to take if COVID-19 appears in your auto body shop”

March 31, 2020: “Nationwide guideline: 1.0 hours, $25 materials to sanitize vehicles amid COVID-19 pandemic”

March 30, 2020: “3M: Consider alternative respirator amid COVID-19 demand for certain masks”

March 24, 2020: “PPE: 3M hikes production over COVID-19; Harbor Freight donates stock, SCRS encourages giving”

Business and employee relief

April 1, 2020: “Auto body shops advised to hustle to claim millions in forgivable COVID-19 SBA loans”

April 1, 2020: “Senate Small Biz Committee issues FAQ on CARES Act financial help for body shops”

March 31, 2020: “Don’t forget to post COVID-19 sick leave notice; get a copy, see FAQs on law via the DOL”

March 27, 2020: “CARES Act includes $349B in government-backed small-biz loans to ease COVID-19 coronavirus slowdown”

March 26, 2020: “CIF announces $100K for collision industry employees affected by COVID-19, seeks more donations”

March 19, 2020: “COVID-19 law requires paid sick, FMLA time at auto body shops, offsets it with tax breaks”

Essential services

March 24, 2020: “Ontario, Quebec declare auto repair essential service in Canadian COVID-19 shutdowns”

March 20, 2020: “Homeland Security CISA guidance calls auto repair ‘essential’ for U.S. infrastructure”

More information:

Society of Collision Repair Specialists COVID-19 coronavirus webpage

Centers for Disease Control COVID-19 coronavirus portal

Department of Labor COVID-19 coronavirus portal

Small Business Administration COVID-19 coronavirus portal

Images:

The Society of Collision Repair Specialists on Friday announced a new webpage providing auto body shops with links to safety and business management resources related to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Screenshot from www.scrs.com) 

This colorized scanning electron micrograph image shows an apoptotic cell heavily infected with COVID-19 coronavirus particles, yellow. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode)